Shae-Jhon Coy

University of Chicago, Booth School of Business

“Ambitious, witty, lifelong learner who enjoys challenging himself and building community.”

Hometown: Winsted, CT

Fun Fact About Yourself: I confront my fear of heights by cliff jumping, parasailing, and visiting observation decks.

Undergraduate School and Major: Central Connecticut State University – B.S. in Management Information Systems

Most Recent Employer and Job Title: The Cigna Group – Product Manager

Aside from your classmates and location, what was the key part of Chicago Booth’s MBA programming that led you to choose this business school and why was it so important to you? Booth’s curriculum stood out to me. I wanted to strengthen my quantitative skills and Booth’s academic rigor felt like the right environment to nurture my growth. I also found the flexibility of the curriculum appealing as it allows me to chart my own path forward, focusing on the areas I truly care about.

The Booth MBA is also known for being highly data-driven. Why does the program’s focus on quantitative analysis and decision-making appeal to you? How have you been able to leverage this approach in your career so far? At Cigna, data helped us design the myCigna platform. Collecting data via analytics tracking helped identify the most used areas of the platform and what improvements were needed. Conducting user studies provided insights into what features customers wanted and what features weren’t worth pursuing.

Data is critical to decision-making today. As someone pursuing a career pivot into consulting, Booth’s focus on data appeals to me because the program offers the opportunity to learn how to leverage data for business needs. Data can be the great differentiator in the business world, and I believe the quantitative rigor of Booth will aid me as I transition into a new industry that is powered by curating, analyzing, and presenting data to some of the largest companies in the world.

What course, club or activity excites you the most at Chicago Booth? Interpersonal dynamics – As someone who constantly wants to improve himself and who is extremely curious about how we as humans communicate, I view Interpersonal Dynamics as a transformational opportunity. The course focuses on gaining a greater understanding of oneself, and how armed with this knowledge, one can better foster relationships. A recent alum highlighted Interpersonal Dynamics as the single most important course he took at Booth; he noted that it fundamentally changed the way he saw himself and how he communicates in business and social environments. Hearing about his transformation makes me eager to take the course myself.

What has been your first impression of the Booth MBA students and alumni you’ve met so far? Tell us your best Booth story so far. “Pay it forward” and “welcoming” are the words that immediately come to mind as I think about the Booth community. As I was applying to business school, Boothies made themselves available to answer all my questions; they shared their personal experiences and gave application advice. When I received my acceptance, I was greeted with emails and phone calls from multiple clubs congratulating me. I truly can’t put into words how welcomed the Booth community made me feel.

Before I committed to Booth, the African American MBA Association (AAMBAA) gave accepted students educational resources for pre-MBA consulting and financial recruiting. AAMBAA members took time out of their day to coach us on how to set ourselves up for success before we even matriculated. This is just one example of how the Booth community goes above and beyond and I’m excited to pay it forward.

What makes Chicago such a great place to earn an MBA? Chicago is a major city offering opportunities for every aspect of MBA life and Booth does a fantastic job of integrating with the city. On the professional side, Booth’s Business Solutions Group (BSG) provides consulting resources for local midsize businesses and non-profits. A second-year mentor of mine participated in BSG and found the program to be valuable for getting real world consulting experience and helping local Chicago area organizations. On the social side, Booth offers the Epicurean Club, which allows Boothies to experience Chicago’s renowned food scene. These are just two examples of how Booth integrates with Chicago and helps Boothies grow both professionally and socially.

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far: It was fixing the index/search functionality on the servers responsible for the Cigna for Health Care Professionals (CHCP) website while only recently learning Linux.

My career started in Cigna’s technology rotational program. Going into my second year, I decided to challenge myself and take an extremely technical role as an infrastructure engineer, even though my experience was aligned to project management. It was a steep learning curve. My new manager made me responsible for several Linux servers that began experiencing an issue that stopped them from returning comprehensive search results to users. Despite the fact that the Linux kernel had only recently looked like hieroglyphics to me, I decided to upskill on bash scripting and RHEL during my personal time. I was able to use this new-found knowledge to create new startup scripts for the search capabilities; ultimately resolving the issue and restoring search functionality to the millions of providers who use the website.

Although fixing the Linux servers wasn’t the highest visibility initiative I’ve delivered, I consider it the biggest accomplishment because it serves as a reminder that even the hardest challenges can be surmounted with work ethic, resilience, and curiosity.

What advice would you give to help potential applicants gain admission into Chicago Booth’s MBA program? Ensure that your essays and interviews show that you’ve done your homework on Booth. You should be able to go deep into topics in a way that shows you went beyond the Booth website and cared enough to engage with the greater Booth community. Don’t be afraid to reach out to Boothies because we were all in your shoes at one point and are eager to help.

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