The Neely School of Business’s BNSF Next Generation Leadership Program teaches students how to become leaders in the business community by following a model that incorporates three goals: to lead yourself, to lead others, and to lead the business. This organization is highly selective and rigorous, but yet, it is unique to the typical honors program on TCU’s campus because it consists of students that are particularly well rounded. These students are not only intelligent, hard working, and ambitious, but the majority of members also part of the Greek community and possess very active social lives. Most of the members will tell you that with such a lively group of students, their events, classes, and trips, hardly feel like work. 

I was able to sit down and discuss the Next Generation program with some of its Greek members in the junior class, and they could not say enough great things about the program. When I asked Morgan Clark, a member of Zeta Tau Alpha, why she joined BNSF, she told me that she really wanted to become more involved in the business school. “I felt like this would be a great organization to be a apart of to build my skill set and also meet other people in the business school.” It appeared that she has no regrets about joining the club, saying, “When I came into the program, I knew that I would meet a lot of people but I never imagined that the friendships I would make would be so strong.” Mary Laurel Horan, a member of Kappa Kappa Gamma shared her experience, stating, “I wanted to become more involved on campus and not so focused just on academics. Also, I wanted to meet students in other Greek houses and people who were not in the Greek system at all that I would not otherwise get the opportunity to know.” Tedd Carew, a member of Kappa Sigma, agreed with Mary Laurel, mentioning that, “Different fraternities do not hang out as much as sororities, so it has been nice to make some friends in different houses.”

When I asked the students about their most recent trip to Chicago, they all agreed that they had their fair share of fun. Throughout the weekend trip, which took place over fall break, the group spent the majority of their days in the Windy City exploring various corporations, meeting important professionals, and attending lectures. Mary Laurel described her experience, saying, “Chicago was really neat because we were able to see a wide variety of industries for all aspects of business. Along with most of the other girls, I liked our visit to Ulta’s home office, and another favorite of mine was Starcom, an advertising agency. These were my favorite because they had the most to do with my Marketing major.” Morgan, who is a Marketing major as well, also enjoyed Starcom. “The tour was led by a former TCU student, so I thought it was cool to see someone who graduated from a smaller school in Texas working for a big firm in down town Chicago. His job was really interesting to me because I could actually see myself doing a job like that.” On the other hand, Tedd Carew, an accounting major, preferred the trips to places like J.P. Morgan and Grosvenor Capital more. The group visited other sites like Klein tools and even Wrigley field. Between professional outings the group went shopping, enjoyed upscale dinners, and even experienced the nightlife of Chicago, which was described by several students as, “almost too much fun.”

Overall, the trip seems like it was a powerful learning experience, not to mention a great time. I won’t lie—after hearing about all of the great times that the Next Gens have shared, I am more than a little jealous. Not only are they a group of badass business students, but more importantly, they are a close group of friends. Mary Laurel explained, “The current seniors in the program told us how close we would become after the Chicago trip, and I thought it was super cheesy, but they were right. My other friends even joke about how we are “obsessed” with each other, because we are all constantly communicating. I don't know if obsessed is the correct term, but we definitely hang out just like any other group of friends.” Although these students began their journey in BNSF as an educational experience, it appears that the experience has given them many more relationships and adventure than will ever fit on a resume.