{"id":3950,"date":"2026-10-29T12:05:53","date_gmt":"2026-10-29T16:05:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/kanata\/?p=3950"},"modified":"2026-10-29T12:07:49","modified_gmt":"2026-10-29T16:07:49","slug":"where-experience-meets-the-classroom-inside-sprotts-professional-mba","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/kanata\/2026\/where-experience-meets-the-classroom-inside-sprotts-professional-mba\/","title":{"rendered":"Where Experience Meets the Classroom: Inside Sprott\u2019s Professional MBA"},"content":{"rendered":" \n
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\n Where Experience Meets the Classroom: Inside Sprott\u2019s Professional MBA\n <\/h1>\n \n <\/header>\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n\n \n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n

For Danielle Rolling, pursuing an MBA wasn\u2019t about stepping away from her career. It was about figuring out how to keep moving forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a Financial Policy and Systems Analyst at Health Canada, Rolling already held a Bachelor of Commerce and had built considerable experience working in finance. With that foundation, she saw a Master of Business Administration (MBA) as a way to further develop her skills and open new possibilities for where her career could go next. But with an established career already underway, returning to school meant finding a program that could fit into her professional life \u2014 not put it on pause.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Carleton University\u2019s Professional MBA (PMBA) offered a solution to that challenge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With full-day, in-person classes every second Friday and Saturday, the 16-month program gave Rolling a way to pursue an MBA without stepping away from her career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Danielle Rolling, a Financial Policy and Systems Analyst at Health Canada, is pursuing Carleton\u2019s Professional MBA while continuing her career.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was really excited to find an in-person program that allowed me to continue working at the same time,\u201d she says. \u201cI\u2019ve always found that I get a lot more out of learning in person than I do online.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rolling\u2019s experience reflects the idea behind the PMBA itself. When Carleton\u2019s Sprott School of Business launched the program in 2019, it was designed specifically for experienced professionals who wanted to keep progressing in their careers while developing the broader management and leadership skills to take the next step.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Seven years later, Luciara Nardon, Sprott\u2019s Associate Dean, Professional Graduate Programs, says that original idea has grown into something larger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe PMBA has evolved from a new offering designed for working professionals into one of the School\u2019s signature graduate programs,\u201d says Nardon. <\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cIt has grown into a learning network that attracts professionals from diverse industries, backgrounds, and stages of leadership.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

That evolution reached Kanata in January 2026, when Sprott welcomed the first PMBA cohort to CU@Kanata \u2014 bringing a program built around meeting professionals where they are into the heart of Canada\u2019s largest technology park.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Drawing from Experience<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

By design, PMBA students arrive with something that can\u2019t be taught from a textbook: years of professional experience. That expertise doesn\u2019t stay at the classroom door, with students bringing the challenges, decisions and perspectives from their current roles into discussions with faculty and classmates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cStudents aren\u2019t discussing theoretical business challenges \u2014 they\u2019re working through real leadership and organizational issues drawn from their own careers,\u201d says Nardon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Sprott’s inaugural Professional MBA Kanata cohort brings together working professionals from a range of industries and backgrounds.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

With professionals from technology, public service, health care, finance, defence, entrepreneurship and the non-profit sector learning alongside one another, conversations about leadership or organizational change draw on perspectives shaped by very different industries and workplaces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The result is a learning environment where expertise flows in more than one direction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Rolling, those relationships have become an important part of the experience, connecting her with classmates who share opportunities, exchange ideas and encourage one another in their professional goals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meeting Professionals Where They Are<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The same philosophy that shaped the PMBA \u2014 creating a graduate program that works alongside an established career \u2014 also made Kanata a natural place for its expansion.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cLaunching the Kanata cohort allows us to bring graduate business education directly into an innovation ecosystem where professionals are actively shaping the future of technology, business and entrepreneurship,\u201d <\/em>says Nardon.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cIt also makes the program more accessible to professionals balancing graduate education with busy careers and personal commitments.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That expansion also provides professionals another entry point into the program. While Sprott\u2019s main-campus PMBA cohort begins in September, the CU@Kanata cohort begins in January, with both following the same 16-month format.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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CU@Kanata, located in the heart of the Kanata North tech park, welcomed its first Professional MBA cohort in January 2026.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

For Rolling, the Kanata location has become part of what makes the in-person experience work. She points to practical benefits such as free parking, breakout rooms and shared spaces that give students opportunities to work together and connect between classes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ve genuinely enjoyed the Kanata location,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s a really nice setup for us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those interactions matter in an intensive cohort-based program. A classroom discussion can continue over lunch, a group can work through a problem together between sessions, and professional relationships can grow beyond the course material.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Learning That Moves with a Career<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Through case studies, applied projects and real-world organizational challenges, students can bring questions and experiences from their careers into the classroom \u2014 and take new ideas back to the workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cStudents don\u2019t have to wait until graduation to see the impact of what they\u2019re learning,\u201d says Nardon.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cThey can apply new ideas in their real-world roles from the first course and continue building on them throughout the program.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The program has also expanded its focus on individualized professional development, with opportunities including career coaching and skill development in areas such as AI literacy, communication and innovation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Rolling, that flexibility matters in a cohort where students may be at various stages of their careers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEach of us gets to develop skills that are meaningful to us and tailored to our individual goals,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The experience has also broadened her sense of where her future could lead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s definitely expanded my perspective on the opportunities available to me and where my career could go,\u201d says Rolling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That sense of possibility speaks to what Sprott set out to create in 2019: a program shaped around professionals already established in their careers, and strengthened by the experience, perspectives and ambitions they bring with them.<\/p>\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For Danielle Rolling, pursuing an MBA wasn\u2019t about stepping away from her career. It was about figuring out how to keep moving forward. As a Financial Policy and Systems Analyst at Health Canada, Rolling already held a Bachelor of Commerce and had built considerable experience working in finance. With that foundation, she saw a Master […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":195,"featured_media":3979,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3950","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/kanata\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3950","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/kanata\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/kanata\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/kanata\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/195"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/kanata\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3950"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/kanata\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3950\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3977,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/kanata\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3950\/revisions\/3977"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/kanata\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3979"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/kanata\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/kanata\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/kanata\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}