The women stand shoulder-to-shoulder, huddling around a hole exposing the icy, green waters of a frozen Lake Monona. Their homes span the globe—Arizona, Wisconsin, Zimbabwe, and Taiwan. But three things bring them together: They’re part of the 2025 cohort of the Master of Science-Business: Analytics (MSBA) program at the Wisconsin School of Business, it’s their first time ice fishing, and they really want to catch a fish.
“We intend to catch a big one!”
“Not just one big one, many big ones.”
If anyone can do it, it’s the ambitious MSBA students.
Launched in 2019, the one-year, in-person degree program helps students gain skills in cloud computing, machine learning, and data visualization. While the 92 members of the 2025 cohort have plenty of opportunities to get to know each other in the classroom, events like the annual ice fishing trip allow them to build community and forge relationships.
“They talk a lot about building models or creating dashboards, but they don’t get as much time to talk about each other—hobbies or where they’re coming from,” says Cody Baldwin, director of the MSBA program.
The ice fishing trip, which began in 2022, brings a literal busload of MSBA students to Monona Bay for an afternoon of team bonding and fun. The idea was the brainchild of Daniel Bauer, senior associate dean for programs and Hickman-Larson Chair in Actuarial Science. He went ice fishing with friends and thought the cohort, 60% of whom are international students, might enjoy the popular Wisconsin pastime.
“We were just sort of bootstrapping it and hoping that the students didn’t fall into the ice…but it was a huge success,” Baldwin says of the first trip. “They had never done anything like that—a lot of them came from big cities. It was really well received.”
Thus, a new WSB tradition was born. While the ice fishing trip is very popular, it’s just one of the many team-building activities the MSBA program offers. Company tours and events to mark cultural celebrations and traditions such as Diwali, Thanksgiving, and Lunar New Year also dot the calendar, bringing the students together to build community in and outside the classroom.
“I oftentimes tell students one of the most important takeaways from this program is not just the skills that you’re going to build, but it’s the network that you create,” Baldwin says. “We want them not just to talk about analytics, but to talk to each other, bring down some walls. It helps them develop not just analytics connections, but personal connections.”
Their efforts are working. Kai Buliox, a student from Milwaukee, caught the first fish and received a thunderous round of applause and high-fives for his effort. But even with the catch of the day, it’s the team building he’s enjoyed most.
“Getting to know people outside of the classroom on a personal level is awesome,” he says.
His classmates agree. Ariella Breyer, the student hailing from Arizona, took a break from watching the fishing hole to take in the scene on a sunny, Wisconsin winter day.
“The program has a ton of events and it’s a great way to meet people,” she says. “They really care, and you can tell.”
Tags: