Meet Maryland Smith’s MBA Class of 2018

Aurin Lewis 

University of Maryland, Robert H. Smith School of Business and the School of Public Policy

Describe yourself in 15 words or less: I am dedicated to serving low-income communities through sustainable programs that meet their needs.

Hometown: Bronx, NY

Fun Fact About Yourself: I love science fiction books, movies and TV shows! I love how science fiction writers are able to expose our societal issues through fictitious stories that challenge our viewpoints about humanity.

Undergraduate School and Major: Swarthmore College, Educational Studies and Spanish Literature

Employers and Job Titles Since Graduation:

For Love of Children – Bilingual Program Coordinator

University of Maryland – Coordinator of Black Student Involvement

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far: My biggest career accomplishment has been engaging Spanish-speaking families at For Love of Children. At this local non-profit, we provided one-on-one volunteer tutors to low-income K-12 students who were below grade level in math and reading. Our population was made up of 48% Hispanic/Latino, 49% African American, and 3% multiracial students.

One of my responsibilities at FLOC was to serve as the primary liaison for Spanish-speaking families who were interested in receiving our services and who were already enrolled in the program. In my time there, I translated various documents, workshops, and events to include the Spanish-speaking families into our programming. Our retention and participation of these families increased as a result and they also reported feeling more integrated in the FLOC community after our large-scale events and workshops. I also led the Parent Engagement Strategic Planning Team, which was tasked with researching best practices for family engagement and surveying FLOC parents about their interest in engagement events. We found that families were interested in attending community building events (53%), engaging other families (64%) and participating in training for future initiatives (85%).

Looking back on your experience, what advice would you give to future business school applicants? Before I considered enrolling in a graduate program, I actually read a few “self-help” books to get to me thinking about the purpose and value this experience would provide. With the help of these books I was able to identify some questions to frame my decision making:

• Who am I trying to impact? Who will benefit from the skills that I will gain with my degree(s) in addition to myself?
• How have I already helped that community and how will this degree enhance my ability to assist them further?
• Who has done this before? Who can I get advice from?
• What skills (technical, leadership, etc.) am I hoping to gain from this experience? Am I open to being challenged by diverse peers to become the leader I need to be? Am I ready?
• What can I bring to the program that will set me apart?
• Is this a good time for me to apply?

Answering these questions for myself not only helped me feel committed to the experience, but it also helped me articulate the importance of this degree to my interviewers. I think anyone considering graduate school needs to be honest with themselves about these questions above. You need to understand why this degree/school is important for your development as much as you want the school to understand why you’re the candidate for them!

What led you to choose this program for your full-time MBA? One of the reasons I chose the full-time MBA program at the Smith School is that it allowed me to build on the Master of Public Policy degree that I had started the year before. The dual MBA/MPP option is perfect for me because I am interested in working on public budgeting issues, and I am intrigued by the contributions of both the private and public sectors in this area. It was also important for me to stay in the Washington metro area due to the high exposure to government agencies and the consulting firms that work with them. Finally, because I was already at the University of Maryland, I was able to witness how collaborative the Smith students were and I really wanted to be a part of that community.

Tell us about your dream job or dream employer at this point in your life? At this point in my life, my dream job would allow me to help government agencies and-or nonprofit organizations provide social services in the most cost-effective way. I believe that we can do more to alleviate poverty in this country and, at the same time, ensure that we are making fiscally smart and sustainable decisions. Having grown up in a low-income community myself, I am very familiar with the programs that these communities depend on and I also want to make sure that we are not creating a cycle that keeps these families in poverty generation after generation. I am learning everyday about organizations in both the private and public sector that are working on these issues so I may find my dream employer soon!

What would you like your business school peers to say about you after you graduate from this program?  I would like my peers to say that I challenged myself, I was open to feedback, and that I supported them. One thing that truly sets the Smith program apart is the collaborative nature of the cohort. We are encouraged to not only work well in teams and be collaborative on projects, but also to support one another professionally and personally. I have only been at the program for about two months and I cannot count the number of conversations I’ve had with both second-year students and my first-year peers who have provided me with advice on both career-related and personal matters. Even in this short time, most of my peers have an idea of my strengths and areas for growth. I hope that I continue to develop these relationships in order to grow and learn from everyone I meet while at the same time providing that same type of support to them as well.