At Rutgers University, where he earned both his undergraduate degree and a PharmD, Ammar Hasan belonged to a student body of 50,000—a backpack-bearing population larger than many cities in his native New Jersey. So when he decided to pursue an MBA, he was looking for a different kind of community: one where he could “actually know my classmates and my professors.” That, and Vanderbilt’s distinctive Health Care MBA program, led him to Owen.

For Ammar, one of the program’s most appealing features is the way it connects students to the wider health care community in the Nashville area. He and his classmates were able to visit area hospitals, network with leading health care entrepreneurs, and enjoy unique exposure to the industry.
Through Project Pyramid, a student initiative aimed at ending global poverty, Ammar also connected to the world far beyond Nashville. He led a group of diverse students from varying graduate programs within Vanderbilt during a seven-week project to solve a poverty-related challenge in Guatemala — an effort he describes as an excellent growing experience.

He credits Vanderbilt with preparing him for the position he won with Medtronic’s Leadership Development Program. But he credits the Owen community with re-orienting the way he works. “Owen helped to nurture this collaborative spirit [I’ve developed] and has changed both the way I lead and work within teams,” Ammar says. “Here, I know everyone’s name. And they know mine.”