What principles have defined your life and pre-MBA career? How do you believe that UCLA Anderson's principles, and the environment they create, will help you attain your post-MBA career goals?

Several principles have helped shape who I am today: Take Initiative. Communicate Effectively. Make a Positive Impact. I learned the importance of initiative as a captain of my nationally ranked lacrosse team, constantly working on my own to improve my skill. I led my team by example and suggested ways to improve our play altogether. Throughout my career I have also taken action in a variety of ways - most recently at work, where I recognized that our fast-growing company could better utilize our agency partners and their client budgets. I initiated a company-wide strategy to tackle this issue head on; I determined where we could add value, and met with each partner to discuss our findings. As a result, we secured additional revenues and are tracking at a 15% increase versus the prior year. Communicating effectively has also defined my life. At age eight following a family tragedy, my cousins moved into my home, doubling our four-member household to eight overnight. While it was difficult, communicating and employing empathy were necessary parts of navigating this difficult change and creating a new normal. This concept has been important throughout my career as well, where in order to sell or deliver a program, I need to listen to those across the table from me, put myself in their shoes, and tell them clearly how I can help them reach their business objectives. Lastly, I truly believe in making a positive impact and helping those less fortunate than me. One of my most rewarding experiences was a trip to New Jersey after Hurricane Sandy, where I worked alongside AmeriCorps to remove debris, and volunteered for Habitat for Humanity to help rebuild the city. I continue to make an impact today through volunteer work with Chicago Cares and Achilles International. Just as these principles have helped define my life, after visiting Anderson last May and experiencing its principles firsthand, I believe Anderson’s principles will similarly help define my success en route to achieving my long-term goal of leading a sports/entertainment marketing firm, such as IMG. There I will guide Fortune 500 companies on a sports/entertainment marketing strategy. In order to make that transition, I hope to take my knowledge of sales and implementing marketing and public relations programs and, at Anderson, move to the strategy side of the business. Through my research I have learned that many leaders in this industry begin their careers at consumer product companies with a stake in the ~$500 billion global sports/entertainment business. Often, they transition into the field using their brand management knowledge, applying marketing principles to a broad range of clients. For this reason, an MBA, combined with a post-MBA brand management position with a company such as Nike or Mattel, is the best way to proceed. I will learn to solve the marketing and business challenges faced by an entertainment industry stakeholder, and will learn about consumer product companies while honing my leadership skills. While visiting Anderson, I sat through Professor Derek Alderton’s Entertainment Strategy course. This experience demonstrated students “thinking fearlessly,” as each student participated in a safe environment, which fostered big thinking. This course, along with others, such as Brand Management and Consumer Behavior, helped me determine that the Marketing track, with specializations in Brand Management and Entertainment, would be an ideal platform to teach me analytic tools to guide branding decisions, while also helping me understand the media landscape as it pertains to the future of marketing. Tom Brady (’06), a Senior Director of Marketing with Paragon, told me how the Parker Career Management Center collaborated with him to find the perfect job, and how the process was truly about “shared success.” I also spoke with Jennie Dodd (’15), who told me her internships with Wasserman Media Group and Johnson & Johnson resulted from her involvement in the Marketing Association and Sports Business Association, both of which include members seeking to drive change in my industries of interest. As one of my main principles is to take initiative, I envision myself as a future leader in each of these clubs. Everyone I encountered on my visit and numerous interactions gave me a positive feeling about Anderson’s culture. Its principles were clearly displayed when I stepped on campus, and I am confident it will provide the environment to help me reach my lofty post-MBA goals. For all these reasons, I can confidently say the Anderson MBA program is the ideal school for me.