Meet Georgetown McDonough’s MBA Class Of 2022

P&Q: In the 2019 Bloomberg Businessweek student and alumni survey, McDonough earned some of the highest marks for Innovation and Creativity. How does your MBA program foster this mentality across its programming?

PM: “At Georgetown McDonough, we believe our reputation for educating innovative and creative graduates stems from our efforts to strike the right balance between developing students to be both “poets” and “quants.” Successful business innovation requires honing the “soft” skills of intuition and judgment, along with the “hard” skills of analytical and critical thinking. We are purposeful in making sure our core MBA curriculum exposes students to both these sets of skills.

Additionally, our dean, Paul Almeida, is an academic expert in strategy and innovation, so it’s no surprise that our culture reflects this mindset. As a school, we aim for continuous innovation, constantly examining how the education we provide can best prepare our students for a rapidly changing world. In turn, we continue to add new electives and programming that address new knowledge and skills. For example, just in the last year, we introduced:

• A new opening term course in Leading Teams for Performance and Impact, which also explores inclusive communities and implicit biases;
• A new MBA Certificate in Sustainable Business, which adds to other new certificates in the areas of nonmarket strategy and consumer analytics and insights; and
• A new STEM-designated management science major that prepares students to excel in technology-intensive roles.

These are in addition to other signature experiences, including the Executive Challenge, where panels of executive-level alumni role-play boardroom cases with student teams, and the Global Business Experience consulting project, where students deliver their results in-country to an organization’s leadership.

Additionally, the school is home to Georgetown Entrepreneurship, which seeks to instill an entrepreneurial mindset in students, foster an entrepreneurial culture across the school and university, support the successful growth of alumni ventures, and to leverage the power of entrepreneurship to make an impact in the world beyond Georgetown. MBA students have the option to take entrepreneurship electives and Intensive Learning Experiences, as well as to participate in mentorship opportunities, pitch competitions, and club activities.”

P&Q: McDonough is also regarded as one of the most globally-focused and diverse MBA programs in the United States. How do you instill this through your student choices, curriculum, and extracurriculars?

PM: “At Georgetown McDonough, we know that our students learn just as much from one another as they do from our professors. By building a diverse class along many dimensions – including the nationality of our students – we ensure that different perspectives and backgrounds enter into classroom discussions. Without this exposure to different cultures, we would not be preparing our students to become global leaders. This is why we strive to have representation across numerous countries — usually around 40 — as well as to bring in students who have lived, worked, or studied abroad.

With such a multicultural student body, we are able to offer numerous student clubs and organizations that highlight the cultures and business opportunities found across the globe. We also have regular events that highlight our students’ cultural diversity, including International Fest, where students and their families share pieces of their culture with the community, ranging from food to dance to numerous other traditions.

We also weave a global mindset throughout the curriculum, integrating global cases and topics throughout. The Global Business Experience allows students to apply what they have learned through the first three-quarters of their MBA to a real-life consulting project abroad. Additionally, our location in the global capital city of Washington, D.C., allows us to offer experiences for students at embassies or organizations like the World Bank, and provides access to international business leaders who come to speak at Georgetown.

Finally, we are fortunate to have a global alumni network that is truly invested in the success of our students. Our alumni seek out opportunities to meet with our students. During the pandemic, the virtual environment actually has made this easier for our alumni from around the world to connect with us, participating in guest lectures in classes or through our Stanton Distinguished Leaders Series, as well as informal chats with small groups of students.”

5 REASONS TO PURSUE A MCDONOUGH MBA

What brought MBA candidates to DC and the McDonough School of Business? This is what students and alumni had to say:

1) Social Impact: “McDonough highlights the importance of considering the social impact our work in the business world will have on others. I believe that we have a responsibility to build people up through the work that we do in an MBA program and beyond, so aligning on this core value was key.”
Bridget Greaney (’22)

“I also was attracted to the Certificate in Sustainable Business offered through the Georgetown MBA program with qualifying courses taught by professors like Melissa Bradley, who have direct experience in impact investing.”
Lucas Turner-Owens (’22)

2) Entrepreneurship: “Georgetown has a lot of unique programming that helps you see policy and international relations through a business lens. As you might expect, that was a selling point to me. However, it was important to me to be involved with entrepreneurial activity while in school, as I believe deeply that entrepreneurship is the path to prosperity for society. Several unique entrepreneurial programs at Georgetown sold me on the school, from the Venture Fellows program, an InSITE chapter, the Venture Capital Investment Competition, and more that I didn’t see elsewhere.”
Adam Kuebler (’22)

“As someone who was interested in pursuing a career in venture capital and impact investing, Georgetown offered a unique on-ramp to venture capital and a certificate in sustainable business that attracted me to the program. The Venture Fellows Program at Georgetown partners with local VC funds like Revolution’s Rise of the Rest Fund to place Georgetown MBA students at firms (full-time during the summer, and 10 hours a week during the spring and fall semesters) during their first and second year and offered an in-road to a career that very few MBAs can enter directly following graduation.”
Lucas Turner-Owens (’22)

3) Cura Personalis: “Business schools often have a reputation for churning out leaders who are so success-oriented to a fault that they forget about how the decisions they make affect our world and impact lives, for better or worse. I knew from the get-go that I wanted to enroll at a premiere institution that acknowledged that and committed to forming globally-minded business leaders taught to care for the whole person—cura personalis in Latin. I wanted to attend a school that reinforced this lesson that business integrity and high impact success is not only possible but showed me how to get there. That was McDonough’s great appeal to me and why I’m grateful for every experience I’ve had there since enrollment.”
Nina Vann (’20)

4) Traditions:  “My favorite McDonough event is International Fest. Imagine a couple of hundred people representing their various cultures at a food fair and variety show. I love learning about everyone’s backgrounds and trying everyone’s home cooking. This event really reflects the cultural diversity of the school.”
Audrey Del Rosario (’20)

“Each spring, Georgetown’s Student Government Association hosts the McDonough Cup, where all MBA students compete on various physical, intellectual, and fun challenges. I jumped into the tug of war last minute. It was such a blast—everyone was so into it. Our first-year team beat out the second years and flex students!”
Tory Paez (’20)

5) Dual Degree: “Georgetown provided me the opportunity to enroll in a dual degree program and earn an MBA and a Master’s in Foreign Service. By studying both business and foreign policy, I can combine insights from both programs to inform my perspective on global business challenges. For instance, I learned about technical aspects of an Initial Public Offering (IPO) in my MBA finance class and, in the same day, I spoke with a senior Saudi official about the Aramco IPO in my diplomacy program. Few programs globally can provide the business and diplomacy context as well as Georgetown due to its Washington, DC location and its prestigious alumni network of world leaders.”
Colin Miller (’20)

ADVICE ON GETTING IN

What does it take to land a spot in the McDonough MBA?  This is what the Class of 2020 had to say…

“Chat with students and alumni from Georgetown’s MBA program. Recent alumni will be your best resource since they have experienced the MBA program in its entirety. Additionally, the alumni you talk to before starting your MBA may provide career opportunities like internships or full-time employment. Thank them for their time, keep them updated on your success, and remember to pay it forward when you are an alum.”
Colin Miller (’20)

“Applying for an MBA requires deep introspection. Give yourself enough time to do so. Apart from the standardized tests, there are a few other ways to represent your unique self in ways that will be memorable to the admissions committees. Don’t underestimate presence.”
Nina Vann (’20)

“I would say stay engaged in your local community! Do something that makes a positive difference at your organization, in someone’s life, or in society. There are so many opportunities to positively impact others at Georgetown, and the school really values community engagement.”
Audrey Del Rosario (’20)

What led the Class of 2022 to pursue an MBA? What was the toughest question they were asked during the application process? What other schools did they consider? Check out the student profiles below for answers to questions and many more. 

MBA Student	Hometown	Undergrad Alma Mater	Last Employer
Ashna Bindra	Kota, India	IIT-BHU	Finastra
Mehdi Fassihnia Dengo	San Jose, Costa Rica	University of Tampa	McKinsey & Company
Sergio Antonio García Moreno	Morelia, Mexico	Tecnológico de Monterrey	Cinépolis
Sean Ginter	Queens, NY	U.S. Naval Academy	Amazon
Bridget Greaney	Bethesda, MD	New York University	Sony Pictures
Mehmet Kaan Serdar	Istanbul, Turkey	University of Illinois	AIG
Adam Kuebler	Indianapolis, IN	Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University	United Airlines
Maya McWhorter	Flossmoor, IL	Howard University	Merisant Company
Olga Rocha	Orlando, FL	Brown University	Accenture Federal Services
Alina Rosenthal	Atlanta, GA	University of Maryland	Hilton
Lucas Turner-Owens	Boston, MA	Wesleyan University	Trail Mix Ventures