Georgetown McDonough Names National Black MBA Fellows
Georgetown’s McDonough School of Business is hosting its first class of National Black MBA Association (NBMBAA) fellows this academic year, after formalizing its relationship with the association last year.
Eleven MBA students — Timothy Ballenger (MBA‘20), Broderick Brown (MBA‘20), Julia Brucks (MBA‘20), Michael Cox (MBA‘20), Nausherwan Hafeez (MBA‘19), Bianca Lopez de Victoria, (MBA‘20), Sophia Omueme (MBA‘20), Atinuke Osho (MBA‘20), Marc Punette (MBA‘20), Esmé Rogers (MBA’19), and Michelle Wu (MBA’20) — will receive a scholarship from the university and have access to NBMBAA’s annual conference.
The fellowship offers a number of networking and career development opportunities to both Full-time and Flex MBA students. Fellows act as liaisons between Georgetown and the NBMBAA and are required to attend two off-campus events through the association.
Fellow Esmé Rogers appreciates the networking events. “It forces you to network outside the Georgetown community, which is something that as business students we don’t do that often,” she said.
The black MBA network is a small one when you think about pure numbers of black Americans who have their MBA, and it creates a network larger than just your university’s alumni network. It creates a network across the world.
Esmé Rogers (MBA’19), NBMBAA fellow
She added that the NBMBAA offers more than the usual networking events, including guest speakers, financial literacy classes, resume workshops, and mentoring programs for high school students that the organization holds throughout the year, as well as at its annual conference.
With her fellowship, Rogers wants to expand the scope of her involvement in activism. “I’m already a very vocal black student within the business school program, but what does it mean for me outside of it?” she said. “How am I connecting to other MBAs and not just being a representative on this campus?”
For Rogers, the drive to give back to the NBMBAA in a broader and more meaningful way was a decisive factor in her decision to apply for the fellowship. “It’s an organization that I wanted to do more for than just attend the conference and be on the email list, and this was the best way I saw I could get involved in a larger scale.”