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When first year student Tammy Stern was asked about her decision to attend the Illinois MBA, her story begins…
While climbing mountains for some may be an analogy, it is both an analogy and reality for me. I started at the base of my “career mountain” equipped only with an associate's degree in computer programming and lots of determination. In order to obtain my first position in a small insurance company, I had to outperform my competitors, who all had bachelor's degrees, on a standardized programming test. I did this repeatedly for positions in BMG (Bertelsmann Music Group) and in WSRG (Women’s Specialty Retailing Group).
Later I increased my responsibilities by joining the national home office of CIGNA Healthcare, followed by an entrepreneurial software firm that was later purchased by IBM. At IBM I found opportunities for creativity and increased client contact. I became a technical education consultant and was given great latitude to research, design, develop, and market training material that I presented to our clients. This was the first step in redefining my personal and professional goals as well as my “mountain-climbing” equipment.
It became apparent that I was ill-equipped to reach my goal without first returning to school. After acquiring the balance of my transfer credits from Danville Area Community College, I attended the University of Illinois and earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration. Having gained some inside knowledge regarding the outstanding professors who teach at the University, I had no difficulty in deciding to continue here in order to obtain the highly acclaimed MBA.
From the first day of PreTerm, my classmates and I have thrived upon the collective synergy to which we all contribute. The program strives to recruit qualified, diverse, and dynamic people who make this possible. I have already become involved with several MBA clubs, including the Graduate Marketing Association, Women in Business, and the International Business Society. I hope to join one or more leadership teams after the elections at the end of the year.
Before attending school and in between semesters, I found opportunities to hike four mountains in New Zealand and Australia and the one in Colorado of which I am most proud. During the summer of 2002, I hiked to the summit of Long’s Peak, a 14,255-foot mountain. I felt an incredible sense of personal accomplishment that I hope to match on the day that I receive my MBA diploma and the day that I accept the employment offer for the job that positions me to reach the summit of my career mountain.
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