Duke Daytime MBA Student Blog

Reflecting on the sun setting on my time here at Fuqua, I share the speech I delivered to my peers at the MBA Association Academy Awards event.

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.

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

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.

When I was a prospective student, I remember reading marketing materials about Fuqua. Now that I have graduated, I have seen how the elements of that content have been brought to life.

Serving on the cabinet of the Design & Innovation Club is one of my favorite extra-curricular activities at Fuqua. Guiding my classmates through design thinking workshops is extremely rewarding, and has given me the chance to hone my own design skills as well

Coming from Brazil, I quickly learned that the cultural difference between my home country and the U.S. is greater than I had ever realized. Having support from fellow Latin American students has helped me make the best of my experience