Maria Paul

Washington University in St. Louis, Olin Business School

“Relationship-driven professional focused on empowering others and improving organizational effectiveness.”

Hometown: St. Louis, Missouri

Fun Fact About Yourself: Ever since studying abroad in Copenhagen, Denmark during my undergraduate studies, I have had the goal of living abroad.

Undergraduate School and Major: University of Kansas – Psychology

Most Recent Employer and Job Title: Center for the Advancement of Research on Eating Behaviors (CARE) – Research Assistant

What has been your favorite part of St. Louis so far? What makes St. Louis such a great place to earn an MBA? As a local St. Louisan, I have enjoyed the opportunity to explore my hometown through the lens of a graduate student. I love exploring the city’s charming neighborhoods and discovering new study spots. Commonly referred to as a big, small city, St. Louis offers the interconnectedness of building a network in a smaller city, while also providing exciting career opportunities at large, global companies headquartered in the area.

Aside from your classmates, what was the key part of Washington Olin’s MBA programming that led you to choose this business school and why was it so important to you? For me, the most compelling aspect of the MBA program was the opportunity to gain a strong foundation in the principles of business, while also tailoring the academic experience through the various specialization tracks offered. As someone with a deep interest in applying psychological research to inform better business practices, I was excited to learn that I could specialize in the Leadership & Human Capital Management track. This concentration allows me to develop expertise in people strategy while taking a variety of impactful courses in the Organizational Behavior department. The combination of the MBA degree and the specific specialization track allows me the best of both worlds by gaining a rich understanding of all business functions and honing my expertise in a particular area of interest.

What course, club or activity have you enjoyed the most so far at Washington Olin? During my first semester in the program, I took a course called the Foundations of Impactful Teamwork. This course is a requirement for the degree, and I found it to be extremely beneficial in bolstering my ability to succeed in working with teams. This course a helpful resource for doing well in the MBA program (given that group work is heavily woven into the curriculum of almost all of the courses at Olin). Even more, it provided space for the development of critical skills for collaborating with others in the working world. I truly feel that I will take many of the skills and concepts discussed in class with me into my professional (and personal) life.

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far: I am a young professional who went directly from my undergraduate studies to the MBA program. I am equipped with a wealth of classroom theory and in the process of accumulating experiences that would allow me to apply this learning to the corporate world. Many of my prior experiences have been academic in nature, including my work as a research assistant for a clinical psychology research lab. This experience allowed me to develop an interest in using data to drive empirically-based interventions for solving human problems. I became fascinated by the way in which psychological research could quantify subjective aspects of the human experience. With this experience, I hope to bring a science-based approach to diagnosing and solving human capital problems in organizations.

Describe your biggest achievement in the MBA program so far: My biggest achievement has been successfully completing my first-ever accounting, finance, and economics classes. As a student, I tend to gravitate towards class material related to social science and communications. Completing the numbers-heavy courses in the core curriculum for the MBA program has been extremely rewarding. The hard work I put into grasping difficult concepts in these classes has allowed me to come away with a more holistic understanding of how businesses function and how the people side of the equation can impact the numerical side.

What has been your best memory as an MBA so far? So far, my best memory from the program has been the three-week orientation my cohort participated in before the start of our first semester of classes. This program allowed for bonding experiences among the cohort, as well as unique learning opportunities, such as professional development workshops, and community service work. After the orientation was over, I felt connected to my peers and excited to embark on the MBA journey!

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