I decided to pursue an MBA mainly to develop my leadership skills. Given my background in Engineering, I wanted to learn more about the business side of the organization through the MBA program.

Returning to school means I spend most weekends on assignments or catching up on readings. However, I feel much more fulfilled than before, knowing that I am continuously learning even after work, and feeling confident that this education will help me become a better leader in the future.

Currently, I do not hold a managerial position, but I have been able to adapt the knowledge I’m gaining through my program in my workplace. I have noticed I can better identify who is a successful leader and why, which helps me to know who my role models should be and allows me to improve my leadership skills by observing them. I have also enhanced my leadership skills in meetings and developed more efficient strategic plans for my projects at work. For instance, I initiated a digital project that involved a significant change in management. During my Change Management course, I learned that leaders must carefully design a business plan to minimize employee resistance and optimize the plan’s result. I spent significant time creating a step-by-step plan by benchmarking other facilities and researching, which led the project to success. Other plants are now using us as a benchmark and duplicating our work.

Each course has been new to me and helpful in a different way, but the highlight of my UFred experience so far was when I took the first course, Leadership Theory and Practice. This course explored the evolution of leadership styles and explained that one current effective leadership style is called ‘people leadership.’ Since I am highly people-oriented, I would like to become a people leader, and this course helped me shape what type of leader I want to be and informed me in what skills I should practice while becoming one.

My professional goal is to become a strong people leader, positively influencing my team and the community. My motivation and happiness come from feeling fulfilled after helping people and seeing the impact of my actions. Through my education at UFred, I hope to narrow down who I want to be in the future and know what skills I need to improve.