Kathryn Hennigan 

University of North Carolina, Kenan-Flagler Business School 

Describe yourself in 15 words or less: Urban hiking enthusiast by way of Boston and San Francisco, currently back in North Carolina.

Hometown: Mooresville, North Carolina

Fun Fact About Yourself: In college, I participated in a Peruvian archaeological dig featured in National Geographic.

Undergraduate School and Major: Harvard College, Social Anthropology

Employers and Job Titles Since Graduation:

Public Consulting Group, Business Analyst

Houzz, Industry Marketing Manager

Houzz, Partnerships Manager

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far:  Moving across the country to San Francisco without any job prospects and making the transition from consulting to marketing at a tech company is my biggest accomplishment so far. With a little bit of faith and determination, I landed at Houzz and worked on the industry marketing team there for the past three years. Being able to experience life in Silicon Valley and working at a start-up during a tremendous growth phase were invaluable experiences for me and taught me countless skills and lessons that will inform the rest of my career endeavors.

Looking back on your experience, what one piece of advice would you give to future business school applicants? For me, a huge part of applying for business school was trusting the process and being myself. Each school that you apply to will have different essay topics, and I found those to be a great way to express myself authentically and determine fit with different programs. Your responses to the essay prompts will click with some schools and won’t click with others, but knowing that you represented yourself honestly will help guide your process and match you to the best school for you.

What was the key factor that led you to choose this program for your full-time MBA and why was it so important to you? A key factor that led me to UNC Kenan-Flagler was the top-notch MBA real estate program. I was also very impressed with the collaborative nature and sense of community that I felt from everyone I encountered from the School throughout my application process. I used to think that business school would be very cutthroat and competitive (not my ideal learning environment), but at UNC Kenan-Flagler I found exactly the opposite. It’s a place that is a true community, where everyone is supportive and invested in each other’s successes. That aspect of a school was very important to me and one of the main reasons that drew me to UNC Kenan-Flagler.

What would success look like to you after your first year of business school?  To me, a successful first year of business school would include forming high quality, meaningful relationships with all of my classmates; having a solid foundation in the core curriculum as well as starting to explore real estate classes; and securing a real estate development internship in a major city on the east coast.