How Emory Goizueta Helps Underprivileged Students Earn an MBA
When you decide to apply for an MBA program, there are a number of new questions you’ll need to answer. Where would be the best place to earn the degree? What program best fits my career needs? What should I focus my business school studies on?
Among all the other decisions a prospective MBA will need to make, how to pay for the degree may be the last thing on their mind.
It’s no secret that the cost of an MBA—plus the lost income while earning your degree—is intimidating for many prospective students. Many students may choose not to earn an MBA or not to apply to a school that fits their skill and needs due to the price tag. If this seems unjust to you, you’re not alone. Many business schools have committed to making their programs accessible and affordable for low-income students.
The Goizueta Business School at Emory University is just one of those schools, offering a number of loan and scholarship opportunities to help students pay for their degree. Below, we’ve rounded up some of the ways Emory helps to ensure all students—regardless of income—can earn a Goizueta MBA.
How Underprivileged Applicants Can Earn An Affordable Emory MBA
Grants & Scholarships
Grants and scholarships offer students an extremely valuable and all-too-often underutilized opportunity to pay huge portions of tuition without the frustrating proposition of paying it back later. Such funding can be based either on academic merit or financial need.
Tuition Credits: There are a number of tuition credits available for students who fall into specific categories, such as Emory University Alumni, Graduates of the Goizueta Business School Executive Education Program, active duty military and veterans, and applicants working full-time at a 501(c)(3) non-profit. Emory Employees and dependent family members may also be eligible for tuition credits, depending on years of service.
Veteran’s Education Benefits: Veterans and the dependents of veterans may be eligible for monthly education benefits, such as tuition remission. Students looking to receive Veterans benefits who also need additional sources of funding may still do so, and the benefits received will not be considered when determining financial need.
Scholarships: Goizueta offers students the chance to earn a number of potential scholarships based on merit. Many scholarships are offered through partnerships with Atlanta professional organizations. These include:
- Georgia Hispanic Chamber of Commerce: Two $25,000 scholarships
- Department of Health & Human Services: Thirty percent discount on tuition for qualified individuals
- National Association of Asian American Professionals: Two $25,000 scholarships
- Women in Technology: Two $25,000 scholarships
There are also a limited number of honorary scholarships awarded to students after enrollment. The MBA for Executives Class Gift Scholarship, originally endowed by the class of 2005, is offered to students in a professional or field generally underrepresented in the EMBA program. Also available is the Executive Women of Goizueta (EWG) Scholarship, given to accomplished female executives in the Goizueta MBA for Executives program.
Loans
Graduate Loans: Those attending business school are afforded the same federal loan offerings as students starting undergraduate programs. Students may fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) to help determine their financial need and eligibility. Each year, students should fill out a new FAFSA form to reevaluate their need. International MBA students are also eligible for certain types of student loans, which can be explored further here.
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2017 Forté Forums Scheduled in 12 Cities Beginning August 14
It’s August, which means it’s almost time for the Forté Forums. These free events are hosted by the Forté Foundation, a nonprofit consortium of leading companies and top business schools committed to advancing the role of women in business. Scheduled for 10 U.S. cities as well as Toronto and London beginning on August 14, they are designed to help women learn more about the value of the MBA.
Whether you are a college student looking to explore options for the future, have been in your job for a few years and are thinking about a change, or are looking for a way to catapult yourself to the next level in your career, the Forté Forums are for you.
Choose to attend a forum in a city near you, and you can learn more about how the MBA can help you advance in your career, expand your earning potential, or provide opportunities to study abroad. With more than 100 leading business schools in attendance, you can also learn more about different programs directly from the school representatives who know them best.
The Forté Forums also draw leading MBA businesswomen from a range of industries and career stages, eager to share their experiences and provide advice and guidance. And they give you a chance to network with other high-achieving women interested in learning more about the MBA. Former attendees of the Forté Forums report that women they’ve met at the events have become part of a lasting peer support network.
Last but not least, the forums can help you begin to think about how to finance your MBA, offering valuable information about Forté’s scholarship opportunities, as well as many other funding sources.
Whether you know nothing at all about business school and want to see what it’s all about—or you’re planning to apply this fall and want to connect with others doing the same, don’t miss out. Register for a nearby Forté Forum today!
2017 Forté Forums Calendar:
August 14th: Washington, DC
August 15th: Boston
August 16th: Atlanta
August 17th: Miami
August 21st: Seattle
August 22nd: San Francisco
August 23rd: Los Angeles
August 24th: Houston
August 28th: Chicago
August 29th and 30th: New York City
August 31st: Toronto
October 16th: London
Learn more about the Forté Forums, including how to register.
This article has been edited and republished with permissions from Clear Admit.
Emory Goizueta Students Gather on West Coast for the Modular MBA Program
The modular MBA program at the Emory University Goizueta Business School gathered together students, alumni and business leaders across several cities for a week-long immersion experience earlier this summer.
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Goizueta MBA Alumni in the News: Two Up-and-Coming CEOs
At Goizueta Business School at Emory University, one of the MBA program’s goals is to develop and support entrepreneurship in its students at every stage of their careers and venture creation. “This includes those not only supporting those who plan to start a business but also enhancing entrepreneurial and intrapreneurial thinking amongst all Goizueta students, through educational content, intellectual engagement and infrastructure,” explains the website. To this end, the School offers 16 entrepreneurial-focused electives, co-curricular options, the yearly Emory Entrepreneurship Summit, as well as partnership opportunities with alumni, mentors, and industry experts.
Today we’re highlighting two Emory alumni – Louise Wasilewski and Qaadirah Abdur-Rahim – whose Goizueta MBAs helped them become CEOs and change the status quo.
Louise Wasilewski, ‘13 EMBA, CEO of Acivilate
Louise Wasilewski, a 2013 EMBA graduate from the Goizueta and CEO of Acivilate, is on a mission to reduce recidivism with her cloud-based communication platform. The goal is to make it easier than ever to track a newly released prisoner’s progress and to send out an alert to the necessary organizations when they require support or intervention. Acivilate cuts down on paperwork, decreases missed meetings and makes the re-entry process into society far easier.
Acivilate started with a passion for the criminal justice system. Wasilewski’s father had a troubled past and she had a burning question; “How can I create second chances for people like my father, who has a criminal history?” From there, she started looking at the U.S. justice system and asking some tough questions.
After speaking to hundreds of individuals from organizations within the system, from nonprofits to social service agencies, she discovered that they were all dealing with the same problem—a lack of communication between the different sectors—and that it could be easily solved with technology. Thus, Acivilate was born in 2014.
How Does Acivilate Work?
Wasilewski explained Acivilate’s work in a recent article on Hypepotamus: “The problem that we’re solving is when a person gets out of prison or they are going through drug court, they usually need help finding housing, finding employment and others … All of these different agencies can’t work together and help the person because privacy rules get in the way. So what we’re really doing is making it possible for those organizations—the workforce, the housing, the probation, the behavioral health and the community service organizations—to work together to help these people get their lives back together.”
Acivilate is a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) company that provides a secure cloud dashboard that “synchronizes existing cross-silo human services delivery while managing privacy rules.” It’s mobile friendly and built to encourage self-sufficiency and accountability.
Gwinnett and DeKalb counties in Georgia have already started using the platform and Wasilewski has plans to rollout in Utah and Maryland next month. Acivilate was also a finalist in the Amazon Web Services’ Public Sector Summit Challenge.
About Louise Wasilewski
After earning her Bachelor’s Degree in Aerospace Systems Engineering, Wasilewski spent 25 years in business and technical roles. She has expertise in media and communications technology innovation, helping to introduce streaming TV and operating secure cloud-based services. Throughout her career, she’s worked at KPMG Consulting, Cox Communications and more. Beyond her MBA from the Goizueta Business School at Emory University, she holds four patents and has been published in Policy and Practice.
Qaadirah Abdur-Rahim, ’11 MBA, CEO of Future Foundation
For 12 years, Abdur-Rahim has been the CEO of Future Foundation, an organization dedicated to helping Atlanta’s youth by providing quality education, health and life skills programs. Since becoming CEO, she has grown the company from a team of two to a staff of 40, recruiting more than 30 board members and raising over $25 million in revenue. The Future Foundation now has four locations and serves 11,000 students.
Abdur-Rahim has allowed two simple goals to drive her success: to learn as much as she could and to work hard every day. “Those two idealistic goals evolved into more formal goals like increase revenue, increase the number of children served, and go to business school,” she told the Atlanta Tribune. Currently, Future Foundation participants have a 100 percent high school graduation rate compared to just 70 percent of their peers, and she earned her MBA at Goizueta in 2011.
Abdur-Rahim’s History
Abdur-Rahim grew up as one of five siblings in Atlanta’s South Side. From there, she attended the University of California Berkeley on an athletic scholarship, and earned a bachelor’s degree in social work. She then earned a master’s degree from UC San Francisco before returning to Atlanta and joining the Future Foundation as a program director.
As for her work and success, Abdur-Rahim said: “I have always imagined myself using my career to help people. I am happy about where I am professionally and completely excited about the position I am in to do more. I continue to have the most enriching development experience leading and significantly growing a start-up nonprofit.”
Abdur-Rahim was recently named one of America’s Leaders of Change by the National Urban Fellow Program, which is a leadership development program particularly focused on helping people of color and women become leaders and change agents. In addition, using the Future Foundation as a laboratory of innovation, she developed and implemented the “Theory of Change,” which addresses how poverty can be disrupted and alleviated by giving children access to family, education, health, relationship and life skill support.
The Future Foundation
Currently, the Future Foundation is going through a strategy development process, which will fundamentally shift the vision of the organization. The goal is to move from individual-level impact to system-level impact.
“Understanding the world is rapidly changing, and success is occurring across broader business ecosystems, I pushed our board to reexamine our strategy,” said Abdur-Rahim. “Our new strategy allows us to scale our work and provide thought leadership … Disrupting business as usual is always a risk and continues to challenge me in ways I never imagined. However, the outcome of stronger communities is worth the challenge, and I am up for it.”
The new strategic plan was launched in January 2017 and has required drastic changes in communication, work and growth. And it hasn’t been without a few problems.
“I learned that it’s not enough to collaboratively lead a process to get buy-in; you need to find creative ways to constantly communicate the shared vision and reinforce the details,” Abdur-Rahim explains. “We are overcoming the challenge by having a series of ‘heartfelt conversations’ to improve culture internally and build stronger partner relationships.”
For now, the Foundation is continuing to focus on empowering youth and their families to break the poverty cycle.
