Guest blog by Selena Lopez
The Forté Foundation is a non-profit dedicated to advancing women in business through professional development, career support, and community. Every year, Forté hosts the MBA Women’s Leadership Conference to bring together 600+ women from 62 partner schools in the summer before they start their MBA programs. This two-day conference facilitates interactive workshops and panels, a career expo featuring 40+ companies, and the opportunity for networking across several business schools. In 2024, the conference was hosted in Chicago and welcomed 23 of our incoming students from Chicago Booth.
We interviewed Allie Bellack, Bridgette Grobe, Diana Solares, Erin Milone, Selena Lopez, and Summer Wang, about their experience at the Forté Women’s Leadership Conference.
What were your key takeaways from the Forté MBA conference?
Bridgette Grobe: I learned some key pieces of wisdom that I’ll take with me into my MBA and career, such as:
(1) If the answer right now is no, then ask “what will it take to get to a yes.”
(2) It is important to build a career off your strengths. This may sound like a no-brainer, but I sometimes find myself wanting to improve my weaknesses more than my strengths or not wanting to accept what my strengths are. I don’t think I’m alone in feeling that way and I think this is a good reminder that you will be more engaged and bring more value to whatever you decide to do with your life if you understand your strengths and lean into them.
Selena Lopez: The importance of relationship-building was a recurring theme throughout the event, underscored by the very existence of the conference—a space created for women to empower each other and connect. My biggest takeaway was to own your individuality and stay focused on your goals, despite any distractions that may come during the business school journey.
Summer Wang: One message that resonated deeply with me was this: never underestimate yourself or shy away from opportunities you think you can’t achieve. As someone transitioning from an art and design background to starting my MBA at Booth, I grew more excited about the journey ahead and the lifelong friendships I will make.
What motivated you to attend?
Erin Milone: I have been engaging with the Forté community since early 2023, when I first started the MBALaunch program. Since then, I’ve found myself connected to so many driven women in unique careers. The conference brought all of this together — as several keynote speakers pointed out, it’s not every day you get to be in an all-women room focused on both celebrating our accomplishments and preparing for what’s next.
What was your favorite moment?
Selena Lopez: My favorite moment was when we caught Angela Guido, a Booth alumnus and founder of Career Protocol, for a group photo. Many of us at the event had leveraged her content to apply to business school, so it felt serendipitous to meet her let alone take a photo together. Beyond that, my favorite part of the conference was meeting recruiters at the career expo and having coffee chats with representatives from different firms!
Did the event meet your expectations? How?
Bridgette Grobe: This event far exceeded my expectations. I was honestly hoping to make at least one friend and I ended up meeting over 20 future Boothies. The current second-year Boothies (namely Ritu Sreenivasan…thank you, Ritu!) brought us Booth t-shirts so we could all match on the second day of the conference. It was fun to spot a Booth shirt in the large sea of conference attendees. Each Boothie I met was so talented yet so humble and fun to engage with. It made me extra excited to start my MBA this fall.
Selena Lopez: I was thrilled to meet so many Boothies at the event, all from diverse industry backgrounds and geographies. Every evening after the conference, we’d gather for dinner to get to know each other better. I was genuinely inspired and impressed by the intelligence and ambition of my classmates! Even after the event, our group of Boothies continues to stay connected through a group chat. This sense of community really took my experience to the next level.
Would you recommend the event to other future Boothies? Why?
Alley Bellack: I thought it was a valuable experience both to befriend my future classmates and to get early exposure to the vast number of career opportunities that are available to MBA students. Coming from a software engineering background widened my conception of the types of companies and roles I could pursue.
Bridgette Grobe: YES! I’d highly recommend this event as I now have a group of over 20 friends to start classes with this fall. Very similar to the Random Walk group of friends we will have when starting orientation, I now also have a group of Forté MBA Leadership Conference friends to start orientation with. In addition to connecting with Boothies, I had some amazing conversations with people attending other MBA programs. We are all in the same boat and it was fun to meet people who are at the same point in life. Lastly, I thought it was great to attend the different speaker events the conference hosted.
Selena Lopez: Absolutely! Beyond meeting future classmates, the conference gives you a headstart with recruiting through its career expo. Here, you’ll get the chance to meet recruiters from a wide range of industries. On top of that, you get to hear from successful leaders on how to make the most out of your MBA!
Please share any additional comments, thoughts?
Erin Milone: I would advise future attendees to find a balance between preparation and authenticity for this conference! I made sure to set my intentions for the experience ahead of time, but also wanted to make sure I had ample time for organic connections. In other words, I dropped some of my type-A planner tendencies. I went into it with a ton of curiosity about various career paths and learned a lot from the recruiters and MBAs that spoke during various panels and workshops.
Selena Lopez: Register early to secure your spot at the conference and to add your resume to the Forté resume book. This resume book is shared with attending firms, potentially leading to exclusive networking invitations and interview opportunities. Also, to reduce the expense of attending the conference, I recommend sharing a hotel with another Boothie.
