Meet Georgetown McDonough’s MBA Class Of 2024

P&Q: If you were giving a campus tour, what is the first place you’d take an MBA applicant? Why is that so important to the MBA experience?

PM: “First and foremost, I would take an MBA applicant to the home of the McDonough School of Business: the Rafik B. Hariri Building. This building was designed to blend the tradition of Georgetown’s historic campus with the modern, forward-thinking elements of business education. The building itself is striking, featuring walled glass windows with sweeping views of Washington D.C., and the surrounding campus; innovative, tier-styled classrooms optimized with new hybrid technology; student lounges and service facilities designed to further community collaboration and support; and a stone brick exterior steeped in Georgetown tradition. The building provides the perfect backdrop for a rich student experience that remains true to our McDonough values of collaboration, academic excellence, and the education of the whole person.”

P&Q: What is the most innovative thing you have introduced into the MBA program in recent years? How has it been a game changer for your program?

PM: “At Georgetown McDonough, we have been focused on two important aspects of the MBA experience: preparing our students to develop and lead diverse organizations and building upon our strong sense of community.

Several years ago, we implemented a new opening term course for all MBA students on Leading Teams for Performance and Impact, which explores the dynamics of diversity and inclusion, implicit biases, conflict and civility, and giving and receiving feedback. This year, we introduced a team-building activity to the course and asked students to build bikes and then donate them to children sponsored by local non-profits. Within their first week at Georgetown, they are working together as a cohort to make an impact in their local community. We also added a course on Inclusion and Innovation, which is designed to help students understand and practice inclusive management skills that will enable them to effectively identify and develop high-impact, data-driven innovations for and with an increasingly diverse world.

At Georgetown McDonough, we have been focused on preparing our graduates to succeed in the workplace of the future. In talking to employers and graduates, we have honed in on the most important skills and qualities students must possess to add value to their organizations immediately after graduation and well into the future.

As a result, we have added the MBA Mentorship Program for our Full-time MBAs. In its first year, we paired all 130 students interested in participating with an alumni mentor, and paired nearly 190 students the following year. Beyond career advice, this program focuses on whole-life experiences, from navigating the MBA to work-life balance to intergenerational relationship-building.

Georgetown McDonough is also focused on developing principled leaders in business. We have always had a required core course on Ethical Leadership, which deepens students’ understanding of the ethical and social dimensions of business. Last year, we added a new project that students are tasked with. The instructions for the project are very simple: think of something good you can do in the world, and do it. This exercise allows students to contemplate what defines “good” and then identify ways to make an impact. At its conclusion, students are able to examine and reflect on their profile as an ethical leader, formulate strategies for making the most of their leadership opportunities, and gain an acute awareness of the heightened social demands on firms and how leaders are anticipating and managing this expanding responsibility.”

P&Q: What have MBAs told you is the most memorable, signature experience they’ve had in your program? Why did it resonate so much with them?

PM: “Experiential opportunities are hallmarks of the Georgetown MBA. We want students to graduate with the confidence of having successfully navigated complex business environments.

The Global Business Experience is a required course in the Georgetown MBA that connects student consulting teams with organizations around the world to work on a real-life business issue. Once students are assigned to a company and country, they engage with representatives from the local embassies, as well as organizations like the Inter-American Bank and the World Bank, to learn more about the business environment and culture of the regions to which they will travel. They work remotely with their organization’s executives and then travel to the country to finalize the projects and deliver recommendations to leadership of their organization. While abroad, they also have opportunities to immerse themselves in the business culture of their host country through company visits, cultural excursions, and meetings with alumni. Earlier this year, our MBA students traveled on their highly anticipated GBE trips to Argentina, Chile, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Morocco, Singapore, Spain, and the UAE to deliver their case presentations in person to senior executives from a variety of Fortune 500 companies and multinational organizations.

Alexa Easton (MBA’22) and her team traveled to Santiago, Chile, to meet with their client, Splight – an artificial energy company focused on leveraging technology to create sustainable and affordable energy solutions – to propose strategies for how the company can expand into new markets while remaining focused on its core mission. Upon returning from her GBE trip, this is what Alexa has to say about her experience abroad:

“Meeting in person with our clients was truly a highlight of the GBE experience. They were incredibly receptive to our ideas and respected our thoughts as if we were full-time consultants, which ultimately gave us the confidence to share our opinions with transparency and ease. The experience also exposed us to working with a team that is based all around the Americas, something that will become only more common in this global and virtual working environment.”

It is through these experiences that students understand the nuances and complexities of interacting with multinational firms and cultures, gaining unparalleled opportunities to explore business on a global scale.

In addition to the signature Global Business Experience course, the Executive Challenge is the final exam of the core Leadership Communications course, testing their leadership communication, influence, motivation, and relationship-building skills. During this day-long case competition, student teams role-play three different leadership interactions with executive-level Georgetown alumni, who take on the personas of board members, investors, and senior executives and also serve as judges for the event. We are excited to welcome more than 100 alumni from around the world back to campus each year for the Executive Challenge, where they also have an opportunity to network with our students and with one another.”

P&Q: How does your MBA program infuse experiential learning into your curriculum? Give us a couple of examples of projects your students have done recently, including the company, scope, and results?

PM: “Experiential learning is central to the MBA journey at McDonough. In addition to our signature global consulting project, the day-long Executive Challenge, and team-building activities through the Leading Teams for Performance and Impact opening term course, we offer numerous opportunities to gain real-world perspectives and connections in business.

Students can get a taste of the venture capital industry through a year-long apprenticeship with Georgetown Entrepreneurship’s Venture Fellows program, they can underwrite live real estate investments being considered by commercial real estate firms in the Steers Center for Global Real Estate’s Real Estate Clinics, and they can participate in a semester-long consulting project for emerging companies in technology and venture capital in the InSITE Fellows program.

We consistently work with our Partners in Leadership, Learning, and Research (PILLARs) – which includes alumni, parents, other friends of Georgetown, and our partner organizations – to connect the classroom to real problems and projects in Washington, D.C., across the nation, and around the world. A significant advantage of being located in Washington D.C. is that we have access to several “non-market” players in the business world, including regulators, policy makers, diplomats, and multilateral institutions, along with a growing list of major businesses, including Amazon, Nestle, Marriott, Hilton, to name a few. Through these business and non-business connections, our students can apply their classroom concepts to real-world scenarios, gain insights from seasoned leaders in business, and simulate business concepts through case studies, projects, guest speakers, and site visits.”

P&Q: Where are some of your students’ favorite hang-outs? What do they do and why do they gravitate there?

PM: “For MBA students at Georgetown, the community and network they build is a crucial part of their student experience. Students often spend their days in the Rafik B. Hariri Building’s Connelly Commons – a dedicated lounge for MBA students – to meet and socialize with fellow classmates and friends. This space also is used for the Student Government Association’s weekly KEG events, where students can enjoy drinks, decompress, and network with fellow MBAs.

When the weather is warm, many students also choose to spend their afternoons on the lawn in front of Healy Hall, which stands as a meaningful reminder of our history and connection to our Jesuit values.

No experience at Georgetown is complete without a trip to The Tombs – a historic restaurant and gathering place frequented by Georgetown students, alumni, faculty, and staff alike, bringing together people of all ages and backgrounds to celebrate in the Georgetown tradition.

Situated in the global capital city of Washington, D.C., students have access to numerous cultural attractions, a vibrant and diverse restaurant scene, sporting events, and music performances. Just outside the city, students can take advantage of hiking, camping, water sports, and other outdoor spaces, including Shenandoah National Park and Great Falls State Park. There is something for everyone in Washington, D.C., offering a wealth of experiences and adventures just steps away from Georgetown University.”

P&Q: Who is a standout in your faculty or administration – the kind of person whom graduates talk about a decade after they leave? How does he or she personify your school culture and the best of your MBA program?

PM: “For some of our “poets” in the MBA program, taking finance courses can be cause for concern. Lee Pinkowitz, associate professor and associate director of the Georgetown Psaros Center for Financial Markets and Policy, immediately alleviates their stress by making his courses accessible, fun, and relevant. He employs different teaching strategies for every type of learner and consistently goes above and beyond to ensure each student understands and masters various financial concepts. A hallmark of his teaching style is the use of cutting-edge technology and interactive experiences to enhance student learning.

In the spirit of collaboration and experiential learning, Lee frequently invites alumni to engage with students during office hours, happy hours, and class hours to introduce real-world concepts and connections to his courses.

From his sense of humor to his love of music to his undeniable passion for teaching, it is not difficult to see why Lee is consistently rated among the best professors at Georgetown McDonough. He cares deeply about the success of each student in his course and embodies our Jesuit values of cura personalis, or “Care of the Person,” demonstrating his profound care and responsibility for the individual needs of each student as they progress through his course, challenging them to become better business leaders.”

MBA Student	Hometown	Undergraduate Alma Mater	Last Employer
George Alukal	Hillsborough, NJ	Rutgers University, New Brunswick	American Express
Kilandra Bass	Springfield, MA	Northeastern University	Ralph Lauren Corporation
Hannah Isabella P. Chan	Las Piñas City, Philippines	University of the Philippines	Office of the President of the Republic of the Philippines
James Cogman	Claflin University	Yale University	Bethel United Methodist Church
Dayina (Connie) E	Shanxi, China	Northeastern University	Edelman
Joshua Linhart	Denver, CO	University of Denver	Open Table Sales
Daniel Macdonald	Papillion, NE	Saint Louis University	U.S. Army
Gabriela Mayer	Fort Lauderdale, FL	University of Florida	Stanley Black & Decker
Renzo Morales Miraval	Lima, Peru	Universidad del Pacifico	International Finance Corporation (IFC)
Gabriel Sanchez	Bogota, Colombia	Universidad de Los Andes, Bogota	Colombiana de Escenarios
Aniroodh Shankar	Chennai, India	The Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland	Bain & Company
Yuliia Kravets	Kyiv, Ukraine	Kyiv National Economic University	JSC FUIB (First Ukrainian International Bank)