Meet Indiana Kelley’s MBA Class Of 2019

Stephanie Jordan 

Indiana University, Kelley School of Business 

Describe yourself in 15 words or less: Opera singer turned consultant with a fast mile time and a heart of gold.

Hometown:  Clarendon Hills, IL

Fun Fact About Yourself: No matter how late I stay up the night before, chances are you’ll still see me running at the gym at 6am.  Fitness is my blessing and my curse.

Undergraduate School and Major:  Rice University Music-Vocal Performance

Employers and Job Titles Since Graduation:

• Revenade- Associate Business Developer/Consultant/Senior Consultant
• ValuDConsulting- Business Development Specialist/Sales Operations Manager

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far: In the fall of 2015, I received a call from my boss asking me if I wanted to quit my job. A weird call to get from your boss, but one that ended up being defining in my career. He asked me to leave my job at Revenade, a company where he was the CEO, to join him full time for the client, ValuD Consulting, I had been consulting for. He let me know I was the only person from the organization he asked to make the transition with him because of my tenacity, strong work ethic, consistent ability to provide results, and my rapport with my colleagues at ValuD.  I sent in my notice that evening and was full-time on the ValuD team the next day. Not only did the opportunity serve as a tangible result of my hard work thus far, but also allowed me to take on more responsibility and develop new skills I would not have had the privilege to have otherwise.

Looking back on your experience, what one piece of advice would you give to future business school applicants?  Don’t sell yourself short in your application or interviews. Be proud of your accomplishments and never undermine the work that you have done. Maybe you worked at a Fortune 500 company and really shook things up, maybe you didn’t. Whatever you have done, you have been successful enough at this point to want to keep that strong trajectory going so brag a little. Know your strengths and accomplishments inside and out. If you walk proudly into each one of your interviews ready to share your joy about your successes with the interviewer, you will nail it every time.

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?  When I was looking for an MBA program, I wanted one that would focus on me as an individual and not as just another number for them to add to their statistics.  With every communication I had with Kelley, whether it be an onsite visit, Experience Weekend, emails from current students or professors, I was shocked by how much they wanted to get to know me and my interests.  It’s hard not to want to spend two years surrounded by people who value one another and that is the kind of network I want on my side.

What would success look like to you after your first year of business school? Success to me following my first year of business school would be defined by being respected by my peers on both an academic and personal level. I don’t want to walk away from my first year feeling like I notably worked hard to the best of my ability but did not neglect getting to know my classmates.  Being respected by my peers as an intellectual and an individual is the definition of success to me. The relationships that I am going to build at Kelley are some that I hope are lifelong, and to walk away from my first year feeling like I have made an effort to meet all of my classmates will be a true mark of success for me.