Sarah Wales

Kelley School of Business at Indiana University

“Lifelong learner and creative problem-solver who thrives on meaningful connections and purpose-driven projects.”

Hometown: Virginia Beach, Virginia

Fun fact about yourself: To help pay for undergrad, I started a small business, The Little Whales, that offered swim lessons for children in family pools throughout my hometown.

Undergraduate School and Degree: Virginia Tech – Bachelor of Science in Human Development

The College of William and Mary – Master of Arts in Teaching Curriculum and Instruction Pre-K-6

Where was the last place you worked before enrolling in business school? FCI Brands, Project Manager of Digital Programs and Content Marketing. Before that, I was an elementary school teacher for five years (first and second grade).

Where did you intern during the summer of 2025? Summer Associate at Deloitte in Chicago

Where will you be working after graduation? Senior Consultant at Deloitte (Human Capital)

Community Work and Leadership Roles in Business School:

Community Work & Leadership:

• President of Kelley Consulting Club
• Vice President of Movement Club
• Vice President of Net Impact
• Student-selected GLOBASE consultant for international consulting project in Botswana
• Faculty-selected GLOBASE leader for international consulting project in Hungary
• Leadership Academy Coach
• Hoosier Host

Awards & Honors:

• Kelley Coin for Excellence – Awarded to students, faculty, staff, and alumni who demonstrate values of Integrity, Excellence, Professionalism, Collaboration, and Leadership
• Awarded Forté Foundation Fellowship
• First Place, Benjamin P. Wilson Startup Sprint – Teams compete in a two-day entrepreneurial sprint to tackle real-world business challenges and compete for $10,000

Which academic or extracurricular achievement are you most proud of during business school? My proudest accomplishment at Kelley was serving as president of the Kelley Consulting Club and launching the first-ever Kelley Internship Fair, to help first-year students learn about the companies and projects second-year students worked on over the summer. When I was a first-year student, I remember feeling eager to explore different opportunities but was unsure of what questions to ask or where to begin. The internship fair goal was to create an event early in the first semester where first-year students could hear what the recruiting process is really like and freely ask questions of the second-year students.

The Consulting, Marketing, and Finance clubs collaborated to host the event, bringing together more than 100 first-year students and connecting them with second-year students who had just navigated internships across industries. Each second-year student prepared a slide to showcase their company and summer projects, and some even brought company merchandise to share. The event also gave second-year students a chance to reconnect after the summer and learn about projects and opportunities they might consider for themselves. I’m especially proud of this initiative because it created connections between first- and second-year students and laid the foundation for what I hope will become a lasting Kelley tradition.

What achievement are you most proud of in your professional career? My proudest professional achievement was leading my second‑grade students through Leadership Day, an annual event where they showcased the leadership habits they learned throughout the year. I taught my students Stephen Covey’s, 7 Habits of Highly Effective People and integrated communication, teamwork, and self‑reflection into our daily routines through morning meetings, passion projects, and student‑led conferences. On Leadership Day, my seven‑ and eight‑year‑olds took the stage without me to deliver speeches, greet guests, and present their work to families and community members. Watching them lead an entire event with confidence and pride was wonderful. Years later, I still receive emails from former students and parents sharing how they continue to use those habits. Knowing that something we built together continues to shape their lives is the most meaningful impact I’ve ever had.

Why did you choose this business school? I chose Kelley largely because of their commitment to developing their MBA students.  Kelley’s smaller class size affords focus on individual student goals and support is given at a personal level. For me, GLOBASE, the school’s global consulting program factored heavily into my choice to attend Kelley. Having the opportunity to work directly with an international client was something I was looking for in my MBA education. Before business school, I hadn’t had the chance to study abroad or travel much internationally. GLOBASE allows students to spend a semester consulting for an organization abroad and then travel over spring break to present recommendations in person. I knew I was interested in consulting, and I wanted experience navigating cultural differences, market dynamics, and real‑world constraints outside the U.S. The program offered exactly that and was a practical, immersive learning experience. In my first year, I traveled to Botswana as a team member, and in my second year, I returned as a student project lead in Hungary, guiding a team through the full client engagement. Those two experiences have really shaped my perspective on global business and are a big part of what makes Kelley incredible.

Who was your favorite MBA professor? Scott Laughner, who leads Kelley’s Consulting Academy, had the biggest impact on me during my MBA. His coaching fundamentally changed how I think, communicate, and problem‑solve. Scott has a rare ability to push students to their full potential while making them feel supported every step of the way. I’ll never forget preparing for a case competition when he spent several hours on a Sunday morning with my teammate and me on Teams, walking through our approach, challenging our assumptions, and offering thoughtful guidance. He consistently goes above-and-beyond for students who take initiative, and his influence shaped not only my recruiting journey but also the kind of consultant and leader I want to be. I will always be grateful for his mentorship, encouragement, and guidance.

What was your favorite course as an MBA? GLOBASE Botswana with Fred Schlegel. Fred shared his consulting background and experience to give us a toolkit with personalized feedback that really refined how I delivered client work. The highlight of this course was traveling to Gaborone to collaborate in person with the Botswana Digital & Innovation Hub. The founders in Botswana have a level of hustle and raw enthusiasm that is incredibly contagious. For a career pivoter like me, this course was when the Kelley Core curriculum finally clicked. It was really impactful to take everything I’d learned in the MBA classrooms and pressure-test it with our client.

What was your favorite MBA event or tradition at your business school? My favorite Kelley tradition is the home game tailgates during football season …especially this year, when Indiana University had an unforgettable run and won the National Championship! The energy on campus kept building week-after-week, and the tailgates became a big gathering point where current students and alumni came together.

One of my favorite tailgate moments this year was at the Alumni Tailgate. It was great to meet and see alumni from all over the U.S., and it was extra special to connect with several alumni that now work for Deloitte. The tailgate attended by so many was a great example of how genuinely supportive the Kelley network is. People weren’t just there for the game they were there for each other. To me, that’s what Kelley reflects at its core: a community of well‑rounded, grounded people who show up, stay connected, and take pride in lifting one another up. The Kelley tailgates captured that spirit perfectly this year! Go Hoosiers!

Looking back over your MBA experience, what is the one thing you’d do differently and why? Looking back over my MBA experience, I truly don’t have many things I would change. I’m grateful for how much I have learned, the relationships I built, and the ways I have grown my skills and potential for business consulting and leadership. Along my business school journey Kelley gave me the opportunity to travel to two new continents, expand my network, form close friendships, and confidently shift my career path. The one thing I would do differently is to explore entrepreneurship more.  I am always bursting with new ideas, and if I had the chance to do it again, I’d push myself to work with IU Ventures and invest more time into exploring, developing and testing additional new business ideas.

What was the most impactful case study you had in business school and what was the biggest lesson you learned from it? In Foundations of Leadership with Justin Delaney, we read Chop Wood, Carry Water, and its themes really came to life for me as we studied the HBS Chobani case. Together, they reshaped how I think about growth and leadership in a very practical way. As MBA students, we often measure progress through grades, performance, and milestones, but the book and Ulukaya’s approach to building Chobani highlighted the power of steady, intentional effort. In the story, when John repeatedly asks his sensei how long it will take to become a samurai archer, the timeline stretches the more he fixates on the outcome, reinforcing that mastery comes from focusing fully on the step in front of you.

Chop Wood, Carry Water is about committing to the daily work with presence and discipline. Chobani grew through consistent attention to product quality, culture, and operational excellence which tangibly demonstrates the lessons of Chop Wood, Carry Water. This expanded the definition of growth for me, to include something built quietly through consistency and care, and it reminded me that leadership is about showing up every day, doing the work with excellence, and allowing results to compound over time.

What did you love most about your business school’s town? My favorite part of Bloomington has been trying the local coffee shops. I love grabbing a coffee from Hopscotch and taking a walk along the B-Line Trail with my dog, Barnes. The fall in Bloomington is fantastic with all the beautiful trees changing colors. When I think of a classic college town, Bloomington is exactly what comes to mind. It has a charming little main street and a downtown area where you can’t walk more than a few blocks without running into someone you know. There’s IU gear everywhere, and a sense of Hoosier pride, especially this year because of all the excitement from football.

What is one way that your business school has integrated AI into your programming? What insights did you gain from using AI? Kelley has intentionally integrated AI across nearly every part of the MBA experience, from using Yoodli to receive real-time feedback on communication and presentation skills to leveraging Microsoft Copilot for structured thinking in areas like market sizing and problem-solving. Rather than treating AI as a standalone topic, it’s been woven directly throughout our coursework.

Two assignments stand out to me in particular. In my leadership course with Ray Luther, my team trained and built a chatbot designed to act as a “Kelley Leadership Coach” to support recent MBA graduates as they navigate early career decisions. This pushed us to think critically about how to translate the leadership frameworks into practical, accessible guidance through AI. Additionally, in Keith Niedermeier’s marketing course, we used AI to do a sentiment analysis by scraping and analyzing data to understand consumer insights. This experience demonstrated how AI can accelerate data processing while still requiring human judgment to interpret and apply the findings strategically.

The biggest insight for me has been that AI is only as strong as the human prompting it. It enhances efficiency and expands what’s possible analytically, but it doesn’t replace judgment, creativity, or leadership. I appreciate that Kelley has been proactive about integrating AI thoughtfully across the curriculum making sure that we are not only familiar with these tools but prepared to use them responsibly and strategically as business leaders.

Which MBA classmate do you most admire? This is a difficult question to answer because there are so many classmates I admire. If I had to choose one, it would be Rayna Strasser-King. Some of the things I admire most about Rayna are the way she leads with both conviction and humility and serves others in multiple ways. She leads with her values and never hesitates to speak up for what is right, and she does so with grace and kindness. She is intentional in everything she commits to, and that thoughtfulness shows up in her work, her leadership, and her relationships.

As president of the Black MBA Association, vice president of Africa Business Club, vice president of Kelley Women in Business, GLOBASE Botswana leader, and a graduate assistant for the Business Marketing Academy, Ryna dedicates countless hours to creating opportunities, building community, and supporting her peers. Even outside of formal leadership, she shows up fully. Whether that’s on our intramural basketball team or in everyday conversations where she takes the time to truly listen. In a fast-paced environment where it can be easy to focus on individual achievement, Rayna prioritizes impact on others and service. On top of all that, she is an incredibly talented singer/songwriter who has written and produced her own songs on Spotify. Her ability to balance excellence, creativity, and servant leadership is what makes her stand out so clearly as someone I truly admire.

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

* Lead and shape a high-impact, enterprise-level transformation that drives lasting organizational change

* Build and scale an entrepreneurial venture that creates meaningful impact

What made Sarah such an invaluable addition to the Class of 2026?

“I am delighted to nominate Sarah Wales, Kelley MBA Class of 2026, for this year’s Best and Brightest award.

Sarah has stood out since the moment she arrived at Kelley. Her genuine curiosity and openness to learning are a hallmark of her time here. As president of the Consulting Club, she organized the first-ever Internship Fair, where our returning second-year students shared their experiences with the newly-arrived class. This initiative is classic Sarah – she sees an opportunity to innovate and doesn’t hesitate to dive right in and leave her mark. Her background as an educator is reflected in the intentional steps she takes to create a community that is welcoming to all.

Sarah is also working with me as a student leader for our international consulting project course (GLOBASE), where she is responsible for coaching a team of our first-year students with a local client in Budapest. This has given me a chance to see her leadership skills in action. She gently guides the first-year students, sharing her experience when relevant, and allowing them to grow through their own experiential-learning project. Sarah’s ability to connect with people and bring out the best in them will serve her well in her next chapter at Deloitte as a Human Capital consultant.”

Emily Stern
Executive Director
Full-time +Flex MBA Program

DON’T MISS: THE 100 BEST & BRIGHTEST MBAS: CLASS OF 2026

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