For Nick Gardner ’18, a marketing degree was the perfect opportunity to pursue two of his passions: storytelling and connecting with others. “Marketing is really about communicating a message through a story,” he said. “Whether that is through video or podcast, it’s really about trying to connect with someone.” Now a podcast host, and video producer and editor at Adweek in New York City, Gardner has turned his passions into his profession.

For Meg Goldthwaite, MBA ’96, taking on the chief marketing officer role at National Public Radio, one of the country’s most trusted news organizations, was like coming full circle in what she calls a serendipitous career journey. Journalism is where it all started. “My first job out of school was working at a local TV news station,” she says. “I pretty quickly learned that I didn’t have the chops to be a journalist, although I admire journalists immensely.”

For senior global trade compliance manager, Larry Legates, MBA ’04, developing a global mindset goes far beyond the workplace. Legates studied abroad in Spain, Chile, and Mexico. His work has included on-site projects in Brazil, China, Japan, the UK, Belgium, the Netherlands, Russia, and Peru and he is fluent in Spanish, proficient in Portuguese, and has translated two books on Mexican customs requirements.

The problem, says Rachel Epstein Klausner ’11, isn’t that she wasn’t giving to charity, the problem was her giving habits. Although she set aside money to donate each year, Klausner found she was spending most of it contributing to peers’ pet causes via social media, rather than focusing her contributions on issues that mattered to her. “Anytime someone would ask me, I would give,” she says. “It was very reactive and had no correlation with impact or what I cared about. It was totally embarrassing, actually.”

For Dan Robillard, community has always been important. After working in the U.S. Navy for eight years, Robillard was looking for a community to call his own as he transitioned back to private life. And while pursuing an online MBA at the Smith School of Business, that’s exactly what he found. “There was this community of veterans that really helped each other out,” Robillard says. “It was an environment that I wanted to be a part of.”

Maryland Smith alum finds a niche and a career in perfect balance By 10 a.m., Lauren Filocco ’12 has already been in her barre studio for four hours. She weaves around the mats and exercise equipment, dances around patrons as they warm up and cheerfully shouts counts over upbeat pop music blaring through the speakers. She demonstrates each upcoming move, dipping gracefully into a low squat or effortlessly balancing with the eponymous bar in her hands. Neither her form or energy ever falter.

Göran Espelund, MBA ’87, had options as a Fulbright Scholar from Sweden. He received offers from five U.S. programs, but he chose the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business for its close-knit community and proximity to Washington, D.C.

At Hilti actively seeking out opportunities to leverage different cultures and geographies is an important part of being inclusive in the workplace, according to Julia Barge an undergrad alum of Smith. In order to take full advantage of these opportunities one must have a global mindset and be adaptable. “Adaptability is absolutely important and is key to success in today’s global market. It could be the more global your role is the more you need it [adaptability], but really its necessary for everyone.

Global mindset is a point of view that embraces diversity. For associate Brand Manager, Michael Marcus a global mindset can be defined using three different viewpoints: business, operations, and people. From a business point of view, Marcus says “it’s about understanding your mission, your products, and your campaign and how they are developed and positioned holistically and globally; and then how they’re adapted and applied regionally to be culturally relevant to the people there”.

Seble Alemayehu, PTMBA ’12, and Felekech “Fei” Biratu, PTMBA ’13, started as high school friends. After a similar journey through life, a move around the globe and MBA degrees from the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business, they now are proud cofounders of Yenaé, an online high-end fashion jewelry brand.  Alemayehu and Biratu grew up in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and moved to the United States on the same plane after completing high school.