Meet Minnesota Carlson’s MBA Class Of 2019

Beth Lokken  

Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota

Describe yourself in 15 words or less: A strong woman looking to make a societal impact by helping organizations perform better.

Hometown: Anoka, Minnesota, but I’ve lived in Washington, DC for the past five years

Fun Fact About Yourself:  During college, I spent a year in South Africa training to be an archaeologist. I wrote my thesis about tortoise bones found at a stone age site.

Undergraduate School and Major: B.A. in Anthropology from Arizona State University, M.A. in International Education from George Washington University

Employers and Job Titles Since Graduation:  All of my experience since graduation has been in the non-profit and international education sectors in a variety of roles, including a year of volunteer service as an AmeriCorps VISTA volunteer. I spent two years teaching English in Istanbul, followed by roles with George Washington University and the Fund for Education Abroad while I was completing my master’s. For the past four years, I have worked in business development for international non-profit organizations focused on international education.

Specific employers and job titles:

• AmeriCorps VISTA, Homework Center Coordinator (AmeriCorps VISTA Volunteer)
• Istanbul Language Center and later self-employed, English Teacher
• George Washington University, Program Assistant for the Master Teacher Leadership Development Program
• Fund for Education Abroad, Program Manager
• RTI International, Program Development Coordinator and later Research Education Analyst
• Institute of International Education (IIE), Program Development Specialist

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far: In the midst of the recession in the U.S., I got an English teaching certification and taught English in Istanbul, Turkey. After spending a year working at an adult language school, I struck out on my own and built a full-time freelance business with clients all over the city. I started with one student and established a clientele base through word-of-mouth and advertisements. This was with mediocre Turkish skills and before smartphones, but I learned how to navigate several forms of public transportation to traverse all corners of a city of 15 million, building my confidence and independence along the way.

Looking back on your experience, what one piece of advice would you give to future business school applicants? Remember that you’re evaluating schools at the same time they are evaluating you! Just because a program is highly-ranked doesn’t mean it will be the right fit for you and your career goals. For this, there is no substitute for the campus visit. The ability to get a feel for campus, city, and program culture is an absolute necessity. Take advantage of opportunities like women’s weekends and Carlson’s “Connect with Carlson” event held in the fall. I regret not visiting all of the schools to which I applied because I found myself choosing between two I had visited in the end.

Ultimately, I selected Carlson because I felt like the culture was a better fit, which I discovered through my campus visit. If you can’t visit, ask to be put in touch with a student with a similar profile – age, background, family life, post-MBA goals, etc. I was pregnant when I applied to business school, so I tried to speak to parents of young kids to get a feel for how they balanced the program with parenthood. Through those conversations, I learned about the level of support offered to parents by the program, students’ ability to schedule group work around family responsibilities, and even the availability of lactation spaces near classrooms. These conversations greatly influenced my decision, as current parents at Carlson said that the program’s staff and faculty were incredibly supportive.

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? I applied to five schools and was accepted to four with comparable levels of scholarship funding, so it was a difficult choice. But – and I know this sounds cliché – Carlson was the only program where I felt like more than a number.

The program is small and the entire recruitment process had a personal touch, so it gave me the sense that the program would be highly personalized as well. I was living in DC, and a Carlson staffer in town for an event heard that I was pregnant, so she brought Carlson onesies for the baby! When I spoke with current Carlson students, they told me that the Graduate Business Career Center (GBCC) worked with them individually to truly understand what type of career and/or company would be the right fit. I know which direction I’d like to go after my MBA. Coming from the non-profit world, I’m a career switcher so I’m not totally sure how to get there. I’ll need that personalized help to figure it out. Combine this with the promise of free babysitting from my parents, who live only 30 minutes away, and Carlson was a no-brainer!

What would success look like to you after your first year of business school?  I’ll have a better understanding of the right next steps in my career path, the skills needed to take those steps, and an internship that will provide an avenue to apply what I have learned to a new industry.