An MBA fit for a leader

PEOPLE

“I grew up in remote Padua village in Komo Margarima district of Hela Province where most young adults prefer to venture into tribal fight and students rarely make it to the top.” Jackson Kane Mulupe.

By KEVIN PAMBA
UNIVERSITY graduation ceremonies often bring out some fascinating stories of what happens behind the scenes in the lives of those who walk up the aisle and across the podium to receive their well-earned papers.
One such story belongs to Jackson Kane Mulupe, a staff of petroleum company Santos (previously Oil Search) who graduated with a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree, focusing on Management, from Divine Word University in Madang last Friday.
Mulupe had a forward thinking about postgraduate study and preferably an MBA while he was going through his Bachelor of Business study in DWU between 2013 and 2016.
But well-before that, as a boy growing up in remote Komo in Hela with all its challenges, he had his sight on higher education as a way of overcoming the difficulties around him.
“Attaining higher education has always been my goal, as it was an opportunity to escape poverty,” Mulupe said after his graduation last Friday.
“I grew up in remote Padua village in Komo Margarima district of Hela Province where most young adults prefer to venture into tribal fight and students rarely make it to the top. I strived to pursue higher education and ended up enrolling in Business studies (Management and Accountancy) in DWU.”
As fate had it, Mulupe received the coveted DWU President’s Leadership Award during the graduation ceremony in March 2017 that would bring his dream for an MBA a reality much sooner.
During the 2017 graduation ceremony, the President of DWU at that time, Professor Cecilia Nembou announced that Mulupe was the winner of the President’s Leadership Award out of the graduating class.
Part of the Award was for Mulupe to choose a Masters degree study in DWU to be sponsored by the University.
Mulupe chose MBA and Professor Nembou ensured this was realized.
The President’s Leadership Award prize of an MBA study scholarship was in recognition of Mulupe’s outstanding leadership as the president of the Student Representative Council (SRC) during what turned out to be a challenging year (2016) for universities across PNG and especially the student body with protests over national leadership issues.
“In my final year (2016) as an undergraduate student, I was the DWU SRC President.
“That was the same year Dr Cecilia Nembou assumed the post of President of DWU and it was a challenging year to be a student leader or in university administration,” said Mulupe.
“The peak of the challenges was navigating through the call for nationwide protest over the shooting of a student in another university,” he added. Throughout the tensions and pressures in student activism, Mulupe held his DWU students together to understand the issues and approach them in more learned ways.
Among other things, Mr Mulupe ensured his SRC introduced the tertiary students’ rugby league competition in DWU in 2016 called the “Unity Rugby League” that was duly registered with the PNG Rugby Football League. The competition was aptly named “Unity” to foster unity among the student body with the first three letters “uni” being short for “university” and last two letters “ty” coming from the term “tertiary” for tertiary education institutions.
The Unity RL competition thus also involved students from other colleges in the Madang area. In August in 2016, Mulupe took his Unity RL male and female select teams to participate in the Northern Confederate Trials of the PNGRFL.
“At the graduation in March 2017, I was awarded the DWU President’s Leadership Award for my contributions as a student leader.
“Along with the award was a postgraduate Scholarship to take up MBA at DWU Port Moresby Campus.
Five years later Mulupe received his MBA at the 40th Graduation Ceremony in the Madang campus.
His success in being bestowed with an MBA came with the usual challenges of being a fulltime employee and attempting postgraduate study on the flexible learning mode that DWU offers.
“I utilised the scholarship opportunity given (by DWU) and started to attend classes in DWU Port Moresby campus while working with Oil Search Limited now Santo on a fly-in, fly-out (FIFO) role.
“It was not an easy stroll in the park. Sometimes classes fell during the dates I was on site in the petroleum project areas and I almost gave up.
“Thank God that I had supportive friends and family who kept pushing me.
A significant part of the challenge for working remotely was solved by his employer.
“A good relief for me was when my employer relocated my role from the project site to Port Moresby office.
“This enabled me to complete my MBA study tasks during the weekend blocks and finally completed my MBA successfully.”
Upon receiving his MBA, Mulupe was so thank to DWU including Professor Nembou and other staff and his family members and friends.
“Thank you everyone behind the scenes who made my dream a reality.
“The unconditional, selfless and unwavering support of my family and friends is the biggest determining factor to my success.”
Mulupe has since returned to his work at Santos in Port Moresby.

• Dr Kevin Pamba PhD is a senior lecturer in Governance and Leadership in DWU.