Most of my colleagues have an MBA, so I think having this business background opens up career options for me down the road. It's a good base. I work for a big corporation, Boston Scientific. My social media role is part of the marketing communications function and I work very closely with the marketing team. I wanted to do this program while continuing my job.
I've learned so many things I’ve already been able to apply my job. I didn't have to wait and get my degree to actually use the learnings.
I'm an Indian woman focused on women's social equity. Being a proud person of color, I appreciate the social justice piece at St. Kate’s and it being such a woman-centric campus. These things are important to me.
People in my program are phenomenal. Group work is a big part of our classes and it’s very real-world. You work with people with different skill sets and different backgrounds and styles. Finance is not my forte, but if I have someone from, say, Wells Fargo in my group, that person can teach me a lot of things.
The sheer amount of social support surprised me. There are a lot of resources available to help young women, from financial assistance to food scarcity. I don't think I was fully aware of how invested St. Kate’s is in the community. I value an institution that's giving back. I could see my tuition is not only helping my career, but where funds are going. That's been something to be proud of. It doesn't feel like it's just a corporate program when everyone's invested.
The leadership skills I learned were super helpful. We focus a lot on diversity, because that’s such an important topic in our community. As a hiring manager, it’s important to ask, ‘Am I finding talent representative of our patients or customers?’
I've been in a Fortune 500 environment a long time. There are people in my program who quit their jobs to start a business, so I'm coming to terms with realizing a career path doesn't have to be linear. It can be a lot of different things. What else could I be doing? I learned something new, now let's see if I can apply these skills. I've historically been risk adverse. I know what my strengths are and I stick to them. But hearing from people who are doing cool things has urged me to think it's okay if I fail at something. To be okay with uncertainty a little bit.
I'm confident if I ever need any support, I can call on my professors. They aren’t just smart, academic people, they care about pop culture and want to make education personable.
Because of Covid, I’ve learned nothing is set in stone and adapting is important. I think having the letters MBA after my name is going to help down the road. If I was to get a new job tomorrow, this has already built up my confidence.
People in this program are very supportive and lift each other up. We all come from different parts of life. Here, it’s less competitive with one another and more about competing with ourselves to improve who we were when we came in. I’m so happy I chose this program.