The Birth of My MBA@UNC Journey

Conception?

“I’m definitely going to go back for my MBA once I have the baby,” I confidently tell my friend Neil Rock.?

He laughs in my face.?

“No, you’re not,” he says. “I hate to break it to you, but life doesn’t get easier and more manageable after you have your second child. You should start the MBA now. Just start. Then, even if you take a semester off after the baby comes, it will be easier to go back because you’ll be on your way.”?

And that’s how I started my MBA@UNC at UNC Kenan-Flagler in 2019 at 41 years old and seven months pregnant.?

If you’re reading this and thinking about going for your MBA, you’re probably in the middle of a personal journey of some significance. You might not realize it until later — I certainly didn’t sit there and think, “Wow, can’t wait to see where this personal journey goes!” But the process of looking back is just as enlightening as the journey itself, and so I’m here to share mine with you. I hope it somehow resonates or gives you insight that will be helpful to whatever you are moving toward in life.?

The pregnancy I mentioned above came at the end of years of infertility, miscarriages and IVF. My son was 2.5 years old, and my daughter was born a couple of weeks after my first final exam. A woman I admire – Neena Patil –? from one of my previous organizations once said something that I remember vividly: As women, we often find times in our lives when we are leaning into our personal lives more than our professional lives — and then that tide turns, and we lean into that professional or intellectual area of growth once again.?

I’m sure many men experience the same thing, but I also believe that women are in a unique place of struggle to find the ever-elusive concept of “balance.” I loved the way she reframed this struggle to provide grace and permission for us to follow our instincts to be in exactly the right place. Not falling behind our colleagues as we stay home with our kids, nor failing as a mother as we get on a plane to go on a business trip — but intentionally leaning into our choices and possibilities.?

In 2019, I lifted my head from the fog that made up my fertility journey at times, and I saw on the horizon a place where my tide could turn. I thought not just of sustaining life in my body but also what I would teach that life as she came into the world. I remember thinking to myself after I took that first final exam (which included so many trips to the bathroom that I was convinced they’d think I was cheating), “Josephine, do you see this? You can learn at any age, in any phase of your life.”?

One of the best parts of this program is that I encountered so many people with their own stories, and I know that it took each of us making choices, sacrifices and significant effort to earn this degree.?

School’s in for summer

But let’s go back to that first course: Statistical Analysis with Jeff Laufenberg, whom I highly recommend as a professor. I had always sailed through school pretty effortlessly. So when they told me to expect 10–20 hours a week of work, I admit that I arrogantly thought, “Sure, for other people—I’ll probably knock it out in five.” The gods laughed just as hard as my friend Neil. I was in for a surprise.?

I remember feeling ignorant for the first time in years. Legitimately out of my depth — thinking, “What did I do? Oh, my goodness, this is hard. I am the dumbest person in the room.” It was a feeling that I experienced every semester for the next two years, and I actually learned to LOVE it — eventually. Because it meant I was learning and growing. A part of me that had gotten a bit soft was stretching again. I got comfortable being uncomfortable.?

Inevitably, my quant classes followed the same arc. Complete ignorance and panic, moments of clarity, growing confidence, the conscious decision that I would never take a job in which I had to do this work regularly, and finally the celebration of the fact that I had mastered enough of the content to make me a better leader — I could also ask better questions, find specific models and approaches and balance out good data based solutions with my gut feelings. This was, of course, mixed in with a lot of procrastination. My closet was never more organized than when finals loomed.?

Baby steps

But before I got to that place of confidence, I had to get through one of the most difficult moments of my life. I think everyone in the program hits this place where personal and professional commitments add to the demands of the program and create a situation that feels insurmountable. I don’t say this to discourage you, but for you to understand that this is normal and that you won’t be alone.?

For me, the moment came in my second semester, when I returned after my short program break to find myself taking two of the most workload-intensive core courses while nursing a newborn and parenting a toddler. There is a brain fog that occurs postpartum as a result of hormones, lack of sleep and adjusting to a new normal. New moms jokingly (and desperately) call it “Mom Brain.” I had MBA Mom Brain.?

Trying to apply my mind to the course material and meet the expectations of the professors was incredibly difficult, and I found myself genuinely doubting if I could do it. These are the times when you can rely on family and friends, but no one will understand more than your peers in the program. I met one of the people I’d become closest friends with during that semester – Kevin Neaves – as he tutored me in Financial Accounting. I’d find myself leaning on peers like him — and being leaned upon — often through the next couple of years.?

Along with building relationships, I began to build my toolbox that would support me during the program and beyond. I realized that investing in wellness was no longer a luxury, but a necessity. My sleep, nutrition, fitness and ability to prioritize became critical. I learned how to say no with grace and finality. These are tools that became extremely important toward the end of my program, when we were suddenly thrust into the midst of a pandemic.?

Hitting my stride?

After that semester, I not only survived, but I also began to hit my stride. I often found myself applying concepts I learned in class to workplace situations and events. I knew how to coordinate with friends to ensure we got online early to register for the same classes. I had my group project partners set up well before the first class session. I joined the popular “Real World of MBA@UNC” Facebook group, so I had a place to vet all the professors, commiserate with my peers and enjoy the superior meme skills of those who were procrastinating from one assignment or another.?

Along with my ability to start to understand different business topics more deeply, I started to gain a perspective of the business world that I realized I lacked up until that point. Having spent most of my career working in pharma in the U.S., I didn’t truly realize how narrow my focus was. I began to learn more about other industries and companies and global roles and realized that if I wanted my career growth to match my personal growth, I might have to make some changes. My confidence was growing as well, and I started to look for those opportunities that would stretch me and broaden my capabilities.?

During the course of my two years in the program, I changed companies twice, was promoted three times and significantly increased my compensation. I hired people from the MBA@UNC Program. I sought advice from peers, and I gave advice. I found that courses like Negotiations were incredibly applicable to these changes — and was recently excited to be able to repay those lessons by being interviewed by the fabulous Alison Fragale for a new course in Negotiations. It was during my classes that I developed a desire to get global experience, as I watched classmates and professors dial in from places like China, Spain, Brazil, Israel, Germany, Singapore and more.?

Learning to Fly

As I adjusted to the workload and expectations, I left the core curriculum behind. This is when the magic started — ELECTIVES. The anticipation of learning more specialized topics from some of the best minds in their fields was inspiring. I took courses in everything from Health Economics to Social Entrepreneurship in Developing Economies. Courses in innovation, strategy, technology in business. The group projects grew richer. I started to propose changes to the assignments that allowed me to enhance my networking and learning opportunities beyond the program.?

In one course, we were tasked with identifying a nonprofit or charitable organization and writing a paper on that business. My peers in my group project and I took on the challenge of finding and interviewing someone at the company. Another program alumnus connected me with someone who connected me with someone who knew the CEO of Heifer International. He agreed to an hour-long interview and connected me with his global communications director. Our group dove into the content and wrote this article on how Heifer is helping rural villages learn business concepts that help them to build their own economies. Heifer was so pleased with it that they published it on their own social media platforms.?

That relationship didn’t stop there. After the course, I worked with my professors and some alumni with African roots to consult with Heifer’s new VP in Africa on an innovation project they were kicking off. I started to realize that the functional capabilities I was developing would allow me to explore and learn in areas in which I had no prior experience.?

I applied this same “What if?” mentality to other courses as well — after an immersion in Vancouver was canceled due to the pandemic in March 2020, UNC scheduled a one-day virtual summit on the business implications of COVID-19. It was incredible how quickly they pulled together relevant course material and expert speakers. As part of our group project, some friends and I wrote an article that compared the initial COVID-19 crisis to the post-911 environment.?

The overall impact of the things I was learning, the people I was meeting, and the experiences I had was that my world became so much bigger — and more accessible. My definition of self expanded, and my possibilities increased. This extended to not only my professional life but also my personal life.?

Back to running

Flush with my “limitless” mindset, I turned to physical challenges. The treadmill in my office had become my outlet during the heavy course load, and I found myself considering a challenge that had always seemed beyond reach. Could I run a marathon? I had run my first half marathon midway through the program but was convinced I couldn’t do double the distance. Yet after running a 10-miler in Washington, D.C., I felt like I could have kept going for quite a while.?

I applied the mindset that started me in the program: I jumped in! I found others who were as crazy as I was, and six weeks prior to the Philadelphia Marathon, I started training. I will say that I was already running about 35–40 miles a week, with long runs up to 12 miles. Transitioning into marathon training was actually not difficult at that point, and in November 2019, I lined up at the starting line. The race was a difficult one, with rain and snow the entire way. I ran solo — I doubted myself — and I pushed through my mental and physical barriers. I crossed the finish line in 5:15:15. As I ran past the finish, I thought to myself, “This is it—I can do anything.” When I got home, my son asked me if I won the race and I said, “I absolutely did.”?

Two years later, I checked another box on my bucket list and ran the NYC Marathon with Saad Usmani and Kevin Neaves, two of my best friends from MBA@UNC.?

To Infinity and Beyond

As thrilling, challenging and life-changing as this program is, it has an end date. You will post your final class async Facebook post and tag all of your best friends. You will have the opportunity to attend graduation, even if it is delayed a year because of a global healthcare crisis. You will get your diploma and update your LinkedIn profile. You will start to consider where you will take your next course.

But the lessons I learned, the friends I made, the ways in which I changed — that grew deep roots in me. I began to think of not just how my career would grow but also the legacy I want to leave. The impact I want to make.?

My last class in the program was with one of my favorite professors and humans, Larry Chavis. Larry had collected a group of physicians and healthcare executives from his Health Economics course who were enrolled in either the EMBA or MBA@UNC program, and in February 2020, he asked us if we wanted to do an independent study to create course material for a new MBA course, The Business of Mental Healthcare. He saw a gap in business courses that he felt was important to fill, and this was particularly visionary because it was at the brink of the pandemic.?

For the next six months, we participated in a course that was part learning, part curriculum development and part therapy. We could never have known how relevant this material would become. As the course developed,? so did the pandemic and racial tensions in the world around us — and we integrated all of it into the material. It culminated in an immersion course that Larry led for more than 100 MBA students, and each of us either delivered live course sessions or recorded async. The professional and personal journey aligned once again in an incredibly meaningful way and left me wondering how I could continue to contribute to this school. It also had me thinking very seriously about how I integrate my values, beliefs and dreams into my professional life.?

New life ?

One of the organizations we studied during that final course was Genentech. The biotech company was leading the way in diversity and inclusion and in mental healthcare — in very real and tangible ways. Around the same time, I was recruited to join the organization. As excited as I was about the values of the company, I remembered my desire to be challenged and expand my view beyond the U.S.?

Through the interview process, I spoke with the hiring manager about my desire to get into a global role once I had established myself in the organization. I found support and encouragement in this from the first day I joined the company, and just over a year later, I was offered an assignment in the global headquarters of Genentech’s parent company, Roche. I relocated to Basel, Switzerland, in December 2021 to be chief of staff to the COVID portfolio team in global product strategy, a role that I am in today. I knew I would learn a lot, professionally and personally, and grow in ways I didn’t quite understand yet.?

This might sound familiar to you: On my first day in the global role, I was participating in a meeting with senior leaders about a project that I was being asked to coordinate. I felt ignorant. I was sure I was the dumbest person in the room. I didn’t know the questions to ask, what the content was or even where the path to start it was.?

I had felt this before –? and I was ready.?

* The meme in this article was retrieved from the Real World of MBA@UNC Facebook group.