McDonough School of Business Impact Report Fall 2020

With Gratitude

Growing up outside Memphis, Tenn., I always thought I would become a brain surgeon. However, while studying neuroscience at Vanderbilt University, my interests shifted toward the liberal arts and business. After graduating in 2013, I worked for a few years at a public technology company focused on nonprofits and education in a client-facing role and, later, leading internal strategic initiatives on international operations and expansion. It was in this role I first began interacting with the C-suite and experiencing how strategy was created, implemented, and measured. My mentor and manager at the time recommended an MBA, and I started thinking about returning to school and bolstering my skillsets.

I didn’t take the decision lightly—I had to feel certain I would graduate with a career that would put me ahead of where I already was in my career and make my commitment worth it.

I have not been disappointed. Academically, the McDonough MBA has pushed me farther than I expected I would be pushed. My classmates have become my best friends, I received multiple summer internship offers across a range of consulting and technology companies, and I am confident in my career prospects. McDonough has opened doors for me.

Growing up with limited financial resources, I was extremely honored to receive the MBA Alumni Advisory Council Scholarship award. It reduced the amount of focus I needed to put on financial planning and helped me focus more on getting the most out of McDonough. As VP of Admissions for Georgetown Women in Business, one of the key strategic initiatives I’m involved with is to achieve gender parity in student enrollment. So many prospective women are still hesitant to come to business school due to financial limitations, and I am grateful that alumni support helped make coming to Georgetown the easy choice for me.

Kirby Horvitz (MBA’21)