Duke Daytime MBA Student Blog

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 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.

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

Here at Fuqua, we believe that design thinking is a fun, creative way to answer questions, design products, and ideate process improvements. We strive to introduce these skills and provide a fun environment in which to practice them.

School fit was an essential criterion when evaluating which school would be the best choice for me. Thus, attending the Workshop was a crucial step in my search process. Throughout the weekend, I was able to get a real sense of Fuqua’s overall community.

I had been researching business schools for a couple years, and after a while, all the top schools seemed the same. I needed something that would cut through the sound bites and similarities to know whether or not I, an openly gay individual, would belong.

My journey at Fuqua was not linear. I moved from Brazil to the United States specifically to join Fuqua. I’ve experienced all the feelings and struggles international students usually go through when pursuing their MBA.

Needless to say that an entrepreneur's life is not all roses, and I learned a lifetime of lessons in this journey. Here are a few I think everyone should know at the beginning.