From MBA to MSBA with Prarthana Kejriwal

Prarthana Kejriwal, a student in the second cohort of the MSBA program at Foster is excited to be a part of the Class of 2021 and is already giving back to the program as a MSBA student ambassador. Prarthana is no stranger to hard work — in 2016 she received her MBA in Operations Management from the Indian School of Business. With her relocation to Seattle, Prarthana quickly realized that she was ready to engage in learning the skills needed to succeed in Seattle’s tech-saturated job market. Read on to experience her story.

Why Foster MSBA

What attracted you specifically to the Foster MSBA program?

I actually found this program more serendipitously than other people may have. I had to move to Seattle due to familial obligations and couldn’t start working right away due to visa restrictions however, I still looked at the types of jobs that were available.

A lot of the roles that I was interested in wanted candidates with a more technical background than mine. I have my MBA, and I love marketing, but was intrigued by the world of analytics and everything there was to learn.

It’s wild to think that in a few short months, I went from a novice [coder] to someone who can easily use and help others with coding languages like Python and SQL.

What has been your favorite class so far?

I can’t believe I’m saying this, but it was actually Probability and Statistics (BUS AN 510) with professor Foad Iravani. Growing up, I always considered myself to be a “right-brained “person. Things like math or science didn’t always come naturally to me. Even when I did my MBA, I had to take statistics courses, and scored the lowest marks I had ever gotten!

However, this time around I received a really high grade in statistics and achieved a newfound enjoyment for the subject. I think the entire cohort unanimously agrees that Professor Iravani is amazing. He was particularly great about starting with basic concepts that most statistics instructors usually tend to skip.

What connections have you made or are hoping to make through the program?

My study group is amazing! We are very diverse in terms of our backgrounds and skillsets. While some of us are full-time students, others work, and we even have one teammate in a different time zone.

It’s been really nice to have a group of people I can talk to and rely on if I need help with school. If I’m having a tough time understanding a concept from a lecture, I never get stressed because I know my study group and I will go over it later.

Another way, I was able to get to know some of my fellow classmates better was through participating in the Adobe Analytics Challenge. I was on a team with two other MSBA students and Professor Oliver Rutz served as a mentor to our group.

In this competition we worked with Nike’s website data. It was amazing to be able to see real-time confidential data for such a well-known company. I kept thinking to myself — this is what a dream job would look like after graduation.

About Prarthana

What do you enjoy doing in your free time?

I’m a very creative person! Recently, I’ve been doing a lot of crafting and calligraphy. I’m also not one to shy away from a hike when the weather is nice.

One of my favorite things I’ve had to opportunity to participate in recently was a 48-hour virtual hackathon aimed at helping small businesses. In the Small Business School Challenge, about 450 students from all over the U.S were randomly assigned into groups to help one of the 150 participating small businesses.

I worked with two Foster Evening MBA students, and our goal was to make tangible recommendations for an optometry office in Issaquah. Optometrists and dental offices have been hit particularly hard by the COVID-19 pandemic since many are choosing not to visit places like that right now — they just go on the back burner.

Working on this project was a nice reminder that I can make a positive impact for others by just sitting at my computer — with data you can always do that!

Want to hear more about students like Prarthana? Check back regularly to learn more about the current cohort of MSBA students!