Meet Yale SOM’s MBA Class of 2020 - Poets&Quants

Every organization hungers for a distinctive brand. That brand should spread far beyond an enduring slogan, logo, or color scheme. The best brands summon emotions and associations that foster an elusive connection. The Yale School of Management carries perhaps the most singular brand among graduate business programs. Hold an applicant focus ground and you’ll assuredly hear terms like purpose driven, impact, and passion bandied about. It is a school where the mission may take the form of fighting malnutrition as much as building enterprises.

Like many programs, a third of Yale MBAs start out in consulting – 36% to be exact with the 2017 class. Despite the school’s reputation as the top program for non-profits, just 6% of the latest graduating class ended up there. Still, there is something more profound happening at Yale SOM, says Hosanna Odhner, a member of the 2018 MBA class and a member of Poets&Quants’ Best & Brightest MBAs.

“EDUCATING LEADERS FOR BUSINESS AND SOCIETY”

“Before business school, I firmly believed that doing the “right thing” in business (good treatment of employees, honesty and transparency with customers, environmental responsibility, etc.) was not just the decent thing to do, it was the strategically smart thing to do,” she writes. “I felt in my gut that what was good for the world was also good for business. But I lacked the rigor and knowledge to back up my theory. When looking at business schools, I wanted a place that viewed business not as a vehicle of ROI, but as a way to create value—to be a place that believes that rather than firms existing to make profits, they make profits to exist. And that’s what I found here at Yale.”

Yale SOM operates off of a motto: “Educating leaders for business and society.” Courtney Miller, a first year who most recently worked for Lucasfilm, has found this slogan to be the “lifeblood of the school” – in a place where faculty, staff and students have “talked the talk and walked the walk.” For her, the Yale curriculum and culture aligns closely with what MBAs expect from themselves – and what they ultimately plan to do.

Students walking in Evans Hall.

“For me, and I think for most all of us applying to business school now, long gone are the “greed is good” days,” says Miller. “I want to be a part of a generation of businesspeople who thoughtfully and purposefully advance causes like sustainability and equality through truly elevated thinking, and it became very clear to me that SOM is a place that does just that every single day.”

‘A SPARK THAT CAN’T BE EXTINGUISHED’

Russell Halliday, who comes to New Haven after serving as a legislative assistant to a Massachusetts congressman, echoes his classmate’s sentiments. “I felt that the Yale community, both at SOM and at the larger university, is devoted to producing leaders with a social conscience,” he explains. “As a public servant pivoting into finance, I was looking for a school that would value students with alternative backgrounds like mine. With each interaction, I increasingly felt that Yale SOM, as an institution and as a student body, is committed to the common good.”

Halliday goes on to describe his classmates as “intelligent, well-spoken, humble, and civic-minded.” In turn, they offer up some virtues of their own. Lourdes Lira Cuevas, a strategy consultant from Mexico, calls the incoming class “socially committed” – a 347 member cohort committed to taking action. Song Kim, who holds a JD from New York University School of Law, touts her peers for their self-awareness – a group, she says “know who they are and where they are going; they live by what matters to them.”

Courtney Miller, however, applies a far more dynamic term: Infectious. “Every single person I’ve met at SOM has a certain spirit that’s just impossible not to be taken in by. These are people who, at their core, have the most genuine passion for having a positive impact on their world, and you can feel it in every interaction you have with the students here. Even when they’re exhausted from classwork and are in the midst of brutal recruitment cycles, there’s a spark in SOMers that simply can’t be extinguished, and you can’t help but be lifted up and inspired by it.

FROM REFUGEE TO U.S. NAVY ACE PILOT

So who is the Class of 2020? In an August blog post, Bruce Delmonico, the assistant dean for admissions described the class this way:

“[There] are musicians who play instruments as varied as violin, piano, guitar, flute, clarinet, bassoon, trombone, and drums…They are into bluegrass music and Frank Sinatra. They dance—from ballet to belly to Bollywood. And they sing—a cappella, contemporary, and opera, among genres. They are varsity athletes and captains across a range of sports, as well as marathoners, triathletes, and Tough Mudders. No less enthusiastic are the devotees of Ultimate Frisbee, kickball, dodgeball, and roller derby…They speak innumerable languages, from Spanish to Russian to Arabic to Mandarin to Hindi to Vietnamese to Twi and beyond. One student won $100,000 from Mark Cuban on Shark Tank and is a Forbes 30 Under 30 recipient for social entrepreneurship. Another successfully navigated a motorcycle over the world’s highest drivable pass. Yet another is the Kit Kat brand manager for the Middle East. They are professional ski and sailing instructors, private pilots, Mensa members, black belts, Eagle Scouts, mixologists, patent holders, SCUBA divers, and certified phlebotomists.”

That’s just the start. Take Paul Lwin. A U.S. Naval Academy grad with master’s degrees in aerospace engineering and computer science. A Naval Flight Officer, Lwin transitioned to being a Test Pilot Officer, where he has pushed 25 different aircraft types to their limits. That, however, may not be the most interesting part of Lwin’s story. He is also a political refugee from Myanmar who came to the United States when he was 10. As a world traveler, Lwin considers his defining moments to be when he meet refugees like himself and reflected on the benefits that he has enjoyed – and why he needs to pay them forward.

A look out to the courtyard.

“That realization about how special a place we live in has fostered my desire to continue serving in all that I do, so that we remain a special place and a place of hope for other refugees like me,” he says.

ROCK-N-ROLLER ENDS UP BEHIND THE PROVERBIAL DESK

Courtney Miller hasn’t been awed by the Yale’s history or reputation since she arrived on campus. That comes with experience – as in experience working on big name projects for big name stars. Before business school, she worked in Lucasfilm’s visual effects division (ILM) – as in George Lucas of Star Wars fame. You can even see some of her work in Marvel’s Doctor Strange and Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. If you’re looking for a great story, ask Miller about the time she presented a CG test for a certain leader in the film industry. Ah, why wait…here’s the spoiler.

“One such test I oversaw was for Steven Spielberg, which was an incredible honor and really a master class in filmmaking, as you can imagine. When we showed him the finished test, he was thrilled, and gave us some stellar feedback I will never forget. That test really took a village to put together and required the exceptional outside-the-box thinking and never-say-die attitude that made ILM the true powerhouse it is. To have been a part of that, and to have that moment with Mr. Spielberg be the payoff…well, it’s the sort of thing you see in the movies.”

Miller isn’t the only artist in the class. Wyatt Wolfram earned credits as a musician on a dozen albums. A guitarist and songwriter, Wolfram spent several years on the Nashville scene before deciding he could be more valuable behind the scenes. Eventually, he rose to being a vice president at Downtown Records, whose roster boasts Nick Murphy and Brett Dennen. Aside from gaining business acumen, Wolfram learned something more important – and transferrable – to business school.

“It could have been a time of defeat in my life,” he admits, “but I took what I had learned from those experiences and spun it into a job at a major music publisher in New York, thus kicking off a career in the music industry. It was a defining moment that taught me about how and when to pivot, as well as how to leverage experiences from one area and apply them to another.”

MAKING A BETTER SOCIETY ISN’T A “SIDE ACTIVITY”

There are no shortage of diverse experiences in the Class of 2020. After studying public policy at Stanford, Anna Schickele served as a policy manager for the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab. Gus Roman and Ryan Leibowitz both earned their undergraduate degrees at the University of Pennsylvania a year apart. Sure enough, both found themselves in consulting: Roman in pharmaceutical consulting at Acsel Health and Leibowitz with Bain & Company. Then, there is Russell Halliday. His claim to fame? During his Peace Corps stint, he worked with local government officials to build a marine learning center to teach locals about sustainable fishing practices. Now, he hopes to work in the social impact space through investment banking.

Lourdes Lira Cuevas plans to transition to the tech sector to do the same. “I realized that social vulnerability is so real and disastrous for so many people. I could not contribute to a fairer society just as a “side activity”—I had to make it an ongoing goal and a commitment in all my personal and professional endeavors.”

How does the Class of 2020 measure up to its predecessors? That all depends. It would be hard to compete with Yale SOM’s white hot appeal in past cycles, where applications rose by 60% in the six years after Dean Ted Snyder’s debut in 2011. Such success vaulted the program into the Top 10 in some rankings. Statistically, the enthusiasm has cooled a bit on Yale SOM. However, the drop is more a matter of a new normal emerging among business schools.

CLASS NUMBERS CONSISTENT WITH PREVIOUS YEARS

During the 2017-2018 cycle, Yale SOM received 3,785 applications – or 313 less than the previous year. To put it another way, this 7.5% drop is nearly equal to the 8% and 6.5% fall in applications suffered by Chicago Booth and the Wharton School respectively this year. That said, Yale SOM tendered 58 more acceptance letter this past year, resulting in the school’s acceptance rate rising from 17% to 20%.

Yale SOM students gathered to study.

At the same time, average GMATs for the 2020 Class slipped from 727 to 724, resulting Yale SOM falling behind MIT Sloan among the highest performing classes. The school also maintained a median GMAT of 730 for the third consecutive year – a number that matches Harvard Business School. The class’ average GPA also equals the previous year at 3.67.

Such consistency also seeped into the class demographics. Women again constituted 43% of the class – the fourth consecutive year where the 40 mark was beaten in this category. Underrepresented American minorities also made up 12% of the class for the second straight year (with overall students of color doubling that total at 27%). At the same time, the percentage of international students held steady at 45% from the 2019 Class – after an all-time high of 46% with the 2018 Class. Better yet, the number of countries who supplied talent to the incoming class rose from 48 to 51, with locales including Azerbaijan, Denmark, Ghana, Nyanmar, Peru, Trinidad and Tobago, and Venezuela. Overall, two-thirds of the class hails from North Carolina, with Asia responsible for another fifth. South America (4.9%), Africa (4.6%), and Europe (4.0%) account for the rest.

Looking at the class’ educational backgrounds, it is certainly business-friendly. Business-related majors represent 21% of the class – a tie with Economics whose share grew from 15% to 21% over the previous year. Humanities and Social Sciences (30%) and STEM (29%) round out the rest of the class. Professionally, 73% of the class hails from the for-profit sector. The largest segments include consulting (20%), financial services (19.6%), non-profits (12.2%), technology (8.3%), government (7.6%), and healthcare (7%).

NEW DEGREE PROGRAMS BEING LAUNCHED

The coming year will be surreal, in some ways, at Yale SOM, as Dean Ted Snyder turned his sabbatical into a retirement that takes effect in 2019. Calling his tenure a success would be an understatement – a period that has witnessed record-breaking fund-raising and scholarship support, higher student inputs and employer outputs, and new programs and resources for entrepreneurship, healthcare, and sustainability. That doesn’t even count the coronation of Evans Hall, a glass-draped architectural marvel that ranks among the top business school facilities in terms of artistry and functionality.

Bruce DelMonico of Yale SOM

While Dean Snyder runs his victory lap, Yale SOM is still busy rolling out many of his initiatives, says Bruce DelMonico. That starts with the school’s new Master of Management Studies in Global Business and Society (GBS) program, which is being launched in partnership with several business schools that make up Yale SOM’s acclaimed Global Network for Advanced Management. That’s just a start.

“GBS provides participating students with the tools to thrive in global organizations,” DelMonico explains. “GBS joins our recently launched Master’s Degree in Systemic Risk, which brings mid-career central bankers to Yale SOM to learn from Timothy Geithner, Andrew Metrick, and others how best to respond to the next financial crisis. Both of these programs tap into Yale’s deep expertise and global perspective, and benefit incoming MBA students in that they broaden our already strong network in key areas and provide even greater resources that MBA students can draw from in crafting their MBA and post-MBA experiences.”

HANDS-ON LEARNING UNDERRATED PART OF THE PROGRAM

Looking ahead two years, DelMonico holds the school’s next moves close to the vest. However, he notes that his department has been tinkering with new ways to evaluate candidates, particularly in non-cognitive traits. Now, he believes the school possesses a tool to bring MBA learning to the earliest phases of the application cycle.

“We are currently looking to roll out an innovative instrument in this area that will both heighten our evaluation from an admissions perspective and also ideally connect to the student experience in the core, meaning that if things fall into place as we are hoping, members of the Classes of 2021 and 2022 will be able to begin their MBA learning during the application process, which we hope will accelerate and expand their overall MBA experience.”

What is the most underrated part of the Yale SOM experience? According to DelMonico, most applicants are aware of benefits like the program’s integrated curriculum, global perspective, and being encouraged to take classes across campus. As a result, he believes Yale SOM’s experiential opportunities can be overlooked in helping students apply theory to immediate practice.

“From the Yale Center for Customer Insights Discovery Projects to Global Social Enterprise and global social entrepreneurship consulting projects to consulting to organizations in the New Haven community,” he explains, “there are myriad opportunities to put business concepts into action. Indeed, even within the classroom, our distinctive raw case approach teaches students the skills they will need to be successful in their professional lives, more so than the traditional MBA cases that other schools teach.”

Evans Hall

LEARNING HOW EVERY PART OF THE ORGANIZATION FUNCTIONS…TOGETHER

The raw case method, in fact, is an extension of the school’s wholisitic approach. Forget the clean and clear 5-10 page case; the one written by faculty where students must sift through pre-selected facts. Instead, cases are supplemented with original sources via URL, including expert interviews, videos, articles, financials, and graphics. Sometimes, the cases are pulled right from the headlines! Think of it as a deep dive into how issues are really researched and conclusions really made. Students must weigh different viewpoints – all from sources that can be vague, contradictory, and even unreliable at times. Instead of a snapshot, it is a revolving kaleidoscope, covering far more ground and open to wider interpretation than the traditional case.

This wider lens approach fits perfectly with Yale SOM’s integrated curriculum, which tends to focus on the whole organization – and how the individual functions impact each other depending on the variables at play. It is a difference in philosophy, Lourdes Lira Cuevas says, that pays off in the long run.

“You learn how the different functions in a business are interdependent to tackle business challenges. Since courses became multidisciplinary, they are also team-taught. This specific characteristic of Yale SOM makes me feel confident that I will be prepared to lead a business at C-level positions, as I will have “the whole picture” of how the organization works.”

GOING INTERNATIONAL WITH THE ORIGINATOR

At Francophone Africa, Elizabeth Davidson worked as a portfolio manager – when she wasn’t Mount Kilimanjaro or hanging out with gorillas, that is. Despite her quant background, she worried that she might be considered “weird” by her peers. However, the school’s mission tying business to serving society, coupled with its unique integrated structure, made her feel right at home.

“SOM focuses on holistic leadership and gives you the opportunity to take classes at any school at Yale to help round out your education. It’s not just about learning how to run a Fortune 500 company—it’s about applying business skills to become a leader in any sector you might choose or any role you might find yourself in, whether in a professional setting or otherwise.”

Yale SOM was also the first program to require an international learning experience. While the program focuses heavily on looking at the ‘whole,’ it prizes something more profound: impact. From philanthropy conferences to nonprofit leadership training to partnerships and projects, Yale SOM sets the bar in the social impact space. That’s how Chinaelo Okafor sees it. Originally an English major at NYU, Okafor quickly found her calling after seeing the profound impact that General Mills’ nonprofit, Partners in Food Solutions, made across Africa. Now, she plans to take full advantage of everything that SOM can offer in social impact.

“[It’s a mission that] can be seen in everything from classwork to club offerings to yearly fundraising to support students taking on unpaid nonprofit internships,” she observes.  “Whether it is learning how to lead a nonprofit or foundation, exposure to careers in impact investing, or social impact consulting, all with the explicit support of current students, faculty and alumni, Yale SOM has all of that and more.”

Evans Hall

WHAT’S NEXT?

What’s ahead for the Class of 2020? Despite the varying interests and geographies inherent to the class, they are united by one thing: They are looking forward to playing hockey. “This is not a common sport in Latin America for weather reasons, Lourdes Lira Cuevas admits. “Hockey Club is a great place to make new friends while everybody learns how to ice skate and play hockey. Hockey tournaments with other business school are also a great way to meet new people and have fun.”

Gus Roman has his work cut out for him. His peers chose him to be logistics director for Yale SOM’s first-ever National Healthcare Services Case Conference. Ryan Leibowitz plans to join the Yale Nonprofit Board Fellows program, where he’ll sit on the board of a local non-profit.  Siddharth Rao, a product developer from India, is looking forward to better understanding how consumers make decisions at the Yale Center for Customer Insights. And Song Kim? Well, let’s just say there is a method behind the madness of her favorite extracurricular.

“The Food and Wine Club! Let’s be real: don’t the best ideas always come over a table with food and wine,” she jokes.

Long-term, many members of the 2020 Class already have their path laid out. Gus Roman plans to head to either New York City or Sa Francisco to lead a venture capital firm focused on improving health care. Chinaelo Okafor is weighing whether to take her talents to a “foundation, impact investing, founding a nonprofit, or engaging in corporate social responsibility at a large corporation.” If Wyatt Wolfram gets his way, life after Yale SOM is going to be the ultimate MBA dream.

“In five years, I’ll be living in a hip, coastal city in the U.S. or Europe with my wife, dog, and possibly a few kids! I’ll be running an innovative, global media company, driving the next generation of entertainment, technology, and communications. I’ll also have the time to take on leadership roles in my community, visit family, travel, get my pilot’s license, and maybe even put the band back together.”

What led these professionals to enter business schools? Which programs did they also consider? What strategies did they use to choose their MBA program? What was the major event that defined them? Find the answers to these questions and many more in the in-depth profiles of these incoming MBA candidates. 

DON’T MISS: MEET THE MBA CLASS OF 2020: PROFILES IN COURAGE

Student	Hometown	Alma Mater	Employer
Elizabeth Davidson	Richmond, VA	College of William and Mary	Kiva
Russell Halliday	Sudbury, MA	Bowdoin College	Office of Congressman James P. McGovern
Dahsong (Song) Kim	Gainesville, Florida	University of Southern California	Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund
Ryan Leibowitz	Miami Beach, FL	University of Pennsylvania (Wharton)	Bain & Company
Paul Lwin	Essex, CT	U.S .Naval Academy	U.S. Navy
Lourdes Lira Cuevas	Ciudad Victoria, Mexico	Tecnologico de Monterrey	IDOM
Courtney Miller	Santa Cruz, CA	University of Southern California	Lucasfilm
Chinaelo Okafor	Brooklyn Park, MN	New York University	General Mills
Siddharth Rao	Bengaluru, India	IIT Madras	ITC Limited
Gus Roman	Randolph ,NJ	University of Pennsylvania	Acsel Health
Anna Schickele	Davis, CA	Stanford University	Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab
Wyatt Wolfram	Hillsdale, MA	Syracuse University	Downtown Records

The Meet the Class of 2020 Series

London Business School

University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School

Yale School of Mnnagement

University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business

UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School

New York University’s Stern School of Business

Emory’s Goizueta School of Business

Elizabeth Davidson

Yale School of Management

“Recovering expat and social impact wonk, endlessly fascinated by the world.”

Hometown: Richmond, Virginia

Fun Fact About Yourself: I have summited Kilimanjaro, hung out with 400-pound gorillas in Rwanda, swum in Devil’s Pool at the edge of Victoria Falls, and eaten more questionable street food than I care to consider from a public health perspective, but I am actually quite risk-averse by nature.

Undergraduate School and Major: College of William and Mary, Government and Middle Eastern Studies

Most Recent Employer and Job Title: Kiva, Portfolio Manager for Francophone Africa

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far: At Kiva, I was responsible for managing current impact investments, as well as doing due diligence on new potential investments and proposing them to the investment committee. After over a year of pre-work and a particularly arduous due diligence process, getting a $1.2 million investment for higher education in Rwanda approved was one of my proudest moments. It was something I believed in strongly—an awesome, affordable education for Rwanda’s future leaders—and worked on for years to make happen. Passion and persistence pay off!

What quality best describes the MBA classmates you’ve met so far and why? Down-to-earth but incredibly accomplished. Very diverse but all equally fascinating and easy to talk to. People who want to make a difference in the world no matter what their chosen career path may be.

Aside from your classmates, what was the key factor that led you to choose this program for your full-time MBA and why was it so important to you? I’ve been focused on the intersection of impact and business, and I wanted a school where that wouldn’t be looked down upon or thought of as weird. SOM totally fit the bill from the first interactions I had with students at admitted students’ day. SOM’s mission, “Educating leaders for business and society,” also speaks to this. While we get a great education in the fundamentals of finance and business, SOM focuses on holistic leadership and gives you the opportunity to take classes at any school at Yale to help round out your education. It’s not just about learning how to run a Fortune 500 company—it’s about applying business skills to become a leader in any sector you might choose or any role you might find yourself in, whether in a professional setting or otherwise.

Yale’s strong connection to Africa didn’t hurt either!

What club or activity are you looking most forward to in business school? Ice hockey. Strangely enough, I started playing ball hockey (essentially ice hockey without the ice and skates) in Tanzania, and I’m eager to try out my hockey skills on ice.

What led you to pursue an MBA at this point in your career? I never thought I would pursue an MBA. In college, I was convinced I wanted nothing to do with anything that involved finance and actively avoided any quantitative coursework like the plague. But after graduation, finance steadily became a more and more important part of my work until it became a key part of my job. For a period of time, I even managed the accounting department of the social enterprise I worked for in Tanzania – despite never having taken a finance class. Now, I am excited to fill in the gaps of my education and build a solid foundation of finance and business skills to draw upon in the future. I actually can’t wait for accounting!

I was also at a point in my career where I was really interested in growing as a leader. So many of my friends and colleagues who got an MBA gushed about their transformational growth during business school, which is exactly what I was looking for at this point. It seemed like the perfect time to go for it.

On a very different note, I was also eager to explore what it would be like to live back at home in the U.S. again in a pretty low-risk way.

How did you decide if an MBA was worth the investment? I love working, so this was a hard one for me, but it’s a bet on my future and a push to grow further.

I don’t have a master’s degree, and I knew I’d be closing the door on a lot of future opportunities by not having one. At the same time, I really wanted to shore up my financial and business skill sets before transitioning to any other job. An MBA seemed like the most straightforward way to do this, while allowing me to explore some other sectors.

What other MBA programs did you apply to? Berkeley Haas, Duke Fuqua, MIT Sloan, Oxford Said, and Stanford GSB.

How did you determine your fit at various schools? I knew I wanted a small or medium-sized program with a low-ego culture and a strong global presence. Having spent years abroad surrounded by passionate, incredible people from around the world, I knew I wanted something similar out of an MBA program. Diversity—real diversity and not just lip service—was a must. I also wanted a strong social impact program to keep a foot in that world.

Since I was abroad and not able to visit most schools, I pored over every available webinar, blog post, and YouTube video I could find on each school. I talked to a number of current students and alumni at each school I was interested in to hear more about their experiences. But ultimately, being there in person was the deciding factor. I made the time (and quite a bit of it – flying from Kenya to the US is at least a 24-hour affair) to visit a number of admitted students’ days, and Yale just felt right.

What was your defining moment and how did it shape who you are? I moved to Tanzania having never visited the country…or anywhere in Sub-Saharan Africa or the developing world, for that matter. For someone who is so cripplingly risk-averse by nature, I still can’t quite believe I did it. Taking that leap pushed me so far out of my comfort zone that it’s almost hard to imagine just staying inside that zone anymore. After that move, I know I can tackle anything, even if it feels completely overwhelming or foreign at first.

What do you plan to do after you graduate? I’m really interested in consulting. At Kiva, my favorite part of my job was working with a wide variety of organizations, and my least favorite part was not having the time to deep dive with each to tackle the strategic challenges they were facing. I’m looking forward to getting to learn the ins and outs of vastly different companies while getting to work through obstacles systematically with them.

Where do you see yourself in five years? I would love to focus solely on consulting in the social sector in five years’ time—I just need to figure out where in the world I’d like to be based!

Russell Halliday

Yale School of Management

“I’m a tenacious, motivated athlete, a curious and compassionate adventurer, and a mediocre trombone player.”

Hometown: Sudbury, Massachusetts

Fun Fact About Yourself: I’m fluent in Tagalog

Undergraduate School and Major: Bowdoin College, Government & Legal Studies and Environmental Studies

Most Recent Employer and Job Title: Legislative Assistant in the Office of Congressman James P. McGovern (D-MA)

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far: As a Peace Corps Volunteer in The Philippines, I worked to combat overfishing and the use of destructive fishing practices, including dynamite fishing, by building a marine learning center in my community. After learning to speak the local dialect, I interviewed hundreds of fishermen and stakeholders, identified the need for education and training about sustainable fishing practices, and enlisted community involvement in the development of a marine sanctuary. Working with the local government and various NGOs, I raised funds through public and private donations. I then designed and oversaw construction of a typhoon-proof marine learning center that is in use currently as a training facility in my community, where bay restoration is now underway.

What quality best describes the MBA classmates you’ve met so far and why? Excited. Excited to be here, excited to be a part of SOM, excited about the direction of the school, excited to learn from and about one another, excited about future career prospects, excited to change the world.

Aside from your classmates, what was the key factor that led you to choose this program for your full-time MBA and why was it so important to you? I felt that the Yale community, both at SOM and at the larger university, is devoted to producing leaders with a social conscience. While Yale SOM is sending students to the top consulting and banking firms, it is also supporting those who seek new social-impact fields. My dual desire to develop a business skill set and to explore the potential to make an environmental and social impact on society is, I feel, perfectly in line with SOM’s core values. As a public servant pivoting into finance, I was looking for a school that would value students with alternative backgrounds like mine. With each interaction, I increasingly felt that Yale SOM, as an institution and as a student body, is committed to the common good.

What club or activity are you looking most forward to in business school? I’m looking forward to the weekly Social Impact Lab series at SOM, in which we’ll discuss with leaders in the field the challenges behind and potential for using private sector solutions and resources to help solve some of our world’s pressing issues. I’m also looking forward to joining the Ice Hockey Club and participating in the annual Garstka Cup.

What led you to pursue an MBA at this point in your career? I was originally inspired to pursue an MBA after I met several social-impact investors who were visiting my fishing village in The Philippines. They were researching the feasibility of cultivating seaweed and sustainably caught lobsters for export from my community’s bay. Their proposed initiative would bring income to my village, while incentivizing conservation efforts in our newly formed marine sanctuary. These investors energized the community as I had never seen before, and I saw how they could effect change on a large scale, when backed by private resources. Following Peace Corps, I wanted to learn more about how public policy affects and complements grassroots development efforts around the world. I pursued a job in the office of Massachusetts congressman Jim McGovern, who is dedicated to eliminating hunger and malnutrition, both in the U.S. and across the globe. I learned a great deal about constructing effective federal policy. An MBA will allow me to develop the skill set to pursue a highly impactful job in finance, where my experiences in Peace Corps and in Congress will allow me to bring a unique perspective.

How did you decide if an MBA was worth the investment? At this stage in my career, I believe that only an MBA will give me the tools I require in order to pivot careers. Further, only a prestigious MBA program, such as SOM, can give me an extensive alumni network, as well as business contacts, that will prove invaluable in my future. As such, I am committed to investing the time and effort necessary to achieve my goals. I also appreciate the financial investment required by an MBA program, and I recognize that this investment will have a tremendous payback in terms of the graduate school experience as well as with future career opportunities.

What other MBA programs did you apply to? Haas, Stanford GSB, Tuck, Darden, Stern, Anderson

How did you determine your fit at various schools? Through campus visits, one-on-one meetings, and phone calls, I spoke with as many alumni, current students, and faculty members as I could. With a background in public service, I knew that I’d be trying to master challenging and new concepts, so I was looking for a group of highly collaborative, good-humored peers. Further, I wanted to get a sense of where students were working immediately after graduation and several years out. During this process, I spoke with many SOM students and alumni who were incredibly generous with their time. I was impressed with how passionate students and alumni were about SOM and the school’s future. Further, I noticed that the students here take a genuine interest in learning about one another. Each student shares his or her story, often in deeply personal detail, during the Yale Voices tradition. Finally, during the admitted students weekend, SOM invited two alumni to speak to us about their successful and unique fund they had founded while at SOM. I was impressed by their story and the resources SOM had provided them. I found myself saying, “This is exactly the sort of professional I want to be—intelligent, well-spoken, humble, and civic-minded.”

What was your defining moment and how did it shape who you are? When I was in fourth grade, my aunt died, and we adopted my three younger cousins. I had always been a kind child, but this change in our family thrust me into new territory. As I became closer with my new siblings, I became a deeply empathetic person. I developed the ability to sense when somebody around me is sad or anxious, and I strove to find new and creative strategies for helping. In later years, I found these skills to be incredibly helpful as I led teams of teens on hiking expeditions and athletes on the lacrosse field. Throughout my career, I have continued to draw upon these skills. My ability to listen, empathize, and work creatively toward common goals has been a key success factor in my ability to work with teams and to lead.

What do you plan to do after you graduate? I aspire to work in investment banking. In speaking with current bankers, I understand that this career is fast-paced and team-oriented. It requires complete mastery of financial concepts, and affords one the unique opportunity to collaborate with and learn from executives within the bank and at client companies. As an associate at an investment bank, I would develop a skill set that would allow me to make significant contributions to my bank, other companies, and society.

Where do you see yourself in five years? I hope to be a vice president at an investment bank, working to explore opportunities in the social impact space.

Dahsong (Song) Kim

Yale School of Management

“Activist committed to change from the grassroots, all the way up.”

Hometown: Gainesville, Florida

Fun Fact About Yourself: I have a titanium right tibia. That ski accident was the most physically painful time in my life, but it gave me the gift of a karaoke song forever dedicated to me!

Undergraduate School and Major:

University of Southern California–BA, Sociology

New York University School of Law–Juris Doctor

Most Recent Employer and Job Title:

Staff Attorney, Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far: I am most proud of the reputation of the project I headed, the Anti-Trafficking Initiative, in the immigrant communities we serve. Survivors of forced labor and other forms of trafficking have faced some of the worst forms of abuse and exploitation, and oftentimes by the time they have access to services, their ability to trust has been completely eroded.  Especially in a time when immigrants and people of color are afraid to speak up – afraid to report crimes for fear of being criminalized themselves – it’s been an honor to have been trusted by our communities to steward their experiences and work with them to access their rights and protections under the law.

What quality best describes the MBA classmates you’ve met so far and why? Self-awareness. My classmates know who they are and where they are going; they live by what matters to them. They are fully aware of their strengths and what they can contribute, and they are humble about what they can learn from those around them. I think self-awareness is game-changing as a member of a team, and as a trait generally for people that are the most pleasant to be around. So needless to say, I’m excited to learn and work alongside them for the next two years!

Aside from your classmates, what was the key factor that led you to choose this program for your full-time MBA and why was it so important to you? It is the school’s commitment to raising and edifying leaders who will change the world in all sectors and regions. SOM doesn’t simply pay lip service to the idea of “educat[ing] leaders for business and society.” It actually demonstrates this commitment in so many ways, including through programming, faculty, and of course by having initiated the first—and still the most generous—loan forgiveness program in the country for folks like me who will be returning to the nonprofit/public sectors. I worked in nonprofit and have a professional degree already, so I would never have decided to go back to school had I not been secure in knowing that the program would give me exactly the skills and training I want but am lacking, and that I would have support from the school to continue pursuing a non-traditional MBA career path.

What club or activity are you looking most forward to in business school? The food and wine club! Let’s be real: don’t the best ideas always come over a table with food and wine? But if I can squeeze in one more, I’m really looking forward to the Nonprofit Board Fellows, because I’ve always been someone who needs to be grounded in and connected to my neighborhood while in school—whether it was South Central Los Angeles as an undergrad or New York City as a law student. Being a part of the Nonprofit Board Fellows will give me an opportunity to take my experience in the nonprofit sector, what I’ve gained from being a New York Community Trust Nonprofit Leaders Fellow just this past spring, and everything I’ll learn from SOM, to be connected to the greater community in New Haven.

What led you to pursue an MBA at this point in your career? I became head of the Anti-Trafficking Initiative at my organization only a year-and-a-half after I started working at AALDEF. It was a steep learning curve, but it gave me access and insight relatively quickly into the anti-trafficking field, which is still relatively young. Themes surrounding pertinent issues and gaps emerged in conversations within human rights–based anti-trafficking circles as we worked on the ground directly with affected individuals. As a lawyer, I was making an impact on individual lives–assisting clients with their immigration status so they could find stability and safety, and litigating cases to ensure clients were able to have their day in court and receive compensation.

Even in our greatest victories, such as winning a historic forced labor case where the $14 million verdict (the largest ever awarded by a jury in the U.S. at the time) drove the corporation that trafficked their migrant workers into bankruptcy, we were only able enter the picture after our clients had gone through truly harrowing experiences. To me, human trafficking (like so many social problems) ultimately stems from an unethical excessive thirst for profit, so I wanted to transition into a place where I could get training to take what I’ve learned on the ground to contribute to bringing about systemic change to prevent exploitation and abuse from happening in the first place.

How did you decide if an MBA was worth the investment? I sought out people who were invested in my growth and future. I talked to people who had their MBAs, SOM alums, and folks with life wisdom who were able to give me important perspectives about what an MBA would mean for me at this point in my career and personal life. By decision time, I felt assured that the skills and networks I would gain through the program would have immeasurable returns in my life.

What other MBA programs did you apply to? None. It was Yale or nothing!

How did you determine your fit at various schools? For me, it wasn’t necessarily an MBA I was looking for–it was a program that would both help me think creatively about solutions to problems in different ways than I had been trained and give me the practical tools to implement those solutions.

What was your defining moment and how did it shape who you are? Growing up, I’d heard stories of my father protesting on the streets as a student at Seoul National University during the Park Chung Hee era in the late ’70s. I also grew up with a mother whose faith and natural generosity opened our doors to anyone who needed a hot meal or a place to stay. Through moments with them, I inherited the spirits of activism and community and giving that are the foundation to everything I do and the choices I make.

What do you plan to do after you graduate? I decided to transition and embark on this journey because I wanted to use my years on the ground working with local immigrant communities impacted most by broken systems, to bring about change in and through those very systems. I’ve become interested in big-picture solutions to labor exploitation, such as the worker-driven social responsibility model where industries are held accountable to and by the very workers who make them run, and plan on working on corporate accountability in some way.

Where do you see yourself in five years? Five years after graduation, I would love to be in a position to support passion issues of mine such as access to and changing the culture around healthy food in poor communities and youth empowerment in communities of color. In addition to all of the above, I want my work to revolve around preventing worker exploitation and trafficking, through philanthropy or impact investing.

Ryan Leibowitz

Yale School of Management

“Broke my femur bone when I was two and have been climbing uphill ever since.”

Hometown: Miami Beach, Florida

Fun Fact About Yourself: I attended a maritime science magnet high school in Miami and had a boater’s license before a driver’s license.

Undergraduate School and Major: Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania (Economics major with concentrations in Management and Real Estate)

Most Recent Employer and Job Title: Consultant at Bain & Company

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far: While at Bain, I completed a pro bono engagement for a charter school network in New York. The client came to us asking whether they were ready to grow, and (if so), how they should do it. After engaging with students, teachers, principals, and community members over a three-month period, we determined the network should in fact grow. As a direct result of our project, the organization’s board of directors signed off on a growth plan that included up to seven new schools that will serve thousands of students and their families. It was phenomenal to see the real-world impact from the project; the first two new schools are opening for the 2018 school year!

What quality best describes the MBA classmates you’ve met so far and why? The most common trait among Yale SOM students is how down-to-earth they are. While each has their own unique background and has accomplished amazing things, they are all so collegial, supportive, and humble. It’s a great community that I’m thrilled to be a part of.

Aside from your classmates, what was the key factor that led you to choose this program for your full-time MBA and why was it so important to you? The culture and small size were key inputs into my decision, but another main driver was the design and flexibility of the curriculum. Coming from an undergraduate business program, I was intrigued by how courses are taught in an interdisciplinary fashion from various stakeholder perspectives. I also loved how easy it was to take classes outside of the core curriculum and across the university.

What club or activity are you looking most forward to in business school? I’m hoping to join the Yale Nonprofit Board Fellows and ultimately sit on the board of a local nonprofit organization while I’m in school. Sitting on a board would provide a phenomenal opportunity to engage with the local community and apply what I’m learning in the classroom in a real-world context.

What led you to pursue an MBA at this point in your career? I joined Bain full-time as an Associate Consultant right after college. Since then, the role has shifted from being very analytics-heavy to having a broader focus on client engagement, team leadership, and problem solving. As such, I felt that I would benefit from the leadership training that an MBA will provide. Beyond the formal in-classroom training, I am also excited to practice working with classmates from different backgrounds and professions, which I think will help me hone my own leadership style.

How did you decide if an MBA was worth the investment? I see an MBA as a long-term investment in myself and my career. Beyond financial considerations, I also considered the two-year sabbatical from work and whether that would set me back. I feel that the long-term benefits outweigh the short-term costs and that this was an ideal point in my career to invest in myself and focus on both personal and professional growth.

What other MBA programs did you apply to? Dartmouth’s Tuck and Stanford’s GSB

How did you determine your fit at various schools? When looking at schools, I prioritized schools with a smaller class size, tight-knit culture, and focus on leadership and other “softer” skills. Talking to current students and alumni was by far the most helpful tool, and I found that most everyone I reached out to was more than willing to spend the time with me.

What was your defining moment and how did it shape who you are? Pressing “submit” on both my Bain and Yale SOM applications! Bain has been a phenomenal career accelerator and also where I’ve met some of my closest friends. Yale SOM has already proven to be a great decision, and I’m looking forward to the next two years.

What do you plan to do after you graduate? I plan to return to management consulting at Bain. What I love most about Bain, and the industry more broadly, is how each case challenges you in a new and unique way. Beyond the subject matter, your role with clients and teams continues to grow. To put it simply, I don’t think there’s a better (or more fun) place to advance your career.

Where do you see yourself in five years? Outside consulting, I have a strong interest in real estate, and actually thought I’d be an architect at one point. Last year, I completed an externship from Bain at a real estate development and investment firm in New York. I’m not sure of the timing, but in the long term, I’d like to build upon this experience and my Bain training and work in a strategy-focused role in real estate.

Paul Lwin

Yale School of Management

“Navy veteran born in Burma and raised in California. Passionate entrepreneur looking to make an impact.”

Hometown: Essex, CT

Fun Fact About Yourself: I was a Naval Flight Officer in the U.S. Navy and flew combat missions over Iraq and Afghanistan. I’m also a graduate of United States Naval Test Pilot School. As a Test Flight Officer, I got the opportunity to fly in more than 25 different aircraft from World War II–era planes to the latest modern jets.

Undergraduate School and Major:

United States Naval Academy (B.S. Aerospace Engineering), University of Maryland (M.S. Aerospace Engineering), Johns Hopkins University (M.S. Computer Science)

Most Recent Employer and Job Title: United States Navy, Naval Flight Officer/Engineering Test Flight Officer

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far: After Test Pilot School, I was assigned to lead a high-visibility project that had historically underperformed in developing and releasing new weapon systems. During the first few months of my tenure, I took the opportunity to observe and understand the challenges that led to the teams involved underperforming. My observations led me to believe that the teams were weighed down by organizational inertia that prevented them from innovating and adapting to a rapidly changing environment. I made it a personal and professional goal to change the inertia by being an understanding leader while forcing disruptive innovation. At the conclusion of my tour, I was able to lead many teams and individuals involved in the project to successfully innovate and develop better products for the warfighters. While I was unable to completely change everyone’s minds and habits, I was able to change the behavior and tendencies of the organization to strive to improve continuously instead of accepting a flat trajectory that prevented innovation.

What quality best describes the MBA classmates you’ve met so far and why? The MBA classmates I’ve met are extremely passionate. They display a curiosity to want to understand their chosen fields and to be impactful leaders.

Aside from your classmates, what was the key factor that led you to choose this program for your full-time MBA and why was it so important to you? During my visit, it was very obvious that the SOM community was energetic and innovative. I was very drawn to the passion and energy of the staff and students that I met. In addition, the curriculum is unique at SOM and strives to be creative in how it educates future business leaders. I wanted to learn in an exciting environment surrounded by passionate people.

What club or activity are you looking most forward to in business school? I’m looking forward to meeting and learning from fellow entrepreneurs and innovators in the Entrepreneurship Club and the Tsai Center For Innovative Thinking at Yale. I’m interested in joining the Veterans Club and helping future transitioning veterans navigate the change more effectively.

What led you to pursue an MBA at this point in your career? I recently transitioned out of the U.S. Navy. My post-Navy goal is to successfully launch and develop Curiosity Innovations, a technology company that will provide modern and innovative solutions to the warfighters by leveraging my tactical experience and engineering backgrounds. While starting Curiosity Innovations, it became obvious that a better understanding of the intricacies of finance and navigating the civilian business sectors would help me achieve my goals more efficiently.

How did you decide if an MBA was worth the investment? While starting Curiosity Innovations, I learned that there was still a tremendous amount that I needed to learn in order to successfully start a company. That experience convinced me that the two years spent in an MBA program learning and networking would be worth the return.

What other MBA programs did you apply to? Quinnipiac University

How did you determine your fit at various schools? I was limited geographically to schools in Connecticut due to my wife’s successful career as a periodontist. However, even if I were able to attend other schools, I would have chosen SOM due to its unique curriculum and innovative culture.

What was your defining moment and how did it shape who you are? When I was ten years old, my family and I immigrated to the United States as political refugees from Burma (now known as Myanmar). Back then, I was too young to realize how fortunate it was that we were allowed to immigrate to the U.S. Throughout my life, I’ve had the opportunity to travel all over the world. During these travels, I met other Burmese refugees. The defining moment in my life was realizing that I would not have had the same opportunities I have had in the United States if I had ended up in any other country. As an immigrant who learned to speak English at the age of ten, I was given the opportunity to attend the United States Naval Academy, become a Naval Flight Officer, lead as a Naval Officer, graduate from the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School, and now be given the chance to attend the Yale School of Management. That realization about how special a place we live in has fostered my desire to continue serving in all that I do, so that we remain a special place and a place of hope for other refugees like me.

What do you plan to do after you graduate? I plan to continue developing Curiosity Innovations into an innovative and productive technology company that will provide the warfighters with modern, cutting-edge systems efficiently and effectively.

Where do you see yourself in five years? I see myself successfully running Curiosity Innovations and continuing to make the company more efficient and effective. I also see myself getting more involved in the community in order to continue giving back for all the opportunities that I’ve been given.

Lourdes Lira Cuevas

Yale School of Management

“I am a former consultant who seeks to transform Latin America through business and technology.”

Hometown: Ciudad Victoria, Tamaulipas, Mexico

Fun Fact About Yourself: I was homeschooled! I only started attending traditional school at 15 years old.

Undergraduate School and Major: B.S. in Mechanical Engineering at Tecnologico de Monterrey

Most Recent Employer and Job Title: Senior Strategy Consultant at IDOM (IDOM is a multinational company that offers integrated professional services in strategic consulting, advanced engineering, and architecture)

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far:  As a senior consultant, I led teams to solve complex problems that saved our clients millions of dollars. In one of my most recent projects, the client wanted to unify the operations of five countries into one single regional business entity. I was in charge, together with my team, of designing and implementing the new regional operating model and organizational structure for the marketing, sales and financial planning departments. By the end of the project, the company was functioning in a completely different way and saving a lot of money.  Seeing that your work transforms organizations is a real accomplishment.

 What quality best describes the MBA classmates you’ve met so far and why? Socially committed. These are people that are striving in the business setting and are the stars at their workplaces, but at the same time they are down-to-earth and very aware of the problems that their communities are facing. And most important, they look forward to doing something about it. I absolutely see each of my classmates changing the world through business after their MBA.

Aside from your classmates, what was the key factor that led you to choose this program for your full-time MBA and why was it so important to you? The integrated curriculum! I love how courses were not designed by function but by perspective, so you learn how the different functions in a business are interdependent to tackle business challenges. Since courses became multidisciplinary, they are also team-taught. This specific characteristic of Yale SOM makes me feel confident that I will be prepared to lead a business at C-level positions, as I will have “the whole picture” of how the organization works.

What club or activity are you looking most forward to in business school? Hockey! This is not a common sport in Latin America for weather reasons, and neither in many other countries. Hockey Club is a great place to make new friends while everybody learns how to ice skate and play hockey. Hockey tournaments with other business school are also a great way to meet new people and have fun.

What led you to pursue an MBA at this point in your career? Realizing what I wanted to pursue professionally and the skills I needed to accomplish it. I needed academic knowledge about business, and I also wanted to increase my global leadership skills and build a network of like-minded professionals. Also, after five years working in different consulting projects, functions, and industries, I have something to “put on the table” to enrich class discussions. I am so excited to exchange perspectives about business problems and solutions with my fellow classmates.

How did you decide if an MBA was worth the investment? You can calculate the present value of the MBA investment and see that it is worth it! But what really drew me to the MBA journey was that none of the many MBA graduates I talked to while deciding between programs regretted their decision to study for an MBA, and they all felt that it pushed them closer to their professional goals.

What other MBA programs did you apply to? Northwestern Kellogg, Michigan Ross, Columbia Business School

How did you determine your fit at various schools?  As I was living in Central America at the time, the best way for me to do it was by talking with students and alumni who were working or were planning to work in the industry I was interested in pursued. I reached at least four people from each school! I was mainly concerned about how that school facilitated the recruiting for them, what specific courses or clubs helped them land their jobs/internships, and how tight (and willing to help) the alumni network was. Just by talking with students and alumni about their best memories during business school, you can get a good idea about the culture and fit.

What was your defining moment and how did it shape who you are? My defining moment occurred after a period of deep introspection, when I decided to put a pause in my consulting career and take a sabbatical semester to volunteer full-time for a charity organization abroad. This decision took me completely out of my comfort zone and changed my life. I realized that social vulnerability is so real and disastrous for so many people. I could not contribute to a fairer society just as a “side activity”—I had to make it an ongoing goal and a commitment in all my personal and professional endeavors.

What do you plan to do after you graduate? I want to work in tech industry, in an operations position.

Where do you see yourself in five years? Launching my own venture!

Courtney Miller

Yale School of Management

“Old-school believer in the power of story, making a career alongside superheroes and Jedi knights.”

Hometown: Santa Cruz, California

Fun Fact About Yourself: I have credits on a few films, including Marvel’s Doctor Strange and Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom.

Undergraduate School and Major: University of Southern California, International Relations

Most Recent Employer and Job Title: Lucasfilm, Marketing Associate

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far: I worked in business development for a few years at Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), Lucasfilm’s visual effects division. Essentially, I worked on the team responsible for bringing films into the visual effects studio. This would often involve producing CG tests for filmmakers, sort of an exercise in proof of concept. One such test I oversaw was for Steven Spielberg, which was an incredible honor and really a master class in filmmaking, as you can imagine. When we showed him the finished test, he was thrilled, and gave us some stellar feedback I will never forget. That test really took a village to put together and required the exceptional outside-the-box thinking and never-say-die attitude that made ILM the true powerhouse it is. To have been a part of that, and to have that moment with Mr. Spielberg be the payoff…well, it’s the sort of thing you see in the movies.

What quality best describes the MBA classmates you’ve met so far and why? Infectious. Every single person I’ve met at SOM has a certain spirit that’s just impossible not to be taken in by. These are people who, at their core, have the most genuine passion for having a positive impact on their world, and you can feel it in every interaction you have with the students here. Even when they’re exhausted from classwork and are in the midst of brutal recruitment cycles, there’s a spark in SOMers that simply can’t be extinguished, and you can’t help but be lifted up and inspired by it.

Aside from your classmates, what was the key factor that led you to choose this program for your full-time MBA and why was it so important to you? SOM is a mission-driven place. Educating leaders for business and society isn’t just a catchy slogan, it’s really the lifeblood of the school. I was looking for a program with a conscience, for a school that believes that business has a positive role to play in society. After speaking with staff, faculty, students, and graduates at SOM, I knew that this was a program that talked the talk and walked the walk. For me, and I think for most all of us applying to business school now, long gone are the “greed is good” days—I want to be a part of a generation of businesspeople who thoughtfully and purposefully advance causes like sustainability and equality through truly elevated thinking, and it became very clear to me that SOM is a place that does just that every single day.

What club or activity are you looking most forward to in business school? Does taking a picture with Handsome Dan count? Because that is at the very top of my list. Beyond adorable dogs, this lifelong Californian is looking forward to the annual ski trip to Killington, Vermont, among countless other things.

What led you to pursue an MBA at this point in your career? I had gotten to a place in my career where I was starting to look for the next opportunity. My husband is a big reader of Harvard Business Review, and that had got me thinking about an MBA. I knew I was ready for something that would challenge me both personally and professionally, and business school offered that perfect amalgam. The program I was looking for was one that would help me refine and push myself as a leader, while giving me the solid foundation in business I would need to reach the upper levels I wanted to go. I knew I could continue working and keep climbing that ladder, but the more I researched MBA programs, the more I realized this would really help to catapult me to where I wanted to be. I had worked for several years and had a strong network in place that I knew would be there in two years’ time, so it felt like the right moment to make a big investment in my future.

How did you decide if an MBA was worth the investment? It involved a lot of long nights and second-guessing, if I’m being completely honest. An MBA represents a huge amount of money, and it can be scary to step away from the working world for two years, especially in an industry like entertainment where so much of it is about, as the saying goes, who you know. But I did have a gut feeling it was the right move, and I was able to speak with several senior executives in entertainment who have MBAs, and they all pretty much echoed the same sentiment—that it’s an incredibly worthwhile investment in your future that will truly pay dividends for decades to come. A good friend of mine loves the quote “Be bold and the mighty forces will come to your aid,” and that perpetually echoed in my head for a year as I decided that pursuing an MBA would be my next bold move.

What other MBA programs did you apply to? Booth, Kellogg, Columbia, Stern, Haas, Anderson, and Marshall.

How did you determine your fit at various schools? You can do all the research in the world (and trust me, I did), but unless you visit the schools, it can be difficult to know how “fit” will really stack up. There were some programs that I fell in love with online, but when I visited I was really disappointed in the culture. There were also programs where I didn’t think I would be a good fit, but when I had the chance to sit in on classes and see the students and faculty in action, I realized it was a place where I could succeed. So my number one piece of advice is—visit, visit, visit. It’ll make your applications stronger, and it will help you to focus on where you really want to go. While you’re visiting, take notes! I brought a notebook with me to every place I visited, and wrote down notes on pretty much every interaction and experience I had. It helped highlight the pros and cons of each program for me. Beyond that, I wrote down some adjectives that described my “perfect” program, then I made a spreadsheet (I know, I know) of all the schools I was interested in applying to and, after said exhaustive research, wrote 3 to 5 characteristics that I felt described each program. When I compared that to my “perfect” description, it was easy to see what aligned and what didn’t.

What was your defining moment and how did it shape who you are? It’s difficult for me to say that there was one single defining moment in my life upon which everything hinged, but a moment that was certainly significant was accepting the job with ILM and moving up to San Francisco. I had been living in L.A. for several years and working in digital marketing for Disney. I had a great team and got to work on some really exciting projects, but I knew the time was coming for that next step up. Accepting the job with ILM meant leaving an entire life behind, not to mention the fact that I knew absolutely nothing about visual effects, and ILM was the place that invented the entire industry and is home to such heavyweights as Dennis Muren and John Knoll. But I had faith in myself— faith that even though I would feel like a complete idiot at times (and boy, did I), I would get up to speed; faith that taking a chance on yourself is never the wrong move. And because of all that, I got to work with some of the most incredible filmmakers in Hollywood and really live the stuff of dreams. How did it shape who I am? It reiterated for me that imagination is just as applicable in the boardroom as it is on a movie set.

What do you plan to do after you graduate? Take a long trip somewhere with white sand beaches and bad cell service. Then head to work for an entertainment company in franchise strategy.

Where do you see yourself in five years? I hope to be working in entertainment in a city like Los Angeles, New York, or London, doing meaningful work that has a positive impact on my corner of the world (and maybe even beyond), tending to a backyard garden, and fighting with my husband over what we should have for dinner each night.

Chinaelo Okafor

Yale School of Management

“Adrenaline enthusiast. Romcom Queen and sci-fi nerd. Caring. Persistent. Passionate. Self-reflective. BLM.”

Hometown: New Haven, Nigeria/Brooklyn Park, Minnesota

Fun Fact About Yourself: I’m excellent at falling off and over things (unintentionally): chairs, air, sidewalks, buildings, waterfalls and once, a mountain. Still alive.

Undergraduate School and Major: New York University; BA English & American Literature

Most Recent Employer and Job Title: General Mills; Brand Marketing Associate

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far: The opportunity to work with a General Mills–founded nonprofit, Partners in Food Solutions, on projects aimed at improving food security and supporting entrepreneurs in emerging economies by contributing my marketer’s lens. The role was deeply rewarding, whether it was a bakery in Kenya or a flour mill in Ethiopia or collaborating with experts across the globe to arrive to a solution to help address pressing and fascinating problems and then to watch its successful application by the business owners in those markets.

What quality best describes the MBA classmates you’ve met so far and why? Sincere. I had the opportunity to meet quite a few of my classmates through the Consortium for Graduate Study in Management’s orientation program earlier in the summer. I was struck across the board by their sincerity—in how they related to one another and expressed themselves, in the goals they had for improving society through advocacy, volunteering, founding nonprofits, or being involved with nonprofit boards.

Aside from your classmates, what was the key factor that led you to choose this program for your full-time MBA and why was it so important to you? When it comes to careers in social impact, I don’t think there is a better school than Yale to get the preparation needed to be a leader in that field. It’s a mission genuinely supported by the whole Yale community, which can be seen in everything from classwork to club offerings to yearly fundraising to support students taking on unpaid nonprofit internships. Whether it is learning how to lead a nonprofit or foundation, exposure to careers in impact investing, or social impact consulting, all with the explicit support of current students, faculty and alumni, Yale SOM has all of that and more.

What club or activity are you looking most forward to in business school? I hope to be a part of Yale SOM’s Nonprofit Board Fellows, which provides students, if they are accepted, the opportunity to serve on the board of a New Haven nonprofit. Net Iimpact is also a club I’m looking forward. I also hear the Hockey Club is a very popular choice at Yale SOM.

What led you to pursue an MBA at this point in your career? I have known for the past few years that I wanted to switch careers to pursue more purpose-driven work, but was unsure of the how’s and what’s and where’s. Ultimately, the catalyst for my business school journey was my work with Partners in Food Solutions, and my subsequent realization that I could be doing more through business to support the advancement of women and people of color in emerging economies specifically, but here in United States as well. After seeking advice from mentors and family members, I realized the utility of an MBA in achieving my goals.

How did you decide if an MBA was worth the investment? When I fully realized the worth an MBA network.

What other MBA programs did you apply to? Haas, Darden, Ross, Stanford.

How did you determine your fit at various schools? Any program can make claims that align with your personal metrics for fit; therefore, I strongly encourage a campus visit whenever possible. I knew what I wanted in an MBA program: a small program, commitment to student diversity that wasn’t just all talk, cultural fit, a strong alumni network in my intended career field, a campus experience different from my undergraduate institution, strong school ranking, and so on. Until you get on campus, sit in on classes, and talk to faculty and students, you just won’t know. There were other programs that I was accepted to that checked most of those boxes on paper, but ultimately, you’ll know when you get on campus the answer to the questions, can I flourish here?

What was your defining moment and how did it shape who you are? I became the primary caretaker of my 4-year-old niece approximately five years ago. Prior to that, despite my commitment to providing mentorship to those in need whenever possible, I had never been so completely responsible for another human life. That experience has changed me in ways that I never anticipated. I am more mature, more patient, more empathetic, more understanding of vulnerability, and more open than I believe I would be otherwise. I am also more driven to lead a purposeful life—to achieve more so she doesn’t let anything stand in the way of fulfilling her unlimited potential.

What do you plan to do after you graduate? I would like to do work that makes a positive and sustained difference in the lives of others. Whether it is through working at a foundation, impact investing, founding a nonprofit, or engaging in corporate social responsibility at a large corporation, I plan to work for society.

Where do you see yourself in five years? A leader, doing fulfilling work, surrounded by good people, happy.

Siddharth Rao

Yale School of Management

“Curious explorer—an eye for detail, a heart for humor, a belly full of laughter.”

Hometown: Bengaluru, India

Fun Fact About Yourself: I’ll surprise you with my cooking skills, one way or the other! I like to believe that while working alongside some of the great Master Chefs of ITC Hotels, I picked up some culinary skills. Must try on my menu: shahi paneer and dosa with sambar.

Undergraduate School and Major: IIT Madras, India

Most Recent Employer and Job Title: ITC Limited, Manager New Product Development

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far: At ITC, I established a new product development cell and led the team to develop a pipeline of 30 new products that helped advance ITC’s spices business from a basic commodity supplier to a value-added consumer product player. This was a tough transition for our agribusiness which wasn’t consumer-focused. To encourage consumer-centric innovation, I took my team on culinary tours and consumer home visits to study food culture and cooking techniques across India. I teamed up with the Master Chefs of ITC Hotels to co-create innovative products, resulting in the launch of our business units’ first-ever range of value-added consumer products.

What quality best describes the MBA classmates you’ve met so far and why? One thing common among the classmates I have met is that they are all very warm and cohesive. Even though individuals come from strikingly diverse backgrounds, the SOM community is tightly knit. I think SOM’s small class size and the fact that it is situated in a cozy city play a big role in creating this strong sense of community.

Aside from your classmates, what was the key factor that led you to choose this program for your full-time MBA and why was it so important to you? Primarily, I chose Yale for its unique integrated approach to teaching management. Working at ITC, I realized how organizational challenges are complex and cut across the boundaries of functions, industries, and geographies. For example, while designing a barcode traceability solution to address a food safety concern in ITC’s spices value chain, I unearthed so many intertwined issues in inventory management, cost accounting, and the impact on the farming community, and ended up implementing a much more comprehensive information management solution. I chose Yale SOM because the school truly acknowledges this need for developing a holistic perspective and cultivates it through its unique integrated curriculum.

What club or activity are you looking most forward to in business school? I am most excited about working with the Yale Center for Customer Insights. I am curious to learn about consumer behavior and understand how people make choices. I am keen to take Professor Ravi Dhar’s Discovery Project for the real-world learning experience it offers and learn to convert consumer insights into innovative solutions.

What led you to pursue an MBA at this point in your career? In my seven years of experience, I gained an exposure to various aspects of a business. I experienced business operations from sourcing to manufacturing while managing the supply chain. Later, in product development, I got introduced to R&D and customer-facing activities. I joined ITC as a technical resource and grew to lead teams. During this transformational experience, I realized that to grow further and become a better-equipped leader, I needed to gain a comprehensive business understanding and broaden my worldview. This is when I decided to pursue an MBA to accelerate my career growth.

How did you decide if an MBA was worth the investment? This has been one of the most difficult decisions for me personally. Ultimately, I realized that it’s worth the investment for the value I’ll derive out of an MBA in terms of accelerated growth opportunities and exceptional people I’ll get to meet – not to mention the transformational experiences that will stay with me for a lifetime.

What other MBA programs did you apply to? Kellogg, Wharton and LBS

How did you determine your fit at various schools? Primarily, I researched programs that offered specific experiences that matched my career interests. I got in touch with students and alumni who had taken up those particular activities—be it a career trek, a club leadership role, or an internship, and learned about their experience to make an informed decision.

What was your defining moment and how did it shape who you are? The first time I moved out of New Delhi, the city I grew up in, was my defining moment. All my life, up until the age of 18, I grew up in the same neighborhood, went to the same school, and knew the same bunch of people. When it was time to go to college, I had an option to go to IIT Delhi and stay within my comfort zone. But I decided to leave my bubble and explore the world beyond. Since then, this quest for exploration has taken me to new places, introduced me to people from around the world, and given me the experiences that have shaped me into the person I am.

What do you plan to do after you graduate? Post-MBA, I aim to take up a management consulting role in a leading global consulting firm. As a consultant, I am keen to work across industries and functions, understand how business leaders think, and determine how I can bring about positive change in large organizations.

Where do you see yourself in five years? In my experience, I have seen how consumer focus can help companies gain a competitive advantage. I am inspired to build on to my learnings and help simplify the everyday lives of ordinary people. My career goal is to take up a leadership position in a multinational CPG firm and drive consumer-centric innovation strategies in emerging markets. In the coming decade, the Asian middle class will add more than a billion new people. I am curious to understand these new consumers and innovate to meet their specific needs.

Gus Roman

Yale School of Management (Plus Yale School of Public Health – MBA/MPH Dual Degree)

“Tireless soul, curious about human nature, constantly saying yes to new adventures/building my own.”

Hometown: Randolph, New Jersey (My parents immigrated from Medellín, Colombia, which I’m a bit prouder of)

Fun Fact About Yourself: Can’t remember spending a full week in one bed in 2018—and for the first four months, it was no more than four days a week in the same place. My most memorable recent travel was going to a good friend’s Indian wedding in Bangalore, where we squeezed (literally, in many tuk-tuks) five cities in South India into a two-week period. One of the highlights was hosteling in Goa with the bride and groom, plus 20 close friends with an armada of scooters, and a neighborhood of friendly wild dogs. During my 18-hour commute back, after reading through a few books on a layover in Ahu Dubai, I found and submitted a quote by Elon Musk due as part of my SOM interview, which was less than 72 hours away— it all ended up working out!

Undergraduate School and Major: University of Pennsylvania, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering with a concentration in Pharmaceuticals and Biotechnology.

Most Recent Employer and Job Title: Consultant at Acsel Health, a boutique pharmaceutical consulting firm based in New York.

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far: Partaking in a NYC City Council Campaign as Chief of Staff for a mentor of mine, Pierre Gooding, within the GoodingforHarlem campaign. We assembled a five-person team consisting of my talented friends and former classmates and ran numerous get-out-the vote initiatives including a social media campaign that reached 40K+ community members. We ended up losing to the incumbent, but we will take our learnings into our next campaign in four years!

What quality best describes the MBA classmates you’ve met so far and why? Genuinely curious and active listeners. Everyone I have met here has a genuine interest in what you are passionate about and asks meaningful questions to try to understand your motivations. Even before coming here, many of my future classmates connected me to people with similar passions within the program and beyond. The community felt incredibly welcoming, even before I arrived campus. From the start, the community had a cohesive feel. Yale catalyzes this due to its smaller, tighter-knit class, in which resources and opportunities abound for every single person. I never felt like just a number during the application process.

Aside from your classmates, what was the key factor that led you to choose this program for your full-time MBA and why was it so important to you? I narrowed down my list to top schools with strong healthcare programs, which I initially identified as those with an MBA healthcare major or concentration. Yale took a different approach that I quickly found out about, with a unique two-year accelerated MBA/MPH program. After speaking to Dr. Howard Forman, the director of the program and leader of many healthcare initiatives at Yale, I quickly realized it was the perfect fit for my academic and professional interests, and went above and beyond my original intent of getting a healthcare-focused MBA. During my conversation with Howard, we didn’t waste time with pleasantries; instead, we dove straight into talking about potential opportunities and solutions within healthcare—a discussion that went much deeper than the traditional issues-ridden rant. Howard also constantly tied in his current and former students’ successes, and it was abundantly clear that he devoted significant time and resources to every single one of the students he mentored.  He identified opportunities for me that I didn’t even know existed at the time, and that matched my professional goals. Ultimately, I felt encouraged by Howard and by everyone I met on campus, that the program and the community really do truly care about my passions, and will help me to reach them—just as I hope to do for them.

Another key factor in choosing Yale was its up-and-coming status within top business schools. As a first-generation American who had to continually hustle throughout my life, it resonated with me that Yale is clearly and consistently investing significant resources to build out SOM to be the best it can be. The first sign of this was the striking, still-fresh Evans Hall with its modernistic feel, which provides an appropriate contrast to the larger campus’ neo-Gothic style. Even the accelerated MBA/MPH program I am a part of was just started in 2014! Although it may not have a long history like many other top-tier business schools, at Yale, I feel that there is a unique opportunity to build out new initiatives that have a lasting impact, and I hope to help accelerate Yale’s growth and reputation as an involved student.

Last, I was attracted by Yale’s global focus, as evidenced by its introduction of the Global Network for Advanced Management, and its sponsorship of an International Experience as part of the degree. As someone who loves to travel, and who believes that the best way to gain self-awareness and wisdom is through experiencing new cultures, it is awesome that Yale appreciates and encourages this. Every Yalie I have met has so many stories of all of their adventures throughout the world with their like-minded classmates!

What club or activity are you looking most forward to in business school? There are many strong healthcare initiatives that I am looking forward to partaking in and, I hope, helping to develop and organize.  Specifically, I was happy to be chosen to be the logistic director for Yale’s National Healthcare Services Case Conference this fall—its first ever iteration. I also hope to participate in organizing the Yale Healthcare conference in the spring, which I was able to make it to last year as an incoming student, and at which I met many of my future classmates with similar aspirations.

What led you to pursue an MBA at this point in your career? I truly enjoyed my experiences within pharmaceutical consulting, specifically learning about healthcare policy and gaining insight into the drivers of the key stakeholders within healthcare. However, I did not love knowing that at the end of the day, I was an agent of big pharma. I believed that an MBA would re-accelerate my learning trajectory and satiate my desire to approach healthcare from a different perspective, ideally within an organization that encourages the concept of value within the U.S. healthcare system.

How did you decide if an MBA was worth the investment? Personally, as an engineering undergraduate originally interested in medicine, I did not take any business electives besides a few introductory economics classes. After learning many of these concepts on the job as a consultant, I definitely started appreciating the value of learning business fundamentals within the structured environment of a MBA program.

Furthermore, as a UPenn graduate with friends excelling in many initiatives all over the world, I appreciated the value of a strong network, both in the professional sense and in the ability to always have a couch to crash on when I traveled to almost any city. Thus, I decided that an MBA would be worth the investment, specifically if it was a strong program with a healthcare component that would catalyze my goals and expand my network. Also, I like to say that “Future Gus takes care of Current Gus,” and I hope I’ll have a couch to crash on during my travels to any city!

What other MBA programs did you apply to? Columbia and Wharton.

How did you determine your fit at various schools? The first cut for me was healthcare-based, and I eliminated schools where this was not a focus. Also, I was fortunate to have many friends and friends of friends at top business schools whom I spoke to candidly about campus culture.

After many phone conversations that led to coffee chats that led to in-person visits, I went with a high-touch approach. I visited each of my top schools, sat in on classes, talked to current students about their thoughts on their own and other schools, and spoke to the directors of the healthcare-focused MBA programs. I cared much more about what my peers and mentors said than what the internet semi-arbitrarily defined. Due to the competitive nature of the application process, I did not marry myself to any particular school, but I can enthusiastically attest that I believe it all worked out for the best.

What was your defining moment and how did it shape who you are? A few come to mind, but one particularly jarring moment came when I was volunteering as an EMT during high school. Responding to a call in the middle of the night from a nursing home, we arrived on the scene to find an unresponsive elderly woman in bed. My supervisor did the initial assessment, and quietly told the squad members that the woman had been dead for several hours, despite the fact that we had responded to the call within minutes. It was frustrating for me and my squad mates to know that there was nothing we could have done to change that outcome. From that moment on, healthcare became my calling—a calling also driven by my aptitude for math and sciences.  t that point, this goal manifested itself with the desire to become a doctor. However, an aggregation of other experiences, such as volunteering within healthcare organizations, and talking to practicing doctors who echoed the frustrations of feeling unable to enact change on the front lines, caused this initial aim to evolve. I started to believe that there was greater opportunity to drive impact on an organizational level, which could positively influence the healthcare environment from the top down. I also saw opportunities to aid in the process of restructuring the environment into a more sustainable healthcare model with outcomes that reflect the United States’ top position in technology platforms and pharmaceutical research.

What do you plan to do after you graduate? I would love to work for either a New York City or San Francisco–based venture capital firm with a strong healthcare focus, and an ideology of investing in companies that have a net impact on the healthcare environment by improving quality of care while focusing on improving the system. I believe there is a large opportunity in the U.S., evidenced by our ~18% of GDP spend on healthcare, and the enormous discrepancy between our ranking on spend and middle-of-the-pack ranking in quality of care metrics.

Where do you see yourself in five years? Ideally, it would be running my own digital health startup. I would love to say exactly what I will be focusing on, and I do have some ideas. However, my goal is to monitor the pulse of the ever-evolving healthcare environment and budding new companies and ideas, and to seize upon a yet-to-be identified pioneering idea, as well as to motivate talented Yale and UPenn classmates to join the endeavor.

Anna Schickele

Yale School of Management

“Aspiring to many things (data scientist, fitness model, advice columnist), but mostly, a problem-solver.”

Hometown: Davis, California (most recently living in Santiago, Chile)

Fun Fact About Yourself: My first major purchase was a 12-foot trampoline ($50, age 16)

Undergraduate School and Major: Stanford University, Public Policy

Most Recent Employer and Job Title: Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab, Policy Manager

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far: When I transferred to J-PAL’s office in Santiago, Chile, we were struggling financially after a major grant ended. I defined a new strategy for policy influence in Latin America and secured funding for several projects (EdTech conference in Argentina, remedial education program in Central America) that will help sustain the office for the next few years.

What quality best describes the MBA classmates you’ve met so far and why? They’re all intriguing people with diverse backgrounds! I’m excited to learn from them during my time at Yale.

Aside from your classmates, what was the key factor that led you to choose this program for your full-time MBA and why was it so important to you? I felt that Yale provided more “value add” than other schools I considered. It feels like they are investing in me as much as I’m investing in myself. Since business school is a huge commitment in time as well as money, I felt it was important to choose a school that would devote resources to helping me succeed.

What club or activity are you looking most forward to in business school? I’m looking forward to becoming an active member in the Technology and Fintech clubs.

What led you to pursue an MBA at this point in your career? I studied public policy and then worked at an international development research center, so I wanted to pursue a graduate degree that would expose me to different perspectives and ways of thinking. I expect I’ll feel that I’m out of place or lack the “right” experience during my first year of business school, and that’s exactly what I’m looking for.

How did you decide if an MBA was worth the investment? Coming from a social sector background, the cost of attendance was a big consideration. I was lucky to receive a generous scholarship from Yale, which has made it possible to attend—and keeps open the possibility of working in the social sector or outside of the U.S. when I graduate.

What other MBA programs did you apply to? Stanford GSB, UPenn Wharton, UC Berkeley Haas

How did you determine your fit at various schools? I had trouble making a decision until I visited the two schools I was considering. Everything about the schools’ admitted student weekends—the current and prospective students I met, the aspects of each program they chose to emphasize, and the attitudes towards students from less traditional business backgrounds (like me)—made it clear that Yale was the best fit for me.

What was your defining moment and how did it shape who you are? In 2015, I spent three months in Cape Town, South Africa. I was working on a research project in a Cape Coloured township and shared a flat with a group of badass Afro-feminist women. The experience was transformative, both personally and professionally: It reminded me why I had decided to pursue a career solving problems of poverty and inequality, and more important, it helped me gain confidence in myself and my ability to define my own life path.

What do you plan to do after you graduate? I’m excited about the potential to use data and technology to make the world a better place. After graduating, I’d like to work with mission-driven tech companies.

Where do you see yourself in five years? By then, I hope to have figured out how to spend half the year in California and half the year in Chile, and never experience winter.

Wyatt Wolfram

Yale School of Management

“Curious mind, cultural explorer, music aficionado, and aspiring entrepreneur.”

Hometown: Hillsdale, MI

Fun Fact About Yourself: I’ve been a songwriter and guitarist in several touring bands and am credited on a dozen commercially released albums.

Undergraduate School and Major: Syracuse University, B.S. Economics

Most Recent Employer and Job Title: Downtown Records, Vice President of A&R and Business Development

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far: At Downtown Records I helped navigate the company’s transition from an independent label into a venture with Universal Music Group and subsequently into a partnership with Kobalt Music. The experience of going through a corporate restructuring was extremely challenging, but taught me an enormous amount about operations, financing, team management, and client relations.

What quality best describes the MBA classmates you’ve met so far and why? Authenticity. Through the admissions process, social events, and unofficial networking, I’ve had the pleasure of interacting with many of the students in my incoming MBA class, and each one is authentic in his or her story, self-assessment, and reasons for earning an MBA. At Yale, there’s an overwhelming sense that you’re surrounded by incredibly smart, self-aware individuals, all of whom have an authentic desire to grow their own capacity as leaders and to improve the world around them.

Aside from your classmates, what was the key factor that led you to choose this program for your full-time MBA and why was it so important to you? Yale SOM places enormous value on diversity and taking a multidisciplinary approach to the MBA education. The program emphasizes approaching problems from a wide array of perspectives and viewpoints. This is embodied not only in their unique Integrated Curriculum, but also in the class composition, which draws from a wide range of industries and backgrounds, and not only from the traditional MBA industry pool.

What club or activity are you looking most forward to in business school? I’m looking forward to joining the Technology Club at SOM. I’ve always had an interest in the tech space but have not had the opportunity to immerse myself in that community and spend time with professionals in the field. Plus, my favorite show right now is Silicon Valley.

What led you to pursue an MBA at this point in your career? I had reached a place in my career that was sustainable and fed my immediate appetite for challenge, but I had the overarching feeling that I was capable of doing more and doing it better. The decision was the result of a lot of career and personal self-reflection, and ultimately came down to a desire to do more out in the world.

How did you decide if an MBA was worth the investment? I literally did the math, looking at the expected upside in lifetime earnings and weighing the tuition and opportunity costs. The result was a net positive. But arguably more influential were my conversations with colleagues, mentors, and other professionals who had earned their MBA or worked closely with other MBAs. Every one of them resoundingly advocated for investing in a top MBA education, because it opens doors you don’t even know exist. I’m already finding that to be true.

What other MBA programs did you apply to? Harvard, Berkeley-Haas, Columbia, Wharton

How did you determine your fit at various schools? There is no better way to get a sense of a program’s culture than to have conversations with students and alumni from that program. I used publications like Poets & Quants to learn about programs and target schools, but when it came to dissecting my top choices, nothing could replace the on-campus visits and conversations that I had with alumni and students. Data and ranking information are helpful to guide your program search, but at the end of the day you have to give weight to personal interactions and gauge your gut feeling about where you see yourself.

What was your defining moment and how did it shape who you are? My defining moment (to date) took place a few years after graduating from college. I had been trying to make it as a musician in Nashville, but after two years with limited success, I concluded (admitted) that rock-and-roll stardom was not likely in the cards. It could have been a time of defeat in my life, but I took what I had learned from those experiences and spun it into a job at a major music publisher in New York, thus kicking off a career in the music industry. It was a defining moment that taught me about how and when to pivot, as well as how to leverage experiences from one area and apply them to another.

What do you plan to do after you graduate? I still have an interest in music and entertainment, but I’d like to gain experience at a large, multinational organization working in business strategy and acquisitions. I plan to explore opportunities in the tech space as well as at investment firms that have a focus on media and entertainment.

Where do you see yourself in five years?  In five years, I’ll be living in a hip, coastal city in the U.S. or Europe with my wife, dog, and possibly a few kids! I’ll be running an innovative, global media company, driving the next generation of entertainment, technology, and communications. I’ll also have the time to take on leadership roles in my community, visit family, travel, get my pilot’s license, and maybe even put the band back together.

The Meet the Class of 2020 Series

London Business School

University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School

Yale School of Mnnagement

University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business

UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School

New York University’s Stern School of Business

Emory’s Goizueta School of Business

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