When I accessed the Booth admitted student website for the first time, I read “Prepare to be transformed.” I thought, “What an overstatement.” I was so wrong.
LEAD was the first step in transforming my leadership skills; I gained a great deal of self-awareness and a toolkit to have top of mind. I had many leadership opportunities as a co-chair of the Triathlon Club and of OUTreach, our LGBT student and allies group. I couldn’t be more proud of the fact that Booth became the most represented school at this year’s ROMBA, the national conference for LGBT MBAs. Moreover, I’m stretching myself with improvisation classes at Second City, where Tina Fey and Stephen Colbert started their paths. This is just an example of how Chicago not only allows us to access culture, restaurants, and clubs but also provides unparalleled opportunities for students to become better business leaders.
I went to a rigorous college and loved my career in marketing. Booth challenged all of this. In my favorite class so far, The Firm and the Non-Market Environment, I became fascinated with the complexity and reach of the pharma industry. I now have the opportunity to dive deeper by taking classes such as the Healthcare Analytics Lab and by engaging at the Booth Healthcare conference. Additionally, I just took a great class this past fall at the Law School on US Healthcare Law and Policy; imagine discussing the Affordable Care Act in the classrooms where Obama taught for more than 12 years. The flexible curriculum enables me to combine this depth with a breath of advanced business tools that I didn’t even know I could enjoy – as a marketer at heart, I never thought I could end up with an accounting concentration!
All in all, I’m still surprised every day of how much you can grow in such a short timespan. It’s not only the amazing classmates that push you every day, the ability to personalize a rigorous curriculum to stretch yourself, or even the amazing (first) city we live in – it’s the great combination of all of these and a whole lot more that truly does transform you.
.
