After working in the banking industry for six years, Mirela Muresan decided to pursue an MBA to diversify her experiences and become a more balanced businesswoman. She chose to pursue her MBA at Illinois because of the small class size: “I felt that I could make more of an impact and get more one-on-one attention from faculty to further hone my professional business skills.”

With a bachelor’s degree in finance from the University of Illinois at Chicago, Mirela joined JP Morgan Chase and its predecessors. She held positions as a personal banker, senior credit specialist, senior quality analyst, and project manager.

After completing an MBA with a marketing concentration, Mirela would like to pursue a marketing manager position for a large consumer goods company. Once she establishes a successful business career, Mirela’s goal is to help improve social issues in her homeland of Romania.

As the vice president of communications for the Graduate Marketing Association, Mirela wanted to take full advantage of the many opportunities to network and develop both personally and professionally during her time in the Illinois MBA. Mirela is also an active member of the Latin American Business Society, Graduate Finance Association, and MBAs of Color. In addition, she has participated in Illinois Business Consulting (IBC), where she received the opportunity to work on a marketing project for a globally renowned chocolate manufacturer.

This summer Mirela is interning with BP in Warrenville, Illinois, as an analyst in the U.S. fuels marketing business. Her duties include assisting the insight and value proposition manager with marketing communications and quarterly reports and working closely with the offer development manager to devise a new diesel strategy for BP. She will also have the opportunity to participate in “Career Adventure,” a week-long trip to Calgary, Canada, for all BP summer interns.