“Peers are important,” says Taylor, who decided to pursue a graduate business degree with an international focus for seasoned leaders. “I wanted to collaborate and learn from global thought-leaders outside my traditional work environment. I wanted a unique experience that would nurture my entrepreneurial curiosity.”

Taylor chose the TRIUM EMBA, a joint program between the London School of Economics, HEC Paris, and NYU Stern. There, she found a place to step back and reflect on what was next and how to leverage an enriching journey for the young generation with the support of her cohort.

Based on her own experiences, Taylor knew well the scarcity of women in STEM and the barriers to education and advancement that girls faced worldwide. When the program asked students to identify their capstone projects, Taylor had an idea to develop a unique educational initiative in South Africa that would introduce STEM to girls.

“I remember I made a pitch for the capstone when we were in New York,” she says. “I pitched it for 90 seconds and several people came to me and wanted to be part of that transformational change. That gave me the go-ahead that this was something needed and wanted.”

Soon she decided to devote 100 percent of her efforts to build a boarding school and STEM Business camps for girls in South Africa. Educating girls often results in a multiplier effect, especially in less invested and underdeveloped regions, she says. 

“Anytime you give women work and opportunities, that changes their communities. When they learn information, they share it. It’s an investment in the community that improves GDP.”

Since that start, Taylor has expanded the camps and other educational opportunities to the U.S., including a two-year STEM cohort for girls and a series of online master classes for all young leaders. The camps feature hands-on experiences and an emphasis on business skill-building, including working in teams and developing leadership abilities. 

Her success rate is high: Since 2016, 95 percent of participants enrolled in college and five percent started their own companies. Her work also has attracted funding from corporations, such as Smithfield Foods, Inc., and other donors.

She continues to reach more children worldwide and began offering STEM education in Spanish and will host several residential camps in Miami, Nepal, and the Philippines in 2023-2024.

Taylor also is changing global dynamics through the commercial and technology management firm, Core 3 Innovations, which she co-founded and is serving as co-CEO. The firm focuses on developing business solutions that drive economies of scale and support economic advancement in underdeveloped communities globally. 

In making a choice to apply her own business skills with the aim of increasing opportunities for female advancement in STEM and business, Taylor turned an EMBA educational experience into a successful and sustainable cause. “It gave me the opportunity to say yes to me and the things I am passionate about and create a path forward.”

Now, Chaparro, an Executive MBA student at the Kellogg School of Management, serves as executive director at Braven, a nonprofit organization that works in five states to drive upward economic mobility for first-generation college students. In short, it seeks to help first-gen students graduate from college and find a successful career path.

“These students have technically done everything they’re supposed to do,” says Chaparro. “They’ve gone to college and received a degree, but they still have a tough time entering the workforce in a strong manner — to no fault of their own.”

Braven runs a semester-long leadership career accelerator that equips students with the skills, mindsets, experiences, and networks that are critical in finding a strong first job. Braven offers mock interviews and teaches students to tell their personal stories, craft an elevator pitch, and write cover letters. Students also learn how to give and receive difficult feedback.

“These are all things that you talk about at dinner if you’re growing up in middle-class or high-income households,” says Chaparro. “But if you’re growing up in a low-income community, they’re not familiar to you.”

Braven supports students six months after graduation. “Braven exists to help ensure that as many students as possible are putting their education to work and landing jobs that will put them on a path toward achieving the American promise.”

His EMBA experience will allow him to make the impact he hopes to make at Braven, says Chaparro.

“I still deeply believe in the power of education to fuel upward mobility,” he says. “Part of the reason why I’m in the Executive MBA Program is because I want to leverage my education to continue to grow professionally.” Less...

Roadblocks include lack of hard skills or skills that don’t translate well into the corporate world. Even when companies want to hire veterans, challenges exist with the chasm between military and civilian cultures. Veterans’ indelible sense of identification with their military service can make it hard to find purpose and meaning in civilian jobs. Most employers don’t know how best to help them.

To bridge the disconnect, the duo worked both sides of the employer-employee equation to distinguish Veterans to Volunteers as a unique service, one that would help companies minimize turnover and hire the skills they value most.

Roberts took on the veteran-side planning, mapping the network of existing VSOs in Tennessee, ensuring Veterans to Volunteers wouldn’t duplicate services. Based on his research, he found three key ways to assist veterans – provide transition coaches for personalized support; connect veterans to the VSOs most closely matching their needs; and pair veterans’ specific talents with known needs in the business community, possibly in partnership with the Tennessee Department of Labor.

On the employer side, Chan collected data on businesses’ needs and identified potential capacity to meet demand. He also began developing a program to help businesses become “veteran proficient” – not just “veteran friendly” – along with recommendations for training, mentorship, and coordination to better match veteran talent with corporate needs.

Chan and Roberts now work as strategy and business consultants, but they received so much positive feedback on Veterans to Volunteers that they’re taking the next steps toward launching as a non-profit.

In a major boost toward their goal, current EMBA-SL student Jay Land, who also is a retired army veteran, is using their project as the foundation for his OAP. He plans to build relationships with companies, VSOs, and the Tennessee Department of Labor as he develops pilot programs for Veterans to Volunteers, while Roberts and Chan continue work on budgeting and marketing. They plan to test the first pilot programs with a small number of veterans later this year and are excited that the project could eventually be a full-time responsibility.

“Especially because Andy and I are fresh off our transition to civilian life, this is our passion, this is our core,” Chan says. “This is our ‘why.’ ”