An Introduction

So. . . this is my first attempt at blogging and I'll start with an introduction. My name is Brock Hauser and, as indicated in my blog title I am an MBA candidate at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville and have one year left in the program. I'm 23, which is slightly young for our program and for most top MBA programs in general so I thought an apt title would be "Doogie Hauser" as the other Doogie Howser was an MD of exceptional youth.

A little background information about me, I've lived in Fayetteville for about six months now. Prior to starting the Walton MBA program I worked for two years as an accounting intern with The J.M. Smucker Co. at their canned milk manufacturing plant in Seneca, Missouri (and if you're wondering; yes, we cried over spilt milk). While working there I completed my undergraduate degrees in Accounting and Finance at Missouri Southern State University in Joplin. However, I did not begin my collegiate career in Joplin and was actually a transfer from the University of Kansas, where I spent my first three semesters, and between those two academic stints I lived for six months in Australia. You might ask what I was doing in Australia, and while I wish I could answer that I was studying abroad or work and broadening my horizons this is not the case, I didn't really do much of anything, I lived in Brisbane, and spent most of my days sitting on a beach, hiking, rock-climbing, bicycling, and learning how to do other fun things like kite-boarding and surfing. I had a blast while I was there, but I also realized it wasn't a realistic lifestyle, after all, you can't sit around and not contribute to society for all of your life (unless you live in France or Denmark, but that's a story for another day). Anyways, prior to Australia I didn't really know what I wanted to do, but when I got back I figured it out pretty quickly. I had always held a keen interest in finance and business but finance, while seemingly rock solid when compared to art history, is not the most tangible major, so I tacked on accounting as well.

This is getting a little long so I'm going to wrap up all of my life prior to college in the next 2-3 sentences. Born in Joplin (coincidentally where I finished college), lived in Stillwater, Grove, and Tulsa, OK for the next nine years and while in Tulsa, as a young tyke, participated in everything from figure skating, ballet, and piano lessons to soccer, ice hockey, and road racing (completed my first 5k at age 5). We then moved from Tulsa to American Samoa and lived there for two years before moving back to the mainland and living in Neosho, Missouri for the next three years. However, my parents wanderlust was not satiated and we moved to Ma'adi, Cairo, Egypt for eighteen months before moving back to Neosho where we stayed for two more years. After the second stint in Neosho we moved to Wilmore, Kentucky and I attended all four years of high school there and competed in varsity soccer and tennis.

Just as some minor foreshadowing, and to keep all of my readers (ha! like I have any!) intrigued enough to come back, next time I will discuss why I chose the to get a Walton MBA!!!