Meet Notre Dame Mendoza’s MBA Class Of 2021

Notre Dame MBA Students

“BUSINESS AS A FORCE FOR GOOD”

Kwiatt’s career – like those of her classmates – will be defined by Mendoza’s mission: “Business as a Force for Good.” How does she define that mission in her own career? Her plan is to apply her experience in conservation and nonprofits to guide companies in addressing social and environmental issues. In contrast, Christopher Udall intends to operate at the intersection between business and peace-building – using his time to unravel “how to make peace profitable.” Then there is Elena Westbrook, who takes an “act local” approach to being a force. A Chicago native, she has always been struck how the Windy City is really divided in two. One side, she says, is a commercial hub that “glitters with skyscrapers.” The other is struggling, underdeveloped, and “maligned.” Westbrook’s goal is to close this gap, using entrepreneurship to spark growth in the latter.

“As a third-generation Chicagoan with public service in my blood, my plan is to anchor innovative enterprises to underestimated neighborhoods,” she writes. “I’ve noticed that many of Chicago’s neighborhoods lack basic retail and commercial amenities despite the immense combined spending power of its residents. Through creating new products and services for underserved markets, I hope to slow the cash outflow from underdeveloped neighborhoods to wealthier areas and address the problem of disinvestment.”

The Class of 2021 isn’t just a force for good in their careers. They also personify this virtue at the Mendoza School too. “I stood in shock as I saw classmates offer up their living space to an international family that showed up late due to visa issues,” says Christopher Udall. “I don’t know how the admissions team did this, but I have never been in a group of people who are so highly accomplished and intellectual, but also exuded a level of kindness and support that bonds classmate together for life.”

Sarah Hohenberger comes to Mendoza from the U.S. Coast Guard, where she served as a Lieutenant and Deputy Chief for Eastern Pacific Operations. Originally, was skeptical about this dynamic. Over time, she embraced the notion that Domer decency was genuine. “During the first few days of orientation, I was thinking to myself, “Everyone here seems super nice… I wonder how long that will last.” But my class really is full of these fun, great, genuine people who support and look out for one another, and I’m grateful and excited to be a part of it.”

Mendoza College of Business Dean Martijn Cremers greets students at the orientation breakfast for incoming 2-year MBA class (Photo by Matt Cashore/University of Notre Dame)

MAJOR JUMP IN MBA PAY

In terms of enrollment, the Mendoza College represents a good news and bad news scenario. This month, Dean Martin Cremers announced that applications were up by 35% over this time last year. That’s a positive sign, considering American programs experienced drops as high as 35% during the 2018-2019 applications cycle. In Mendoza’s case, that decrease was 25% for the 116-member Class of 2021. Sure enough, fewer applications produced a ripple effect. The acceptance rate rose by five points, while average GMATs fell by six points. The percentage of international students also slipped by three points, while the class’ percentage of women held steady at 24%.

This decline may only be a blip at Mendoza, which also boasts one of the world’s best undergraduate business programs. This year, Mendoza grads set a record for total pay at $144,536 – a 105% jump over pre-MBA pay. The number also represents a $10,500 bump over the Class of 2018 (not to mention a nearly $20,000 improvement over the past three years). Rising pay is just one sign of Mendoza’s momentum, which has accelerated since the introduction of Martijn Cremers as dean last March. Cremers replaced Roger Huang, who’d served as dean since 2013 and introduced the program’s popular of Science in Management and MBA-MSBA degrees. Over Huang’s tenure, the Mendoza College grew to over 2,300 students, including over 600 graduate students.

In a 2019 interview with P&Q, Timothy Bohling, Mendoza’s chief graduate and enrollment officer, talked about a sense of “renewed energy” that Cremers has brought to the program, revitalizing it with a more “student-centric” approach. By that, Bohling means that the program is more “analytics-driven” and “outcome-focused.” To Cremers, this approach dovetails perfectly with three trends he is seeing across business.

Notre Dame University’s Mendoza College of Business has one of the premier one-year MBA programs in the U.S. Notre Dame photo

ELEVATE, COOPERATE, INTEGRATE

“The first broad trend is analytics, the second trend I see is experiential learning, and the third trend is students looking for a program that is about positive impact,” Cremers tells P&Q in a 2019 interview. “I think that fits very well with this vision of business. To have our students compete well, I think analytics needs to be a simple component across all different business programs, not just analytics programs, which we have several. Across all business programs, analytics needs to be a simple component and also being integrated across different disciplines.”

How does that exactly translate to programming? Cremer lays out three broad goals: elevating, cooperating, and integrating. “For elevate, we would like to offer more courses that challenge students more. With cooperate, it’s cooperating with the departments and also cooperating with the other colleges on campus. That means cooperating with our other colleges but it also means basic classroom environment. To get more non-business majors taking classes and more advanced electives for non-business majors. And then finally integration, which is trying to integrate computer science with business, for example, or teaching the history of business. And again also integrating the data and analytics within all of the disciplines: consultancy analytics, marketing analytics. Often these three things are combined, we started, for example, a minor in business marketing which quickly has become popular. We started a new minor in real estate, a minor in innovation available to all Notre Dame students.”

What else can Mendoza MBAs expect? This year, P&Q reached out to school leaders to learn more about upcoming developments and unique wrinkles to the program. Here is what they had to say…

A Q&A WITH MENDOZA LEADERSHIP

Mike Mannor

P&Q: What are the most exciting new developments at your program?

MM: “One of the very best things we do at Mendoza is to train and send students into post-conflict and high-poverty international contexts to leverage the power of business to serve the most vulnerable in society. This year, we are doubling the size of the program — Business on the Frontlines — and will continue to scale up the enrollment and scope over the next three years.”

Mike Mannor 
Associate Dean for the Notre Dame MBA 
John F. O’Shaughnessy Associate Professor of Family Enterprise 

P&Q: What is the most underrated part of your program that you wish prospective students knew more about?

MM: “Applied Investment Management (AIM) is an exceptional equity research development program that we have been running for the last 24 years. The program provides an opportunity for students to develop rigorous investment analytical skills while managing a $13 million live portfolio. AIM students learn about industry and career trends from top Wall Street leaders who come to campus as part of the AIM advisory board. More than a thousand AIM alums are now professionals at the Blackstone Group, BCG, Goldman, McKinsey and many other global firms.”

Mike Mannor 
Associate Dean for the Notre Dame MBA 
John F. O’Shaughnessy Associate Professor of Family Enterprise 

P&Q: A call to action and a deep sense of purpose are deeply embedded in the Mendoza curriculum? How do these play out in a Mendoza classroom experience?

MM: “In the Notre Dame MBA program, we develop leaders who rise to the challenge of a troubled world in need. We see exceptional young professionals who are yearning to make a difference, who we can equip to leverage the power of business to be a force that brings people together, elevates the heart and mind, and provides dignity and livelihoods. During their time at Mendoza, our students are challenged every day in and out of the classroom to think bigger, to think about both people and profits, and to live out their values in their work. With an increasingly sharp focus on analytics, our graduates develop the tools and mindset they need to effectively challenge conventions that no longer meet the needs of shareholders and stakeholders. With one of the most powerful alumni networks in the world, our students are never alone, joining a family who never stop asking themselves, what would you fight for?”

Mike Mannor 
Associate Dean for the Notre Dame MBA 

Joseph Sweeney (Photo by Matt Cashore/University of Notre Dame)

P&Q: One of Mendoza’s hallmark experiences is Business on the Frontlines. Tell us more about the experience and why it leaves such a profound impact on Mendoza alumni?

JS: “Business on the Frontlines (BOTFL) pairs the best of rigorous experiential learning with service to those impacted by conflict and deep poverty. While many experiential learning opportunities simply send students to companies to act as consultants, BOTFL partners with nonprofit and for-profit organizations on multi-year projects to build livelihoods in vulnerable communities around the world, focusing on the inherent dignity of a good day’s work.

The course also adds a robust discussion seminar before and after the in-country experience to help provide students context for the communities they will serve and to the fundamental challenges of operating businesses in some of the most fragile or remote places on the planet. Students develop and hone their problem-solving skills to deliver pragmatic recommendations while at the same time exercising empathy to understand the hopes and dreams of the communities they serve. The unique experiences that the students have in places like the Amazon rainforest, Rwanda, East Timor or Lebanon become part of the worldview that they carry with them the rest of their lives. So much so, many BOTFL alums return to continue their involvement as advisers and in other roles long after their graduation.”

Joseph Sweeney 
Associate Director of Experiential Learning