Are We There Yet? My Climb and Journey Part IV -- The Pitt Experience (835 hits)
In May 2012, I had the opportunity to meet with Dean John T. Delaney, PhD. of the University of Pittsburgh's Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business. We talked about the current state of women in executive leadership and why women do not choose to get advanced business degrees at the same rate they obtain professional degrees in other areas, like law and medicine.
That discussion was the catalyst for a series of blogs and articles. This last installment, "The Pitt Experience", talks about my educational experience at the University of Pittsburgh and some potential strategies for increasing the number of women enrolling in Business School.
The Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business at the University of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania provided an engaging and supportive environment for me to further my education in business. I began my Master’s degree studies there 10 years after graduating with a degree in business from Howard University in Washington, D.C. As discussed earlier in this series, I was the only African American enrolled in the “Flexible” (Flex6) Executive MBA Program. (See Class Picture) The “Flex” programs met for two weeks once a quarter instead of meeting every other weekend like most other Executive MBA programs. Students who needed more flexibility because of their work, travel or home responsibilities were given the opportunity to get a graduate business degree. Although I did not get a chance to see a lot of other African Americans students who were enrolled in the full-time and week-end MBA programs because of our quarterly class schedule and work load, they were there.
I did not feel uncomfortable being the only African American in my class. The Katz staff took good care of all of us and they made sure that I was introduced to...
