Software Developer Pursued Whitman’s Online Entrepreneurship Program to Further Career, Grow Personal Brand 

Working as a senior AR/VR software developer for Boeing, Sam Neblett '23 M.S. holds high praise for Syracuse University’s Martin J. Whitman School of Management. He believes the online master’s degree in entrepreneurship stands out significantly compared to other programs he has experienced, praising it as the best online education he has received.  

Choosing to attend Whitman because of its impressive rankings, Neblett explains his appreciation of his time in the online master’s. “I found the case studies, lectures, and asynchronous content to be extremely high quality and helpful. Whitman really supplies online students with an abundance of resources, making the experience great,” he says.  

“The professors were great and having live classes and lectures was engaging.”  

Originally selecting the entrepreneurship program because of the overlap with the MBA program, Neblett hoped to accomplish two tasks in one effort. “I could get a grasp on the MBA program without doing the full thing. I had a lot of overlapping classes with the MBA program, so I could see if I wanted to continue the program in the future,” he says.   

Assistant Dean Amy McHale says, “I often recommend students with entrepreneurial interests that already have already started a company or plan to in the near future, consider the M.S. in Entrepreneurship.  As Sam mentioned, there is a lot of overlap with the fundamental core MBA courses and the electives are all focused on entrepreneurship.  It makes sense for those students to prioritize courses that will assist them more quickly with their businesses.  They can come back later and get a second master’s degree if they choose.

Neblett has worked on his own entrepreneurial projects for over 12 years, primarily for fun. “I’ve developed apps and released many games, including augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR) and extended reality (XR),” he says. Expanding on his impressive AR and VR development role at Boeing, Neblett uses these side projects as a creative outlet. He has released games for platforms like iPhone, Android, and Amazon Fire, with over 1 million downloads across all platforms.   

“For my side projects, I plan to use some of the entrepreneurship knowledge I've gained at Whitman to better understand finances, marketing and growth tactics to grow my personal brand and app revenue,” he says.   

Neblett’s career goals are ambitious. He seeks to climb the corporate ladder at Boeing by leveraging entrepreneurship principles to improve processes within the company, all while continuing to nurture his entrepreneurial spirit through his side projects.   

“Earning a master’s degree in entrepreneurship at Whitman has given me tools to do my job more effectively,” he says.   

“It was a very positive experience for me. I liked it so much that I’m considering getting an MBA in the future.”