Meet Vanderbilt Owen’s MBA Class Of 2022

P&Q: How has COVID-19 impacted your business school?

Oldham: “We, along with our fellow colleagues across the world have all been impacted by COVID-19.  However, the biggest takeaways have been two-fold:

Our students, staff, and faculty have learned and embraced the importance of resilience and flexibility. Moving to remote-learning and hybrid-teaching, as well as managing classroom capacities with social distancing, has all been a lesson in “rising to the challenge and meeting people where they are.

In addition, we have embraced and walked alongside our corporate recruiters who, while trying to manage their own internal operational issues, were loyal to Vanderbilt Business in continuing the hiring process of top talent for summer internships and full-time roles. Our students have learned to highlight both their soft and academic skillsets to be solutions-oriented, compassionate, self-aware, and flexible to change (e.g. internships suddenly all become remote; project timelines were shortened). Through it all, these skills are in high-demand even more so during COVID-19.  We have learned that relationships are the most important parts of any experience and, in the midst of a global pandemic, we all had to be much more intentional of creating opportunities and moments to capture these moments of community. Online trivia nights, online yoga classes, student wellness webinars, socially-distanced food trucks with individually wrapped meals, all-staff town halls with small group breakout rooms, online student cooking competitions – these are just a few examples of how, despite the pandemic, Vanderbilt Business has remained true to our students, staff, faculty, and community by focusing on our relationships with one another.”

P&Q: Owen is well-known for its Leadership Development Program. What is involved in the program? Why does it stand out?

Oldham: “The Leadership Development Program at Owen was built upon the best of industry and academic research. It stands out because the tools we use are the ones used by Fortune 500 companies to drive leadership development, like the Hogan Leadership Assessment and executive coaching. In industry, these tools are reserved for a small subset of high-potential employees. At Owen, these tools are open to ALL students and applied in a way that is personalized and tailored to the individual student throughout their MBA journey.

In the first year, through the Hogan Leadership Assessment, executive coaching, and one-on-one support from the LDP Team, students can individualize the resources to their own unique advantage to develop whatever skills and behaviors matter most to them. We build on their learning in year two wherein a cohort of second years works on the process of crystallizing their authentic leadership philosophy. Once students become alumni, we continue to support them with the same tools and resources. While the hard work is up to the student, our holistic commitment to their development is what makes Owen’s Leadership Development Program stand out.”

P&Q: Owen is the proverbial small school MBA experience where students closely bond and receive intensive personal attention from faculty and staff. Talk to us about this approach. How does it enhance student performance and better prepare them for their post-MBA careers? 

Oldham: “Vanderbilt MBA is known for a key part of its mission: “Personal Scale.” We deliver personal scale throughout a student’s entire experience – prospective, enrolled, and beyond. As a prospective student looking at an MBA program, Owen has dedicated Recruiting Managers who work alongside each applicant throughout the entire recruiting and application process.  During the actual admissions process, we have a team-based approach to assess each application in its totality and with great care, which is ultimately reflected in how we assess merit-based scholarships (a key factor to many prospective students). Our merit-based scholarships are intentional and impactful, and our small class size allows the admissions committee to award these merit-based scholarships to really make a difference. Note that 81% of our incoming FT MBA class this Fall 2020 received a merit-based scholarship and the average award was a little over half of annual tuition.

As a current student in the Vanderbilt MBA program, delivery of personal scale continues through top-notch services provided by the Student Programs Office, Leadership Development Program, and Career Management Center. All three teams work individually with each student to create a tailored experience. Our small class size allows for leadership roles in key student clubs, individualized executive coaching sessions, and personalized career planning sessions with career advisors. While the MBA may be viewed as a general management degree, the Vanderbilt MBA experience is a personal experience to meet each student where they are and to align their dreams with career opportunities.”

P&Q: Your MBA program is well-known as one of the best MBA programs for healthcare. What makes Owen’s healthcare programming so highly regarded in the MBA space. How does Owen leverage the Nashville region to provide opportunities for students?

Oldham: “The Vanderbilt MBA with a Healthcare Concentration is uniquely positioned both geographically and practically to create an unmatched educational experience. Nashville is known as the capital of health care delivery in the U.S.; it is home to over 20 public healthcare companies and more than 350 health care companies in middle TN, spanning services, healthcare IT, and finance. The program leverages its relationship with these organizations to bring the real-world challenges into the classroom. One tangible example is the first-year health care immersion, which, over the course of five days, exposes students to 40+ executive discussions from all corners of the health care industry. Coupled with academic and professional faculty with deep subject matter experience in the business challenges facing health care, this creates a classroom environment that is best-in-class.”

8 REASONS TO LOVE VANDERBILT BUSINESS

What are the best parts of a Vanderbilt Business MBA? With a semester under their belts, this is what the Class of 2022 had to say…

1) Leadership Development: “Owen prepares us to become leaders in every single aspect. We have the opportunity to integrate the Leadership Development Program (LDP) into our MBA. It is not a class, it’s more like a leadership therapy session in which you and three other classmates share your leadership experiences with an Executive Coach. You receive feedback and get different perspectives that help everyone in the group better articulate the leadership skills you want to develop. This is great for us, the international students. I loved every session!”
Ania Sanchez (’22)

“Owen’s leadership development is truly outstanding and unique. The leadership lab and classes offered at Owen do an incredible job of helping students understand their strengths and weaknesses as a leader. The Army taught me a lot about leading, but there is always more to learn. At Owen, the personality evaluations I participated in showed me attributes I can improve upon, but also attributes that enable me to contribute value.”
Neal Bray (’22)

2) Vanderbilt University: “I also loved the combination of a small program within a highly resourced university, which allows for intimate personal interactions while simultaneously providing incredible faculty, facilities, and resources. While I never stepped foot on campus during my recruiting process, these key decision factors have more than proven true since starting as a student in August.”
Jacob Schrimpf (’22)

3) Class Size: “I came to business school to form new life-long relationships with people with different backgrounds from myself. I needed to attend a program where I stood a chance to make my way around getting to know every person in the program before I completed business school. Owen’s collaborative culture would also ensure that the people I was getting to know would be people I would be okay being friends with for life. The warm weather in Nashville is a plus as well.”
Nimi Ajayi (’22)

4) Career Services: “Vanderbilt’s Career Management Center really stood out to me when I was looking for an MBA program. As a career switcher, it was essential for me to find a program that had a strong Career Management Center that was willing to take a personalized approach to building out my next steps.”
Roderick Odom (’22)

5) Healthcare: “Owen’s healthcare program is one of the strongest, and being located in Nashville provides students a great opportunity to experience all aspects of the industry. I knew coming to business school that I wanted to stay in the healthcare industry. However, finding a school that could provide me a strong business foundation and build on my healthcare background was harder than I thought. Many schools flaunt healthcare programs, but when you actually dig through course catalogs, there are few healthcare courses available. Nashville is the healthcare industry capital. If you ever wanted to work in healthcare, have great food, enjoy live music, and receive a top business education, Vanderbilt University’s Owen Graduate School of Management in Nashville, TN, is the place for you!”
Sarah Steele (’22)

6) Nashville: “Since starting in August, we’ve had many opportunities to attend presentations from, network with, and learn from local leaders and engage with Nashville’s dynamic business scene – which has made Nashville a great place to pursue a business education. While COVID-19 has prevented us from experiencing many of Nashville’s incredible cultural offerings (which I cannot wait to try post-pandemic), I’ve really enjoyed running and hiking nearby parks like Percy Warner and Radnor Lake, exploring the local food scene, and even attending a couple of outdoor, socially distanced concerts!”
Jacob Schrimpf (’22)

“If you want the full experience, come to Nashville. Located in Midtown, Vanderbilt gives a big city feel with restaurants and bars, but a 20 minute drive will bring you to beautiful parks to explore. The city is full of friendly people, artists, and country music. Make sure to get your cowboy boots and hit up the saloon next door.”
Ania Sanchez (’22)

7) Cosmopolitan Week: “It consists of week-long activities dedicated to international students; we get to enjoy lunch time presentations about different countries and have cuisine from said countries. The week ends with a happy hour representative of our international population, with international performances and music from around the world.”
Mariam Amusan (’20)

8) Great People: “Every interaction I had with current students at Vanderbilt, alums, or admissions felt incredibly genuine. As I learned more about specifics of the program like the Leadership Development Program, how the Career Management Center Coaches are incredibly personal, or how each student or alum seemed to know one another, I just knew that Vanderbilt would care not just about me as a professional, but as a person.”
Jack Cogan (’22)

What led the Class of 2022 to pursue an MBA? What do they enjoy most about their classmates? Find answers to these questions and more by clicking on the in-depth profiles of current Vanderbilt Owen’s MBA students below.

MBA Student	Hometown	Undergrad Alma Mater	Last Employer
Nimi Ajayi	Lagos, Nigeria	University of Minnesota	New Innovations
Mario Arjona	Pittsburgh, PA	University of Michigan	General Mills
Neal J. Bray	Piedmont, SC	U.S. Military Academy	U.S. Army
Jack Cogan	Chagrin Falls, OH	Syracuse University	ViacomCBS, Manager
Roderick Odom	Central Islip, NY	Vanderbilt University	Keravnos Basketball Club
Franklin Popek	Cleveland, OH	Miami University	Deloitte Consulting
Jamie Rosenstein Wittman	Lexington, KY	Cornell University	Google
Ania Sanchez	Monterrey, Mexico	Universidad Tecmilenio	Mary Kay Cosmetics
Jacob Schrimpf	Grayslake, IL	University of Notre Dame	Professional Actor
Vedanti Shah	Ahmedabad, India	St. Xavier’s College	Art Amore
Sarah (Sam) Steele	Honolulu, HI	University of Washington	Seattle Children’s Hospital
Carrine (Rinn) Wright	Minneapolis, MN	Ohio State University	Procter & Gamble