Meet Georgetown’s MBA Class of 2018

Kelsey Lents

 

Georgetown University, McDonough School of Business

Describe yourself in 15 words or less: Designer, entrepreneur, professor, traveler and now student. A multitude of personalities looking for one voice.

Hometown: I was born in London, England, and raised in St. Louis, MO, but have been living in NYC, NY for the past 9 years.

Fun Fact About Yourself: I’ve co-founded a research and design group (SEArch) with 3 others to work with the aerospace industry, including NASA, to design habitats for Mars that prioritize the human experience. I’ve also begun a lightweight concrete and metal jewelry line – architects love their concrete!

Undergraduate School and Major: Yale University, B.A. in English Literature; Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Preservation and Planning, Masters of Architecture

Employers and Job Titles Since Graduation:

• Fulbright Fellow to Berlin, Germany (immediately following graduation from Yale)
• Project Manager at Tonychi & Associates
• Project Manager at Hollwich Kushner Architects
• Associate/Senior Project Manager at A+I (Architecture Plus Information)
• Associate/Assistant Adjunct Professor at Columbia University and Parsons School of Design (concurrent with my work at HWKN and A+I)

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far: I’ve been focusing on creative workplace design the last couple years. There have been a few moments where, after presenting a design that reacts to what we’d heard during employee and C-suite interviews, the CEO realized that he/she could create a work experience that allowed the company’s internal and external missions to be one and the same. Revolutionizing how someone thinks about their business and employees is amazingly rewarding. I was also part of our own company’s restructuring discussions that gave me the opportunity to have real impact on day-to-day management and allowed me to spearhead a mentorship program to help employees define their career paths.

Looking back on your experience, what advice would you give to future business school applicants? Don’t be intimidated if you’re coming from a non-traditional background. I knew going in that I didn’t have a typical application – I came from design, was a little older, and wasn’t looking at traditional career paths post-grad school. Don’t think about outliers in your application as negatives/ Think and talk about them as potential differentiators. That means taking the time to really figure out what you want to do with your MBA and to build your application around how your experience is informing where you ultimately want to end up. Schools will appreciate that self-awareness and clarity of purpose. And really let your personality show through in your essays.

Think of the application process not just as a way for schools to decide if they want you, but for you to determine if the school is the right fit for you as well. You want to end up somewhere that has the classes, culture, and student population that is in line with what you want out of the MBA. That means being honest with yourself during the application process and while writing your essays. The process of applying really helped clarify what I was looking for and the school that’s the right fit for you will similarly recognize how your background and strengths will benefit them.

Lastly, if it’s been a while since taking standardized tests, take a class if you’re able – test taking is a skill and definitely one you can learn. A class can help you break down the portions you find difficult into something manageable, particularly if you create a study schedule and stick to it. And give yourself a little more time than you think you’ll need so you aren’t panicking if there are unexpected work deadlines, trips, etc.

What led you to choose this program for your full-time MBA?  Georgetown really fit what I was looking for in location, student body, and caliber of program. The school prides itself in its diversity. Coming from New York and the arts where being different is a real strength, it was important to me to be part of a program that truly values varied thought and experience. McDonough also has a strong background in strategy and organizational behavior, which is a particular interest and focus of mine. I also appreciated Georgetown’s connection to DC, which is a city whose population is continuously changing and which therefore has become host to a multitude of brand strategy firms that merge business and design. I thought I could learn a great deal from a school and professors accustomed to the need for adaptability in both culture and infrastructure.

Tell us about your dream job or dream employer at this point in your life? Ultimately, I want to establish a new typology of strategists who can address the relationship between design, organizational structure, and management. As someone trained in architecture, I absolutely believe that environment affects the way in which we interact with the world and our thought processes. As a manager, I’ve seen first-hand how organizational structure influences the effectiveness of working within that environment to take advantage of those thought processes. This means I firmly believe that a company’s success is rooted in its people, policy, and place — by which I mean that the way in which a firm’s employees interact with each other, their environment, and the organization are all intrinsically tied to each other and to a firm’s product. By getting my MBA, I want to use my background in both design and business to merge these cornerstones into a fluid way of thinking for firms in flux – and to help them build an adaptable infrastructure that’s respectful of the firm’s culture, process, and desired output. I am a big proponent of putting together teams of people with varied backgrounds and ways of thinking to create a unique approach, so I would love to eventually create a “motley” team of strategists that really push how we think about the workplace.

What would you like your business school peers to say about you after you graduate from this program?  That I brought a fresh, sometimes quirky, way of thinking to the classroom that changed the way they thought about management and business.