Taylor Williams

The Ohio State University, Fisher College of Business

“A people person enjoying learning and growing while experiencing life’s journey with others.”

Hometown: Dayton, Ohio

Fun fact about yourself: I built my first gaming PC by myself when I was 10 years old and have an equal passion for technology as I do for music and teaching.

Undergraduate School and Degree: Wright State University, Bachelor of Music Education

Where was the last place you worked before enrolling in business school? Mad River Local Schools – Band Director

Where did you intern during the summer of 2023? JPMorgan Chase & Co., Columbus OH

Where will you be working after graduation? JPMorgan Chase & Co., Chase Associate Program

Community Work and Leadership Roles in Business School:

* President – Out of Office

• • Helped ROMBA attendees prepare for the conference: what to expect, best practices, resume review, and organized funding and travel coordination.

* Held meetings with first years interested in the Chase Associate Program

• • Shared my experiences from the program to first years unsure if the financial industry was the right fit for them.
  • Shared Chase interview preparation tips as well as recommending connections of Fisher alumni and other CAP Associates who I thought would be most beneficial for each individual to network with.
  • Hosted first years at my home to prepare for interviews.

* Second Year Mentor in the MBA Mentor/Mentee program.

• • Helped my mentees with navigating the beginning of their MBA journey, sharing my experiences in classes, balancing time, and the job search.

* Reviewed resumes/LinkedIn’s for first years on the job search.

Which academic or extracurricular achievement are you most proud of during business school? I would say I am most proud of my work teaching a nonprofit music organization (Cap City) on the weekends while also being able to maintain focus and good grades in school. I knew when coming to the MBA program I did not want to give up teaching music just because I was shifting my “9-5” career focus to business instead of K-12 education. Last year was my first-year teaching at Cap City and learning how to balance teaching around 18 hours throughout the weekend while keeping up with homework, group projects, and other life needs was a challenge. That experience grew my time management skills while allowing me to continue with my musical passions. Cap City is an organization that I am unbelievably proud to be a part. It brings me joy to continue teaching while leveraging my learnings from business school to improve the way we run the business side of the nonprofit as well.

What achievement are you most proud of in your professional career? I am most proud of how I handled teaching 5-12 band fully in-person during the 2020-2021 school year throughout the pandemic. I only had a month to prepare for how I would keep students distanced but safe while playing wind instruments with their masks down during the class. I spent the time to space out all chairs by 6 feet, marking each spot with tape, and working to encourage 5-12 students who had just met me as their new director to follow these difficult guidelines in band class. No COVID-19 cases were traced back to my classroom, even when up to 60% of the school had the illness at one point. I am proud of how I was able to stay positive teaching band with such difficult limitations as a young educator. That one year of teaching taught me many lessons that I will be proud to carry with me throughout the rest of my life.

Why did you choose this business school? I chose Fisher because I have always had the most success in smaller, more intimate settings. As an applicant, the smaller class sizes indicated to me that if I were fortunate enough to be admitted, I would have many opportunities to get to know everyone in my cohort and build relationships that would be more likely to last after we all graduate. My undergraduate program at Wright State University had about 50-60 music majors per class. Across all four years of my time, there I was able to meet and get to know almost every music major even across years in school. That was a huge part of building my network and those people helped me find my first teaching jobs, which opened the door for more opportunities. I also value smaller class sizes because it means I can learn more often from individuals that have experienced life differently than me. I have learned so much through my peers in this program, especially those from other countries or cultures – something I was not exposed to much as an undergrad in a smaller university than Ohio State.

Who was your favorite MBA professor? This is an extremely difficult choice, but I would choose Professor John Schaffner who teaches Intro to Business Coaching, High Performing Teams, and Advanced Business Coaching. Professor Schaffner has taught me topics that will not only be invaluable in my future roles in the Chase Associate Program at JPMorgan Chase, but also as an educator while I continue to teach in my free time. I already have been able to apply his lessons directly to my current roles as a music educator. I believe the lessons he offers are important for all MBA candidates to learn.

What was your favorite course as an MBA? Another really tough choice, as I have enjoyed all my classes throughout my MBA. However, if I had to choose, I would go with Brand Management with Andrew Piletz. The class is well set up for the success of the students and focused on our ability to learn and retain the important information provided throughout the course. There is a great balance of outside of class learning through pre-recorded video lectures, guest professionals sharing their experience through podcasts, and readings that connect everything together. Along with the set-up of the class, Professor Piletz gets the students involved in the education process by starting each class with a “What’s News” section, where we bring new topics within brand management and present the news it as if we were the brand manager or CEO from that company. I personally loved finding new commercials, brand moves, and other news to bring to class and connect the dots back to the topics we were learning. I took this class not knowing if I would be interested in being a brand manager in the future. However, I left it excited and yearning to get some brand management experience in my future rotations in the Chase Associate Program. This course has also provided me with many useful tools that I will be able to refer to in the future with clear instructions of how to utilize them even well after having finished the course.

What was your favorite MBA event or tradition at your business school? My favorite event was the Red Carpet Weekend, where incoming MBA’s who were recently accepted into the program get to meet the current MBA’s before coming to the program. With current student panels, opportunities to meet professors and alumni, as well as the opportunity to meet some of your future classmates, it is a great way to encourage a strong community within the program. The event ends with a tour of campus and a social in the press box of the Shoe (Ohio State’s Football Stadium). This gives those new to Ohio State a great introduction to the university as a whole. It is a fun event for current students to meet future students and socialize with their peers within the program. This showed me how close knit and welcoming the MBA program at Fisher is and made me more excited to enter the program when I first attended as an incoming student.

Looking back over your MBA experience, what is the one thing you’d do differently and why? I’ve learned and grown a lot through this program. I think one thing I’d do differently is spend more time with my professors in their office hours, utilizing their knowledge and willingness to spend time with students 1:1 more often. There are some amazing professors at Fisher that I would enjoy getting to learn more from outside of the classroom setting. I think it would have helped me a lot more in the first semester when we had heavier-hitting classes like Finance, Accounting, and Economics at the same time.

What is the biggest myth about your school? I’d say the biggest myth is that Ohio State is too big. When I first started my MBA, the school did feel massive to me compared to my more mid-sized undergraduate university. I think Ohio State does a good job of creating smaller more intimate settings for students to get to know each other and experience university life in a variety of ways. It feels larger than life when you get to experience things like being a part of a packed football stadium during the fall, walking through the Oval during peak hours, and watching students move in and out of their dorms. However, there’s also smaller specialized classes for students to engage with others who have similar interests and majors. There are also many athletic, arts-based, and extracurricular clubs and classes to partake in to gain new skills outside of your major and meet new people. I personally joined the Athletic Band during my second year of my MBA and have met many wonderful musicians both undergraduate and graduate. I have really enjoyed performing for various basketball, volleyball, and ice hockey games which helped me feel much more a part of the Ohio State community.

What did you love most about your business school’s town? I love Columbus for many reasons. Coming from a smaller city in Ohio like Dayton, I really enjoy the variety of things to do around the city. I love the energy of Columbus Crew soccer games and the many Ohio State sporting events. There are so many restaurants, coffee shops, and local shops to explore in the city and surrounding suburbs. It’s also nice that everything is at most a ~20-minute drive away because of the 270-highway loop that surrounds the city. In my opinion, there’s truly something for everybody in the city and nearby suburbs.

What surprised you the most about business school? It was how many transferable skills I had coming from being a band director into the business world. Fisher helped me realize that I essentially ran my own small business while leading band programs: handling finances, marketing the band program to parents, students, and administrators (stakeholders), planning the logistics of travel and instrument and music inventory – not to mention the other roles that a band director takes on in order to run a successful band program.

Which MBA classmate do you most admire? I most admire Juan Ezquerra. Juan is a wonderful person inside and out and has been an amazing leader and president for our class. I think it is rare to meet someone who is as smart, kind, and inclusive as him. He’s a great person to work alongside and a great friend. I don’t know of anyone who does not appreciate the many wonderful aspects of Juan as a person, leader, peer, and student.

What are the top two items on your professional bucket list?

* Get involved with change management initiatives at JPMorgan Chase, with the hope of improving the experience of not only the customers, but the employees!

* Begin composing my own music for percussion ensembles.

What made Taylor Williams such an invaluable addition to the Class of 2024?

“Taylor’s intellectual and leadership skills, commitment to mentorship, and her reputation for always being prepared, present, and engaged, have distinguished her as one of the best MBAs within the Class of 2024. When core faculty were asked what makes Taylor such an invaluable addition to the class, Dr. Elena Plaksenkova shared, “Many students looked to Taylor as an organizer and a leader. I remember when during one of my classes, her team explicitly credited her with successfully organizing them and crafting a strategy to win. I find Taylor’s ability to balance her excellent work at Fisher with her major extra-curricular engagements very impressive and inspiring.”

Dr. Lori Kendall stated, “Taylor is an outstanding representative of our mission to provide aspiring students with a career pivot at Fisher. As a former schoolteacher, professional band director, and member of the LGBTQIA community, Taylor fully embraces what it is to be a Buckeye with midwestern values, kindness, and deep intellectual curiosity. A tireless mentor serving others, Taylor does not shy away from using the Fisher platform and demonstrates what it is to be a Principled Leader. She is and will become an outstanding ambassador for the Fisher MBA brand and a powerful alumna for future women to follow.”

Leanda Rix
Managing Director
FTMBA Program

DON’T MISS: MBAS TO WATCH: CLASS OF 2024