Duke Daytime MBA Student Blog

Aruna is an impact-driven brand that creates lifelong freedom for victims of human trafficking through employment.

One course that stood out to me during my Summer Term experience last year was Entrepreneurial Mindset and Action. It was a new course, debuted to our Class 2022, to stimulate us to develop entrepreneurial perspectives and skills through experiential learning activities.

The most challenging aspect of my leadership experience was last summer when I felt like I could barely balance life personally and professionally. The first wave of COVID-19 hit, classes were now virtual, my internship had been shortened, and I was grappling with how to build an inclusive community through it all.

Reflecting on my background helped to enable me up for my personal mission in Diversity and Inclusion (D&I). My first opportunity in D&I came in the form of supporting our recruiting team by going back to Temple, my undergraduate alma mater, to identify candidates to join the company.

In some of my first interactions, I could see the many possibilities for students to be leaders within the Fuqua community and to make a difference for their peers and the broader community. Taking the responsibility of being a leader at Fuqua is essential to maintaining the Fuqua community which we love so much.

I began my business school search broadly, looking for a program that stood out. I had little doubt about making close friends in a tight-knit community. But could that collaborative, team-first mentality really make a difference when it counted?

Before embarking on business school and then the business world, I was terrified. I soon discovered there were nice people who genuinely cared and wanted a better world too.

I decided to use my two years in business school to learn more about what it's like to work with smaller companies—especially startups—and try my hand as a founder, experimenting in entrepreneurship. Fuqua has turned out to be the perfect place to do this.

Growing up, I knew I wanted to attend schools that placed an equal emphasis on academic and athletic success. I pursued my undergraduate degree at West Point but I never forgot about Duke or those, “Cameron Crazies.”

I like to joke that my business school journey would make a perfect entry for, “How not to prepare for business school.” I chose Fuqua for many reasons, the most compelling of which is the Fuqua community. The turning point for me was attending the Women’s Leadership Weekend in November 2018