Ambition and skill rise to the top

Finalists in the MBA Student of the Year Awards discuss what it means to them

Nearly a year ago, in the wake of the September 11 attacks, nuclear engineer Phil Parvin was sitting his MBA exam on board a submarine, close to the vessel's torpedo tubes with the submarine's education officer acting as invigilator.

The attacks prevented him from getting home for his pre-exam tutorial and the exam itself. Undeterred, Phil went ahead. He now has only one exam left to take before qualifying at the Open University Business School, and he is also one of this year's finalists for the MBA Student of the Year Awards.

Associate lecturer at the Open University John Evans, who nominated Phil, says he "has lived his own motto of ambition begets ambition in the best possible way – shaping and making, adapting and innovating, always prepared to complete, whatever the challenges".

Phil fulfilled exactly one of the key criteria for the award – taking on a challenge in the face of adversity and overcoming challenges during study. It's the sort of grit and determination MBA students often show. It's the same in any award ceremony – coming top is not only a boost for the winners, the winners themselves usually also act as an excellent advertisement for what they do.

The finalists for this year's MBA Student of the Year awards are no exception to this rule, proving to the world that business school students come from a huge range of backgrounds with a variety of different reasons for working for the qualification.

"People think every MBA is a clone, a fast city type interested in making a buck," says Barbara Stephen, one of this year's judges and a former chief executive of the Local Government Commission for England. "But this is helping many people pursue diverse objectives in management and it's not all about becoming a tiger in the city."

To prove her point, Duncan Cumming, another of this year's finalists, wants to use the boost that getting this far has given him to further his aim of being a key player in a major service industry. A part-time general MBA student at the University of Strathclyde Graduate Business School, he has succeeded despite severe dyslexia and the parallel task of running his own retail clothing business. "I've also proved a lot to myself, and I hope this will prove to others that dyslexia isn't the huge impediment some think it is," he says." I use technology – voice recognition on the computer, for example, to help."

The award, sponsored by The Independent and by the Association of MBAs, is now in its fifth year, and appropriately perhaps, five finalists are gearing up for the prize-winning ceremony on 7 November. They've fought their way through a tough selection process which whittles them down from 40 students recommended by The Association of MBAs's 65 accredited schools, through a shortlist of 13, from which the five were selected after judges' interviews.

"You see some really high-quality candidates," says Paula Glason, The Association of MBAs's marketing manager, and another judge. "Often we see they have undergone a total transformation within themselves – they've got a lot more confidence, for example. And we do look for someone who got a huge amount out of the MBA not just professionally but personally."

Teresa Pabst, a 31-year-old American who has also made it to this year's final, agrees. Teresa took an MBA in general management at the London Business School, and was described by the school as "a unanimous choice" from their point of view because of her ability to boost morale and enhance the work of the school.

"One of the reasons I did an MBA was as a confidence builder," says Teresa, who has worked in marketing and online product development. "In doing this you have to start drawing on your assets. It can be too easy in the real world to dwell on your weaknesses. In particular when you are a female on an MBA course you do have to have confidence if you are going to be in a room with a majority of men – that's probably how it's going to be in business as well." Teresa established a Women in Business club as a major part of the school. In her class there were only 25 per cent women and in next year's intake that's been upped to 30 per cent.

And there's a final message of encouragement to the five from two of last year's finalists. Winner Mike Goggin of Railtrack says: " I would say heartfelt congratulations, enjoy the experience and the award dinner and seize the moment and the honour as you see fit."

Nadia Ammar, finalist and former student at the Instituto de Empresa in Madrid, is sure that becoming a finalist helped persuade head hunters that she should be given the job of Director of Development and Marketing with the London Philharmonic Orchestra. "The arts can be a little bit of a closed shop, so it was good for someone like me, who came from outside, to be given the job. They knew about the award and considered it prestigious."

"I never considered myself a typical MBA student, so I was surprised the school chose me. But they said they were looking for a well-rounded person and they liked my international experience," says Nadia, who studied at the American University in Cairo before she went to Madrid. "They weren't looking for a typical profile or for the person who got the highest grades – although good grades helped!"