About us
Whirlwind. When most alumni describe their MBA experience, there is a great deal of it that can be chalked up to that one word. It’s a crazy, fast-paced time that is both exhilarating and stressful.
As two MBA candidates bound to Harvard Business School and Stanford’s Graduate School of Business this fall (2017), we know that there is no predicting what these two years hold for us — and that’s exciting.
This blog is a way for us to share our experiences — pre-MBA, MBA, and (hopefully!) post MBA — and enable others to learn from our experiences. Outside of talking to current students or alumni directly, there are only a few resources that give a real-time look into the authentic experiences of MBA students.
And that’s what we are looking to create. A space for some MBA (real) talk.
So you might be thinking, who are the authors of this blog?
Sana & Agneta crossed paths as part of the 2016 Forte MBA Launch cohort and ended up in the same ‘small group’ out of all the groups that were based in Houston. What are the odds?! As we studied hours on hours for the GMAT, worked on our apps over countless cappuccinos, and exchanged notes on nailing MBA interviews — we developed an awesome friendship that helped us cope with the entire roller coaster journey of the MBA admissions process.
Now, allow us to introduce ourselves.
Agneta Venkatraman
I love quotes and this is currently my favorite:
“The opportunity of a lifetime needs to be seized during the lifetime of the opportunity.” — Leonard Ravenhill
I have been blessed with a lifetime of extraordinary and crazy opportunities. I moved to the United States in 11th grade. That was the boldest and riskiest move that I have ever made in my life. How my super conservative parents signed off on my crazy idea is still a mystery that has yet to be explained.
I moved to the United States because I was convinced, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that I wanted to be an Aerospace Engineer. Two years later, despite the many cultural and academic challenges that I had to overcome, I accomplished what I came for when I secured offers of admission to top engineering schools across the country. My undergraduate years at the University of Michigan were the most transformative years of my life in every way imaginable. Although I spent most of my free time in the Aerospace Engineering Research labs and worked for 3 years (+ a summer) with a team to get a cube satellite in space — I ended up switching majors, graduated as a Mechanical Engineer and decided to launch my career in the Energy industry.
Currently, I work as a Subsea Engineer at a top Fortune Global 500 company. I love my job — the challenges, the leaders and my colleagues are all phenomenal. Outside of hours spent at the office, you can find me exploring the social, arts and culinary scene in Houston, actively volunteering in the community through Anti-Trafficking organizations + various other ministries through my church, cooking new fusion recipes in the kitchen, painting with acrylics, reading books, blogging in a coffee shop, and working on improving my running mileage in a high temperature environment.
Next move: I am super excited to start a new chapter of my life at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. I strategize endlessly to end trafficking. You will definitely hear more about this in my posts. It is actually why I’m going to business school — to pursue my life goal to put a dent on this statistic of an estimated 30 million people who are currently entrapped my modern day slavery. I also plan to be a part of the solutions that will improve the standards of orphan care across the globe.
Sana Mohammed
Growing up, I always heard others proclaim to“be yourself!” But I never fully understood what that meant. Who are we, after all? How do we become who we are? This proclamation seemed to be everywhere — in children’s books, school posters and TV shows. Tangled into my subconscious mind, it itched at me. Am I supposed to be born a certain way? What’s my talent? I wondered. I longed to “find myself” and questioned, how to do that?
As I grew up, I finally realized that life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself. I can choose who I want to be, and there are a few choices that I made that are integral to shaping who I am today.
My brother. You don’t choose your family, but you choose your relationship with them. This is more powerful of a choice than people realize. My brother, Altaf, was born with epilepsy and a severe developmental disability. He is currently 24 years old and has the intellectual capacity of a five year old. Growing up, I was my brother’s right hand and my parent’s support. From trying to teach him how to ride a bike to spending hours trying to finally make it to the final level of Banjo-Kazooie (spoiler: I never made it!), we were always hanging out together. As we grew older, I continued in this as a dedicated big sister role living at home in college and after graduation until now when I’ll be moving to Boston for HBS.
Some would call these choices sacrifices on my end, but I see them as blessings in disguise. Growing up with him and helping my parents manage the struggles he goes through — which are constant and evolving — has made me into a more grateful, patient, and resilient person than I ever could have become without him. Ensuring a good life for him is one of my strongest personal motivators.
College. I was sitting in the library my freshman year with a male friend studying. Mid-way through our study session, he stopped and asked me — “What’s the point of you working so hard and studying so much when you’re just going to get married and have kids?” He simply vocalized a question that had been brought up many times before and would be brought up many times again in my career. I come from a community where the expectation of young women was to focus on having a family, and I was uncertain what my future would hold — or what would be possible.
But I was certain about one thing — my future would be my choice. I would not sit back and opt out before I’m even in the running. I wanted to do the best I possibly could, hustle as hard as I could, and strive for excellence, so the choice would always be in my hand. To keep this motivation alive and continue to always aspire for more rather than focus on the potential obstacles, I wrote a quote in my planner that I stumbled upon while reading Machiavelli’s work in my Human Situation class freshman year. It became my monthly — if not weekly — affirmation: “I’m not interested in preserving the status quo. I want to overthrow it.”
My fears. I am a meticulous planner. I have a knack for being able to visualize and think through the smallest details and the myriad of potential paths for a project, product, or my life plan. In college, I loved mapping out every viable route for all of the semesters I would be in school, carefully selecting the best options, and adjusting as necessary when new opportunities presented themselves. I loved understanding people, obstacles and opportunities so much I would create a plan for many of my friends and classmates! Everyone told me I should become an academic advisor and career counselor. Needless to say, when I started working, my first intuition was to create a plan.
This time, however, my plan was not around classes or clubs; it was centered on developing myself and tackling my fears. Fear is a loaded word that brings out visuals of bungee jumping or skydiving, but I wanted to focus on overcoming the lesser fears that stemmed from situations that made me feel uncertain or unsure of myself. From developing a solution to address the struggles females face in a trade floor environment to leading a team of volunteers as the youngest individual on the team, I pushed to challenged myself and these moments would be the key in enabling me to grow.
That’s where business school comes in. Through school, I aspire to challenge myself, accelerate my development, and expand my horizons as I build myself into a Muslim woman business leader.
I’m looking forward to using this blog as a platform to share my journey with all of you: the stories, reflections and lessons learned of getting accepted into HBS and navigating this new stage of my life.
