When Your Passion Finds You at Kellogg
By Alex Moros, E&W 2019
When I started the Kellogg Evening & Weekend program in the spring of 2017, I thought I had a good idea of what I was going to get out of the experience: a great education, an amazing network and a new career path. I was not aware that Kellogg would open up opportunities at every turn for me to follow my passion for diversity and inclusion. It manifested in various ways throughout my time in the program in all aspects of my experience, through student life, academics, admissions ambassadorship and even my career.
Being in the Evening & Weekend program comes with a few misconceptions, one of the largest being that there isn’t an opportunity to get involved in student life activities like clubs. I found this to be just the opposite. Not only was I encouraged to take part in clubs, I found myself leading the charge for getting a new club on the Chicago campus. With the support of my classmates, administration, and the Kellogg Student Association I became the founding president of the Hispanic Management Association for Evening & Weekend students. This club aimed to develop Kellogg’s Hispanic/Latinx community to foster brave leadership professionally and socially. We empowered our members with professional development, provided an avenue to support and engage with the Hispanic community at-large, and promoted diversity within the Evening & Weekend program. By leading this effort I started to see that there were opportunities all around me to make a difference.
I was taught by amazing professors across all subject matters who challenged me to attack the problems I saw head on. Through my classes I was given frameworks that help push the diversity conversation in the workplace. This support lead me to begin to look at my contributions beyond student life and the classroom and to help the next group of students considering following this road.
To say that I became an ambassador of Kellogg would be an understatement, I have become a true champion of the program where ever I go. Though the road to get into and through the program wasn’t always easy, I know that it has made me a stronger person and braver leader. I know that this experience has changed the trajectory of my life which is why I was eager to speak with interested students during my time at Kellogg. I helped connect minority students to club resources and talked out questions with those considering an MBA, further exemplifying the impact I could have on my community while making Kellogg and Corporate America a more diverse place to be.
Having just walked across the stage to receive my diploma a few weeks ago, I am now molding my passion into my next phase of life. At work I have joined the Business Resource Group and participate in conversations around diversity and inclusion on our teams. I am proud to bring my Kellogg resources with me on a daily basis to make brave decisions. Outside of work I am using the frameworks and class experiences I had to build a nonprofit that will help minority women prepare, apply and thrive in MBA programs through mentorship. This passion for supporting Diversity and Inclusion efforts was nurtured within me throughout each step of the Kellogg journey and being able to have the tools, support and confidence to share it with others is something I could not have achieved without Kellogg.
Passion is easy to talk about in the future, but I choose to use what Kellogg has taught me to make a difference today.