Imagine yourself at your Kellogg graduation. What career will you be preparing to enter, and how have the MBA and Kellogg helped you get there?
Imagine yourself at your Kellogg graduation. What career will you be preparing to enter, and how have the MBA and Kellogg helped you get there? (Please answer in terms of your program choice: One-Year, Two-Year, MMM, JD-MBA)
Standing here at graduation peering out over the sea of purple, I am overwhelmed by nostalgia but also exhilaration! Inspired by my experience in healthcare finance where I witnessed many promising medical solutions never commercialized due to prioritization of more profitable projects, I came to Kellogg with a vision: my ultimate goal was to launch an operational NGO sponsoring the commercialization of promising yet overlooked healthcare innovations. I am excited to share that I am well on my way now, as next month I will be joining Bain & Company as a Consultant in the healthcare group! This next career chapter will expand my industry experience, knowledge, and network necessary to eventually achieve my ultimate goal.
Reflecting back, my two-year Kellogg experience has been the ultimate intellectual and social KWEST. Combined with resources from the Center of Biotechnology Management, the Healthcare Enterprise Management major – with its global and experiential focus – was unparalleled in helping me build specialized knowledge for entering healthcare consulting and one day launching my NGO. Leading a Global Initiatives in Management trip to China with Professor Mark Finn to explore emerging markets was an irreplaceable experience in understanding the socio-economic, cultural, and political forces that shape international healthcare development. Moreover, experiential labs, such as Medical Innovations I & II, continued to transform our new critical insights on innovation investment and social value creation into action. Blending these opportunities provided the perfect playground on which my peers and I converged our ideas and I was able to debate, test, and refine my NGO plan.
Outside the classroom, co-chairing the active Healthcare Club was a vital exercise in sharing knowledge and connecting leaders to achieve a shared vision. Leveraging my relationships with Fortune 50 healthcare executives to organize speaker panels for the annual Business of Healthcare Conference, I was able to share my industry experience and connections with peers to provide key perspectives on current healthcare challenges. Moreover, by initiating the club’s new quarterly preceptorship program (where classmates and I shadowed healthcare professionals), I helped facilitate first-hand understanding of patient and consumer needs so we can translate academic frameworks into fresh real-world ideas and plans.
Like the keystone puzzle piece completing a work of art, Kellogg’s truly collaborative atmosphere couldn’t have been a better fit for my personal development! Classroom academics guided me to think critically, but peers equally strengthened my leadership skills by pushing me out of my comfort zone and enlightening me on different leadership styles through example. Through surviving an Amazing Race KWEST I learned the art of motivating profoundly. Teaming to mentor first-year students showed me the power of giving back jointly. Most importantly, the entire Kellogg journey was a life lesson in leading humbly.
It truly took a village to stand here at graduation together as Kellogg alums! I came to Evanston with a vision and left with a second family of professors, fellow club chairs, KWEST-mates, and friends who have all contributed to who I am today and, more importantly, who I will be tomorrow.