ISDI Student Spotlight ft. Maya Krupa
In this weekly series, we’ll be highlighting the student journeys and accomplishments of our future leaders in digital business.
This week we feature Maya, a digital native whose experience in account management, love of digital business, and affinity with AI has lead her serendipitously to ISDI. Read on to find out about Maya Krupa!
- Tell us a little bit about your background and why you decided to make ISDI a part of your journey?
I’ve been in sales, account management, and event planning for the majority of my career. Although there are certain aspects of sales I really enjoy, like most millennials will tell you, if you don’t believe in what you’re selling or your values don’t align with your company’s it’s hard to stay motivated.
In my last role, although I was getting a great pulse of the SF market and I loved my customers I knew that I would find a new role eventually. It was only after my parents saw ISDI featured on the news hour that I started to do some research and found the curriculum to be intriguing.
I decided to call an Advisor, met with ISDI’s Co-founder, and immediately saw the vision. I intuitively understood the positive ramifications a program like this could have on my career, especially cultivating a network from all the lecturers and people involved. I also loved the pragmatism of the curriculum, in my undergrad I studied International Business from mostly non-business professionals which was always counterintuitive to me. But, this curriculum was created to specifically help address and close the digital skills gap— and that’s something I absolutely could get behind.
Now that I am fully in the program and work part time for the university I am lucky enough to be realizing the benefits of the network, the learnings, and more every day and feel so grateful to be involved.
2. If your friends and family had to use 3 words to describe you what would they be?
My mom would tell me that I’m a bit psycho and need to chill out. :)
More appropriate way to put this would be: driven/motivated.
My grandma’s always said I’m really sharp — I can pick things up really quickly
I don’t know, I’m a people person and want to be that person who’s just fun to be around. You know, someone who brings the energy to the group and can bring people together who wouldn’t normally mix. I guess it’d be: charismatic.
(ISDI would like to insert here that this is not 3 words, but this is exactly why it’s reflective of who Maya is.)
3. What is your proudest work accomplishment? Life accomplishment?
Work: In all of my professional roles and leadership roles, I always cultivated, managed, and created relationships /products/programs that were previously non-existent or deemed impossible to establish by the organization prior.
When you as a person can bring positive change to an organization that was not previously there and you’re the sticking glue, I realized that’s what can make you the most valuable. For example, I brought in the 2 largest sales and the 2 largest customers at my previous sales jobs. I was able to“flip” previously non-selling customers and gain their trust which felt very gratifying and added a lot of value to my companies.
Life: My proudest life accomplishment is getting people to open up and be vulnerable about some of the hardest/darkest parts of their lives.
I realize that getting people to open up is a rare opportunity, but if they do, you have the ability to enact truly positive change at someone’s core where it matters most. I consider it to be a privilege to have built these “deep” relationships by not being afraid to “lean in” to the uncomfortable or less talked about parts of life.
4. Share with us one of your vulnerabilities
One of my vulnerabilities is that when I was a Jr. in high school, I was a typical overachiever taking AP classes, volunteering every week, working part time — but I was having these chronic bouts of uncontrollable crying.
I didn’t know why I was crying every week, I thought it was the stress load. But it was really because I was starting to figure out what was starting to happen in my family — my dad got diagnosed with ALS (now formally diagnosed as PLS) and we never talked about it what kind of ramifications it would have on my family.
It wasn’t until my old Geometry teacher saw me crying in the hall and forced me to take a ‘pink-slip’ did finally go talk to my counselor. This was the first time I received “therapy” in a more formal sense, and since then, I’ve tired to go once a year. Living now with this reality for 7 years I believe myself to be a pretty tough cookie, but the ROI on therapy — someone listening to you unbiasedly and giving you open feedback is unparalleled to anything else I’ve done in my life. I would highly recommend it to anyone at any stage of their life.
5. What is a surprising fact not many people know about you or something you wish more people knew about you?
I’m a hardcore feminist — I’m a huge proponent of women’s empowerment. I love being around incredible, powerful women who are absolutely killin’ it in the world — it gives me ENERGY. Even women my age, I find myself trying to empower and encourage them to live their best lives and just go for it. This whole chain of empowerment is important to me.
6. If you had to write a book about something, and you knew it would be an all time best seller (as in this message would be seen by millions of people) what would it be and why?
I’ve always known that I will write this book: it’s the premise of “Your Story is My Story.” The premise is every single person has a story behind their external facade and if he/she can find the ‘braveness’ within themselves to share it with others you’ll quickly learn everyone has their own version of your story. And if they do not, for better or worse life is so unpredictable they will likely construct their own story soon.
Because I’ve found such sanctity and peace within these moments of sharing the stuff that’s “not alright” I want the rest of the world to know that freeing feeling too. I’m such a huge proponent of this kind of human connection — it adds perspective to your life and makes the world a little better of a place.
That and a book about female leaders from all walks of life. There needs to be more resources for little girls and women alike to see the triumphs of other women so that they may believe in themselves to chase their dreams.
7. What is a piece of advice you’d give to the younger version of yourself?
Don’t be afraid to ask for help sooner and to read this book: The Female Brain.
The Female Brain is a life changing book for men and women — but especially for young women. I wish someone handed me this book when I was 17. It breaks down the neuro-psychological differences between female and male brains. Literally what parts develop faster and bigger in each, and understanding those nuanced differences has allowed me to understand the world around me much better.
8. What technological innovation are you most excited about in the coming decades?
As cliche as it is, Artificial Intelligence.
As I’ve been taking this program, I’ve been taking classes AI classes online and essentially all my extra time is spent on listening to podcasts and reading articles on AI. I’m no expert, but I’m above standard in terms of understanding just how pervasively this is going to affect business.
It may be Silicon Valley snobby of me but if you’re not interested or trying to hide from AI, I don’t get you. Think about how the internet has affected the way we work, then think about another digital revolution with A.I. — it’s coming and it’s exciting!
9. Give us a digital tip or trick you’ve learned at ISDI!
The one I tell people about the most: Hootsuite. People reach out to me all the time for some reason about social media advice (maybe it’s the millennial thing again) and the first question I ask is: do you use Hootsuite? It’s so great for automating and managing social media channels.
Beyond that, one of the favorite things I’ve learned is really being able to diagnose a business’s KPIs and most important metrics. I think that’s a very valuable skill that I will carry with me the rest of my life.
Thanks for joining us on our Student Spotlight Series! For more ISDI blog posts written by our amazing students and our esteemed academic board, check them out at our ISDI Blog here.
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