Tech MBA Grad Finds Niche in Warsaw Community Schools Kevin Scott (MBA 2002) is excited about his new position as chief financial officer for Warsaw (Indiana) Community Schools. “I hope I can have a positive impact on my community in this job,” he said. “My MBA degree made it possible.” Until his recent entry into the education field, Scott was focused on business. After graduating from Ball State University in 1980 with a bachelor of science in finance and management, he returned to his hometown of Rochester, Indiana, and worked in his family’s construction business for three years. Then he spent the next 20 years in a variety of accounting roles with three large Indiana companies – R.R. Donnelly in Plymouth and Warsaw, DePuy in Warsaw, and Chore-Time Brock (now CTB Inc.) in Milford. Although he was doing well, Scott felt that he needed an MBA. “I had the drive for a long time,” he said, “but it never quite fit. I talked to another school that hoped to start a program in Warsaw as soon as they had enough interested people, but it didn’t happen. “Then I saw an ad in the Fort Wayne paper for the Indiana Tech program, and I saw several things that appealed to me: the courses didn’t have to be taken in a set sequence; I could pay for each class at the end, giving me an opportunity to
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Kevin Scott sits in his office. He recently began his job as chief financial officer for Warsaw Community Schools. be reimbursed by my employer; and the textbooks were sent right to my home. “My friend Rob and I motivated each other to start,” he went on. They started classes on the Fort Wayne campus in 2000 and finished in 2002 – with a 4.0 GPA. Scott took one course in each session and went continuously, except allowing himself one summer session off each year for vacation with his family. “Learning is a lifetime thing,” he said “I was past 40 when I started, and I’d been out of school a long time. It was rewarding to find I could still do it. “I greatly enjoyed it, especially the chance to meet new people and get new perspectives. “It was fun going through with a friend. We’re both pretty effective at what we do, but we approach things in very different ways. In our course work we usually arrived at the same place, but we’d gotten there by different
routes. It was interesting to see. “I also found that the degree program and my work overlapped. Projects I did at work helped me with my courses, and projects I did in my courses helped me at work.” Scott has always been interested in education. His wife, Lynnette, is a special needs teacher at Warsaw Community High School. They have two sons. Skyler is a junior at Warsaw Community High School, and Bryce is in seventh grade at Edgewood Middle School. As he settles into his new role with Warsaw Community Schools, Scott finds himself more closely aligned with the rest of his family’s schedule, including opportunities to visit his sons’ schools. He is grateful to Indiana Tech for helping him get there. “I wouldn’t be sitting in this position in the school system without this degree,” he said.