Business Administration (MBA) Profiles

Describe Your Service Experience:

I have always been really into volunteer work growing up. Once I found out you could make service work a career that’s the only type of work I’ve considered. I come from a diverse background of nonprofit’s here in Milwaukee. I’m inspired to serve the community around me and help shape the place I call home.

What attracted you to apply to the Trinity Fellows Program? 
I applied to the program because of its close connection to Milwaukee. I wanted to further expand my nonprofit network and learn more about issues that have shaped the city. This program was a great fit for me because it provided me a work placement where I could directly apply my classroom concepts to help better a great organization.

How has Trinity Fellows helped your grow?
This program has helped me see the larger issues that many nonprofits look to solve. It has also helped me be more strategic and intentional in my actions as I work towards addressing social issues.

What was it like to study and work in Milwaukee?
Awesome! I’ve lived in Milwaukee almost my entire life and the program helped open me up to a side of Milwaukee I hadn’t previously seen.

What have been some highlights or accomplishments during the fellowship?
One of my proudest accomplishments as a fellow would be my role in starting a Student Advisory Board at my agency placement. I got to work with a dedicated group of students to launch a board that brings youth action and involvement to our organization.

What does it mean to you to be a part of the Trinity Fellows community?
It is an honor to be a part of this community. It means being networked with a hugely diverse group of individuals who are dedicated to making the city and world a better place. No matter what fellows do the whole community is rooted in love, respect, and a commitment to service.

Where do you see yourself after graduation?
I am currently working at my placement in a semi-permanent role. I would love to continue working in the nonprofit sector and help lead the next generation of changemakers here in Milwaukee.

How will you apply what you have learned through this experience?
I look to bring the strategic tools and business skills I learned to help Milwaukee nonprofits thrive. I’ll also take with me a learned ability to collaborate and create work that truly embodies the voice of everyone involved.

Favorite Thing(s) About Milwaukee:
The people, custard, the lake, the bike trails, the grit and determination everyone has to improve upon what was here previously, the ability to so easily access natural spaces.

Describe Your Service Experience

I joined the Jesuit Volunteer Corps Northwest because I was attracted to their four core values, Community, Spirituality, Simple Living, and Social and Ecological Justice. I was able to live these values out in my two years of service where I worked with youth in both a school and shelter setting. After my service, I was equally attracted to the ways I could continue to live those values out in my graduate experience as a Trinity Fellow with other socially-minded students interested in finding the ways their talents insect with the change they wish to create in the world.

Describe Your Trinity Fellowship Experience
I wasn’t sure what to expect joining the Trinity Fellows program, but anticipated meeting some pretty remarkable people with passions that have led them to be of service for and with others. I’m happy to report that I was right. As a Fellow, I was able to discuss and examine the intersectionality of issues and many challenges facing society with peers that could encourage and challenge me both in and out of the classroom. The cross-disciplinary nature of the cohort allowed us to have enriching conversations from a variety of perspectives, achieving better understanding all around.

Plans After Graduation
After my fellowship experience, I hope to continue to find myself in and create spaces where diverse perspectives are valued and shared. I think having the cross-disciplinary cohort has been academically and personally enriching and is something that I will continue to seek out in my professional experience. I look forward to finding ways I can continue to grow in the relationships I have created through the fellowship program and continue to contribute to the network moving forward.

Favorite Thing(s) About Milwaukee

The Lake, or the cheese curds!

What inspired you to serve? 
I decided to serve because I wanted to combine my passion for service while opening up new resources that could help me obtain a master’s degree since my undocumented status limits financial resources. I loved my service year. It exposed me to one of the most historic cities in the country and I made lifelong friends I keep in touch with years after my service year ended.

What attracted you to apply to the Trinity Fellows Program? 
The Trinity Fellows Program was especially attractive to me because of the work study component. I knew I wanted to get my degree; I also knew I wanted to continue to work to continue to gain valuable skills. The Trinity Fellows Program provided that in a manner that was thoughtful about both while keeping in mind that we are human and can only extend ourselves so far. A limit of an 18 hour placement while enrolled as a full-time student was a good mix of work study that most of my peers could not afford. The majority of the MBA students were part-time students taking only 1 class at a time while full-time employees which prolonged their time earning their degree.

How has Trinity Fellows helped your grow?
The Trinity’s Fellows program has helped grow personally and professionally. Throughout my 21-month fellowship I learned the importance of leaning on others and why community matters. Asking for help is a quality of strong people and that it takes courage to give and receive.

What was it like to study and work in Milwaukee?
Studying and working in Milwaukee was made special because of the Trinity Fellows program. Through the fellowship I was able to experience Milwaukee in ways that its own residents do not. The program helped me connect to Milwaukee’s rich history and see the city’s strengths.

What have been some highlights or accomplishments during the fellowship?
Highlights of my fellowship are the lifelong connections I’ve made with my cohort. Although I may lose daily communication with some, I feel bonded to each fellow and look forward to picking up where we left off since I last saw them.

What does it mean to you to be a part of the Trinity Fellows community?
Being a part of the Trinity Fellows community means being one part of a body. Each member brings so much to offer and you can really only learn that by taking the time to learn more about each person (part). Like a body, every part is important in its own way and needed for a better life (fellow) experience.

Where do you see yourself after graduation?
For now, I plan to stay in Milwaukee. I want to find opportunities outside of the non-profit sector. I would still like to work in roles that allow me to make a difference in the lives of Milwaukee residents. I would like to pursue a PhD in the next 2 years.

How will you apply what you have learned through this experience?
There are so many insights I’ve gained throughout my fellowship that I will utilize as I move forward. My primary objective is to use my connections to better serve Milwaukee, specifically Milwaukee’s black and brown citizens.

Favorite Thing(s) About Milwaukee
My favorite thing about Milwaukee is the lake and the cities beautiful sunsets.

Full-time Service Experience
I wanted to participate in the St. Joseph Worker program because I wanted to learn about the realities of growing up in the Twin Cities that were different from my own experiences. I knew about the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondalet (that ran the program) and their incredible mission of "loving God and the dear neighbor without distinction" and wanted to be a part of their impactful community. I also very much appreciated the small size of the program and the emphasis on female leadership development. I learned how to be a better leader that year, what it means to be a strong female, and how to be a better citizen in any community in which I am a part of.

Trinity Fellowship Experience
I was very interested in the Trinity Program because of the ability to obtain a master's degree, while also continuing to gain valuable professional experiences. The work placement component was the main reason for drawing me back to Milwaukee. I appreciated my experience at the Alliance SO MUCH and I felt it was a perfect complement to my class work.

I came to Trinity with the desire to take my professional career to the next step by learning about how different sizes, styles, and types of human-serving nonprofits operate. I feel as though my business academic experiences, combined with my work with the Alliance has provided me with a rich learning opportunity. However, something I did not anticipate was the growth and understanding I would come away with about the nonprofit sector as a whole and an enhanced understanding of the history, role, and future of the sector within our society. I feel that I am a better professional with this enhanced understanding of the nonprofit sector. It was a learning curve to operate on such a macro-level at the Alliance, but once I was able to learn to function in those spaces, my knowledge and ability to learn improved greatly.

Plans After Graduation
I am planning to mover back to the Twin Cities after graduation. It is bittersweet to leave Milwaukee, but it feels right to be moving closer to my family.

Current Position
Program Associate, Richard M. Schulze Family Foundation

Service Experience
I was motivated to serve in the Peace Corps because it would allow me to grow and learn in new ways, gain distance from my environment to examine my assumptions, determine what I wanted to do next with my life, and provide opportunities to give back to a community. I was gratified to feel that all three of those hopes were met and exceeded, though I was always skeptical about my ability to give back to a community. My experience was one of profound humility, constant challenge and learning, and deep reward in the form of skills and relationships built. I learned to understand the complexity of poverty and underdeveloped economies, I learned how to create meaning and work in an unsupervised context, and I made lasting connections with the people I worked with.

Trinity Fellowship Experience
I was attracted to the Trinity Fellows Program for its full-tuition-plus-stipend and the inclusion of the MBA program as an option, but that's not what I see now as the primary benefit or value. Now I believe that the real value of the program lies in its ability to attract amazing people to an amazing city and plug us into rewarding nonprofits where we can learn and try to make a difference. The friendships and professional connections I made in the Trinity program have changed the course of my life for the better. This program was the perfect fit for me, and I appreciated every part of it.

The Fellowship experience helped me reflect on and grow in my leadership, my knowledge of business and organizations, my skills in project management, my communication abilities, and my connections to Milwaukee and the organizations working for equity here. The learning in classes mixed well with my ability to try things in my placement. Conversations with other Fellows about what they were doing and trying in their organizations and classes, further enriched the experience.

I have loved living, studying, and working in Milwaukee. It is vibrant, complex, fun, affordable, and approachable. Some highlights of the Fellowship have included the time I've spent with my fellow Fellows, both in class and out of class, the projects I've gotten involved with at my placement, the volunteer work I did for Cristo Rey Jesuit High School Milwaukee, and the culmination of my hard work in academics with the T.R. Martin award from the MBA program.

To me, being a part of the Trinity Fellows community means being committed to equity, access, opportunity, and justice for all people, especially the marginalized. It means always looking for ways to improve myself, learn, and grow. It means reaching out and connecting with others to better understand their lives and situations, but also how to build more vibrant communities together. I hope to help the various communities I belong to in all of these ways, including the Trinity Fellows and Trinity Alumni communities.

Plans After Graduation
I will be at Cristo Rey Jesuit High School, continuing to learn and grow, and working to contribute to the learning and high standards of students, staff, and the organization as a whole. I will apply my experiences both in class and in my placement to shape organizational culture in a way that supports the values and mission of the school, and I will use the connections I developed over the last two years to enrich the value that I can provide to students and staff alike.

Current Position
Dean of Performance Measurement & Innovation, Cristo Rey Jesuit High School Milwaukee