From the Editor

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1. Our MBAs didn’t just consult in Colombia — they soaked up Medellín’s history and arts scene at the striking Rafael Uribe Uribe Palace of Culture, a reminder that business is always rooted in people and place.
2. Business is booming: Undergraduate enrollments keep climbing, the Virani Undergraduate School of Business rests on decades of graduate-school excellence, and a new 112,000-square-foot building for undergrads and grad students is rising to match the momentum.
3. Peek inside Professor James Weston’s office: ring light, tea kettle, a photo of Sean Connery — and #2 pencils lodged in the ceiling tiles. Also, we have to mention his side hustle pressing limited-edition vinyl for Snoop Dogg, Wu-Tang Clan and Stevie Wonder.
4. Generative AI can boost workplace creativity — if you pair it with metacognitive habits like planning, monitoring and adapting. Tools matter; how you think while using them matters more.
5. Behind the curtain of the Rice Business Plan Competition: 550 applicants, 42 teams, 400 judges — and one team walking away with more than $900,000, the second-largest amount awarded to a single team in competition history.
6. Business minds in medicine: How our MD/MBAs are applying their business skills — and AI — to help solve healthcare challenges.
7. Turns out it’s never too late to get your MBA. Rodney Kroll ’22 shares his story on getting his degree after an already-successful career.
8. Missing your daily dose of Professor Stephen Zeff? Check out his great photos on the last page. 

Have a story idea to share? Write to me at maureen.harmon@rice.edu.

Happy reading!  

— Maureen  

Contributors

We asked, “What do you do when you're not working?”

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Dan Morrell

I coach my two children’s youth sports teams and play fundamentally sound — though not aesthetically pleasing — pick-up basketball.

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Weezie Mackey

In between assignments, I‘m getting my hands dirty in the garden, tackling house renovation projects and training two puppies.

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Helen Huneycutt

Outside of work, I love to bake (everything but cookies, which are my nemeses), spend time outdoors and act as mediator between our two cats and the houseplants.