When people are ready to advance their business career, the Master of Business Administration at the Sam M. Walton College of Business may be the answer.
The Walton MBA experience is designed to provide a foundation of core business fundamentals, while developing skills in niche areas such as business analytics, entrepreneurship, finance, retail or supply chain management. In addition, students participate in workshops to extend their professional development. One example is a required global immersion trip, which gives students the opportunity to explore a business problem in depth, while experiencing unique cultural and business differences across the globe.
| Lance Yarbrough, MBA ‘26 Sales Business Analyst at Nestlé Purina |
For Lance Yarbrough, an MBA student at Walton College, this meant traveling to India for two weeks in August 2025.
“The purpose of the trip was to immerse students in the culture of India, understand the potential of this developing market, and how businesses operated there,” Lance shared. “It was a balance between important cultural experiences and research on businesses.”
The cohort visited numerous businesses including Goonj in Delhi, Excel Soft in Mysore, Gokuldas Exports in Bengalore, TVS Motors in Bengalore, and NinjaCart across the country.
“I think my world view has been expanded, and the importance of understanding international markets has been greatly benefitted,” he said. “I don’t have big plans to become an international/global business leader, but I think there’s some broad lessons that apply to me even today. One key insight is understanding your customer should be critical in developing your business strategy. In India, I learned that cost savings is a large business, and knockoffs become critically important. Retailers and their customer bases, move quickly. Deals and promotions are highly successful and unlock insight into why people shop where they do. I think broadening my perspectives on India would make me significantly more successful if I wanted to open a business there.”
The trip shaped his personal views on the importance of culture influencing business as well.
“One of the most powerful experiences for me, was an optional excursion where we drove to a local village in Kabini and met with a family that lived there. Not only did they welcome us into their home, but they showed us around their property, goats that were born about a month ago, and we got to play with the kids (human, not goat),” Lance shared. “They served us a local snack and made sure we were cared for while we were there. Their kindness stuck out with me and made for a powerful moment about humanity and togetherness that I doubt I will ever forget. I feel like I’ve talked about the business part above, but without proper understanding of culture, you can’t make processes that fit with it. This mismatch will eventually cause businesses to fail.”
How It Started
Throughout his high school and undergraduate journey, Lance explored what makes him tick. He loved math and problem solving, so that made mechanical engineering a natural academic choice for the Fayetteville, Ark., native when considering majors at the University of Arkansas. In the program, he took a required physics class with Dr. Hugh Churchill at the U of A.
Churchill introduced Lance to physics research and the idea of graduating with two degrees: one in mechanical engineering and one in physics.
“I think, without him, I wouldn’t have even considered doing my double majors,” Lance said. “I ended up doing research with Dr. Churchill, which helped to set me up for future job applications, and gave me purposeful work that inspired me to learn.”
Lance continued to reflect on his career path while he worked as an engineering intern over the summer at Marshalltown, a construction hardware manufacturing company, and Glad Manufacturing Company, which specializes in plastic fabrication. It was during those internships that Lance realized he was made for teamwork instead of working alone.
“I’ve had some ‘proper’ engineering internships, where I was caught behind a desk working mostly alone,” Lance said. “I had a summer internship in operations at Glad Manufacturing, where I met a lot of leadership (plant managers, department heads, etc.), who all were engineers with their MBA. I loved that style of work. It mixed problem solving with working on a team.”
This discovery led Lance to consider a Master of Business Administration before launching his career.
“I’m very fortunate to have graduated at 20, so I had a few years before I wanted to start a family and needed to work. I decided to get my MBA full time before life got too busy,” Lance shared. “Additionally, there is a stereotype against engineers that says they’re not great at talking and interacting with people. I think the MBA was a way of proving that I could understand larger business processes and could work with a group of people. In short, I got it to take advantage of doors that may open for me in my career, without knowing exactly where I wanted to go.”
After graduating with honors in 2024 from the University of Arkansas with bachelor’s degrees in mechanical engineering and physics, Lance joined the MBA full-time program at the Sam M. Walton College of Business.
Why Walton?
Lance grew up in Fayetteville and earned his bachelor’s degrees at the University of Arkansas. When it was time to think about graduate programs, he chose Walton College. He and his cohort started the two-year program in 2024 and plan to graduate in 2026. They are the last class to participate in the two-year program. The Walton MBA program was redesigned to an accelerated one-year program beginning this year.
“I think the MBA program is highly competitive and will service me very well if I want to stay in NWA,” he said. “I think, also, with changes coming to the program, it will become even more beneficial for those wanting to work for Walmart or a company that works with Walmart regularly. There’s a multitude of options in that field (especially in NWA), and I think the program is going through beneficial changes that will make it even stronger for those wanting to stay local.”
“After graduation, I plan to continue working with Purina,” Lance said. “I know I care about learning and continuous development, so it’s possible I go back to school and get my Ph.D. later in life. I love leading people, and I’d love to take an opportunity sometime in the future where I am able to do that.”
