Nalani Cayme

“Per my closest friends, which hits the nail on the head: “part firecracker, part lion – spicy, spirited, passionate, loyal, cheeky, fiercely protective, and exceptionally resilient”

Hometown: Hilo and Waimea, Hawaii

Fun Fact About Yourself: I’ve lived in Dublin and Vienna and have traveled to more than 20 countries (I’m excited to add Brazil to the list during the MBA spring break study tour).

Undergraduate School and Major: University of Southern California: Bachelor of Science, Business Administration

Most Recent Employer and Job Title: Kohala Coast Community Fund, Acting Executive Director. And simultaneously, Better Homes & Gardens Real Estate, Realtor

What makes Seattle such a great place to earn an MBA?

Seattle offers the perfect MBA environment: some of the world’s most innovative companies within earshot, great coffee for long study days, amazing beer for post-class decompression, and – hot take – the weather is way better than people give it credit for (coming from someone who grew up in the rainiest town in the United States).

What has been your best memory as an MBA so far?

Gosh, there are so many – I can’t pick just one.

Halfway through the first quarter of the program, our class spent several days on company treks around Seattle. My group had the opportunity to visit Microsoft, Wyze, Starbucks, and F5, where we heard directly from employee panels about their roles, career paths, and honest perspectives on navigating the MBA experience and recruiting. Beyond just learning about the companies at a high level, the highlight was gaining inside, behind-the-scenes perspectives on how these organizations operate day-to-day and how MBAs add value within them. Hearing real stories from people who had once been in our shoes made everything feel more tangible and reaffirmed why we’re all putting in the work. It was energizing, grounding, and incredibly motivating all at once.

An equally memorable moment, which happened around the same time as the company treks, was “Sail-Gate,” a tailgate with classmates on a boat that took us from Lake Union straight to the Husky stadium on the shores of Lake Washington. It started at 8 a.m., but that didn’t stop us from having the time of our lives and dancing the morning away to music curated and mixed by two of our classmates who moonlight as DJs.

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far:

Prior to my MBA, I co-founded a nonprofit accelerator with the goal of addressing the Hawaiian diaspora caused by rising living costs that many locals can no longer afford. As a Native Hawaiian, uplifting Hawaiʻi’s economy and workforce is a cause I was (and continue to be) deeply passionate about. After taking the initiative early to move our efforts forward, my fellow co-founders (including government officials, executives, and community leaders) appointed me Acting Executive Director of the organization, despite my having no prior professional leadership experience. Over the last few years, I’ve led efforts to grow the organization, raising nearly $10M in funding for local nonprofits and businesses and helping create thousands of career opportunities across the state.

Aside from your location and classmates, what was the one key part of Washington Foster’s MBA programming that led you to choose this business school and why was it so important to you?

The moment that really solidified my decision was attending Foster’s Welcome Weekend. I sat in on a mock accounting class with Professor Elizabeth Blankespoor. I’ve never been a fan of accounting (I actively disliked it in undergrad), so I wasn’t expecting much, but she made the class engaging, approachable, and, to my surprise, genuinely interesting. What also stood out over the course of the weekend was the overall feel of the program. The experience reflected Foster’s tight-knit, community-driven culture, where professors are deeply invested in students and collaboration is the norm. That sense of connection and support ultimately made Foster feel like the right choice for me.

What course, club or activity have you enjoyed the most so far at Washington Foster?

To my surprise, the course I’ve enjoyed most thus far has been Corporate Finance with Professor Thomas Gilbert. Coming into the program without a quantitative background, I was definitely intimidated stepping into Thomas’s class. However, it quickly became one of the most interesting and practical classes I’ve taken to date. What I appreciated most was how applicable the material felt to real-world decision-making. The course helped demystify financial concepts and gave me tools I can see myself using day-to-day, whether evaluating opportunities, better understanding trade-offs, or planning ahead for the future. Beyond the content itself, the experience also gave me a lot more confidence in an area I once considered a weakness, which made it especially rewarding.

Describe your biggest achievement in the MBA program so far:

Surviving Q1! Seriously, no one and nothing can fully prepare you for the intensity of the first quarter of the MBA program. Balancing academics (arguably some of the toughest courses of the entire program), recruiting, and the social side of the MBA experience can easily feel like three full-time jobs at once. What I’m most proud of is not just getting through it but doing better than I expected across the board. I performed stronger academically than I anticipated, stayed on top of recruiting, made a real effort to build relationships and be part of the community, and stayed active in clubs and leadership roles. All of this happened while navigating some unexpected personal and family challenges, which made the experience even more demanding. Making it through the first quarter felt like a huge win and gave me a lot of confidence in my ability to handle pressure and competing priorities. I’m excited for what’s ahead.

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