Meet The McCombs’ MBA Class of 2018

Sweena Kahn

The University of Texas at Austin, McCombs School of Business

Hometown (City and State): San Diego, CA but lived all over

Pre-MBA Location: New York, NY

Fun Fact About Yourself:  I am passionate about design and architecture. When I’m not busy with b-school, I am probably diving into a design or architecture publication, blog, or insta or snap story. Thinking about design makes me happy.

Undergraduate School and Major:

• Georgetown University, MS Biophysics and Physiology
• University of Michigan, Economics Major

Employers and Job Titles Since Graduation:

• Memorial Sloan Kettering (New York, NY)
  • Research Associate II
• University of Michigan (Ann Arbor, MI)
  • Clinical Research Associate

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far: Before coming to business school, I worked on a Phase III clinical trial validating a type of biotechnology for treating spine cancer. This trial will change the treatment paradigm for nearly 30% of all cancer patients in the next ten years. It was a real privilege to be a part of that.

What advice do you have for applicants in actually applying to a school, writing essays, doing admission interviews, and getting recommenders to write letters on your behalf? Start early. You should give yourself at least a year to attend admissions events at various programs, visit target schools, participate in industry conferences, take the GMAT, speak to alumni and current students, prepare to write your essays, think about your goals, and think about what motivates those goals. Your application will be much richer, more personal, and more authentic if you do all this footwork beforehand.

What led you to choose this program for your full-time MBA? I loved the McCombs alumni that I met in New York City and realized that being a part of the McCombs family would be a great fit for me. In addition to its collegial and driven people, McCombs’ MBA+ Program, Venture Fellows, and Venture Fund were some of the key reasons I chose to attend business school here. Austin was also a major draw for me, because it is such a vibrant city in which to study business.

Tell us about your dream job or dream employer at this point in your life? My dream job would be one in which I do things like help take a cutting edge gene-editing biotechnology company public. This appeals to me because of the impact that such biotechnology will have on the future and the countless lives that it can improve.

What would you like your business school peers to say about you after you graduate from this program?  After I graduate from McCombs, I hope that my business school peers will say that I offered up my enthusiasm generously as a way of supporting others and that I consistently took the chance to step into the uncomfortable and the unknown as a way to grow.

What would you ultimately like to achieve before you graduate? I hope to understand myself better as a leader, learn how to grow a company with integrity, and transform the way I think about strategy in the life sciences and financial services businesses.