Meet Indiana Kelley’s MBA Class Of 2019

Tram Nguyen 

Indiana University, Kelley School of Business 

Describe yourself in 15 words or less: Former consultant and future marketer who is obsessed with exploring new cultures and cuisines

Hometown: Proud Texan! (Houston, TX)

Fun Fact About Yourself: While studying abroad in Beijing, I did a six-hour hike ending with an incredible sunset on the Great Wall of China.

Undergraduate School and Major: I have dual degrees in both business and economics from American University in Washington, DC

Employers and Job Titles Since Graduation:

(Top to bottom by most recent)

• Associate Category Manager | The Wonderful Company (Los Angeles) |CPG/Food
• Senior Consultant | Deloitte (DC & Los Angeles) | Strategy & Risk Analytics
• Consultant | DRT Strategies (DC) | Federal Consulting

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far: I successfully led a technical training for more than 100+ practitioners at Deloitte University at the Risk Analytics Convention. At Deloitte, people are the company’s biggest asset: thus, training and development are huge focus points for the firm. This experience gave me the opportunity to not only share my knowledge with my immediate colleagues, but to peers outside of my industry and sector bubble.

Looking back on your experience, what one piece of advice would you give to future business school applicants?  Applying to business school is a long, but eye-opening process. My advice to prospective students is to think deeply about what they truly want out of business school. For me, the most helpful aspects were the discussions I had with my mentors, friends, families, and peers before I applied. These conversations helped me to truly understand my core values and underlying motivations for pursuing an MBA. This self-discovery was incredibly helpful as I crafted my unique story and school essays.

What was the key factor that led you to choose this program for your full-time MBA and why was it so important to you?  Marketing has always been a passion of mine – I geek out on consumer behaviors and exciting new trends in all categories, especially food. This was the key factor that led me to the Kelley School of Business and its cutting-edge Consumer Marketing Academy. As a future brand manager, I know that Kelley will not only provide me with a strong foundation academically, but also mold me to become a strategic thinker with its different experiential learning opportunities.

What would success look like to you after your first year of business school? To me, being successful in my first year means: 1) to fully engage with not only my core team members, but also my entire cohort; 2) to truly learn and understand a completely new concept I didn’t know before business school; and 3) to gain an amazing group of new life-long friends.