Christopher Moates

Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College

“I love bringing people together, whether it’s for church carpool, niche sports, or charity fundraisers.”

Hometown: Americus, GA

Fun Fact About Yourself: I decided to take a gap year between high school and college and dedicate it to community service. I built habitat houses in New Zealand, mentored inner-city students in Nashville, and tutored foster children in Auburn. It was one of the best years of my life and has played a pivotal role in my decision to pursue a career in nonprofit.

Undergraduate School and Major: Yale University, Political Science

Most Recent Employer and Job Title: Make-A-Wish Georgia, Manager of Corporate Development

What word best describes the Tuck MBA students and alumni you’ve met so far and why? Enthusiastic. Whether we’re talking about careers, sports, or Tuck, the conversations tend to be laced with passion and energy.

Aside from your classmates, what was the key part of Dartmouth Tuck’s MBA programming that led you to choose this business school and why was it so important to you? Coming from a non-traditional background, Tuck’s first-year required core curriculum stood out as an advantage. I’m excited to build a foundation in courses like accounting and analytics and learn alongside classmates who have extensive experience in those areas.

What course, club or activity excites you the most at Dartmouth Tuck? I’m most excited about the Tuck Community Consulting Club. It sounds like a fantastic way to leverage the different backgrounds of Tuckies to help local nonprofit organizations that need it. Few things are as enjoyable as connecting with the community you live in.

What excites you the most about coming to live in Hanover? What is the one activity you can’t wait to do? My entire life, I have loved the mountains. I feel so lucky to finally have them in my backyard and be able to hop out of my dorm and be on the Appalachian Trail in five minutes.

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far: I helped lead our Make-A-Wish Georgia team beyond pre-pandemic goals by launching a massive community charity streaming campaign. The streamers rallied their hundreds of thousands of followers to donate in support of our pending gaming wishes. After the wishes were granted, we hosted a virtual celebration so the gamers and our wish kids could connect and game together.

How did COVID-19 change your perspective on your career and your life in general? Career-wise, COVID made me further appreciate the value of being able to pivot, innovate, and make decisions under uncertainty. Personally, it was an opportunity to become comfortable with loneliness.

What led you to pursue an MBA at this point and what do you hope to do after graduation? I absolutely loved working at Make-A-Wish Georgia, but felt ready to scale my impact from local to global and knew an MBA would give me the toolkit I need to do so. Long-term, I’d like to bring efficacious global causes (like insecticide net distributions and deworming programs) to the forefront of American philanthropy.

What other MBA programs did you apply to? Darden, Yale SOM, Fuqua, and Emory Goizueta

What advice would you give to help potential applicants gain admission into Dartmouth Tuck’s MBA program? Visit Hanover to get a sense of what makes the Tuck culture unique. If you love it, lean in and let admissions know why in an authentic way.

DON’T MISS: MEET DARTMOUTH TUCK’S MBA CLASS OF 2023