My leap from ice dancer to MBA student

When I was four, my moms and dads put me into hockey courses at our local rink in New York and I just took to it. But it only lasted a few of months, until I noticed figure skaters on the ice and informed my mother: “I want to do that.” The rest is quite substantially historical past, I have been skating at any time due to the fact.

Soon after college, I was confronted with the alternative that I either end figure skating and go into a far more company job or proceed and accomplish about the environment. I resolved to tour the environment. For about 12 several years, I travelled and performed in distinctive metropolitan areas in Europe and the US and on worldwide waters on cruise ships.

Then, in 2018, I founded a functionality firm and put together my initial clearly show from scratch with twenty five of my specialist figure skating colleagues. We performed it in Connecticut and it was a large achievements. That is when I started thinking about heading to small business college. My undergraduate degree was in graphic design and style, I had a very long historical past in the resourceful industries and I needed a thing a minor far more tangible to go me forward in my specialist occupation.

I needed it to be in Europe, for the reason that I had put in so substantially time there in excess of the several years and felt quite cozy. I utilized to universities in Berlin, Amsterdam and to Imperial School Small business College in London, which was the ideal, and I was happily amazed when I obtained in.

The system was an intensive one particular-12 months MBA. There have been a handful of British students and a large amount of Individuals, Chinese, Indians and south Individuals — it was actually worldwide.

We obtained to do about 6 months in individual ahead of the pandemic strike and we switched to remote mastering. It was tricky — undertaking an MBA is all about networking and connecting with your friends and professors. But, at the time the lockdowns strike, several students went back residence. We built the most of it, although, and supported just about every other.

My favourite courses have been design and style thinking and accounting, which is variety of humorous. I was excellent at maths escalating up but had not completed substantially professionally, and I was getting the accounting course actually really hard. But, at the finish, it clicked it was gorgeous, just about, how every little thing additional up. The artist in me beloved when every little thing matched. The design and style thinking professor inspired us to be resourceful, earning it a actually exciting course. It taught me that, in small business, creativeness is quite vital.

I considered that I would go into a course of a large amount of straight white males, for the reason that that is the stereotype. I was happily amazed that it was not like that

The Reaching Out fellowship for members of the LGBTQ neighborhood also helped make a large impression on my time at small business college. I considered that I would go into a course of a large amount of straight white males, for the reason that that is the stereotype. I was happily amazed that it was not like that. It was a quite various group, and it was excellent heading into a community of LGBTQ+ candidates.

We did an entrepreneurship module as section of the MBA as nicely, and I produced a firm with one particular of my classmates known as the Ice Theatre of London. Considering the fact that I graduated very last summer months, I’ve remained in charge of that small business but I have a workforce of ice skaters who are helping me operate the firm as I no more time reside in London. I ended up back in New York unintentionally — I was heading for a two-7 days holiday vacation but then England went into lockdown and I stayed wherever the ice rinks have been open and I could instruct skating.

The MBA gave me the self esteem to operate firms and phase into managerial positions. I am about to sign up for a country club in New Jersey as their creative director, wherever I will be making, directing, choreographing and running all of their performances.

I keep in touch with several of my classmates — we have a WhatsApp chat that we add to. It is exciting to listen to what they are undertaking for the reason that all of our life ended up heading in distinctive directions than we considered, for the reason that of the pandemic. We have had to pivot.

What is upcoming? I actually hope that the Ice Theatre of London will get maintain and garner a larger viewers in the British isles — that is one particular of my ambitions. Other than that, I’m hunting forward to dwelling my lifetime. I just obtained married. I feel the pandemic has pressured us not to strategy far too considerably in advance, and so we are dwelling in the minute — we will see what transpires.