From a young age, Victoria Conlon knew she wanted to go into business. As a third grader, she dressed up for Halloween as a businesswoman.

She developed “a passion for marketing” at the University of Alabama, where she graduated in just three years. She had planned to stay in Tuscaloosa to pursue a Master of Marketing degree with a focus on analytics. Then, as she literally was scrolling through a list of schools where she would send her GMAT scores — “in case I decided to apply for an MBA down the line,” she says, Victoria discovered that Vanderbilt offered a one-year Marketing program.

“I had considered attending Vanderbilt for undergrad,” she says. “Owen’s reputation as a business school stood out to me for the opportunities it could offer my career.”

During her year in the program, Victoria earned an internship in her special area of interest – marketing analytics – with the Walt Disney Company in Celebration, FL. She says she also loved the opportunity to take classes with second-year MBA students and to connect with them at events at Owen and on weekends. “It has been awesome,” she says, “learning about everyone’s backgrounds and gaining new perspectives in class from professionals who have spent years in various industries.”

For Victoria, the MMark program even came with a bonus. “It amazed me that you could drive from school to downtown to beautiful parks and cool shops all within a few miles of each other,” she says. “Coming from the Chicago suburbs, I was used to a big city, so Nashville seemed like an awesome combination of livable neighborhoods and fun downtown areas. I most likely would have chosen Vanderbilt even if Nashville didn’t have so much to offer, but it was icing on the cake having so many restaurants to choose from and places to see after spending three years in a comparatively small college town."