How do you believe your personal and professional experiences will enrich the Kellogg community?

At Kellogg, our values are based on research that concludes organizations comprised of leaders with varied backgrounds and perspectives outperform homogeneous ones. How do you believe your personal and professional experiences to date will help to enrich the Kellogg community? (450 words)

I am proactive about the activities that matter most to me: constant exploration, physical wellbeing, and most of all, having an impact. This focus has driven my personal and professional life, and will define my contributions to the Kellogg community.

My work at WidgetsRUs built skills – driving insights from data, communicating effectively, engaging stakeholders – to create impact and positive change for corporate and pro bono clients alike. Going forward, I want to use these skills and my passion for social impact to address systemic issues in higher education. At Kellogg, I’ll shape my knowledge of the business dynamics of the education field in classes such as ‘The Education Industry’ and ‘Public Economics,’ while bringing my unique perspective into classes such as ‘Business Strategy.’ Just as the education world can learn from a business mindset – from operational efficiencies to managing financial risk – the business world around me at Kellogg can benefit from education viewpoints, such as how innovation can shape the future and what it means to lead in an environment constrained by politics, budget and diverse stakeholders.

Impact to me also means being a personal connector. I’ve kept college friends together, combined social circles of my Miami and WidgetsRUs peers, and mediated between my religious parents and my brother, who came out as trans last year. At Kellogg, I’ll strive to learn what matters most to my KWEST peers, finding commonalities among classmates to help build relationships on campus and beyond. Second year, I’ll lead a trip, helping new students do the same. I’ll connect peers from different groups through Evanston dinner parties, exploring the unique backgrounds each of us brings. I’ll facilitate mentorship opportunities with Northwestern Women in Business students as a Women’s Business Association leader, sharing early career experiences as a female in an often male-dominated field, while gaining wisdom from their different perspectives.

As a rule, I jump in, fully engage, and make an impact in the community around me. In college, I led Miami Dive, an organization combining my love for swimming with supporting immigrant kids, and helped them serve more families by launching cost-free activities. At Kellogg, I plan to serve as a Board Fellow – something several students told me was their most memorable Kellogg experience. I want to support a nonprofit such as ‘Chicago Reads’ or ‘Mentors4Change,’ collaborating with fellow members of the Kellogg Education Club to expand partnerships beyond Chicago. In this way, I hope to help set Kellogg students up for impact across the nation and globe.

As I leave Kellogg, I hope to have left an impact on the students and the Chicagoland community, while inspiring others to see the power of business to impact the communities they serve.