Representation Matters: Embracing Hispanic Heritage Month At Stanford GSB

Katy Honda, MBA ’22

Why an MBA? I wanted to start a company focused on increasing healthcare equity and access and saw pursuing an MBA as a great way to do that. I also wanted to continue to develop my personal leadership style. 

What other schools did you apply to? HBS, Wharton, Kellogg. 

Why Stanford? I knew I wanted to start a company and I knew Stanford would be a great place to do that. I also really loved my undergrad experience and knew that I could be happy at Stanford. 

What does being an Hispanic business student mean to you? It means finding ways to create community for the Hispanic students on campus and working towards increasing diverse representation on campus. 

What value does HBSA provide for you and your classmates? HBSA provides a home for Hispanic and Latinx people on campus. It gives us a chance to meet people who share similar family or cultural backgrounds. 

Why is Hispanic Heritage Month important to you? It’s a great time to celebrate Hispanic culture with friends and family! 

What are your future career goals? I plan to continue to work on building Comet Healthcare with my amazing Co-Founder, Nina Lu.

What don’t your classmates know about you? I used to be a guide dog raiser! 

Ricardo Rosales, MBA ’22

Why an MBA? I wanted to shift my career from a role as an investor in public markets to supporting entrepreneurs that are building novel technologies. I thought that an MBA would give me the time I needed to reflect and experiment so that I could forge a path forward, while giving me a new set of skills that would facilitate my success.

What other schools did you apply to? HBS, Wharton, MIT

Why Stanford? The history of success in entrepreneurship, strength of technical subjects university-wide, and the proximity to the Silicon Valley ecosystem made Stanford the obvious choice.

What does being an Hispanic business student mean to you? It means that I have a responsibility, more than most, to be a good role model for those that proceed me.

What value does the HBSA provide for you and your classmates? The club gives me an outlet to give back to my community. For students, the club facilitates community, culture, and support. We aim to make Latinx students at the GSB feel like they are part of a family.

Why is Hispanic Heritage Month important to you? It’s important to me as a time to reflect on what makes me and my culture special and realize every year that those special things tend to be the same across many cultures. It’s also a time for me to share my culture with others, to help my friends and colleagues get to know my culture a bit better.

What are your future career goals? I aim to build an organization that supports the development of technologies that improve society.

What don’t your classmates know about you? In a prior life I ran a music production company.