While he was learning skills to embark on a new career path at Vanderbilt, Quinn Shue was also learning more about the career he left behind. An engineer by training, Quinn went to work for Procter & Gamble, where he spent a little more than two years in technical roles that he says left him feeling pigeon-holed.

“I wanted a seat in the room when larger-scale business decisions were being made.” And that meant earning an MBA.

Quinn was already sold on the campus and the city. He’d been to Vanderbilt many times to visit his younger brother, who was an undergraduate. The combination of the MBA program’s high rank and family in town made the choice easy.

Though he plans to embark on a consulting career—and won a summer internship with The Boston Consulting Group’s Dallas office—Quinn counts the courses within the operations concentration as highlights of his first-year classroom experience. “Coming from a manufacturing background,” he says, “it has been incredibly rewarding to relearn the same stuff from a business perspective. I’ve gained visibility into how different groups have different goals, helping me learn even more about my past job.”

Another highlight for Quinn is how the closeness among students has added to his learning. “The smaller class size allows for a tight-knit experience with classmates,” he says. “I also enjoy the mentorship that second years take very seriously.”

As he approached his second year, Quinn looked to pay forward what he had received from older students. As the learning and development leader for the Owen Strategy and Consulting Club, he helped develop programs for first-year students with a consulting concentration. “The second years supporting the learning of first years has been one of my favorite aspects of Owen,” he says. “There is a true culture of giving back.”

Fun Fact: Quinn’s goal is to visit 30 countries before he turns 30. As of mid-2018, he had only three more to go.

The second years supporting the learning of the first years has been one of my favorite aspects of Owen. There is a true culture of giving back.