 I think a lot of schools in the country have great educational programs, but when it comes to really experiencing how to work with other people in a business environment, Alabama really has the resources and infrastructure to give people opportunities to lead organizations, take on leadership that's outside of coursework, and serving in my fraternity and in the Student Government Association really exposed me to the kind of responsibility and independence that you can take on outside of the classroom. When I was doing my college search, I didn't know what I wanted. I applied to about 10 schools and visited every single one of them. My mom attended Alabama and both of her parents actually met at the university, so that was kind of my foot in the door to visiting. As soon as I got to the campus, I just fell in love with it immediately. I remember on the flight back to Chicago deciding to go to Alabama and it was the best decision I made thus far in my life. The last phone call that I had with my grandfather was telling him that I was going to go to the university and that meant a great deal. He was very involved at the university. He served as a veteran and also played for the Alabama football team, so that was a really cool moment that I had with him. This really has become a home to me and it's very special that I have that to share with my mom and both of her parents. I received my bachelor's in mechanical engineering in 2022. I learned a lot in the engineering program, but what I didn't realize was how much I was going to learn from the extracurricular and organization opportunities that the University of Alabama has. I had no intention of getting involved in Greek life or student government. I was much more focused on my education and I found myself being pulled in a lot of extracurricular involvement opportunities and that developed a real interest that I had in business. When I found out about Alabama's MBA program, I saw it as a great opportunity to sharpen my skills in business, which those interests really started to flourish with those involvements on campus. Being in the Madison MBA program has been the best educational experience I could have asked for. I've had the opportunity to get involved on case team. The MBA case team is about 20 to 25 MBA students who compete in case competitions throughout the U.S. A lot of the times the judges at these case competitions are executives of the company, so they have very real vested interests in these business ideas. One of the greatest things that the University has to offer is all the opportunities to find communities coming from Chicago. I didn't know anybody at the University and being forced out of my comfort zone was the best thing I could have asked for from the University to teach me how to network with other people, learn about different people's perspectives and their experiences and develop myself more as just a holistic person. I think when a lot of people think of the University of Alabama, they think of athletics. That's what I thought of, too, but what I've really discovered is that everything that the University of Alabama does is reflective of the excellence that the athletics is known for. Everybody at this school has such a sense of unity and purpose. Everybody's looking to make each other better and everybody wants to get the absolute most out of attending the University of Alabama.