Chicago Booth immerses you in a choice-rich environment. How have your interests, leadership experiences, and other passions influenced the choices in your life?
I am generally dissatisfied, and I have been for the majority of my life. At a young age, my grandfather, a single father of three daughters — and a first-generation immigrant to the U.S. — instilled in me the value of challenging the limits of perception. During my childhood visits to my grandfather’s home in New Mexico, we often perused the stalls of a local market for that evening’s dinner ingredients, and my grandfather would press me to haggle with vendors for a lower price. As a young girl, speaking in broken Spanish, I certainly did not always succeed, but my grandfather displayed a satisfied look on his face regardless of the outcome. As I matured, I understood he had been pushing me to test the perception of my naivety, while also readying me to challenge forthcoming apparent limitations. As I have developed both personally and professionally, my grandfather’s preparation has continued to drive my choices.
Personally, I am dissatisfied with limiting my perspective to that of my own culture. In a first attempt to address this after my first year in college, I chose to complete a summer study-abroad program in Spain, during which I lived with a local woman, Selena. This intimate experience showed me that Selena’s daily joys and concerns made us more alike than different and developed my affinity for experiencing culture through food. I also realized immersing myself in foreign cultures and challenging the limits of my own perception energizes me. I am excited to further engage this passion at Booth through leading a Random Walk and leveraging my love of culture to enhance the experience for first-year students.
Professionally, I am dissatisfied with accepting there are limits to my potential impact, particularly those stemming from being a woman in financial services. As an undergraduate at [College], I was surrounded predominantly by men in my finance classes. I was also reminded frequently that securing my dream job in investment banking would be made even more difficult coming from a “non-target” school. Faced with two potentially hindering factors, I decided to set out on my first professional endeavor to address my dissatisfaction, and secured an analyst position at [Company].
Despite this personal success, I continued to be dissatisfied with the opportunity for [College] students on an ongoing basis. Therefore, post-graduation I have chosen to work actively with [College]’s Career Services department to coordinate biannual trips for students to visit financial institutions in New York and connect with alumni. In recognition of my contribution to the program, I was recently honored as the alumni speaker at the annual celebratory dinner for graduating seniors in the undergraduate business school.
As I entered my second year as an analyst, I was dissatisfied to learn many of my female peers were exiting the firm due to lack of internal mentors and career support resources, so I applied to be a member of the firm’s inaugural women’s initiative committee. In monthly meetings I highlighted topics that made sustaining a career in financial services difficult for women. The reports from these sessions were compiled for C-suite management review, and changes did phase in marginally. With Booth’s flexible curriculum, I will continue to prioritize impact and apply to the PE/VC Lab during my first semester. The course will provide me with the opportunity to intern at a Chicago-based PE fund during the semester and apply my classroom learnings “in the field.”
Ultimately dissatisfied with the transactional nature of my investment banking role and the lack of opportunity for profound impact on clients and other constituents, I chose to transition to an investment associate role at [Company]. [Company] is a middle-market, operationally focused private equity fund where I have already been making a difference working directly with the CEO and CFO of a portfolio company to implement operational improvement programs.