Sameness can be reassuring. But Maurice Nick, a supply planning manager at Stanley Black & Decker, prefers the disruption of new ideas. "I grow tired of situations quickly," he says. "Without having different insights, different perspectives and different people around me, I get weary in what I'm doing."

Cross-border mergers and acquisitions start with empathy, says investment banker Abhjieet Biswas, MBA '00. "Everything else can fall into place," he says. "But if there are barriers to understanding each other, you won't be successful." Biswas, a 2000 MBA graduate of the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business, says empathy is also a key component of global mindset. "It means having the ability to marry knowledge of local markets with a global outlook," he says. "And to see these two things as complementary not supplementary."

By Meredith Cobb Anthony “A.J.” Woodard Jr. ’20 loves music, leadership and math. He combines the first two passions in his side gig as a DJ. “In high school we really didn’t do anything on the weekends,” he says. “So I saw an opportunity to do something for my friends. I picked up DJ-ing, kept it up as a hobby and turned it into a side gig.” His other passion led him to a dual degree program at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business, where he is pursuing a full-time MBA and Master of Finance.

Entrepreneur Jasmine Snead, MBA ’21, has been skating since she was 5. But as a woman of color, she struggled to find tights that matched her skin tone. “I was forced to wear tights, mesh and other paraphernalia in the wrong skin tones because my shade was not readily available,” Snead says. “The lack of color variety posesd a drawback because it's not aesthetically appealing to the eye and it’s frustrating to practice your passion while feeling like you’re in someone else’s skin.”

Intermediate French class started with the usual chatter on April 16, 2007, at Virginia Tech University. “It was a normal Monday morning, talking about what we did the previous weekend,” says Colin Goddard, MBA ’18, who took the course as an international studies major. When loud banging interrupted the routine, students assumed construction workers had started a project nearby. The professor looked in the hallway to investigate, then immediately shut the door and told students to get under their desks.

Short-term thinking hurts companies. But finance students at Maryland Smith learn a different approach. They focus on value maximization, not profit maximization.

Companies have built-in incentives to avoid short-termism. But they fall into the myopia trap when they confuse value creation with income maximization.

Critics come down hard on shareholder primacy. But Maryland Smith professor Michael Faulkender says people err when they overlook risk/reward economics.

Life’s unexpected and often rewarding turns are manifested in Rebecca Hann’s path to becoming a professor. Growing up in Hong Kong, she wanted to be a teacher. “I admired my good teachers — they loved what they did and they had a way to change the way you think about things,” she says. That impression inspired her in high school. “I tutored students to earn my allowance, but I always enjoyed it. It was gratifying when the student I helped had a light bulb moment." 

What does a typical work day look like for Kristie Curameng Bradford, a 2005 full-time MBA graduate at the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business? Well, there’s really no such thing — and that’s precisely why she loves her job. “No days look similar,” says Bradford, business development executive at IBM Watson. “There are so many things I could be doing in one day.”