Why is an MBA a critical next step toward your short- and long-term career goals? Also, why is Tuck the best MBA fit for you and your goals and why are you the best fit for Tuck?

As outlined in my career goals essay, my long-term goal is to become the CMO of a large hospitality company. To reach this goal, I need to earn my MBA which will help facilitate my initial transition to become an associate brand manager with a hospitality company, such as Virgin American or Kimpton Hotels. Tuck is the best school for me to hone my current skills and learn additional methods of success in the field of marketing. As I have only worked on the sales side, I need to learn how to successfully position a brand for success and develop a broader understanding my consumer base. Courses such as Strategic Brand Management and Consumer Behavior will aid me in developing these skills. Additionally, I’m excited to learn from Professor Kevin Lane Keller and Donald Lehmann who are experts on brand management and valuation of marketing assets, respectively. On an international scale, courses and practical skill learning with Global Marketing, the First Year Project and Onsite Global Consulting will teach me the components of an effective leader and manager, and give me the hands on experience necessary to assist my future company in making a global difference.

Beyond the Tuck curriculum, playing a major role in the Tuck African Ancestry Business Association’s diversity conference will improve my ability to collaborate with people from unique backgrounds. This will work to my advantage as a key strength in brand management is working with cross-functional teams across many differing backgrounds and levels. Additionally, I’d like to work with the Women in Business conference and bring in powerful women leaders from across the country to speak about their experiences. Through taking on a leadership role in the conference I will learn how to lead a team to accomplish a major event and it will help me practice promoting a product/service - both of which are essential to my future success in brand management. All of these reasons, combined with a desire to thrive in a close-knit community and Tuck’s strong alumni base, make Tuck the best place to start and continue building my career.

The case method technique utilized at Tuck draws on similar methods I experienced in law school. I have no doubt that my legal background will provide a rare point of view not normally seen in business schools. As a lawyer, I have been taught to take a more analytical approach to situations and think of unique ways to reach a desired outcome. Problems are seldom black and white, with an easy solution immediately presenting itself. Instead, most decisions will require creativity, an understanding of how that decision will be viewed by others, and the foresight to predict the decision’s outcome. Through my legal education and my work with pro-bono cases after law school, I have sufficiently developed these skills and am ready to apply it to the business sector. Moreover, the collaborative culture of Tuck is very similar to the environment of Emory Law, a situation in which I thrived. I know it will be easy for me to immediately jump into the program and make a lasting difference on Tuck.