Brian Coulter ’26 

Business administration major, leadership studies minor 
Completing the new MBA 4+1 program offered at St. Norbert College

What are your plans after graduation?

I’m doing the MBA 4+1 program at St. Norbert College, so I have another year here and I’m pretty excited about that. I get to keep learning from a lot of the professors I’ve already had. I have an internship this summer and I’ll be doing environmental site assessments to determine the economic impact of building new landfills.

How did you decide to come to SNC?

Augustana College is where I was looking to go. My parents met there and my sister was going there. I knew I wanted to go to a smaller school where I’d be able to get to know my professors. I wanted to be in an environment where I’d be friends with my classmates and talk about the stuff we were learning, not just going through slide decks all day. I ran cross country in high school and was recruited to run at St. Norbert College. I stashed the letter in a drawer, and when my parents said I needed to look at more schools besides Augustana, I pulled it out. I took a tour here. It’s pretty far away, so I was taking a bit of a leap of faith. I did more walking around that night and was blown away by the beauty of this campus.

What made you decide to study business? 

My family members are business owners in the waste hauling business. And I really respected the skills that my dad learned doing his undergrad and business studies. I think the career creates a well-rounded individual, the skills you learn in business are very broad and applicable to other professions. I heard that the business program here was very strong. It was a pretty easy decision to come here.

What are some memorable experiences you’ve had here outside the classroom? 

This year, I served as the president for the Student Government Association. And we had a lot of amazing events on campus. One was the Homecoming GlowFest in the new Schneider Family Hall. It was good to have that leadership experience to run an organization before I actually do, in the real world, if it comes to that. Things like understanding how to run meetings, how to get people to show up to them, and outlining expectations have been really helpful.

What advice would you give to incoming students? 

Get involved and have a “yes mentality.” When asked to try something new, if you’re at least a little bit interested, try it. The most successful students tend to be the ones who are involved in something. And you often find your supporters this way — groups of friends who are there when you’re having a hard time with classes. These are the people who support you at the end of the day, no matter what grade you get on the test.