Admissionado_50 MBA Essays That Worked(1)

50 M BA E SSAYS THAT WOR K E D by

ADMISSIONADO

Admissionado Guide

Hello there! Welcome to Admissionado’s 50 MBA ESSAYS THAT WORKED - Volume One. So you’re applying to graduate school and, my my, you’ve chosen some of the most selective, elite and hard-hitting top programs in the world. You feel you can shine at these prestigious institutions and now (you can’t believe it) you’re actually applying. Whoa. Perhaps it’s a career change that has set you on this path. You’ve been climbing the ranks as a specialist at a premier financial institution for the better part of a decade, directing millions of ducats where they belong, but you can’t put your dream on hold for another second. You’re ready to go full-time with your blooming side business, to take your innovative web designs and start that IT firm you know you can rock in your sleep… if only you knew about day-to-day operations management. Perhaps you’ve taken over your grandfather’s hotel chain and opened three new luxury locations in the last five years across your native country. As the growing company’s “heir,” you want to harness all your new authority to expand into new business areas with different concepts, using your resources to make the right choices… but you find you lack the know-how to maximize your margins and reposition for the future. You aren’t quite sure how much further you can take it without applying the fundamentals of modern business. Or perhaps as the rising star analyst at one of the world’s premier biometric labs, you just executed the merger of a lifetime, leading the charge with work ethic, techno-savvy, and sheer will. You’ve gotten the attention of the CEO who wants to make you the go-to mind for all major tech decisions. But first, they need for to you become a well-rounded executive, which means getting that business-based education you always dreamed of. Well, here’s what we say: good for you! And at Admissionado we believe in the power of the written word to help you get there. Or, as we like to call them, a set of “precision essays.” After all, just about every business school in the world, from Harvard to INSEAD to LBS, will require you to dust off your quill and ink to pen together a coherent, interesting and convincing argument for your candidacy. You’ll be asked for statements of purpose, career assessments and goals, personal narratives, and most importantly, clear examples of your leadership skills in action. Gulp.

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Can you convince the admissions committee that you are one of the CEOs of tomorrow? Will you impact the world with your leadership and leave it a better place? Have you confronted failure and disappointment? Have you the ambition to make your vision a reality, and are you organized and disciplined enough to see it through? What have you done so far that should make anyone believe you can even pull it off? Are you prepared to “show me the money!?” Indeed, the time has come to put the answers to these questions and more on paper. And that’s where Admissionado comes in. You’ve taken the tests, gotten your scores, and picked your schools. Assuming you are sharing similar credentials as the thousands of other applicants, how do you set yourself apart? Whatever your particular reasoning is for getting an MBA, it’s crucial that you play your cards as expertly as possible by presenting essays that make a compelling case in an unforgettable way. After all, you may not be the only stock market genius hoping to jump start an equity career. Does all this seem daunting, if not impossible? Maybe the thought of writing anything about yourself sends you into a cold sweat. Trust us, with a little patience and good old-fashioned effort you, too, can be one of the thousands heading off to a top-ten MBA program next year after impressing an admissions committee with your story. To prove it, we’ve put together this collection of real essays from applicants who, once the dust settled, had their pick of top schools. As you’ll see, they all have different careers and experiences. Some of these inspiring folks were applying to U.S. schools from as far away as Seoul, Istanbul, or Rio De Janeiro. In other cases, they were moving in the opposite direction, wanting to leave American shores for Europe and beyond. Nevertheless, after working with Admissionado, all were able to produce these grade-A works even though, in several cases, English was their third or fourth language in life. We helped these young go-getters take the raw material of what they had and compress and polish it into a diamond. We worked with the client to create an individual representation that cannot be copied or faked. These were their stories, their ideas, and ultimately their accomplishments. We poked and prodded them, strategized with them, and asked all manner of thought-provoking questions. We gave them the tools to improve the clarity and effectiveness of their writing. Together, we present you with the following essays to read, essays that ultimately unlocked the schools of each author’s dreams.

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You’ll find these essays are models of economy and clarity. They are free of linguistic clutter, eschewing chunks of adjectival clauses for precise ideas. They are trying to connect with the reader, not bog them down with lists. They all feature an ease in readability, a wide range of unique voicing and styles, and at times, even singular senses of humor. Their authors were able to take a step back and demonstrate the ability to see the big picture; they aimed high and strove to feature themselves shining brightly from the center of an impressive past and ambitious future. They were leaders of people and said so. Sure, there were mountains of revenue, but monetary results were not the only thing they wrote about. They righted the ships of sinking companies, spoke their minds to persuade bosses, and sometimes even saved lives. Their visions were bold, and the personal detail included is frequently courageous and, if nothing else, refreshingly honest. And often, less was more: while detail and context were certainly necessary, each essayist more or less hits the expected word count by sticking to what’s important. Through it all, Admissionado was there, providing feedback and guidance. In the end, we all discovered something about ourselves, and in the process rendered essays that are interesting, compelling and fun. (And they worked!) We hope you enjoy this volume as much as we enjoyed putting it together. Let’s take a look at what some of tomorrow’s leaders wrote. Are you next?

{Please Note: In order to preserve the anonymity of these gracious volunteers, we have redacted/modified occasional identifying information such as names, locations, companies, etc. We urge you to look past any instances that may seem out-of-step; and instead pull back to see what we (as well as the Adcom) see. Also, essay prompts change year to year; you may notice these variations as well.}

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PART

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L eadership A nd A ccomplishments

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In Part One, we take a look at what they did, how they did it, and how they told it. At work or at play, at home or abroad, they got their hands dirty, they rolled up their sleeves and made something happen. They fixed something broken. They created something never before seen. They followed a dream, plugged a hole, or saved a life. They brought in truck loads of dough. How did they lead that special something? What did they actually DO… ya know, literally? With their hands and their minds and their time, what actions were taken? If it was a personal achievement, what did it entail in terms of effort? What tasks were required? What did it lead to? The essays tend to maintain a strict focus on one topic in defined time and space. Location is clear, duties are specific, schedules are clear and compelling results are plentiful. They also took the time to set up the “problem.” Or in other words, what was going wrong before they stepped in. It is clear their worlds would have ended up in worse condition had they not stepped up to the plate. And more often than not, they strove to start the essays off with a bang. MBA programs are looking for the leaders of tomorrow, which means leading people… not projects, not products, but leading PEOPLE to great things.

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Please describe a time when you took responsibility for achieving an objective. ‘$310 going once, $310 twice, $310 deal! Ma’am, this brand new Vita-Mix Juicer is yours!’ The crowd burst into applause. It was a charity auction held in May 2008 in a shopping mall square of Wagon Wheel, a Nasdaq-listed conglomerate which owns 20 shopping malls in Texas. I was delighted as well, since as the co-organizer, I knew this $310 meant two more families could reserve shelters: the homeless who survived the 2008 Oklahoma Tornado, producing the nation’s most devastating tornado damage in recorded history. Two weeks before, ABC reported that storm refugees lacked temporary shelters in the coming months, and that $2.76 million was needed to temporarily house victims. This news came out like a bomb, since we easily calculated that each family’s spot would cost about $150. After responding to several emergency alert requests, and collaborating with representatives of FEMA and the Red Cross, I had signed up to deliver some form of shelter to 50 families. But how to raise $10,400? Eager to help, I had leapt before I had looked. First, I contributed a percentage of my online business’ sales revenue in May. I motivated my salespeople to close more orders by highlighting the mission, hoping to inspire customers at the same time. However, since our monthly revenue was only $83,000 at that time, I was still short of the target. I recalled charity auctions I had organized when I was a member of League of Action at university. We collected pens, souvenirs, and even bicycles from donors and attracted students to the auctions. Then what to collect this time? Six years’ work experiences in electronics industry provided me an idea immediately: why not solicit my customers to donate their surplus products, usually dead stock in their warehouse? Then I could hand these products to Armorside, where my cousin Rennata was a regional manager in charge of four malls. I called Rennata and excitedly told her my idea. ‘Let’s do it!’ she exclaimed. In the following two weeks, my salesmen and I called all our customers and successfully got 80+ electronic products such as wireless telephones, blenders, baby monitors, MP4s, etc. Then I helped Armorside work out a

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plan to attract people to attend the auction: every attendant would have a chance to draw lottery to win an electronic gadget. Moreover, I invited a community arts group to perform in the auction. I also asked my father, who can amazingly play five different music instruments including flute and harmonica, to perform. The event was so successful that we had auctioned every item and raised $10,400. Meanwhile, my salesmen worked hard to promote May revenues, which rose by 8% from April to $90,000+. In the end, I raised $13,000+, much more than expected, and helped shelter an entire small town together. This experience showed me how to achieve an objective by breaking it down to specific parts, methodically. Moreover, it revealed to me the power of a great idea in the service of others – ultimately, the best ideas bring people together with seemingly unrelated resources to find solutions that matter.

Tell us about your most significant accomplishment. “One day I’ll own a company bigger than Nike,” I assured my mother when I was eleven years old. While I haven’t started that company just yet, establishing the Paid Search Marketing division of Dellfix from the ground up felt very close to the same thing. I needed to accept a pay-cut and leave my stable job in order to join the 25-person internet marketing startup. I also needed to train myself, singlehandedly manage clients’ marketing campaigns, and meet certain predefined targets within six months, or the company would buckle and I’d need to find another job. Simple choice: I took the leap. I devoured online tutorials and learned to create and manage marketing campaigns on search engines and websites for online businesses. It was a crash course in on-the-job training and I quickly combated a steep learning curve. As I shed my training wheels and settled in, I wondered how far I could take this division... I engineered a well-oiled scalable process for managing campaigns. My designed training structure was effective at quickly transforming a lay person into an efficient campaign manager. My domain knowledge grew as I attended conferences and delivered lectures at colleges on search-marketing. Managing 120+ campaigns in 17 sectors, my confidence grew, which

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paid off when I pitched our services to prospective investors. I acquired four prestigious clients and spearheaded three strategic global partnerships. From a one-man-team to twelve people today, from zero to 14% of the firm’s overall revenues and the accreditation of “Google Ad-Words Qualified Company,” my division and I have come a long way.

At Booth, we value innovation and creativity. Describe a time when you created positive change in a group or an organization. A year ago at work, I spoke with the founder of a Boston-based Home Remodeling/Contracting-Jobs placement board. He was a leader in his industry until his competitors created more compelling websites. Sure enough, as soon as his own website’s visits tumbled, his company revenues began sinking. I studied the company’s website from a job applicant’s perspective and instantly recognized some flaws. The company’s value proposition wasn’t clear. As a hypothetical prospective applicant, I was left with questions: Will I get the department/job I want? How many jobs postings do they have? For these and many more, they had no answers. Impressed with our quick and clear feedback, the founder gave us permission to overhaul the site. I’m neither a writer, designer, nor sports enthusiast, but in spearheading this project, I needed to become all three. I rewrote the site’s content, adding client testimonials and contracting-job application tips and tested a sleek new design. The analytics showed that subscriptions jumped by 11%. Not bad. I implemented an algorithm that automatically notified members of specific new job listings that would interest them, and even automatically applied to those jobs for them. Later, I encouraged the company to change its business model by providing free job postings and opening up the entire job database to non-members. These changes led to a further 12% jump in subscriptions. My understanding of the target-audience needs coupled with creative changes and analytical testing led to an overhaul of the marketing pitch of this site. It was no longer a lifeless job-search portal. I re-positioned it as a

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proactive partner to applicants, assisting them in their search for their dream contracting job. In six months, the website’s revenues grew by 40%, restoring the founder to the industry-leading status he deserved.

Tell us about a time when you went beyond what was defined, established, or expected. Although Tiger Shares, Inc. has fewer than twenty employees, there is very little collaboration because of the independent nature of the work, intense accounting deadlines and the closed office layout. When I began working there, I found it difficult to permeate the friendships among the accountants because of my heavy workload and the distant location of my desk. But because I value working in a collaborative environment, I sought to change this. I first attempted to connect with coworkers over the company-provided chat messaging software to organize lunches and happy hours. After a few months, my manager said he noticed an increased level of teamwork and paid me the compliment by attributing it to me. As our friendships developed, our interests began to mesh. One of the accountants, Zebo, is an avid yogi. His passion sparked my own interest in yoga and I soon began to join him on the mats during our lunch breaks. My novice dedication in turn influenced other accountants and soon we all signed up to attend a yoga retreat together. Seeing this traction, I suggested to a manager that the company sponsor their own retreats to encourage others to join and he agreed. There are now several annual retreats planned around different activities and schedules. I enjoy company-sponsored events because they create an opportunity to discover the other dimensions of my coworkers. Because of the high level of pressure to hit deadlines at Tiger Shares, there left little room for small talk in the office. But I was able to find ways to build friendships with my coworkers that in turn led to a more open and comfortable work environment for everyone. And to this day, the company continues to support group activities like yoga, tai chi, and even a 5K.

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Tell us about a time when you took a risk and what you learned from that experience. “Yes, the firm is still currently being investigated by the SEC. And yes, its CEO was on the FBI’s ‘most-wanted’ list. But my recommendation for the deal stands,” I said. Scrutiny filled the room full of veteran bankers from the Loan Committee of Bank of America (BOA) Global Banking. I knew they would come at me hard, but I was ready. Several months earlier, I had just been promoted to Relationship Manager (RM) into BOA’s startup Global Banking office in New York. My job was to build our client base lending money to multinational middle-market companies and large corporations and then cross-selling banking services to them. Those additional services make up the meat of our profits. But since we were a start-up group and lacked pre-existing clients, I had trouble finding new borrowers to “cultivate.” It was tough, so I hatched an unusual idea. Rather than chasing new leads, what if I looked in BOA’s own backyard? I started screening a shared internal database of existing clients that other BOA divisions were terminating. One telecommunications company jumped out. Four years ago, its CEO was convicted for stock-option backdating. This cost the company its AMEX listing and an accumulated loss of $1Bn in the past three years. Surprisingly, the company survived these trials. In fact, last year its profits were already recovering with steady sales of $1.2Bn and plenty of cash in the bank. Rather than terminate the relationship, I began to wonder, “What if we stood by this company through its hard times?” If we took a fresh look at the firm, perhaps we might be able to cross-sell more banking products, and build a lasting relationship as well. The risk was high. If I vouched for the deal and the telecom failed, all eyes would be on me as the new RM who gambled with BOA’s money and reputation. I would risk my credibility earned over the last 28 months, overseeing more than 100 loans and restructuring over 30 without a single loss through the credit crisis. And all for a company that was just delisted, and was under SEC investigation? I had to be crazy.

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I set out to do more diligence. I met with the company, and they were very open with their financial statements. As I had expected, the numbers checked out, and the company had clearly stabilized. I next visited with the company’s CEO to understand the lawsuits that the company continued to battle. After all, they might impact BOA’s reputation. The CEO candidly disclosed the settlement’s progress, and after a few months of cross-referencing with his attorneys and our experts in compliance and legal, I was comfortable. This company was more than stable—it was growing. Hopeful and excited, I shared the potential recognition with my team and regional superior, who was also a member of Loan Committee. As I explained how I tackled the key issues, their skeptical frowns slowly turned into approving nods. Three months after identifying this unusual opportunity, I presented the deal to the Loan Committee. They asked for the opinion of BOA’s compliance chief, and I relayed it, just as he had relayed it to me two weeks before. They scrutinized my analysis and I illustrated how I had mitigated the risks. The discussion evolved and became more heated, and my superior jumped to defend the case too. Thirty hard-fought minutes later, we gained approval. Taking risks does not mean going in blind, or rolling the dice. In fact, the only risks worth taking are those that are carefully measured, and those with sound logic that doesn’t falter under scrutiny. We also do not have to fly solo. With my regional supervisor on board, I knew that my chances of getting through the loan committee were good. Through this experience, I have learned the importance of a team that shares not only the rewards, but also the risks on a deal. The sum of these experiences has taught me the power of “intrepreneurism.” In other words, by navigating corporate politics to gain buy-in, one can leverage the deep resources of a large bank to create exciting, new opportunities. Our continued partnership with the telecom saved the company from liquidation and, 5,000 jobs. As the company rebounded, our annual profits increased from $1M to $1.4M, and now our relationship with the bank could not be stronger. A business relationship, like a marriage, is deepened by faithful partners in sickness and in health. A few weeks later, I encountered a similar situation, where the subsidiary of a Fortune Global 500 company produced phenomenal returns but disclosed no financials. While most banks passed on the deal, I dug deeper,

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working with legal, compliance, my team, and my supervisor to gain their buy-in early. Then, I cemented their support by involving them in the due diligence; today, that deal nets the bank over $2M annually. Incidentally, this company’s financing challenge was captured the following year in a Wharton case study.

People may be surprised to learn that I... I own a domain name, manybeings.com, which I purchased in high school. My initial exposure to building websites was a Media Blitz webpage, complete with flashing banners and background music. I learned the basics of HTML by analyzing source codes on websites. My content evolved from blog entries on teenage angst into more creative expressions, such as projects juxtaposing manipulated photos and text to tell a story. A passion for design ignited within me. I delighted in the way art allowed me to see the world, and to portray it – in shapes and patterns instead of just uses. I noticed details in my everyday life I had not seen before, such as the typeface of a restaurant’s menu, the way the eye is drawn to certain arrangements. I joined online forums, connected with other graphic designers, and purchased books on design. My graphic design skills reached a level where I began helping volunteer organizations with projects. I designed the website for Future Club, an American Red Cross service organization for young people and logos for nonprofits. I am always seeking to improve my skills by studying Adobe Photoshop tutorials online and reading articles on design trends. Most recently, I volunteered to complete the layout for Amnesty International’s WID/GAD calendar and researched standard calendar sizes, the minimum quality for clear photos, and the design flexibility of printing presses in Honduras. A thousand calendars are scheduled to be printed next month and handed out at the associated conference honoring exceptional women working in volunteers’ sites. The success of companies like Apple underscores the importance of understanding how appearances shape our reactions and decisions in the business world. Award winning designer Gadi Amit believes the green movement should focus on creating beautiful products instead of emphasizing environmental impact because objects that have cultural meaning are less likely to be discarded. I believe social enterprises must

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also integrate this additional perspective whether in their products or their branding. I seek to build upon my understanding of design at Kellogg in classes such as Product Design and Marketing and Global Marketing and in the Kellogg Design Club. I seek to explore local design organizations as well, and I have already contacted Glen Woods Design Inc. in Evanston. I will contribute this additional dimension to the organizations I lead in order to produce creative, sustainable solutions.

Tell us about a time when you generated support from others for an idea or initiative. A United Planet Community Bank is a self-sustaining program where members’ savings are consolidated for loans to one another during weekly meetings. The potential impact of the program among the bottom socioeconomic classes is enormous because they lack a vehicle for savings and because the excessive interest rates charged by banks and loan sharks offer few opportunities for cheap credit. Nevertheless, forming a community bank was a formidable task because the people I was targeting were not used to the level of organization and leadership needed to do so. After giving an enthusiastic informational session to my community, I worked quickly to organize the logistics, eventually resulting in the formation of the first community bank in Ecuador. I actively guided the creation of the bank by clearly detailing the rules and helping to systemize the record keeping, but stepped down once I motivated individuals to take leadership roles to organize and direct the bank. I have set up two banks in different parts of my district and I have taken on an advisory role, ensuring that community banks abide by the characteristics that make them successful – transparency, communication, and democracy. Transactions must be clear, and all members equal. The two community banks in a small district in Pichincha have eleven members each and all arrive timely to weekly meetings. The participants are surprised by the several loan requests every meeting, that often leave the bank without funds. I am surprised by the 17% profit they have made in three months. I am proud of the sense of camaraderie and professionalism that have developed due to my efforts. I have seen a marked increase in confidence and fortitude among the committee members compared to when they started. While the members of the current banks plan for next year, I

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plan to launch three more banks in Ecuador by July 2010.

Please describe a time when you went beyond what was defined, expected, established, or popular. ‘From now on, an Evolution Tech (ET) Salesperson will be more than a mere salesman who sells electronic components, but a boss who runs his own business.’ My sales staff’s eyes lit up, as I declared this in a weekly sales meeting in 2008. Since the financial crisis swept major global banks, the world electronic equipment production growth rate dropped below zero in 2008. No bank credit was available, forcing manufacturers to slash production significantly. My company’s sales performance spiraled down by 10% three months in a row, severely lowering morale. Several of my salespeople even sighed with relief when bad news about world economy came in, believing: ‘It’s not our fault. After all, the whole world is stuck.’ As ET’s founder, I could never feel such relief. ‘I am the captain. How can I surrender my ship to a monstrous storm without doing anything? I must lead my crew to thrive in this storm,’ I told myself. But how? Then I recalled how I had once fought against adversity to become Hero-1 Electronics’ top salesman. 2002 was somewhat similar to 2008 for the electronics industry. The burst of the Hi-Tech bubble slashed almost 50% from orders of electronic manufacturers. A senior salesman said, ‘pity that you’re entering this trade in a wrong time.’ However, I was determined to succeed. I had to help pay back my family’s debt after a brutal flood season leveled our properties. I wanted to help my mother and provide her a new home. Motivated by these goals, I found myself full of energy and novel ideas at work. Only six months later, I became the top salesman. My answer was to motivate my salesmen and awaken their endless energy. By redefining the role of a ‘salesperson’ as a boss in charge of his own business, I inspired my salespeople to view their work from a new perspective: they now had an incentive to take their own initiatives to grow their businesses. In addition, I did everything I could to guide my salespeople, yet make them

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feel like bosses. With my industrial experiences and knowledge, I helped these new entrepreneurs review their own sales plan every week. I used my accounting knowledge to teach them how to prepare simple income statements. I granted the ‘bosses’ the discretion to recruit their own sales force if they performed well and needed to expand their ‘companies’. Most excitingly, I stipulated that part of net profits from their annual income statements would become their annual bonus. In the following days, my salespeople thrived in their new role. Instead of groaning about the economic environment, they were motivated to develop customers and initiated their own business plans. Every salesman was excited to prepare his income statement when a month ended and Amanda, my top salesperson, performed so well that she recruited a sales assistant to help follow small customers. At the end of 2009, the total revenue of Evolution Tech didn’t shrink but jumped by 20% to USD 1.2M from 2008.

What is the greatest challenge or hurdle you have overcome, either personally or professionally, and how did you manage to do so? In 2008, I volunteered to teach English each week at Suen Migrant School, a Vietnamese school packed with poverty-stricken children. There I met Mai. Fazed by the girl’s surly temper, most teachers had given up on her. But I vowed to be different. I offered Mai lessons in her home every Sunday. Initially, she missed our appointments and was suspicious of my commitment. I faithfully visited her house every Sunday, posted a note on her door and left behind snacks if she wasn’t home. This lasted two months. The girl was eventually moved and promised that she would study. I explained that she, not I, would set our goals, and devise our timeline. This encouraged her to claim ownership. I always encouraged her to be a woman of her word. “You made a promise to me, you get it done,” I told her. I coordinated with other teachers to write down positive comments on her journal for her progress, reassuring her confidence. She started to become strict and never missed homework. In my life, I have much to be proud of. I have successfully sold green technologies, led colleagues in Vietnam, Malaysia, India, and Singapore to

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help key accounts such as J&J, and P&G. But these pale in comparison to the feeling I had, when six months after I first met Mai, she shared her grades with me: Mai scored 83/100, up from 25/100. Sometimes, leadership is more than managing a team; it is setting an example, and inspiring someone to achieve something that they never thought they could do.

What are your three most substantial accomplishments and why do you view them as such? Everyone told me I was crazy for leaving a high-paying job at a San Antonio hedge fund to join Educate Mexico–an organization in its first year of operation. I’d never been to Mexico, and I was the only foreigner in my program, teaching a classroom of 55 impoverished first graders. Today, I live in Oaxaca and spend my evenings visiting student homes, involving parents in their children’s education. One mother broke down in tears telling me how thankful she is that I’m so invested in her son’s future. Eager to create a lasting, institutional impact, I converted an old storage closet into a library. We now have almost 1,200 books to borrow! I’ve also created a teacher development workshop. Twice every week, I teach 15 regional teachers from two schools formal English skills and lesson planning (focusing on comprehension instead of memorization). I’m also working with the regional government to establish the program in 20 government schools this year with the goal of reaching all 1,400 public schools in Mexico City by 2015. At the end of my first year, my class’ dropout rate decreased from 20% to 0%, with class attendance growing from 49% to 96%. This success, turning Dia Libertad School around, has by far been my greatest achievement to date. Given my success, I was one of eight teachers (out of 87) in the program selected to train first-years as a Fellow Advisor. _____ I joined the 14-person team at Carmen Asset Management, a $3 billion distressed-debt hedge fund, in 2007 as a research assistant. Although I lacked an investment-banking background like most analysts, within a year I was leading a research team of six, typically led by someone with three years of experience.

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I saw a growing disconnect within the research team, as many processes were either inefficient or outdated. I set out to restructure my team – focusing on cutting inefficient routines. I also created and led a weekly case study for my team to discuss current positions with the lead analyst, and I headed a collaboration effort with Bloomberg to develop a unique set of research tools for our investment decisions. As a result of this work, I was given the chance last year to launch and co-manage an investment, that soon became our firm’s most successful, a $100M mortgage portfolio that rose 7% compared to the broader markets’ 40% decline. I was also named “Unsung Hero” – the only award voted on by all 40 firm employees in recognition of excellence in performance. _____ Board meetings had turned into riots. Resolving a budget shortfall had turned ugly, at the NAAAP (National Association of African American Professionals). NAAAP started hemorrhaging membership, further widening the budget gap. Our Chicago chapter nearly shut down. This vicious cycle stopped with me, a newly elected board member in November 2008. I detected a larger problem: divided leadership, not budget issues. We had lost sight of our broader mission: impacting the community, which we could only do together. I shared my thoughts with each board member in private meetings to spur theirs in exchange. As I listened, I was not surprised to discover we all shared the same fundamental values. I now gained their trust to help them assess their proposals objectively. Everyone’s ideas fell into two buckets: reduce events or aggressively fundraise. I called for a vote. Finally, our group dialogued civilly and unanimously approved a hybrid plan. I inspired my team to come together and revived our Chicago chapter. Together, we raised $25,000 for disadvantaged undergraduates and hosted 28 fundraisers for nonprofits like the United Negro College Fund, far surpassing our annual goals. Finding greater meaning, not coercing, is what drives a team’s dedication.

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PART

2

F ailures , S etbacks , and D isappointments

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The essays that make up Part Two keep it real. The best way to talk about failure is to talk about failure. Sounds redundant, but every year, schools are bombarded by “failure” essays written by applicants who are not demonstrating the analytical wherewithal to identify a failure in life, or who are lacking in the honesty to really deliver it. Or worse, they write about a success in the slick mustachioed disguise of a failure… “This one time, I was too smart and instead of making the company $4 Million dollars, I accidentally made them $5 Million. Oops.” That ain’t goin’ to cut it, partner. What really works are the honest stories in which you fall flat on your face. Or setbacks that crush your will to live. The best ones will be the wildest belly flops. They aren’t passing the buck either; rather, they own every ounce of the misstep. If there’s room, a little about redemption at the end usually works. By finishing it this way, a sense of wisdom is conveyed, as well as courage. These made us cry, made us cheer, or made us say “Holy crap, dude! You forgot WHAT?” Let’s see how these particular examples play out.

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Tell us about a time in your professional experience when you were frustrated or disappointed. I had spent three years at M&S Venture Markets, working day and night, sacrificing friendships and weekends to give everything I could to the firm. In the few hours not working on deals, I created templates for other analysts, educational presentations for our clients, and trained new joiners. I was expecting a promotion in a matter of months. Then a shock. My mother was diagnosed with lung cancer, prognosis bleak. My father couldn’t cope with the emotionally draining task of caring of her and my two grandparents. He turned to me, her only other family, for help. It would mean leaving my capital job to return to Tallahassee. My manager suggested a month of unpaid leave; a chance to help with my family and return to work without missing a beat. I spent those days holding my mother’s hand through chemotherapy, helping her dress, and eat meals. Even as her most basic bodily functions shut down, she never stopped believing in her own survival. As I came to the end of my leave, my mother and grandfather passed away within days of each other. Returning to work, I engrossed myself in my job, this time to cope with the pain. I was singularly focused on the one thing I could control: getting that promotion to provide for my father and grandmother. I entered my evaluation meeting having done everything possible to become an Associate. Instead, I was fired. My manager explained that it happened because I was not present during evaluations. Two hours later, I was escorted from the building. I sat on the pavement with my cardboard box, crushed by the lack of control over my own destiny. One month later, I was in London on my first day with a start-up investment bank at Standard Union. In four weeks, I had secured three job offers in three different countries in the midst of a recession, scattered my mother’s ashes in Florida’s ocean, settled the estate with tax authorities and moved my entire life and possessions to a country I had never visited. Facing moments where I felt totally lost, when my problems seemed insurmountable, I realized that the odds of success were less important than the decision to keep trying. Getting up off that curb, I knew I would do whatever it took to ensure my family’s welfare.

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In that instant, I regained control and took powerlessness out of the equation.

Describe a situation taken from school, business, civil or military life, where you did not meet your personal objectives, and discuss briefly the effect. In 2010, I taught math at the Nashville Literacy Association, a local nonprofit dedicated to helping adults obtain their GED. Ten students, 18-65 years old, high school dropouts, all depended on me to get their degree. At first, I assigned homework in every class. However, when I asked about the assignments the following day, an uncomfortable silence would befall the room. The students explained that they were too busy with their jobs. Wanting to earn the class’ trust quickly, I decided to minimize their workload. I tried to compensate for the absence of homework by making the classes as interactive as possible. Though no substitute for homework, at least my new lessons kept the class engaged, I reasoned. But at the quarter’s end, I was devastated to learn that only one of my ten students passed their exam. Ultimately, I’d failed not only the students, but also myself. Rather than pushing my students to achieve, I had sought their friendship; worse yet, their approval. The irony of course was that ultimately the students hadn’t just failed–they also resented me because of it. This experience taught me how important it is to distance my own personal feelings when mentoring others. I’d let my own pride interfere with their lessons. Perhaps one of the great marks of a leader is his ability to put aside his own pride, and to lead selflessly. Failure is the inability to do so. One quarter later, all twelve of my students passed their exam.

What have you learned from a mistake? In September 2008, my manager Jong Frandu selected me, the youngest of the team, to lead the review of Wells Fargo’s Athens (Greece) operations, usually a senior associate’s domain. I had pitched for the lead by citing my rigorous training in Shanghai’s operations and my earlier successful review of Cheng Du. Similarly, in my evaluation of the Athens operations, I would have to suggest similar measures to mitigate risk. My manager agreed that I

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was equipped for the job. Jong assigned three senior associates to me. Their presence reassured me. Although both were expecting me to assign sections of the project to them, I asked them to select their preferred areas because I trusted their expertise. Over time, since everything seemed to be going well, I decreased my monitoring, expecting them to rely on their experience whenever required. At the start of the fourth week, I presented a draft report to Neil. To my dismay, he pointed out that one entire area of the review was missing. I still remember the incredulous expression on his face when he asked, “Have you forgotten the section at the printer?” I was mortified. My review report had to be presented to the Global WF head, Mr. Pollard, before he visited Athens in seven days. Any mistake would cause significant embarrassment to my team and would jeopardize Mr. Pollard’s strategy for Greek business. In the final week, I took status updates twice daily to ensure adherence to schedule. On the last day, I presented a complete report to Jong, who approved it before sending it to Mr. Pollard. In retrospect, the cause behind the mishap was in my mistaking my teammates’ experience for expertise. I had deferred too much to their judgment instead of relying on my own. I also learned that ensuring accountability is indispensable. Had I regularly reviewed individual progress, I would have avoided the slip. Moreover, the instance reaffirmed my belief that communication is critical to the success of any team endeavor. Most importantly, although I was extremely sorry for my mistake, I was more upset that I had almost failed to keep my word on ensuring a successful review. Here, for the first time, I brushed past the sting of that kind of failure, and I vowed never to experience it again. This incident has left an indelible effect. As I subsequently led projects at Baker-Price Consultancy with senior team members and currently pitch deals to senior bankers at Wells Fargo, I still respect seniority and experience; however, I ensure that I take the lead when it is my responsibility to do so.

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What have you learned from a mistake? When I first started at JP Morgan as a fresh-faced investment banking analyst, I quickly learnt that thick skin was possibly more important than the ability to balance excel models in a sleep deprived state. Shouting at analysts like me, throwing our work on the floor, or hanging up on a call midsentence were all common. And it worked; everybody feared failure. Soon after I joined North Bank, I was asked to prepare a pitch to a potential client with a tight deadline of only two days. An analyst was assigned to support me; Nico was eager to learn, with a solid understanding of finance theory but only a few months of experience. I saw his potential and spent hours teaching him how to best put together a high impact pitch book, and model the cash flows of a company. As we neared the deadline, I found errors in his calculations and missing data. He had underestimated the deadline, ran out of time to check his work and collect crucial data we needed from other teams. I was unhappy with Nico’s work and without thinking embraced the methods of those who had ‘mentored’ me in the past. With authority and volume, I told him he had to step up his game and take more responsibility; the standard of his output was not acceptable if he was interested in surviving at North Bank. He broke down, crying out from the stress of failure, something I did not expect, or want. I stared at him, speechless. I suddenly felt aware of how unlike my true nature this tactic had been. Afterwards, Nico started to hide mistakes and concerns from me rather than highlighting them so we could address them together. His communication with me was direct and brief; I had lost the rapport we had and was no longer able to openly brainstorm ideas with him. He finished the task on time, but I realized that my approach was a serious misstep. Negativity can work in the short term but I wonder about its effectiveness over time. Nowadays, I engage Nico in a dialogue and ask him how we can improve the work we produce together; he shares in the responsibility for the quality of work as opposed to only its completion. I have realized that leading others, the way the message is received is as important as content; I have found myself an much more effective motivator because of it.

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What have you learned from a mistake? It was 1 AM on a Sunday night. I’d just realized we would miss the next day’s deadline… and it was my fault. Eight weeks earlier, my manager had put me in charge of leading two teams on our audit engagement – my five-person Devonshire team and a team from MZN Financial, one of Devonshire’s top clients. After being ranked at the top of my class at year’s end, I was asked to manage the engagement – a role typically assigned to an associate with three or more years of experience. The challenge was that we needed support from the MZN team to complete the engagement, but they had no interest in helping. I found it difficult to check the work of the MZN team, who were, on average, 10 years older than I was, and had their own responsibilities to manage. When there was friction between the teams, I lacked the confidence to resolve the conflict. Instead, I avoided confrontation, and before I knew it, we had missed the deadline. I had let down my manager and failed to meet client expectations. I realized that working successfully with a client requires communication and developing a relationship – that is, “breaking the ice.” I used the socially relaxed moments in the break room to reach out. Over time, I learned about one MZN team member’s after-work karate lessons, and disclosed my passion for regular soccer-based conversations. The team began to warm up to me. I soon learned more about the MZN projects they were advancing, as well as their internal deadlines. Part of the problem was that we hadn’t coordinated our deadlines with MZN’s schedule, but had instead followed a plan Devonshire had established at the beginning of the engagement. For the next quarter, I broke our project into smaller deadlines, to better monitor performance and included MZN in this planning, setting expectations and encouraging individuals to set their own deliverable dates. I also spearheaded a new process of weekly follow-up meetings, keeping the team communicating closely as challenges arose. There was now a sense of ownership for the assigned work. We met the next quarterly deadline two weeks ahead of schedule and $45,000 under budget. Through this experience, I learned that including

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team members in decision-making can improve communication, a critical asset when managing substantial projects.

Describe a situation in a work environment that either severely strained your relationship with co-workers or challenged your personal values. How did you resolve the situation? Stevie Pope was an atypical investor. Most investors I dealt with as a Relationship Manager in Visage Mutual Fund were shrewd, obsessing over every last penny they had earned or lost. Pope had a lot of money, but no one to manage his earnings; in fact, he wasn’t even interested in investing until I won him over with my perspective on the stock market during a chance meeting. While most of the big investors consulted their bank’s advisors for investment options, Pope directly sought my advice. He was the perfect client: not asking too many questions, and agreeable to the few funds that I suggested. In January 2008, the stock market plunge in U.S. dried up inflows in mutual funds, and I had fallen $2 million shy of completing my quarterly targets. Pope had pulled some of his funds prior to the crash and his money lay idle in his bank account. Visage had been a leading performer, so asking Pope for funds always originated from sturdy reasoning. It had always been a win-win situation for both Pope and my company. Subsequent to the crash, however, two other mutual funds (HDFC and Poller-Jones) started to outperform Visage by a significant margin. Our targets remained high and my manager was banking on Pope investments by now. Over time, this had proved to be an easy option; after all, Pope never asked about the performance of other mutual funds. Moreover, he was not the type who would make any noise about few dollars lost here and there. In fact, he had never sought anyone else’s advice on the issue, period. My head was spinning—if I were to obtain more funds from Pope, I would not be breaking any rules. After all, Pope would not lose money on my suggestion, per se. Moreover, I would not be lying to him. I would simply need to withhold some information. But since our funds were being outperformed, I knew he likely would make few thousand dollars less than he

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could have. I was the star performer of the team and my manager had high hopes from me. I was tempted to take the above path, but ultimately something held me back. Usually, I felt confident about my pitch that Visage was the best option. This was no longer the case. Giving Pope consciously incomplete information seemed inappropriate. My father used to say, “It’s easy to gain someone’s trust, but difficult to live up to it.” He was a psycho-therapist and had to wrestle with such predicaments regularly. How could I give up what he had instilled in me so easily? I gave Pope an honest comparison of returns of our fund as well as with the other company’s funds. Things unfolded in a way that I had not expected. He appreciated my action and unbiased advice, and in spite of the information at hand, decided to give the funds to Visage once again. This laid the foundation of an ever-lasting relationship of trust. This incident continues to serve as a guiding light in my life. It is necessary to realize that some values cannot be comprised and some lines have to be drawn.

What have you learned from a mistake? As I scrambled to enter the coordinates on my GPS for my next appointment recruiting high school seniors, I wondered what had gone wrong. My presentation to 15 seniors at Willow North scarcely elicited a reaction. Just the previous year, half the graduating class had chosen to attend Sienna College. Yet at the end of my presentation, only three audience members signed up for more information. I had spent days memorizing a ten-minute presentation complete with well-timed jokes, and reams of information. My recital was flawless, so it couldn’t have been me – right? The more I reflected on my speech, the more I realized that I had not truly engaged with the audience. As I sat in my hotel later that night and contemplated the four speaking engagements I had the following day, I crumpled up my memorized notes and started anew. In fact, the Willow North speech would be the last scripted presentation I ever gave. In stark contrast to my first presentations, I entertained lively dialogue with a large audience, and I noticed vastly different body language as students leaned forward, eyes attached to my movements, and I described the formative effect the Honor Code had on me.

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Over the next several days I continued to give impromptu presentations, but I noticed a few themes that always appeared: honor, integrity, helping others, and character. I began to use those values as a broad introduction to Sienna. However, as I spelled out an acronym for HSC - Honor, Service, and Character – I paid keen attention to the audience. At one school, I surveyed the students in attendance and noticed several baseball players wearing their jerseys. When I came to the “C” for character, I mentioned the leadership skills I developed as an athlete and president of the Student Athlete Advisory Committee. At another school, I saw a two students in camouflage shirts, perhaps outdoorsmen. When I came to “S” for service, I described how many sportsmen at Sienna’s Hunters Club donate their prized game to the local food kitchen. In both cases, my audience responded by leaning forward with rapt attention and asking good questions. My new presentations are getting strong reviews. I just returned from the Roycemore School in Utica, NY; the college counselor enjoyed last year’s presentation so much that this year she invited every student in the school from 8th through 12th grades.

Please describe a time when you took responsibility for achieving an objective. “Your communication style needs improvement.” That was the feedback I received from my supervisor at last year’s review. Especially troubling to me were his concerns about my being too confrontational. Two co-workers had complained that during a few heated discussions, I had “become unreasonable.” I was extremely unhappy about this particular feedback, and disappointed with myself. I had always thrived on being the ultimate team-player, whether in either a purely supportive role or as a decision maker. I had also tried to be the person that people came to for advice on projects outside of my responsibilities as they looked to leverage my experiences. I had never perceived myself to be this person that my boss described in my annual review. I set out to erase the perceptions of any blips in my interpersonal skills on the next review. My manager urged me to use Infosys’s in-house resource library. I borrowed an audio book, “Blink” by Malcolm Gladwell, in which the author

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discussed in detail how decision is made consciously and subconsciously. I found the topics fascinating and decided to borrow another CD, “Conflict from Dr. Alan Zimmerman,” addressing strategies to resolve/remove conflicts on and off the job. I also enrolled in live classes offered within Infosys in the leadership development program. One class I took was called “Improving Interpersonal Skills.” The class was conducted by our animated, passionate HR training manager and the way the course was delivered really led me to dig deeper into the issues. In one particularly valuable role-playing segment, I watched in awe as the same exact messages created varied reactions, based on the use of different tones. It was at that point I realized one of my errors was not adhering to one of Aristotle’s most famous rules: “Know Your Audience.” I did some soul searching on the episode where I was perceived to be confrontational. I had misjudged the level of comfort of my relationships with two new teammates. While they were co-workers in the same division, we hadn’t had the chance to work together closely. My manager was right that I needed to be mindful about my style; what might have been an acceptable exchange between me and those with whom I’d developed deep trust over time, was not appropriate for some who didn’t know me as well. In a recent incident, my efforts at reaching my objective were put to the test. I was questioned and pressed about not wanting to implement a solution that a project manager had suggested. I believed we didn’t have all the data to make that decision. Yet instead of simply finding faults with his arguments, I worked hard to better understand his agenda, and quickly realized he was concerned more about potential future problems on a different project of his. I proposed an alternate version of “not implementing” and we were able to come to an agreement. Weeks later, new test data indicated that we didn’t have to make changes. At my semi-annual review this year, my manager indicated I had made great improvements. This experience has made me a better contributor in a team setting, in terms of being not only a technical contributor but also a person who contributes to the synergy of the team.

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PART

3

P ersonal E ssays / S tatements

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Time to kick off your shoes and relax… not! Who ARE YOU? The fact is many applicants have difficulty with personal essays. They aren’t sure WHAT they should write about, and they sure as heck aren’t sure about HOW to write about it. Or they fail to grasp just how important it is to provide a portrait of themselves, AWAY from work. Some clients will sneak in another accomplishment or career-related essay here, and that can be a major mistake. After all, the idea is often to get a sense of who you are, not what you have accomplished professionally. Sometimes, this is the only way before the interview for you to make an impact on an admissions committee. They won’t remember one investment banker from hundreds of others… unless he also scaled a live volcano after crash-landing a biplane on one of its ridges. Or any other number of topics including family, culture, hobbies, humanitarian projects, creative endeavors... it’s all good here. Make sure you answer the specific question you are being asked, and then go ahead and tell ‘em about the time you tamed a tiger after building a second home from scratch for your family who means everything to you.

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When you join the HBS Class of 2013, how will you introduce yourself to your new classmates? Studies show that public speaking is the average person’s #1 fear, topping death at #5. I get that, since most people haven’t flirted with a near-death experience. My name is Matthew Lau. I nearly died of leukemia at age 10 and have since worked hard battling for my well-being – my life. That’s why I live fully through three great loves: learning, family, and community. My first love is learning. Growing up as an EFL speaker – “English as a Fifth Language” – I’ve learned cultures through communicating in different languages. Today, I’m just as comfortable speaking four Chinese dialects as I am talkin’ country slang on a farm near my college town of Iowa City, Iowa. I’ve ventured around the world and called six cities home. I always seek to learn and experience as much as I can, wherever I find myself. I have camped outside Wrigley Field to catch homerun balls, zip-lined across Costa Rican forests, and captained a sailboat along a Mediterranean coastline. In fact, I’ve almost overcome my #1 fear – of snakes. Almost. My second love is family. Years ago, my mother uprooted our family from Hunan to Berkeley seeking fresher air to help promote my remission. For years, she labored to pay my medical bills. I worked throughout college to afford my tuition but had yet to take care of her. After graduation, I assumed her mortgage payments and took her to explore the rest of China. We hiked the Great Wall. We basked in the beauty of her favorite national park. We even meditated with monks as I introduced her to my various spiritual philosophies. My third love is community. Buddhism taught me to act on my compassion. I gathered friends to raise $3,100 in the Ragbrai Bike-race for the 2008 Sichuan earthquake. I later raised $3,400 with a team in the Chicago Marathon for nonprofit First Heart Magazine which channeled the money to underfunded Asian charities. With breath came the freedom to make a difference. At HBS we will learn from each other inside and outside the classroom. We will burn the midnight oil together preparing for our case interviews, because we will be like family. And I will cheer you on during the Twinkie eating

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contest, since Section Olympics will enrich our community. You can count on me: after all, these three things are my passions.

When you join the Harvard Class of 2013, how will you introduce yourself to your new classmates? I consider myself to be from the “mid-Atlantic,” as my life has always been situated mid-way between the New and the Old World. I was born and raised in Germany and grew up as a typical Deustche kid in a Berlin suburb, a few miles from the Wall. I loved accompanying my parents to the town market. I gorged myself with local pastries every weekend, and I could recite at least five German Pillar Fables by heart. I didn’t start speaking English until I was five. My father was born in Provo, Utah, and my mother in a valley near Munich; my upbringing was a mixed bag of German and American culture. My horizons grew beyond the Atlantic when I attended the Rammstein High School, a-one-of-a-kind bilingual German education. The environment made me eager to experience how people lived and thought differently, and I organized trips to explore different parts of the world, from the Spanish Basque Country to the coasts of Queensland, Australia. My most enriching trip took me by rail from Paris through Berlin to Istanbul, Turkey. From there, we traveled back through Eastern Europe until I hit the border of Czech Republic. This trip displayed in full array the horrors as well as the sublime beauty that made up my European heritage. I’ve lived for the past three years in San Francisco, California, which is about as different from Berlin as any place can be. To connect with the community, I’ve volunteered at a local afterschool program. This year, I’ve spent over three hundred hours with twenty-five kids from underprivileged backgrounds, children of Hispanic undocumented workers. Being an immigrant myself, there was a sense of complicity between us. We shared a migratory heritage. We played soccer, and I spoke German to them—the first time many had heard such a thing. I earned their trust and formed a special connection. I felt immense pride when after months of tutoring and countless motivational speeches, all were making passing grades for the first time in math and science. I’ve spent much of my life in places where I feel different from those around me. As a result I’ve come to feel at home whenever I am with people who

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are not worried about where I come from. And I do my best to reciprocate. Whether in France, Germany, Nicaragua or California, surrounding myself with people like that is what I strive for.

When you join the HBS Class of 2013, how will you introduce yourself to your new classmates? “Hi, I’m Giovanna. What can I do to help?” One summer when I was growing up in Weedsport, New York, I worked the night shift at a gas station. Though it wasn’t the most glamorous job I’ve had, it taught me never to see myself as being too good to help others. Cleaning a windshield or getting on one knee to check tire pressure went a long way to developing loyal customers. Late-night travelers were especially grateful when I took the time to write down directions for them. As a student at University of Kentucky, I lived out that lesson in small ways. I encouraged classmates to join me in the Big Sister Program at Sacred Heart Elementary School in one of Kentucky’s poorest counties. For three years I spent four hours each week helping my little sister Tiana, who knew neither her mother nor father, with her homework. When I took Tiana to a volleyball game, five of the players noticed, asked me about Tiana, and signed up for the program the following year. When I graduated and moved to Charlotte, North Carolina, I had a chance meeting with the current Miss North Carolina. Impressed by the Miss North Carolina organization’s emphasis on empowering women, I asked what I could do to help. Since then, I’ve been a volunteer interview coach and essay consultant for a few Miss US-State contestants and even a third-runner-up to Miss America. That particular contestant won nearly $50,000, enabling her to go to college. The day I transitioned from U.S. Bank back to my alma mater to serve as an Admissions Financing Specialist, I asked just about everyone on campus what I could do to help. One party was especially interested in my financial modeling – the president of the college, himself an HBS MBA. President Charles “Flash” Fitzgerald asked me to build the college’s $28 million budget and analyze the effects of different cohort sizes, retention, yield, and discount rates. After delivering my recommendations to the Board of Trustees, I convinced the Board to keep rates high to help the admissions team remain

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competitive among other liberal arts schools. Ever since working those late nights at the Fuel-Star Express gas station in Weedsport, New York, one simple lesson – you’re never too good to help – has informed my daily life and given me access to opportunities I’m lucky to have had. “Hi, I’m Giovanna. What can I do to help?”

What matters most to you, and why? My most rewarding experiences have involved working with marginalized groups. My own experience as a Korean American female helped me reach out to individuals like Jessica, my sixteen-year-old little “sister” in the Big Brother Big Sister program, who had the mental capacity of a seven-yearold. Jessica and I spent weekends together around New Haven, CT, during my undergraduate years. Reflecting on my own background has given me respect for others who face diverse challenges and spurred me to seek ways to empower disadvantaged groups. What matters most to me is helping those who cannot help themselves. Growing up, I moved from Indiana to Oklahoma to Texas to Wisconsin and finally to Nevada with my family because of my parents’ jobs. My Korean background and lower socioeconomic status made me stand out even more as the new kid in the culturally homogenous schools I attended. I felt conflicting pressures to be nonchalant about my studies from my peers, and to work as hard in school as I felt was necessary. My experiences gave me the sensitivity to understand what it meant to be different and the ability to balance the sway of the majority with my own values of hard work and honesty. Studying Korean at Yale gave me insight into my parents’ background and inspired me to pursue research into mine. During my junior year, I received an undergraduate research grant to analyze novels by two Korean American authors and to draw parallels with my own experience. Shockingly, through this project I realized that I had spent my entire childhood wishing I were not Korean American. It was a turning point in my life as I began to fully embrace the reality of who I was. I began to see that my own personal challenges were the reason I enjoyed

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working with similarly underprivileged groups. I participated in a New Ventures Spring Break Trip, a Yale service trip between winter and spring terms, to Washington D.C. where my group worked at the largest homeless shelter in the country for ten days. We listened to speakers, such as an entrepreneur who worked with local restaurants to deliver excess food to homeless shelters. He left a strong impression on me. As a female VSO Volunteer, I encounter Colombia’s machismo culture on a daily basis. But however much I am affected by catcalls and Colombia’s patriarchal society, I am most angered by how many of the women seem comfortable accepting it. I worked with a local NGO to bring a psychologist to speak with women in one of my artisan groups about issues ranging from self-esteem to physical abuse, spurring discussion among the women. At my local health post, I teach an aerobics class to ten senior women and discuss the benefits of regular exercise and nutrition. Finally, as the selected representative of my VSO group in the Women in Development/Gender Analysis and Development (WID/GAD) committee, a VSO organization that seeks to incorporate gender sensitivity in development work, I work with volunteers to implement activities related to gender for the youth camps in each department. Working with Colombian women in both work and personal contexts has furthered my integration into my community and increased my level of fulfillment here. At Stanford GSB and after, I will continue to work with marginalized groups, helping them to develop the skills and confidence to succeed. My own path of self-discovery and awareness has made me empathetic to the underprivileged, who have often experienced much worse than I have. I am grateful for the opportunities that I have been given to be successful and look to help others find the same fulfillment.

Have you ever experienced culture shock? What did it mean to you? During my second year at Finer Energy in Hawthorne, New Jersey, I was placed on a uranium enrichment project reporting to Shahmed, a star process engineer with over twenty years experience in plant design. I was shocked when I entered Shahmed’s office the first time. The walls were

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a mosaic of political pamphlets interspersed with religious flyers and Islamic quotations. I felt panic beginning to take hold: had I misjudged what I was getting myself into when I moved to rural New Jersey of all places? I was raised in Portugal, where discussing politics or religion in public, regardless of your views, was considered a faux pas. I was unsure how to react in his office, but decided not to let it phase me, and to address Shahmed as I would any other colleague. As Shahmed became increasingly comfortable around me, he began talking more about his personal beliefs. One day, although initially set on not discussing politics at work, I started responding to Shahmed’s comments frankly. Despite certain differences, he appreciated my perspective. Being open with Shahmed felt like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders. On my last day on the project, I was startled when Shahmed poked his head around my cubicle and smiled, lifting a Koran, “I wanted you to have this.” Before working with Shahmed, this might have bewildered me—even been frightening. However now I understood that Shahmed wasn’t trying to change me. He was just sharing something that was deeply personal to him. I appreciated his offering for what it was - a sign of friendship and respect.

Tuck seeks candidates of various backgrounds who can bring new perspectives to our community. How will your unique personal history, values, and/or life experiences contribute to the culture at Tuck? In 2005, Central China TV reported that “5.12 Wenchuan earthquake” refugees lacked 1 million tents for shelter in the coming months, and that $1.76 million was needed to purchase every 1,000 tents. “$1,760 per tent? Are those tents gilded?’ I set out to donate the tents instead. After calling several tent producers, I found the wholesale price for a fourperson family tent was only $61! A producer even agreed to lower the price to $54 after I told him that the tents were for refugees. We collected goods from donors, attracted student volunteers and contributors, and raised $1800 to purchase family tents. As this anecdote shows, I am committed to helping others. I have been very lucky in my life, often thanks to the help of benefactors along the way.

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Supporting these earthquake victims was just one of many instances in my life, showing my passion to improve my community, and the world around me. But perhaps above all else, this story describes my enterprising soul. I never limit myself to what I can do, but free myself to think what could be. After I pin down my target, I fancy all helpful ideas and mobilize all possible resources to succeed. My enterprising spirit and unusual stories will enhance the experiences of other Tuck MBA students both in classroom and extracurricular activities. I will seek to inspire my classmates as well, to challenge something that they never experienced, and that by conquering the challenge they would realize their great potential. For example, I will help the Outdoor Club add an annual cycling tour with prizes to its weekly Road Bike series. I will attract as many Dartmouth students as possible to this event, which challenges participants to cycle 400 km from Hanover to New York City. By conquering the arduous pilgrimage and eventually arriving at a modern business holy land, they will gain a great sense of achievement and grow a brave heart to accomplish anything in the future. My enterprising soul also challenges me with another adventure: to help others succeed. This is one of the most thrilling experiences, to sow success. I will share with my Tuck classmates how I volunteered to help Intel-Stars, a video service provider to enhance its revenues. I suggested the business owner, Byron Yannoulis, focus on one of his services and develop his business competitive edge. Then I helped him redesign his process, finally increasing revenues by 35% within four months. I will happily contribute my advice and hands-on experiences to inspire the success of other Tuck entrepreneurs—connecting my peers with my contacts in China especially. Finally, I have played the ancient Chinese game of Weiqi for the past 23 years. I have been champion of several regional events, and I have benefited greatly from the calculation and reasoning abilities I have cultivated from the game and its 4,000-year history in the East. I will establish the first-ever Weiqi Club in Tuck and it could be a perfect recreational tool to extend Tuck’s MBA education beyond classroom. Students will surely benefit from this game, as it teaches us much about strategy, self-improvement, and ourselves.

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Tuck seeks candidates of various backgrounds who can bring new perspectives to our community. How will your unique personal history, values, and/or life experiences contribute to the culture at Tuck? We are at our wits’ end. Out on the street for 30 minutes, the team-building competition in 2008 is proving to be incredibly tough. 89 of my colleagues at Warner IMP have been split into eight teams. I am one of the eight team leaders, managing my team members from six countries. Each team has been given one pen—and four hours from now, the team that trades/ barters/sells the pen and brings back the thing worth the most will win… Back then, this seemed like a challenge—but compared to what my family had been through, everything seems easy. During culture revolution (19661976), my grandfather was imprisoned. My grandmother, the daughter of a Pakistani ambassador in India, was paralyzed in a demonstration and soon passed away. Other family members escaped, but my father chose to stay. My father wrote 1607 letters from 1978 to 1991 to Indian government to request case re-examination. Finally in 1991, the verdict was reversed and I could go to school like other kids. To this day, my father’s fortitude strengthens me even in most difficult situations. I always remember his struggles, even as team leader during this competition. Watching a staffer distributing free Subway Sandwich discount flyers on the street, I see an opportunity. Perhaps my team could sell those flyers to passers-by? I convince the distributor to give me all his flyers, and sell 2 pieces in 15 minutes. I divide the team into five groups and share with them my experience on how to identify the right Indian customers on the street. I also address their fears of working in a foreign environment by describing how to approach Indian people comfortably… In the story I am telling, our international team is working effectively. I can recall all my other international experiences: in college, I built the first multicultural dancing club, teaching the hip-hop of South Africa and the LindyHop of New York. I often joined my German, Italian and Spanish friends as we debated crucial differences between prosciutto, wursts, and Serrano. I learned from a fellow Indian, a yoga teacher, about his faith, pranayama, and the Shiva Chanting. I even brought my Canadian friend to Tibet, to witness the archaic sky burial- how thousands of vultures clear five people’s flesh to bones in two hours. My international background helped me succeed

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as Asia coordinator, leading colleagues from Indonesia, Thailand and China at Warner IMP. Two hours later, we are selling 18 pieces flyers for 52 RMB and purchasing two bottles of red wine, offered as buy one, get one free. Approaching dinner time, I stand near a restaurant and sell them to diners. I am skilled at sales, especially given my diverse professional background. Ten minutes later, I sell the wine for 120 RMB. Starting with a nothing but a pen, my team purchased a beautiful new bike, and walked off with first prize… My exposure to Silicone, one of the most widely used products in the world, has exposed me to various industries, from electrical energy to wind power, textiles, and life sciences. At Tuck, I will share my knowledge in all these industries, along with my background in the silicone business, an unusual market. In all my experiences, I draw on my unique background—whether my father’s relentless vision, or my diverse experiences globally and professionally. I will bring all this and more to Tuck.

Please tell us about yourself and your personal interests. The goal of this essay is to get a sense of who you are rather than what you have achieved professionally. As an avid marine biologist and baseball fan, I wanted to see two things and two things only while visiting San Francisco this past summer: a Giants victory over Texas in the World Series, and a Blue Whale—the largest mammal in the world. I literally jumped out of my seat in the tour boat when we actually spotted the whale; topping slowly at first, the creature’s powerful greyishblue hide soon stabilized its huge frame at sea level, creating audible song as it floated by. Like the Blue Whale, the Giants got off to a bumpy start when they ceded an early game to Texas. However the Giants also stabilized themselves, going on to tie the series. Although I never caught the home run ball I was hoping for in McCovey Cove, my trip to San Fran was an undeniably satisfying trip. Growing up and through college, baseball was my favorite pastime. After my sophomore year playing varsity baseball at Southern University in Arizona, I started an intramural team, Los Toros, primarily composed of international students I’d met from the International Studies department. I immediately recruited 15 players for Los Toros. I led fall and winter campaigns, growing

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club enrollment by over 200%. Students from other language departments soon joined and we spun off a second team in the spring. I created a Facebook group for Los Toros players to stay in touch, and today the team still exists—with over 40 members. The team lets me play in games whenever I return to campus. I plan to bring the Toro spirit—equal parts passion and loyalty—to the CBS softball club. Marine life is another passion I continue to explore. On Under The Sea Club outings in college, I discovered that otherwise tame destinations became full of wonder when I visit them as a “Cousteau-dian” and not just a passive traveler. As Club Treasurer, I secured funding and helped plan a trip to Great Barrier Reef for a dozen club members my senior year. To the untrained eye, Great Barrier Reef is a scenic ridge off the coast of Western Australia. However, in a marine biologist’s context, it is a goldmine, rich with wildlife – under the surface. There, I learned how the unique geography creates favorable ocean currents for migrating life, funneling whales and tortoises especially through a awe-inspiring ocean passage. Whether or not I am focusing on deep-sea creatures, I have always enjoyed traveling to new places; in the past four years I have visited Bolivia, Portugal, Jamaica and Costa Rica, among other destinations. As a International Studies major, I have spent substantial time living abroad and have been exposed to different cultures. While my local contacts in NYC and Boston will surely help me succeed in the future, my inspiration will come from all over the world--whether the unique Tokyo skyline, the neo-Renaissance buildings of Florence, or even the massive, hulking frame of the Blue Whale. My passion for travel has perhaps taught me one thing above all else—that creative inspiration can always be found in unusual, unexpected places.

Please describe yourself to your MBA classmates. You may use almost any method to convey your message (e.g. words, illustrations). Feel free to be creative. Friends, Classmates, Sternies, Buenos Dias, Salam Alaikum, Hello, Namaste! A warm greeting to you, from all the cultures that I have spent my life with so far – Peru, Middle East, the US and my home country, India. Professionally, I have undergone 8,000 client meetings as a private investor

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working with organizations such as Delta Group and OPP. Personally, I love mountain climbing, designing video games and acting. And as you will hopefully find out soon enough, I love to talk—and to listen. People who know me well say that my biggest strength is my analytical skill. Be it dissecting a complex video product, deciphering an IT report, or even planning what restaurants to visit during a business trip, my peers often seek my inputs before making a decision. My husband, though, disagrees. He says my analytical abilities are actually a great weakness – I am too quick to analyze and identify the missing ingredient in a meal he has cooked so lovingly... I believe my other strengths are my interpersonal skills and an endless curiosity to learn. I easily befriend people, which has been the basis of much of my professional success. I have built relationships with the CXO’s of giant organizations across many countries, but I also remain friends, till date, with my regular driver during my Mumbai business trips, and an elderly security guard in my current office. As for learning, I try to learn at least one thing from every individual I interact with. These days, I learn the most from my 16-month old son. Being resolute, for one – ask him to speak out numbers 1 to 10, which he knows, but he would firmly NOT speak if he does not want to; and how to look innocent and cute, for another, when he has just broken an expensive crystal glass. I am a lover of theater. From the soul-touching songs of Evita, to stately monologues of Shakespeare; from modern dance or up-lifting Bollywood numbers (which, by the way, are a great way to start my day) to avant-guard off-Broadway experiments, I celebrate theater’s diversity. And diversity in life, too. Music and dance (make no mistake, I can act, but I cannot dance), I believe, are the hallmarks of humanity’s cultural evolution. Personally, I play the piano and cello to relieve the stress of a hard day’s work. Usually, my husband humors me. Finally, I am an honest, hard-working gal whose face naturally falls into a smile. So whether it’s a tough classroom assignment or a project with a pressing deadline, you will always be able to count on an involved, upbeat, and supportive co-worker in me. And after the work is done, I will always initiate a group dinner, at one of New York’s incredible restaurants that I have been hoping to try for years. Let’s work hard. And afterwards, let’s get together, learn about one another, explore the culture, and build

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relationships that will last a lifetime.

What would you like the MBA Admissions Board to know about your undergraduate academic experience? At Dartmouth, I took a rigorous course load – double-majoring in finance and accounting. One of my favorite courses was Financial Statement Analysis taught by Professor Charlie Sucraite. There was no textbook – our only materials were real company financials. Every week we were given a company and general guidance on what to look out for in their financials— and we were on our own from there. I was selected by my peers to be a case leader and help guide a team of five classmates in our analysis. We were often able to identify accounting red flags before news came out on fraud or an accounting scandal a few months later. For example, we identified the aggressive accounting for revenue by the Carnegie Corporation, which eventually led to a restatement of financials. These skills would prove invaluable after graduating. While working at Taylor Asset Management during a rise in oil and fuel prices in 2008, United Airlines still managed to remain profitable because they had hedged their cost of fuel. By analyzing their financials and fuel-usage data, I determined how long the benefits of their fuel hedges would last and structured an investment recommendation for our portfolio based on overvalued shares. Taylor’s return was $4.2M on a $10M position. As the course was coming to an end, I decided I wanted more. After speaking with several other students who were also deeply interested in continuing the work we were doing, I reached out to Professor Sucraite about creating a follow-up course – Financial Statement Analysis II. Professor Sucraite loved the idea, but the course needed approval by the Provost and department head. I offered to help. I developed a curriculum with Professor Sucraite, drafted a proposal, and presented it to the department head for approval. The course was so popular that another finance professor decided to participate in the course as well – as a student. I earned an A in the course, and five years later, Professor Sucraite continues to teach Financial Statement Analysis II to second years in Dartmouth’s MBA program. I am certain that those students will gain just as much as

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we did from those classes, learning how good companies work, how some companies fail, and how to independently understand a business through research, reading financials, and personal experience – essential skills lacking in many Wall Street analysts today.

How will your background, values, and non-work activities enhance the experience of other Duke MBA students and add value to Fuqua’s diverse culture? I believe that architectural design is actually a way of exploring larger questions in life. The more deeply I understand my life, the more meaningful my design will be. This interaction between my profession and life has shaped my personal experiences. For instance, while walking around great cities such as Paris and London, I initiate dialogues with great buildings by observing and studying them. My travel experiences have enlightened me that architecture is also about creating great places to inspire communication among people. The importance of communication in architecture motivates me to become a good communicator, and a bridge-builder. I’ve been able to bridge cultural divides, for example, by explaining to my design director that drinking courageously during a personal meeting with the developer in Japan would be the most straightforward approach to get business done. He took my word for it, and the next day when the contract was signed and the retainer check was cut, my director expressed his gratefulness. The only trade-off was my headache the next day. I have designed and built over one million square meters of both housing and mixed-use projects, I would like to use these projects to show to my peers how design can enhance the value of development not only to the developer and owner, but also to the public. I believe that this is true not just in real estate, but in all business. On a waterfront project I designed as lead architect in Kyoto, I created a raised public plaza, retail anchors and marinas, and a distinctive space that led to both financial success and public satisfaction. I would love to run a seminar, perhaps to benefit the Real Estate Club and any other attendees, introducing some of the most exciting and successful projects under development in the Japanese market. I am passionate about real estate in Japan, and I am certain that my passion and knowledge of architecture will benefit my peers at Fuqua.

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I am also eager to share my knowledge on how to break into the Japanese markets with my peers. After all, I have now been repatriated to Japan on two separate occasions, in different cities, setting up brand new offices from scratch and running them. I would also love to help arrange an exchange program, bringing students who are interested in Japan market to meet successful real estate development companies such as DITAN, Japan’s largest private developer, the client I have served for over seven years. To enrich my life experiences, I worked and lived intermittently in four cities in the past decade – New Orleans, Beijing, Vancouver and Tokyo. My experiences have fostered my belief in the value of cultural diversity. This belief enables me to think more completely, treat people with more understanding and respect, and handle setbacks patiently. It also has made me a more balanced person with multiple abilities and diversified hobbies. Among them, cooking is the one that best reflects my belief in the value of diversity. I like to explore new recipes, blending Eastern and Western flavors together. For example, I made very good sushi with Cajun-style fish – or an egg custard with stir-fried meat stuffing. I would cook delicious dinners flavored with cultural mixtures for my classmates. When I cook, I also want to show to my peers that a small endeavor such as cooking can demand very careful planning and focused creativity. I am also a lover of the musical arts. I took a lot from the compositions of my father, a professor of Eastern Music, who took me to every prestigious recital in Japan as a child. Under his tutelage I gradually gained an appreciative view of Japanese art, playing the cello, and musicianship. I would love to share this passion with my classmates, and in return, I am sure that I will be inspired by my peers to learn about other traditions as well. My experiences inspiring communication, bridging cultures, and appreciating music and cooking all make up my own structure, façade, and core. I have found that my non-work activities in life interact with my professional experiences—and that these two areas work together over time to improve each other. In any business, I believe that the best projects are those that transcend the financials, and draw on deeper, more personal, universal truths. I am eager to contribute all these experiences and all my passion to Duke’s diverse culture.

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How have the changes in the global economy over the last 18 months affected you and your plan for the future? (400 words) 1 year return – 49.8% p.a 3 year returns – 46% p.a 5 year returns – 45.4% p.a * The above returns are of BOVESPA (Brazil Stock Exchange) – representative of the Brazil Stock Market – December 2007. In the world of investments, those stats were—in a word—glorious. Coupled with a 9% growth rate of the Brazilian economy, this killer sales pitch virtually wrote itself. But after January 2008, that all changed. The market collapsed and stocks did not stop plummeting until March 2009. As Relationship Manager of Power Mutual Fund, I had to find a brand new way to approach understandably shaken investors. Until then, I saw myself as a salesman gunning for targets. But the meltdown had implications far beyond merely affecting sales numbers. It altered the psychology of my investors – causing them to lose trust in the entire financial system. They were looking for an explanation, clamoring for truth; ultimately, they wanted reassurance more than anything. I had to step back from my myopic view and listen to their concerns, answer their questions, and convince them not to panic. While this did not remedy the situation, it gave them hope along with an outlet for their anger. People no longer relied on facts, but needed relationships. The only investors who gave me business during this time were the ones who had full faith and confidence that I would never give them dishonest advice. These experiences further strengthened my resolve to move out of an industry that prized profit over people. But, the changing times have made this transition even more difficult – non-profits face new challenges such as donors and volunteers who are retreating, sponsorships that have been denied and plans and projects that are on hold. This has forced me to look beyond the answers I was used to giving. I can no longer be content with just developing a plan for my clients and advising them on implementation; I need to be sure that the plan is robust and flexible enough to deal with unexpected events. I need to develop as a leader who can lead: not just in rosy times, but when things are bleak and when unplanned challenges arise.

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With the help of a Darden MBA, I hope to be a leader whose killer pitch will be based on the promise of a helping hand rather than gaudy numbers.

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PART

4

C areers and G oals

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Passion is contagious. A great idea in a lifeless bed of words will fall on deaf ears. And the more passionately dedicated you are to your individual goals, the more likely you are to achieve them, and therefore enjoy success. And schools like successful applicants, especially of the future variety. Go figure. Enter Part Four, the mother of all the essay categories. All schools will have a version of this question. Some schools will have no other question besides this one. Truthfully, if you have offered them sparkling tales of leadership and developed a scintillating personal portrait through other essays, but fall flat with your career essay… well, let’s just not go there. So how did our heroes pull it off? You’ll notice in Part Four essays that are clear and ambitious without being far-fetched. These people passionately want to become experts and leaders in areas they already have built some body of work. And they are aiming HIGH. They don’t want an MBA to get a promotion in a year or two. Nah, they want to be the one giving the promotions. Or they want to change the world and have an actual, plausible plan about how to pull it off. Let’s dive right in and absorb the tone and rhythm of this crucial type of essay.

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Briefly describe the career path you intend to pursue immediately after b-school. Explain why this career option appeals to you and why an MBA is appropriate at this time. Most people have fun recurring dreams of flying, or showing up for exams without any clothes. Mine goes something like this: I am sitting in the board meeting of the Center for Social Development Arizona (SCDA), a mid-sized non-profit. The Board is at a crossroads over the $50,000 it has received in grant money. Should it be spent on hiring much-needed staff, updating the outdated computer system, or on core operations areas? What strategy would allow the organization to grow—or at least maintain its current levels of success? Bzzzzzzzt--my alarm rings out and the dream vanishes. Nevertheless, my interest in solving that problem is what gets me out of bed with a start. The story of SCDA, though hypothetical, is typical for NGOs (NonGovernment Organizations) in rural areas of in the Southwest. Several non-profits mushrooming all over Arizona experience cycles of high initial productivity but inevitable stagnation and gradual decline due to poor knowledge of organizational issues. My goal is to target NGOs working in rural areas facing these issues and, as a non-profit consultant, provide the keys for them to open the doors to their vision. In the short-term, I will work as a management or strategy consultant at a place like McKinsey or Pricewaterhouse Coopers. In this role, working across different industries including finance, technology and retail, I will learn best practices in assessing existing strategies, finding new sources of profitable growth, and sharpening competitive positioning. I will then work as a consultant in an NGO solving issues specific to non-profits such as limited resource availability and raising adequate funds. This will prepare me to launch my own specialized consulting firm that will target NGOs in southwestern American small towns. In 2008, I started volunteering for the Women’s Alliance for Planning and Development (WAPD), a Phoenix based NGO. Working here, I have come to realize that rural non-profits encounter specific challenges that for-profit firms and urban non-profits do not face, such as the political system of conservative governance and its stunting influence on various developmental activities. I have met with NGOs in the U.S. who possess the resources

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but lack clear and developed business plans. I have talked to consultants in McKinsey Louisiana after hurricane Katrina and DSM (Delta Strategic Management Group) and confirmed that most rural non-profits cannot afford their expensive services. My plan to establish a consulting firm targeting the neglected group of rural non-profits is sensible, pragmatic, and most importantly, achievable. I didn’t initially know that my calling would be in non-profit consulting. As Relationship Manger of the banking-segment in Reliance Mutual Fund, I mainly was crunching numbers, and it was the bankers who were deploying problem-solving skills to assess and realign clients’ investment needs. They were driving real solutions to real problems. My long-term aspiration is to combine my financial experience with my newfound passion for management consulting to solve the funding and logistical setbacks facing Arizona’s NGOs.

Please give a detailed description of your job, including nature of work, major responsibilities; and, where relevant, employees under your supervision, size of budget, number of clients/products and results achieved. Since July, I have been working at Brown and Caldwell (BC), one of the world’s largest privately held engineering firms, as a Process Engineer in Walnut Creek, California. I was recruited by the head of BC’s chemical engineering group, who contacted me after an old colleague from Pfister Corporation, my former employer, requested my participation on an industrial project. As a Process Engineer, I lead the design of the chemical processes on industrial projects, typically valued around $100 million. My first project at BC involved leading a team of five to integrate nitration technology, developed by Germany’s Frangudt Company, into the design of a torpedo fuel production facility owned by the United States Navy. I was also responsible for designing the facility’s pressure relief systems that ensure plant operator safety. I oversaw the identification and evaluation of all possible hazards associated with the chemical process. The main difficulty on the project was balancing our client’s interest in lowering plant costs with the lead operator’s desire for as safe and convenient a process as possible. Through careful planning and execution,

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I finalized the design of the plant’s nitration facility and completed a preliminary design of the plant’s safety systems one month ahead of schedule. Currently, I am part of a team of three process engineers leading the development of a triacetate facility, producing film for liquid crystal displays. So far, I have saved our client, the Axis Chemical Company, over $10K by eliminating redundancies in the plant’s systems.

What is your career vision and why is this choice meaningful to you? As captain and point-guard of Duke University Division I Women’s Basketball Team, everyone looked to me to lead. Coaches trusted me to call the right plays, and my teammates turned to me to boost morale. Even the fans implored me to interact with them. That role fit like a glove: I led our team to a conference championship and the national final four. Upon graduating from HBS, I will take those same point-guard skills – reliability under pressure, leadership, and gritty determination – and use them to advise middle-market companies in sell-side engagements as an Associate at a boutique investment bank like Evercore. The extra face-to-face time I spend addressing clients’ challenges while also teaching and managing a group of Analysts will prepare me for my long-term goal: to launch my own boutique investment bank focused on advising middle-market clients. My firm will give clients consistent access to seasoned bankers. We will utilize our experience to win deals, and provide intimate, daily guidance to clients while advising them on how to secure the best valuations possible. We will succeed because we will serve our clients’ interests before our own. Launching my own firm is important to me because it allows me to combine my passions for finance and leadership. When I led my basketball team late in close games, I relished the times that my teammates put their hands on their knees in exhaustion and looked to me for leadership. This past year when the Duke admissions team was lagging behind our goals, I put in extra hours on the phone with prospective students and encouraged my team to do the same. More times than not, we scored that basket, and last year the admissions team exceeded our recruitment goal by 7%. Regardless of the

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arena, I love leading teams through pressure-packed situations. Leading my own firm will also give me the opportunity to impart my personal values to the team. As a member of the Honor Court at Duke, I developed a deep appreciation for turning a moral quandary into a definitive black and white decision. My firm will cut through ambiguity to do the right thing, even at the risk of short-term harm. In the long-term, clients will reward our steadfast commitment to our principles.

Why are you pursuing a full-time MBA at this point in your life? Mr. Joe Carbon’s family business, a U.S.-based beef wholesaler, struggled through the recent economic recession. This CEO revamped his business’s domestic strategy in 2009 and approached Wells Fargo Global Banking to finance cattle farms near Rio De Janeiro, Brazil to raise healthy grass-fed cows. After we lent the funds, his profits soared from 6% to 10% of sales. Mr. Carbon could not stop thanking me for sustaining his family legacy. Better yet, his company soon created 300 jobs in an impoverished rural area. I felt like a partner, both in his business and the local community. My work with middle-market companies like Mr. Carbon has formed my calling: consulting U.S. entrepreneurs in their international expansion using my Brazilian homeland as their launching pad. However, my experience thus far in finance has fulfilled only part of this calling. I want to do more for my clients. I want to assess competitive strategies, evaluate target markets, optimize talent and resources, and consult in all aspects of their businesses to go global. To materialize this dream, I must build strategy management tools and deepen my network in South America. I need the breadth of a full-time MBA. My pursuit of an MBA is a timely and natural progression from my current work as an advisor delivering global financing solutions. I have led foreign bank partners to devise cross-border loans for clients in China, India, South America and Eurasia. I have quarterbacked negotiations of finance structures in Spanish and Portuguese with senior management of client companies and their native vendors. If I continue in my current profession, I will advance in my career as a global banker. But I would fall short of honing perspectives outside the realm of finance.

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The sooner I broaden my skills, the faster I can have greater impact on my clients’ businesses and the global community they affect. Now is the time to act on this dream.

Why do you wish to pursue the Leaders for Global Operations (LGO) program? What are the goals that you hope to accomplish both as a student and as a graduate of the program? Creating high-tech electronics is my passion. I have the technical knowledge but I want to lead others to design revolutionary products that end-users can see, feel, and depend on. The Leaders of Global Operations (LGO) program empowers me to go beyond engineering and to contribute to corporations’ strategic visions through the process of developing competitive and innovative products. As an LGO student, my goal is to promote a collaborative learning environment by sharing my extensive experiences directly into classroom discussions. For example, the combination of my experiences in lighting products for both consumer residential dwellings and commercial airliner passenger cabins will offer new perspectives for people with aviation backgrounds, but also those interested in the general business lessons. Utilizing exclusive LGO offerings such as Plant Treks, I will learn about the latest manufacturing/operation trends while my own diverse manufacturing experiences, from handling domestic/overseas contractors to supervising high-volume production in China, will be of interest to my classmates and the partner companies. Furthermore, I will refine my leadership skills through the Universe Within curriculum while demonstrating to classmates my unique leadership characteristics, achieved through collaboration, team-work, and leading without managing. My short-term goal is to become a product manager for a high-tech consumer electronics company such as Apple. The job training and industry exposure I will receive as a product manager and the LGO/Sloan experience will prepare me to achieve my long-term goal of becoming a CEO of a major electronics manufacturer. I want to lead the global integration of operation, manufacturing, marketing, and engineering, focusing on new product development with an emphasis on innovation.

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Discuss your career goals. What skills do you expect to gain from studying at INSEAD and how will they contribute to your professional career? During my first year at Ondemmes Energy, as first year Associate Process Engineer, I was handpicked to work on business development with Stephen Morrow, the Vice President of Process Technology and the head of our chemicals group. I was fascinated by his metaphor for the chemical industry: the “revolving door.” Western chemical companies invest technology in resource-rich countries to produce raw chemicals. These chemicals are then exported to intermediate countries, usually China, to be manufactured into finished goods that are then sold on Western markets. This “revolving door” creates a cycle of prosperity for every player involved, raising everyone’s standard of living. However I was perplexed that many resource-rich countries, like Uzbekistan and Tunisia, are mostly left out of the chemicals trade. For the most part, multinational chemical companies have been unsuccessful in negotiating agreements with local oil companies in certain areas. My career goal is to lead a multinational chemical producer, like Dow Chemical, as CEO to make the deals that will bring these countries into the game. To reach my objective, I will first join the strategy practice of a leading management-consulting firm like McKinsey or BCG. Specializing in chemicals, I will learn industry best practices. I will later join a multinational chemical producer, like Dow Chemical, and lead their business development group. Drawing from my consulting experience, I will complete my professional goal by leading the company into partnerships with producers in untapped regions of the world. I solidified my career goals while working on an assignment in Turkey, producing a financial model that assessed the economics of a billion dollar silicon plant. The report helped me understand how joint ventures with local companies could create more than just great returns. Indeed, our client, a local Turkish chemical producer, would earn a return of 280% on his money over the next ten years. But more importantly, the deal would create over one thousand jobs and $20 million in annual salaries in the community. Obtaining an MBA from INSEAD is pivotal to achieving my career goals.

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Through courses like Mergers & Acquisitions, Alliances and Corporate Strategy, I hope to gain an understanding of what makes corporate partnerships successful, especially between multinationals and local companies in emerging markets. The chemicals trade is a global industry involving players from every corner of the earth. The unrivalled diversity of INSEAD’S student body and staff is perfect for me to build my multinational management profile. Through the INSEAD student groups, I hope to deepen my understanding of business and management by learning from my peers’ careers in diverse countries and industries. Furthermore, having lived extensively in North America and in Western Europe, I hope to take advantage of the exchange programs at INSEAD to develop my understanding of the developing Asian markets. Finally, INSEAD is the perfect place for me to earn my MBA as it would allow me to accomplish a personal goal of mine: reuniting with my sister in France and repositioning my career in Europe.

Describe your career progression to date. What have been the milestones and/or turning points? What decisions and choices brought you to your current role? When I received over $50,000 in undergraduate scholarships, my interest in journalism took flight. I had entered university with the dream of becoming a music reporter and had never before been interested in business or investments. But after coming into this large sum of money, my interests expanded. Suddenly, I had to “manage my money.” So I began researching and investing in the markets; I was hooked instantly. I quickly integrated my newfound interest in business and investing with my journalism studies. Business reporting was exciting, providing probing insights into local, national and global developments. From this experience, I came to realize the vision for my future: a business journalism career, where I could explore important world topics, and break the news stories that affect peoples’ lives. Upon graduation from Duke in 2004, I pursued my goals single-mindedly. First I worked at a national business TV station, KWS, launching a new online video player, writing hourly newscasts on breaking business stories, and presenting live on-air business reports. I then hosted a radio show - “The

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Todd and Mike Morning Show” - in Virginia, where I further developed my broadcasting skills. I have also written freelance articles for nationallydistributed business publications such as Buyer’s Dominion and Financial Avenue Magazine. After over two years working in the transforming field of business journalism, I seized the opportunity to host my own business show. I was hired as the afternoon/evening business host and announcer at 780 WMAZ, a major metropolitan news radio station in North Carolina. In this role, I have interviewed some of the most compelling people in the business world and my wide-ranging, well-researched coverage made “Business After Dark” the most popular Charlotte evening show among 25 - 49 year old listeners. My rapid career progression, and my keen ability to connect with a broad and intelligent audience, have been significant accomplishments. But to realize my long-term goals, I will need a formal business education. An MBA from Cambridge is the logical next step.

Describe your vision for your career and your inspiration for pursuing this career path. As founder of Mission Microelectronics, I aspire to lead Mission to become one of India’s top-ten electronic component redistributors within four years after graduation. In the long run, I have an even more ambitious vision: to transform Mission into a leading global redistributor. Electronic component redistributors help manufacturers liquidate their component surplus stock, effectively reselling manufacturers’ leftovers to consumers. It is a $36 billion business, and growing exponentially. I was attracted to electronic component redistribution industry eight years ago by a recruitment advertisement of Saber Electronics, which read, ‘Do you want to earn $1,000 per month? ’ In 2003, the average annual income per capita was far less than $1,000 in India. I thought to myself that if successful, I could pay back my family’s debt due to my sister’s cancer surgery. I might also be able to marry my college girlfriend and provide her a home. So I took the opportunity, and just six months later I became the top salesperson at Saber. The company soon promoted me to Sales Team Leader, and I was charged with recruiting my own sales team. Over the next 30 months, I assumed this leadership role and built a sales force of eight from scratch. Soon, my team

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accounted for 80% of the company’s total gross profits. When my contract with Saber expired, I decided to start my own business. I was inspired by the incredible opportunity created by India’s entry into the WTO. As India’s major industries were opened to foreign investors for the first time, I witnessed foreign electronic manufacturers building new operations in India. At Endeavor we dealt mainly with Indian manufacturers. Why not focus on international manufacturers from China, US and Europe? Since more international manufacturers would predictably pour into India, our company could grow exponentially. I hoped that this was a transformative vision, so I named my company “Mission” and grew it from a one-man no-profit basement operation to a 10-employee $1.2million turnover electronic parts redistributor. I’ve recruited Problitz, the world’s largest electronic manufacturing service provider and the assembler of iPhone and iPad, as my customer. I’ve also led Mission into business relationships with 30+ global suppliers throughout Asia, Europe and the US. This international experience has shaped my global vision. Today, with eight years’ experiences of leadership and entrepreneurship, I am more inspired than ever to lead my business to become one of India’s top electronics redistributors. First, I see a bright future in my redistribution industry. Since electronic devices such as PCs and mobile devices evolve so quickly, the consumer markets are harder for manufacturers to predict than ever. Redistributors will play a vital role in fulfilling orders, and developing market share. Secondly, the electronics industry has entered another golden age. I believe the most sustainable way of pulling the world economy back to rail is not endless government spending, but innovation. And one third of the world’s innovations come from the electronics industry. Moreover, India has launched an ambitious project to encourage innovations in the electronics industry, and offers preferential terms for electronics manufacturers, such as low taxes on aerospace products and government subsidies on environmentally-friendly auto products. Under all these unique, timely conditions, my redistribution business will blossom. After graduation, I will use the expertise obtained from my Duke MBA to improve my business in all possible ways, including upgrading our operations, supply chains, sales, and approach to HR. I am especially eager

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to upgrade the sales incentives and techniques that I have improvised, into more professional, established HR systems. Within five years of graduating from Duke, I will lead Mission to become a top redistributor in India by expanding sales outlets to Pune, Delhi, Bangalore and Hyderabad, around which many electronic product manufacturers cluster. Ultimately, I will crystallize my long-term vision: to grow Mission into a truly global business. I will first establish sales/after-service offices in Taiwan, Singapore and other South East Asian countries, which host many renowned international manufacturers. I am inspired to localize my enterprise by recruiting a local workforce, who share similar culture and background with our local customers, and therefore can enter into long-term relationships by face-to-face service. Next, I will set up procurement offices in US and Europe, where most semiconductor manufacturers there are headquartered, guaranteeing a stable global supply chain. The global redistribution trade is burgeoning, boasting two-digit growth rates over the past five years. I aspire to promote my current $1.2 million business into a multi-million enterprise with operations around the world, with hundreds of motivated colleagues working together towards the same goal.

What are your short-term and long-term post-MBA goals? How will CBS help you achieve these goals? As a child from a small village outside M’Bour, Senegal, I became used to constant power and water-cuts, assuming that studying by candle-light and floods during downpours were typical of any small-town. However, upon relocating to Dakar and eventually Cairo, I was shocked to discover that infrastructure deficiencies only increased in bigger cities, and dilapidated transportation networks and frequent traffic jams only compounded problems. As a Consultant at Globalreach Consultancy, I proposed strategic solutions to clients on infrastructure projects and came to see that the root cause of this abysmal state of affairs is often a lack of funds. One such project involved raising equity for a greenfield port at Fuzhou. I assessed the port’s economic feasibility, and presented the deal to various private equity funds. However, despite the experience of the developers, the PE players were not enthused, and the project stalled. Now, at SBI Capital Markets, I handle

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debt syndication for infrastructure projects. Over the past two months, I have spearheaded the financing of a new port, and, while 11 banks have agreed to fund the $170M deal, they have insisted on a caveat that the developer infuse $43M in equity first – funds which haven’t yet materialized. Given such scenarios, it is not surprising that Senegal has added only 17% of its planned power capacity and 13% to its roadwork infrastructure in the past five years. I aim to launch a private equity fund, investing in Senegal’s infrastructure. Projects such as building power plants, ports or toll roads are capital intensive, and require equity before loan funds can be infused. The fund will invest in developers with technical capability but lacking the requisite financial muscle. And once it proves itself successful in West Africa, it will shift its focus onto other emerging economies in Asia. To date, my experience has been primarily as a debt syndicator and not as an investor. Investing requires a different skill set – structuring and valuation dexterity, negotiation proficiency, and the ability to identify profitable exits. But as I establish and subsequently grow my fund, I will become proficient in a range of entrepreneurship, talent management and fund-raising skills that I wouldn’t gain if I stayed at SBI. And it is a CBS MBA which will empower me to transition from the role of debt syndicator to a PE professional while still continuing in the domain of infrastructure. Post-MBA, I will join a firm such as Barclays Capital, The Blackstone Group or IFC which invests in West African infrastructure. There, I will learn the due diligence fundamentals of investing in long-gestation projects, and the balancing act between risk and rewards, given a fund’s limited time-frame. At the firm I will rise to the position of a General Partner before I venture into my own infra-focused fund. A CBS MBA suits these goals perfectly. Dr. Sturmbach’s “PE in Emerging Economies” class is an ideal fit for me. Investments in emerging economies are closely tied to local governments, and her experience as a policy advisor will be especially helpful in this regard. I will secure valuation skills from Professor Gonzalez’s ”Venture Capital: Risks/Opportunity,” and I am eager to enroll in Professors Setzer’s and Lee’s Master Class on “Private Equity and Entrepreneurship,” where I will gain experiential training on investing in emerging economies. Simultaneously, I will avail myself of the 10-day pro-bono Internship Program and participate in the CBS’s PEVC Conference

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to bring the grad community closer to the private equity industry. Also, to improve my exposure to international work practices, I will participate in one of the Rutherford International Study Tours, and likely spend a semester in a Partner School under the Rutherford MBA Exchange Program. Engaging with The Eugene Lang Entrepreneurship Center through the Entrepreneurial Sounding Board in order to obtain critical feedback on my planned venture is also part of my plan at CBS. Even after my MBA has finished, I will stay associated with The Stenet Center through the Partnership Program and become a part of Women Entrepreneurs Network, as well as CWIB, where I will not only partner with my peers, but also provide guidance to future female leaders from CBS. I am eager to bridge the lack of funding in Senegalese infrastructure sector by connecting equity to fledgling projects, and there is no better place to hone the skills I need to achieve this goal than CBS. Hopefully by, future generations won’t have to experience the same “darkness” I did!

Describe your vision for your career and your inspiration for pursuing this career path. During Colombia’s political revolution, my father was exiled to the poorest place-the Wilchez-Cali Plateau. I was raised on this deserted hill, where below our feet lay unlimited black coal. I spent my childhood with friends by playing with those black stones, watching trains carrying them away every day. Though ranked top for coal output, we also ranked top for incidence of pneumonia and bronchitis. I developed pneumonia at age 11, and from that moment on I set out to change the situation. I chose the Bogota University of Science & Technology for undergraduate studies for its top-ranked chemistry major. Upon graduation, I joined the electrical energy industry at Schneider as salesperson to promote silicone to electric utilities companies. In my first year, I recognized the only way to increase market share given the state of the financial markets, was to be creative. So I tweaked the traditional sales approach by skipping manufacturers (our previous customers) and promoting our products directly to end-users—government electrical boards. I sensed that those boards had the power to influence manufacturers’ electricity-buying decisions. Working 18 hour days, I formed market analysis to clarify the benefits, walked along

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the line to get management team buy-in, established a technical consulting team, and led 16 presentations at customers’ sites in 22 days. One month later, we received our first batch of new orders, and within a year I brought the business up to $10.3 million by 62.5% growth, a record for the energy group in past 20 years. In the meanwhile, I also initiated expanding the business to northeast and southwest Colombia. This was the first time these areas received clean electrical energy compared to coal. My contributions were recognized as top ranking employee in company (5%), and rewarded Individual Contribution Cash Award in 2008. In 2009, due to my success in electrical energy industry I was promoted to a more challenging position—Trader. During that time, I experienced the biggest strategy transformation in Schneider history— our Azuremeter launch. Azuremeter is a new system that allows customers to place orders themselves, tracking their orders online. Despite its advantages, this system has very strict rules, as now customers can’t change or cancel orders. As Azuremeter’s leading sales person in Colombia, covering $57 million of our $280 million total business and five areas (including electrical power, and wind power) while my group’s other salespeople cover only one or two, it fell on me to meet with each customer to discuss their concerns, and overcome their objections. With 0% customer loss rate, I won the Azuremeter South America “Best Case Reward,” since on average the company lost 16%-23% of its customers in this migration. More importantly, this experience enabled me to lead my peers through major organizational change, handling uncertain situations together. In long term, my goal is to lead a regional South American green energy start-up to be a market leader in energy space. We will generate clean electricity from renewable sources, including clean gas, geothermal, and biomass. My company will integrate international best practices, technologies and capital into the continent’s domestic markets. We will distribute clean electricity to supplement up to 15% of current electricity utilization in the business and residential community, providing a roadmap for a low-carbon future amidst today’s ill-defined “clean energy” market. Directly after graduation, I will work as a strategic manager at a forwardthinking energy company such as DTE or ComEd Energy in the US, to learn how to run an energy company successfully. This experience will teach me valuable lessons in building sustainable competitive advantages, working

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closely with an accomplished, global team. It will also give me the chance to meet like-minded individuals who are also interested in green energy, who might join me in my future venture. During the past three years, I have developed a broad range of skills and perspectives. My sales experiences have equipped me with analytical background, strategic thinking and a shrewd sense for identifying commercial opportunities in the energy field. However, my current job doesn’t expose me to broader range of subjects required to run my own business, including supply chain optimization, R&D and HR management. I also lack the financial training which would enable me to manage funds and raise money—both will be necessary to grow. A Fuqua MBA will be the ideal training ground for me to equip myself with these critical skills—and to meet the next generation of leaders who will join me in this journey.

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PART

5

ALL ABOUT THE SCHOOL

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Come take a tour of campus with us in Part Five, where clients display their insider knowledge about the MBA program. The best versions of this essay, sometimes part of the Career Essay, discuss actual classes and teachers by name specific to a school. There should be clear reasoning about WHY the applicant needs to work with these teachers and professors, or what exactly they stand to gain from a specific course offering. Take every morsel of time you have before you submit to research the school and show them you’ve done your homework. Show them you’re aware the basketball team went to the Final Four, that the World Economics Curriculum is in its fifth year, or that studying from their campus in Shanghai is exactly what you need to launch your online education company. Make them feel appreciated and admired for your goals, instead of just another anonymous safety school on your list, and you’ll get further than your competitors. But don’t write them a love-letter full of flattery either. They are more than aware of their ranking, prestige, and value. Instead, make it more about how you will use that value to fulfill your own destiny.

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What steps have you taken to learn about the Berkeley MBA program, and what factors have influenced your decision to apply? I remember the three-page long email that Jillian Tyler (Haas ‘94), a long-standing, and cherished client of mine, sent in response to my questions about business school. She wrote passionately about her time at Haas, highlighting its focus on technology and entrepreneurship, and the collaborative, non-elitist community. I was sold on the school instantly. Talking with current students Ryan Parker and Annie Pagel about their experiences in weekly seminars on global technology hot-spots has bolstered my interest in Haas. Given my startup background and entrepreneurial ambition, an environment that focuses on innovation, technology, and entrepreneurship is ideal. Haas, with its proximity to the innovative San Francisco Bay area, is in the best locale in the world for me. Haas’s small class size will give me an opportunity to intimately know my incredibly talented classmates and feel a sense of community. By leading few of the 50+ student clubs, I’ll learn a lot about leadership. Through Peers@ Haas and close interaction with the faculty and career coaches, I stand to receive tremendous support. Haas startups such as Carsala.com and Keyhole Inc. (known as Google Earth today) are inspiring success stories. The fact that Haas startups such as Leapfrog Enterprises recruit at Haas demonstrates the passion that alumni have for the school. I would love to gain advice from other alumni entrepreneurs, such as Tyler Elliston and John Hanke who launched DeeperInk and SXD Music. I have been so excited about Berkeley for many years, that when my parents made their first trip to the US last year, I urged them to visit the University. My Dad, a real stickler for top shelf education, was inspired by his visit and signed “Father of Rohit, Prospective student@Haas” in the Sather Tower guestbook.

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What is it about Chicago Booth that is going to help you reach your goals? Booth will provide an ideal training ground for me to realize my career vision. It teaches in a global arena, encourages entrepreneurship, and offers a fast-paced, challenging academic life. Booth’s IMBA is pragmatic and, in fact, spotlights China. During my campus visit this past February, Shui Zhuan (‘09) introduced me to the Asian Economies and Business class. Shortly after, I adapted Professor Karl Wennerth’s lessons of Chinese corporate hierarchy into my Global Banking work with a Chinese client. If a day of Booth’s teaching can yield such results, I can only imagine the volumes I will learn from the 21-month program! I later reached out to current student Heather Zhang (IMBA ‘15) and alumni Franco Carbaess (IMBA ‘10). After hearing of their IBEP experiences and camaraderie with IMBA peers, I am even more focused in my pursuit of the program. I intend to enroll at Shanghai University for a semester to soak in the various Chinese market environments and perhaps even join its consulting recruiting season. I hope to exchange knowledge with IMBA friends among other IBEP trekkers to share our worldly experiences. The Entrepreneurship Center will help me to tap into my future clients’ entrepreneurial mindset, as I learn to develop and actualize entrepreneurs’ dreams through the Private Equity/Venture Capital Lab. I will also hone my own vision in the Commercializing Innovation course that bridges finance to strategic management, precisely the training that I need as I cross that same bridge, in my career. I find that in many ways the Booth experience mirrors that of a strategy consultant, with it’s McKinsey-sponsored case studies and onsite workshops. I will learn amidst Booth’s fast-changing quarter system, alongside my batch of brilliant, down-to-earth peers. We will together tackle case studies as a team, analyzing current research of real companies, as in Professor Olin Agareed’s Strategy Development class. I look forward to adding to this thought-provoking group, and working together to challenge our thinking and push one another to new heights.

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Student and alumni engagement has at times led to the creation of innovative classes. If you were able to create a Wharton course on any topic, what would it be? There is a crisis in education in the United States. Newsweek reported on August 18, 2010 that while the US once had the highest rate of educational attainment in the world, in the past ten years, we have fallen to twelfth in terms of percentage of young adults with a college degree. Perhaps even more disturbing is the fact that many kids have fallen so far behind by the time they reach high school. Nearly 70% of 8th graders in the United States, for example, are deficient in mathematics compared to their grade level. Upon high school graduation, the statistics are equally depressing; in 2010 less than a quarter of ACT takers possessed the skills required to pass entrylevel college courses. My class will be called Future’s Promise. With Professor Cheryl Jeffery leading the class, Wharton students will leverage her research on business model design and the performance of entrepreneurial firms, learning how to transform a passion into a profitable profession. The class will attack our nation’s educational deficiencies, converting Wharton students into consultants and tasking them with teaching at-risk high school students to develop an idea into a viable business. The best plans will enter a business plan competition, with the winner receiving funding to put the plan into action. Along the way, Wharton students will help high-schoolers develop an understanding of the real-world application of mathematics, initiative, and leadership skills that will empower them one day to pursue higher education. Wharton students will motivate the teenagers with the possibility of receiving cash for winning a contest and more importantly, by engaging students’ own interests. For example, a Wharton student paired with a girl interested in fashion might work together to convince a designer to use one of her ideas, or even how to launch a boutique clothing operation. A young man interested in music might take a similar route, perhaps exploring with his consultant how much a set of turn-tables would cost, and how he might purchase the equipment with a loan. The kids will be motivated by their own passions, and the potential of winning a cash prize will further drive their learning. Wharton students will enter Faith High School, recently ranked the worst

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public high school in Philadelphia based on floundering Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (“PSSA”) test scores. At Faith, which has only 440 students and an average class size of 18 students, Wharton students will take advantage of the intimate setting to engage children one-on-one. During the first class meeting, Wharton students will spend time with their high school partners to discover their interests, and begin developing a sense of familiarity. Occasionally partners will make field trips to study their interest. The girl interested in fashion, a junior, might travel with her Wharton consultant to a local designer boutique. With the consultant’s help, the junior would develop self-confidence by interacting with the boutique owner and employees. She would also learn about the business by quizzing the owner about the challenges of operating the store. The Wharton consultants will take away powerful lessons as well. The class will force MBA students to work through frustrating situations, situations they have perhaps never experienced, while maintaining a professional demeanor. Some students will likely be paired with youngsters who are unreceptive to advice, and potentially even disrespectful. This will help the Wharton consultants to develop some of the soft skills leaders need. Wharton consultants will likely benefit from the exercise of developing an open, comfortable bond of trust with their partners. The course will also reinforce the value to MBA seekers of giving back to their communities. In fulfilling two components of Wharton’s mission – outreach and social good – the consultants will improve their community, while learning a great deal along the way.

What unique aspects of the Foster MBA Program would contribute the most towards achieving your short term and long-term goals? What unique aspects of the Foster program specifically appeal to you? {Excerpted from 5-part prompt} [...] In order to run my own company, I need to understand the fundamentals of cost and productivity analysis, organizational strategy, and change management. I need to reinforce my operations, marketing, and finance knowledge to advise my clients in these areas. Lastly, I need skills in the areas of entrepreneurship, management, and general leadership training in order to run a sustainable enterprise of my own.

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My personal strength lies in building and nurturing relationships, which will be particularly key in developing trust and confidence with my clients. The small class size of Foster is therefore appealing to me. My campus visit and interactions with current students has further strengthened my belief that I will benefit from interacting closely with a group of 100 students rather than forging select relationships among an unwieldy class of 300-400. Through the Business and Financial Development Station, I will have the opportunity to serve on the board of non-profits. This is an absolutely incredible opportunity that will greatly improve my understanding of management issues specific to my area of interest. Washington has specific appeal to me as well. I have a close network of friends who work in places like Impact Motorsports and Penske Racing, and are actively involved in social work around Seattle and Foster. These people have always challenged and inspired me to follow my dreams. They are surrounded by like-minded businessmen and women with exciting entrepreneurial dreams of their own. This is the type of environment I’m hoping to immerse myself in during two productive years at Foster.

Why Duke? (If you are interested in a specific concentration, joint degree, clubs or activities, please discuss how you would contribute to these in this essay). The Duke MBA program will help me stand on the shoulders of giants, empowering me to lead my company to achieve its potential. I am eager to learn from Professor Mark Roggae, one of the most important business minds of the past century. His “Growing Your Business by Increasing Customer Worth” course will teach me new approaches to identifying and enhancing the value of my company. More excitingly, Professor Roggae is a founding partner of a leading consulting firm which serves an impressive list of Fortune 500 clients including high-tech big guns such as Cisco, HP, and Phillips. His practical experiences in the Hi-Tech industry will surely help me grow TechMaster, making his course a unique choice for me. Participating in Professor Joanne Sveld’s “STRATEGY - Global Business Project” will also be a powerful experience, as Professor Sveld enjoyed 13 years of senior leadership with Hewlett Packard and 22 years of VP/CEO

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experiences in the Hi-Tech sector. Under her precious mentorship, I will strengthen my global competency in the Hi-Tech distribution business, thus helping TechMaster grow into the future. Furthermore, the unique “Entrepreneurship and Ideas” concentration, with many of its courses specifically evolved from Hi-Tech topics, will deepen my understanding of my customers and help me sustain a competitive advantage. This concentration also offers a “Marketing of Innovation” elective. Through the unique marriage of marketing knowledge and Hi-Tech industry know-how, I will learn how to better assess customer needs in technology-intensive environments. I recently reached out to current Duke student Sherry Ngdou (Class of 2012), and she vividly depicted the Duke faculty as being both approachable and full of global vision. I am enthusiastic to consult Professor Jollette Bird, who actively researches supply chains and distribution systems in the global context, and who frequently teaches MBA courses to international students in the East and West, on the details of establishing TechMaster’s global redistribution network. Since TechMaster currently focuses on global manufacturers, I am eager to contribute my global experiences and perspective to discussions. I will provide my insights on how the value of various electronic components are added as they go through design (mostly in US, Germany, Japan and Korea), production (mostly in US, Taiwan and Korea), distribution (global) and final assembly (mainly in China, Taiwan, South East Asia, Mexico and East Europe). I will share with my Duke classmates my background in entrepreneurship, leadership, and self-development from a humble salesman to a visionary leader. I will tell them my stories of how I assumed the burden of family debts and became an entrepreneur, how I set an example for my teammates and built a collaborative team with great success, and how I motivated my salespeople to hit 20% annual sales increase in 2009 during the global economic downturn. I intend to take great interest in the Tech Field Society, which provides opportunities to network with various technology companies, potential global customers, and to keep abreast of the latest technology trends. In the Asian Business Club, I will network with like-minded students who aspire to focus their future careers on emerging Asian markets. For example, had I attended

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the “Asia Business Conference” this past February, I would have participated in the discussion with such business leaders as Gary Sousa, an IBM director, and learned more about contemporary Hi-Tech industry trends in the East from his perspective. I will also share my working/start-up lessons in Japan and Singapore with my fellow classmates. I will help those students who determine to launch their own businesses in Japan to socialize with or even visit my Japanese entrepreneur friends, who engage in a broad range of industries from financial services to textiles trading. I have more than eight years of close friendship with those entrepreneurs, and they will sincerely contribute their guidance to my Duke classmates. Lastly, I am also eager to learn from my creative, entrepreneurial classmates, all of whom will have exciting, powerful experiences of their own to share. I cannot be more excited to meet and exchange ideas with Duke students; their diverse global experiences and vision will surely capture my imagination, and we will inspire one another to achieve even more.

What attracts you specifically to the Yale School of Management’s MBA program? Yale’s renowned strategic management program and commitment to social responsibility represent the same fusion of strategy and social responsibility that I seek in my career. The elaborately designed courses in “Organizational Perspectives,” such as Sourcing and Managing Funds, will suit my entrepreneurial goals perfectly. Energy Markets Strategy, taught by Arthur Campbell, a thought leader in the wind and solar space, will teach me to build competitive advantage for my future company. Yale’s prominent teamwork culture perfectly appeals to my expectation on studying and working closely with fellows and professors. Beyond that, the famous “Raw Case” approach will enable me to best distill the information to handle real world issues. By joining Yale’s first year International Experience Destinations program, I will learn to think differently and effectively in a multi-culture based environment. Whether participating in Yale’s Energy Club, enrolled in a Bioengineering class at the Science school, or taking advantage of the tightly-knit alumni network, I am eager to contribute to SOM’s vibrant, supportive community.

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What is your personal experience with the Stern community? Tell us what actions you have taken to learn about us. Describe what most excites you about Stern from both an academic and extracurricular perspective. How do you anticipate making your mark on the academic community? Be specific about the roles you will take on and the impact you hope to achieve. “But you’re not an investment banker! Stern? Don’t bet on getting in…” Despite resistance from my peers, my desire to attend Stern couldn’t be stronger. I have taken every chance to know Stern better, from joining discussion in on-line forums, to following students’ blogs- especially Phillip Giddings (’11) who is pursuing a career in auto manufacturing. I have also exchanged emails with Graduate Ambassadors and club board members, attended the information session in Kyoto and met with local alumni Jane Haldeman (’08). The more I research, the more confident I am that Stern is the perfect school for me. I am drawn to Stern’s broad-based, balanced MBA curriculum. It would allow me to choose up to three specializations which would develop both my strength and weakness. Stern’s second-to-none Corporate Finance and Strategy specializations would supplement my background in Finance and strengthen my strategic thinking within the energy space. The Energy and Environment course especially, taught by Professor Bruce Greenwald, the author of Value Investing and The Global Race to Fuel the Car of the Future, would give me a more global view of developing trends in green energy. Moreover, my email correspondences with Jonas Wirches (‘11), a board member of Social Enterprise Association and the Chair of Think Social Drink Local, has taught me a lot about the SEA, from site visits to local, eco-minded business to career panels and networking events. The Speaker Series which includes a number of speakers from within the green energy space each year will be a perfect place to reach out into the industry to develop further industry access. Given my career aspirations in both green energy and strategy, I will seek a leadership position in the Strategy and

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Operation Club and in SEA to catalyze more collaboration between the two groups. New York is the dynamic epicenter for many clean energy companies, including Hess and Consolidated Edison, where I could learn real-world practices. Moreover, Stern’s strong connection with private equity firms located in NYC, such as Expansion Capital Partners, which invest in missiondriven clean-tech companies, would be a valuable resource for me to grow my venture in the future. Perhaps the most exciting element of the Stern experience is being immersed in a multinational community of highly-engaged students. I look forward to engaging my classmates through learning teams, sharing my sales and marketing experiences in a diverse group of industries, including electrical energy, silicon, and textiles. I am equally excited to learn of others’ diverse backgrounds as well. I will take the lead in organizing a study trip to Japan, where I hope to share with peers all my exciting observations from Japanese clean energy sector and deepen our understanding of one of today’s most exciting business landscapes. During my time at Stern and afterwards, I will utilize the resources of the distinguished Stern alumni network, and add my own resources in Japan, especially to build partnerships and collectively support our career ambitions. I am confident that NYU’s Stern School of Business will propel me forward in my goal to bring clean energy to communities across Japan.

What is your personal experience with the Stern community? Tell us what actions you have taken to learn about us. Describe what most excites you about Stern from both an academic and extracurricular perspective. How do you anticipate making your mark on the Stern community? Be specific about the roles you will take on and the impact you hope to achieve. I have engaged with Stern on multiple occasions. In 2008, during an official visit to New York, I visited the campus informally with a friend who attended Stern. I had heard a lot about the school from her and was curious to know more.

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I recently attended the Information Session in Rome (held at our Ponte Vecchio corporate office, in fact!) and interacted with Mark Cower, Assistant Director – Admissions and other Stern alumni at the event. I have researched Stern’s website extensively, and contacted officers of the Association of Investment Management and Research club (AIMR) to learn more about private banking events held at Stern. Throughout these interactions, the friendliness and the genuine warmth within the Stern community has left a mark on me. I am excited to attend classes of Professors Castner and Galvin, both stalwarts in the field of finance. I have heard from my friend and others at Stern as to how Professor Castner makes the finance classes interesting, and would love to be an addition to this community of his admirers. Professor Galvin has worked in the Investment Management field both in the private and public sector, and hence his insights would be invaluable. I am also excited about attending the GO! program to Argentina and international trek to China. I have witnessed the rising power of these emerging economies in my career. Investors in the US and abroad are increasingly seeking investments into these economies and such first-hand experience would be crucial in informing my global perspective. This knowledge, coupled with other courses of the Global Business specialization, would be helpful in my driving a bank’s global wealth management business. Personally, I am thrilled by the idea of two years of New York City living. A morning jog by Central Park, attending a studio recording of the Daily Show, spending my weekly (or perhaps monthly) food budget at Babbo, listening to world leaders like the Treasury Secretary or Fed Chairman speak at Stern, networking with industry leaders just around the block – I can’t help wishing I were at Stern already! I believe that with my truly unique background, I will make a meaningful impact on the Stern community. On the finance side, I work every day with concepts such as NPV, IRR, WACC etc. I am eager to share my finance knowledge in informal study groups with my peers, who have backgrounds in other areas. When our curriculum turns to those areas, I will again meet with my peers, this time as an eager student. Outside the classroom, I will participate in the AIMR club as a VP for Private Wealth Management. I will build on my existing contacts in New York

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and lead the effort in inviting speakers and organizing private banking events. I will also seek the role of VP Events at Stern Adventures club. As an accomplished hiking enthusiast, I am keen to organize hiking trips with my classmates, perhaps even rallying peers up to Maine or Vermont for a relaxing weekend. I will bring all I have within me to Stern, and I will contribute to the community with every ounce of my strength.

If you were able to create a Wharton course on any topic, what would it be? The state of primary and secondary education in Thailand is a work-inprogress. Although the government is doing its best to improve the system, social entrepreneurs are currently developing the most innovative and effective solutions. The course I am proposing, “Social Enterprises and Education in Thailand,” will study these efforts, and improve on them. The course will be comprised of three main sections. First, we will read cases of successful and unsuccessful companies in the education sector. We will invite those social entrepreneurs to speak with our class about their successes and failures. For example, JUBILEE is an organization that has created games for mobile phones to teach English in rural parts of Thailand where there is little to no access to schools or teachers. I have met with Christopher Meihi Kang, the social entrepreneur running the organization, and he would be thrilled to enlist Wharton’s help in developing their strategy to scale operations throughout Thailand. For every successful venture like JUBILEE, there are many more failures that offer rich learning opportunities as well - for example, an enterprise that tried to set up a school “cafeteria” in the low-income schools of Bangkok by paying mothers to cook food and charging students was unsuccessful. In my discussions with the founder, he explained that he was solving two problems – feeding children healthy school lunches and empowering women with paid work. But he failed to establish a sustainable cost structure, and grossly overestimated the number of families who would sign up for the meal plans. By learning from organizations that have failed, students will be in a better position to avoid common pitfalls when implementing their own ideas. 50% of students’ grade in the course will be based on class participation during

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these discussions. The second part of the class will be a project. Groups of students will partner with social entrepreneurs throughout Thailand, and learn about the problems they’re attempting to fix, and how effective their models are. As students develop an understanding of the enterprise’s strategy and operations, they will develop an action plan to help develop the enterprise from the viewpoint of an investor seeking sustainable long-term improvement and growth. Should we invest in this enterprise? If so, how much? Debt or equity? How active a role should we play as investors? Our strategies will be shared with the entrepreneur for feedback, and ultimately, for implementation. The final three class meetings will be presentations by the teams on their action plans, followed by Q&A from the class. This presentation will comprise the other 50% of the students’ grade in the course. The course will culminate in a trip to Bangkok coordinated with the Thai Club and the Thailand Trek in the winter, to meet personally with the social enterprises we have been helping. We’ll meet their stakeholders, further develop our understanding of the challenges and the enterprise’s solutions, make modifications to our plans for improving the enterprise, and begin implementing our ideas. In Thailand, we’ll meet with Candice Wu, the Commissioner of Education in Bangkok, whom I have met at an education conference. In our discussions, she has expressed her eagerness to innovate the system, and she is open to all possible solutions. We will also visit several schools and meet with principals, teachers, students and parents. The course will be taught by Professor Leo Pu, whose focus in Asian business leadership will be valuable in developing students’ perspective of leadership in Thailand. He is an expert in the management of emerging organizations in emerging economies, and his breadth of experience and network in Thailand will help establish local credibility. I envision that the course will lead to more collaborations with the Wharton Social Venture Fund. Wharton has an extraordinary entrepreneurial program, and this will be a powerful experience for students to combine a robust finance and management program with innovative and creating thinking. We will develop innovative, far-reaching solutions, as a team.

Why Duke? (If you are interested in a specific

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concentration, joint degree, clubs or activities, please discuss how you would contribute to these in this essay.) Duke’s culture of teamwork is extraordinary. When I watched Coach K and his team mount the podium in 2010 to receive their awards after the Final Four, it only seemed fitting, as it brought back the memory of my visit to Durham two years ago. I wasn’t left alone even for five minutes—at every turn, a Duke student approached me, sharing diverse backgrounds, and initiating conversations to establish common ground. Entering as a stranger, I left Durham with a number of friends. The trip gave me a sense of how Fuqua values teamwork. Today, the team spirit of the winning basketball team—and of the school that has been so supportive—convinces me that Duke is the best place for me to pursue an MBA to fully actualize my dreams. What is so distinctive about Duke Leadership is the emphasis on collaboration. This distinction is particularly meaningful to me because few professions rely on teamwork as heavily as we do in real estate. Taking the urban mall project for instance, as lead architect, I organized the project schedule and led the team, managing countless consultants, including structural engineers, civil engineers, interior designers and general contractors. As a specific design issue would arise, I would instantly switch to become a collaborator, supporting demands from specialized experts, and making adjustments if necessarily. Among all twelve concentrations, Entrepreneurship and Innovation is the one that can provide the knowledge and skills I desire most to actualize my dream. The curriculum integrates practical tools and experiential knowledge with root principles, which suits my background perfectly. I too bring a great deal of practical background, both in real estate and in business development, and I am eager to benefit from this more practical approach. With nearly 40% international students last year, and especially given the Global MBA option, I am strongly convinced that Duke’s multicultural environment matches my personal values of cultural diversity. I bring a similarly diverse background to Duke, as I have lived both in the west and the east (and back and forth again) over the past decade. I am eager to spend two years with others whose careers have also been so internationallyinformed. The international interest of business courses and electives such as the Global Academic Travel Experience will provide me with timely interactions that will help develop my international skillset, and background.

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Duke’s multicultural environment will also connect me with other people such as investors, land owners and developers to build a strong real estate network. Beyond real estate, I was surprised to learn that among over 40 clubs there is no organization devoted to film. I want to launch a film club and will host serial theme nights inviting my classmates to introduce cultures of their home countries via movies. At Spanish Night, I will introduce the work of Pedro Almodovar, the director of critically acclaimed films like “Talk To Her” and “Volver.” I am also drawn to Duke’s unique course structure, six-week terms rather than quarters or semesters. It is particularly meaningful to me because I come from a practical field unfamiliar with many of the subjects covered in the program. Such structure not only allows me to take more courses, it also gives me flexibility to fully pursue my career vision, which is clear to me today. Finally, I have been extremely impressed to learn that the program’s structure and curriculum keep evolving over the years incorporating students’ advice. For instance, the winter optional term was introduced since 2006 in response to 1st year students’ hopes to better prepare for summer internship interviews that come in January and February. And the concept of concentration was also introduced to the program in recent years to develop both the breadth and depth of the courses. These actions show how devoted the Duke MBA program is to always exceed itself. I share this vision. Whether improving my designs, challenging myself to build three profitable businesses overseas, or now making a clearly-defined career change, I too am always seeking to improve myself. This is perhaps the strongest reason why I know that Duke is the perfect fit for me.

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PART

6

O P T I O N A L E S S AY S

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As a little BONUS we’re including a Part Six. Here, we examine a few of the optional essay types that tend to appear at the end of the application package. Some are mandatory, but completely open-ended: there is no guidance or regulation. Others may have a prescribed topic, a word limit; and still yet with others, the only ‘optional’ aspect about them is whether you must write it or not. The clients below chose to enhance their applications through the optional essay in several different ways. Some chose to mention new achievements. Others decided to address a peculiarity in their story: perhaps a period of unemployment, a career change, or a dubious G.P.A. At Admissionado, a rule of thumb we promote is: get in and out of the optional essay as quickly as possible. We usually recommend a little less fanfare and more of a straight-forward approach. Why pile on another lengthy piece of reading for the admissions committee? Don’t shoot yourself in the foot at the finish line. Ask yourself if it’s truly necessary. If it’s not clear and isn’t serving a specific purpose, get rid of it. Or start over. Or chop it in half. And if you don’t know, that’s why we’re here! For example, if you are explaining a failure not yet addressed in the setback/failure section, hold your head up high and tell them what happened, why you are wiser, and what you believe about yourself in the present. You’ve got nothing to hide and you’ve come a long way! Let’s check out these last essays before we sign off. We hope you enjoyed the ride and thanks for reading. Now… time for YOU to get to work!

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Optional Essay: Should you have been employed for any significant period of time during your undergraduate program, please make note of this here. My division at Bank of America (BOA) relies on my work and client load, and might be put in a difficult position by my departure. I have decided not to ask my current supervisor for a recommendation, as doing so would likely jeopardize my standing in the group, and possibly my employment. Instead, I have asked former supervisors at (BOA) to provide recommendations. To relieve my parents of my financial burden and to independently finance my own education, I worked part-time jobs in addition to internships and full-time studies at University of Michigan. After doing well in my engineering Calculus courses, the math department recruited me as a Calculus teaching assistant to undergraduate students. For three years, I held this position and averaged 15 hours a week, even during the quarter when I interned for Chase. Other part-time jobs I had in Ann Arbor during summer breaks include restaurant hostess at the Café Felix and Java House Barista. Other internships not listed elsewhere in the online application include Dearborn One Risk Consulting (Detroit Branch) and Center for Economic Development in Auburn Hill’s Chamber of Commerce.

Optional Essay I recognize that few aspiring investment bankers apply to Booth as employees of a college admissions office. I would like to describe why I left banking, especially given my career goals in the field. In the spring of 2010 Gartson-Stevens Inc.’s deal pipeline was the smallest it had ever been. Rather than working on live deals, I found myself in the monotonous routine of creating pitchbooks for deals we were unlikely to land. Around the same time, the Dean of Admissions at North Park University asked me if I would be interested in working as an Assistant Dean of Admissions, in charge of four subordinates. The President of the university also explained that he wanted me to use my financial modeling skill set to build the school’s $98 million budget and analyze how different cohort sizes, attrition, yield, and discount rates would affect the 2010 budget.

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I saw the job as a unique opportunity to keep my financial modeling skills sharp, while also developing my leadership and sales skills along the way. Fifteen months into my tenure at North Park, I could not be happier with my decision. After I presented to the Board of Trustees, which includes members of public company boards, I convinced the Board to maintain high discount rates. After making 87 presentations to high school students in 50 days, I recruited 39% more students than my predecessor. I also developed motivational skills that enabled me to drive my subordinates to exceed our team goals by 7%. Most importantly, my expanded skill set has given me the confidence to be a leader in my learning team, cohort, and community.

Is there any further information that you wish to provide to the Admissions Committee? (Please use this space to provide an explanation of any areas of concern in your academic record or your personal history.) I received an MBA from the Faculty of Management Studies (FMS), University of Madrid, in 2007, but I’d like to explain my reasons for pursuing Stanford’s two-year MBA program at this point. As I entered final year of my engineering degree with two employment offers in hand, the prospect of a career in Information Technology seemed less appealing with every passing minute. Business articles in the daily paper piqued my interest much more than the technology pieces, and I was far more interested in working to solve a client’s funding quagmires than providing software solutions in a silo. Securing admission to one of Spain’s top business institutes fortified my decision, and I dove into a post-graduate course without any prior work experience and with an at-most hazy goal of wanting to enter “finance” post-MBA. Because my objective was vague, the path I followed in school was also vague. I studied the majority of the nine available finance electives, learning about many broad areas but focusing on none. The teaching methodology focused on theory, but not real-world application, and student-industry interaction was extremely rare. As a result, I did not connect meaningfully with any particular area of finance at that point. Three years of full-time experience later, though, I have achieved that meaningful connection—in infrastructure and private equity. However, I recognize that in order to

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establish my career in PE and ultimately start my own PE Fund I have to gain academic as well as industry exposure . As a freshman, I did not comprehend the importance of exposure to varied backgrounds, professional or personal. My MBA didn’t help either, as the student community at FMS was extremely one dimensional, with 99% of the class being both Spanish and over 75% of it comprised of engineers with less than a year of work experience. Thus, class-room discussions, project work and other team-based activities lacked the rich diversity which comes from differences in cultures, opinions and experiences. This lacuna was reinforced when I worked in an international team at Capital One, conducting reviews of bank’s operations and providing feedback to associates across the globe. As my goals consist of becoming part of a global team at a PE firm, and later sourcing equity from an international investor base for my own fund, I require greater exposure to a greater range of cultures and experiences. In retrospect, despite its drawbacks, I am glad that I pursued an MBA degree straight out of graduation as it introduced me to the world of finance. Today, however, my goal of instituting a PE Fund is more focused and international in context, and I aim to bridge the gaps in my education that have appeared over the past three years alongside a professionally experienced and diverse MBA class at Stanford.

Please include any other information that you believe would be helpful to the admissions committee in considering your application. I would like to take this opportunity to explain my reasons for pursuing a second degree in the field of management. An intern at KPS Mifflin during college, I was keen to land a gainful position after I graduated. But entry barriers, in terms of educational qualifications, to major positions in this sector were prohibitively high. Thus, Whitman Business School was the next logical step after my undergraduate degree. This program provided me with the educational prerequisites necessary to enter Stromback Mutual Fund, the largest mutual fund house in the U.K. Whitman opened doors for me and taught me most of what I know about the world of business. Thanks to Whitman—and in turn, Stromback—I gained intense practical experience in areas of channel management, leadership,

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and teamwork. However, the more I learned about the broader picture of organizational structure and execution of business plans, the more I was drawn to the idea of applying my business skills to what I love most - helping my country exploit missed opportunities. Whitman had a specifically British focus - most of my teammates shared the same values and perceptions as my own. However, in order to achieve success for my vision in rural areas where missed opportunities may be the result of outmoded practices, I need a more global experience. I need skills to work in diverse teams, to understand and integrate the perspectives of stakeholders belonging to different cultures with different values. A Harvard Business School MBA will deliver this experience, helping me bring diverse and new ideas that have been tested around the world to the remote hamlets in England that need them the most.

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US A A DMISSION A DO H Q | 2 0 3 9 NORTH A L B A NY AV ENUE | C HI C A G O | +1 312 278 10 0 4

china W e s t e r n T o w e r | 12 0 5, 19# R e n m i n Na n l u 4 D u a n | C h e n g d u | +8 6 4 0 0 6 3 5 3 8 0 0

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