Since beginning my post-graduate journey, I’ve come to appreciate that Weekend Executive MBA students are a special breed.

We’re the kind of people who look at a full-time job, a family, a mortgage, and an already packed calendar and think, “You know what would really round this out? Graduate school.”

About halfway through my first term, the honeymoon ended. Virtual info sessions were behind me, and the excitement of orientation had faded. What remained were weekly team meetings, case preps, monthly flights to Durham, and late-night assignments squeezed between bedtime routines.

I remember sitting at my laptop one evening thinking, “This is more than I thought I signed up for.” And then, almost immediately, “Maybe that’s exactly what I signed up for.”

When Purpose and Program Intersect

Alongside my corporate career, my wife and I co-founded TapUStry Collective. What began as an effort to preserve a story she grew up hearing from her grandmother became the documentary The Paris 3, which tells the story of three young Black girls who, in 1961, took a stand against segregation, changing the small town of Paris, Kentucky, forever.

After our first screening, we realized the town hadn’t openly talked about that moment for more than 60 years, never fully processing what happened in their own town. And if one small town hadn’t healed, how many others across the country were still carrying stories in silence?

This year marks the 65th anniversary of that moment. We recently acquired the very bus station with plans to restore it into a living legacy museum. A space that challenges us to look beyond our own experience and lean in to understand someone else’s.

And that’s how Fuqua is equipping me to meet this moment in my life…

Expanding My Capacity

I started this MBA with a mindset pointed at advancement. I saw the program as a tool that would open doors and position me for the next professional move. However, my thinking has shifted.

For me, this experience isn’t just about professional advancement. It’s about expanding my capacity to build something that lasts and the capacity to lead when outcomes aren’t guaranteed.

In Professor Ashleigh Shelby Rosette’s leadership course, we explored how leaders operate in environments defined by volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity. The takeaway wasn’t about adopting a fixed leadership style but developing judgment and the ability to assess the moment and adapt accordingly.

That framework resonated with me deeply because the work we’re building through TapUStry exists in exactly that kind of environment. Conversations about history and identity are complex and outcomes aren’t straightforward. Progress doesn’t follow a predictable playbook. At Fuqua, I’m embracing that mindset with sharper thinking and stronger judgment. In the process, I’m honing my ability to expand not just what I know, but what I can carry.

Carrying What Matters Most

At home, I’m a husband and a father of two boys under four. I think often about what it means to model conviction over comfort. To choose responsibility over ease and long-term impact over short-term stability. Expanding my capacity has meant learning to hold both: building professionally while stepping more fully into work that carries weight beyond a title.

If you’re considering an MBA in the middle of a full life, expect it to stretch you. Expect it to humble you. Expect to wonder, at least once, what you were thinking; I did.

And then lean in. Because growth isn’t measured in titles or degrees, it’s measured in the capacity you build to meet the moment in front of you.