Unlocking excellence
In 2017, Akilah Blackman (MBA’19) made the bold decision to uproot her life in California to pursue her MBA at Quinlan. Currently, she is now an associate director at Publicis Health Media in Chicago where she flexes her management, marketing, and leadership skills daily.
“I learned a lot at Quinlan about connections and gained a well-rounded education during my MBA program,” she says.
Read below about Blackman’s experiences, the connections she made, and the quality of a Quinlan education.
Tell me a little about yourself.
I was born in San Diego and raised in Silicon Valley, a true California girl! I am not very spontaneous, but I knew that I needed more than a change, I needed to challenge myself on all accounts. And with that, I moved without ever vising Chicago! Deep down, I knew was going to be okay, everything would work out, and that Quinlan was the place for me at that time. I remember having a call with Mark Law after I made my deposit, and I could tell he was very genuine and wanted me to succeed. I knew we were going to have a great professional relationship.
Why Quinlan?
To be honest, I am not a religious person, but I do think about the universe: what I put into it, and what comes out of it. When I was telling people about Quinlan and their Jesuit mission, they kept saying “Yeah, they’re the cool ones, you should go there!”
It felt very much so that Quinlan and Loyola in general wanted to make sure they would produce graduates that wanted to help, not only themselves but also their communities and the people around them on a larger scale. That mission was well woven into all aspects of their curriculum and the classes that I took, whether it be my accounting or my ethics course, I could see that mission at work.
Tell me about your graduate experience.
Quinlan produces a very global experience. You aren’t going to sit down next to someone who grew up in the same area as you. The experience was welcoming to diverse perspectives, promoting transparency. You can get an MBA at multiple institutions, but the professors that I interacted (in class and out) always made sure to provoke thought further than just America. It also went around the world, which is so important.
Just because you get a degree at Loyola doesn’t mean you’ll always stay in Chicago, you might go to other places, and you need to make sure that your education spans globally because that is the reality of the world we live in now.
Also, I wanted to make as many connections as possible, and I wanted to make real connections with the people here since I knew one person when moving to the Midwest. I built a solid network so that I could be seen and valued in the Chicago market. I made a lot of different connections with professors, students, and prospective students. Within courses, due to group projects and multiple engagements, I formed small communities that spanned different areas of my Quinlan experience.
What would you say to prospective Quinlan students?
There are a lot of schools in Chicago; however, Quinlan not only cares about you during school but also outside of school, post-graduation. I remember getting ready to apply for jobs and the rollercoaster that ensued, and professors were very interested in how they could help in that process, what they could do for me, and it didn’t feel transactional, it felt genuine. For me, that’s not the rule, that’s the exception that I found at Quinlan. I think that if people are questioning where they belong, they can bet on Quinlan, and they’ll be okay.
Describe Quinlan in 15 words or less.
Quinlan is a gem not only in the Gold Coast but in downtown Chicago.
