Hello current and future Kelley students, parents, and alumni! My name is Tanner Snider, and I’m currently a senior at Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business studying finance, economic consulting, and business analytics. I’m very excited to give you a glimpse into the life and experiences of a Kelley student through Poets&Quants’ new Campus Correspondents blogging series over the next several weeks. To get started, I’d like to further introduce myself and discuss a few aspects of Kelley that have contributed to the incredible experience I’ve had here in Bloomington, Indiana.
I came to Kelley three-and-a-half years ago after graduating from a small, rural high school in my hometown of Vincennes, Indiana. Moving from a farm where I raised cattle and showed horses and attended school with only 75 classmates to a university that is twice the size of my town was quite a transition! I worried about my ability to succeed in large classes with such intelligent students from around the world, and I feared feeling like a number — just one of nearly 7,000 undergrads in Kelley getting passed through a machine.
But what I found, however, was exactly the opposite. At Kelley, I’ve found a school that uses its reputation and its resources to assemble a community of passionate, engaging faculty and staff and driven, intelligent students — its people. I’ve found a school that leverages its size to generate opportunities for its students both inside the classroom and around the world. And I’ve found a school where students learn from the people around them, seize the opportunities they’re afforded, and achieve results.
After reflecting on my years at Kelley, I realized that there are three attributes—the people, the opportunities, and the results—that have made my Kelley experience so phenomenal.
First and foremost, the people at the Kelley School of Business have impacted my undergraduate experience more than any other factor possible. Kelley employs a group of brilliant and dynamic professors that come from academic and business backgrounds to teach us lessons that will benefit us far beyond the classroom. In addition to their teaching and research abilities, Kelley faculty truly care about their students, and they get involved in student-led initiatives. For instance, Tatiana Kolovou, my business presentations professor during my first semester, volunteered to work with me to improve a student consulting group that I co-founded at Kelley. Beyond the amazing faculty and staff, my peers at Kelley also impress and inspire me on a daily basis. For example, one of my best friends, Rachael, works more hours each week now than she will as a full-time consultant because she cares so much about improving the world around her and mentoring younger students to do the same.
Great people truly make the Kelley experience worthwhile, but it’s impossible to attract them without offering a wide variety of amazing opportunities… and Kelley does just that! Over the past four years, I’ve had the opportunity to study abroad twice, serve as an undergraduate teaching assistant, and lead a student consulting group. No matter what your interests are Kelley and the greater IU community offer numerous opportunities to grow personally and professionally. The picture above shows me sitting outside the City University of Hong Kong where I spent the spring semester of my junior year studying finance. My exchange program in Hong Kong was an incredible opportunity to meet friends from around the world, travel to five other countries in Asia, and immerse myself in a new and interesting culture. These are the types of life-changing opportunities that Kelley offers its students on a daily basis.
As great people taking advantage of amazing opportunities, Kelley students achieve remarkable results. From winning global case competitions to starting successful entrepreneurial ventures to landing top jobs, Kelley students know how to succeed in the real world. For me, personally, I built a supportive network of incredible Kelley people, took advantage of several opportunities like study abroad and the Out for Undergrad Business Conference, and secured my dream job as a full-time business analyst for McKinsey & Company upon graduation. I’m extremely excited to see what other results my peers and I can achieve because of our great education and experiences at the Kelley School of Business.
Every student here at Kelley will meet different people and take advantage of unique opportunities, but with a bit of effort, they will achieve their own definition of a successful result. I’m very excited to tell you more about my Kelley story in the coming weeks, and I hope you’ll check back soon for more campus correspondence!
DON’T MISS: MEET THE PQU CAMPUS CORRESPONDENTS or MEET TANNER SNIDER, KELLEY SCHOOL OF BUSINESS
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