Scheller MBA students with a background in education bring unique perspectives and skills to the classroom, and eventually, the wider business landscape. After graduation, they pair a creative outlook with finely tuned business skills to navigate the interconnected spaces between industries.
Since I was little, I have always been interested in architecture and the built environment, specifically how different spaces look depending on where a person is. I loved math and studied mathematics as an undergrad. After college, I became a mathematics teacher at Concord Academy and a tutor in the academic support center and on the community and equity team.
While teaching, I realized I was doing planning work by making Concord Academy a more inclusive space for students of color and being the only teacher of color in the math department. This realization led me to pilot a new course at Concord Academy that I created with another teacher in the history department on “Understanding Your Home by Mapping Data.” It was amazing to see what students produced, and I felt like I wanted to make a bigger impact in the world. I was unsure what that career looked like, but I was ready to learn more about city and regional planning.
I returned to school to earn my master’s in city and regional planning. A few months into the program, I noticed cities are run by businesses, which led me to add the MBA as I felt it complemented my degree well.
I was recruited to Georgia Tech’s Focus program for City and Regional Planning. I visited during Martin Luther King Jr. weekend and met professors and students in the department. I was deciding between MIT and Georgia Tech, and after that weekend, I knew Georgia Tech was the right place for me. Due to COVID, I deferred for a year, and the program office gave me a graduate research assistance (GRA) program that covered most of my tuition and provided me with a stipend.
While in the City and Regional program, I was in the national ULI Hines Student Competition. I met a Scheller MBA student, and I admired her skills. She put me in contact with other Scheller students to encourage me to apply.
So many! I did not know in the beginning, but I realized how teaching has served me at Scheller and beyond. Since I taught statistics and trigonometry and tutored across all math subjects and executive functioning, I quickly learned many of the core courses because they require fundamental math skills. I also worked with different types of learners, so I can adapt how I communicate and work with others. Communicating and working with others is an essential skill to have in an MBA program because there is a lot of group work.
Teaching taught me how to be an effective, quick learner (all that lesson planning) and adapt in the moment (something you have to do in the classroom all the time). I developed great time management skills from working with so many students in executive functioning. I also learned how to be a great active listener and a better leader for students. While earning an MBA, these skills served me well. You learn a lot in a short period, especially as a dual degree student, because managing time and being an effective learner are essential.
When applying to the program, I was nervous. One, I was already at Georgia Tech, so I knew adding another degree would make my time there more challenging. I also did not know much about an MBA other than when I met a student in my competition.
I felt like an impostor at Georgia Tech because it was not as diverse as I thought it would be. I left Boston because I wanted to be in a more diverse Black city, and when I arrived at school, I saw little of that. I overcame the self-doubt after talking to some of my close friends who believed in me and two of my City and Regional Planning professors who supported me throughout the process.
The biggest adjustment was not working with students and having someone teach me instead of me teaching them. I also realized you do not know something unless you teach it to others.
Be confident in what you bring to the table, as the skills you get from teaching will serve you well in an MBA program. I would even argue it gives you an advantage because you understand what it means to be on the side of all the professors you interact with everyday.
Do more research on the available roles and jobs you can get from an MBA. Recruitment for summer internships happens right away, and time is limited and goes quickly because of how busy your first semester is. Summer internships shape a lot of the opportunities you can get after graduation. Do not pigeonhole yourself to the default—consulting. I ended up in a rotational leadership development program in banking and I love it!