QS MBA Scholarship Winner: Doing the Groundwork

QS MBA scholarship winner Kiesean Riddick’s pre-business school résumé might, at a glance, not strike you as being particularly unusual for an attendee of Chicago Booth. He studied at prestigious New York high school Townsend Harris, before majoring in physics at the University of Rochester, where he returned eight years later to a master’s degree in finance.

His professional experience includes stints as a research analyst, a consultant and, most recently, as business and operations manager for the NYC Department of Education. However, it is the two years after completing his undergraduate degree, during which he worked for an organization called Groundwork,  that catches the eyes – and that landed Riddick with the US$10,000 QS Leadership MBA Scholarship.

Groundwork (now Good Shepherd Services) is an organization dedicated to helping youngsters from problem neighborhoods in New York City get into university. There is no entry criteria beyond taking the initiative to write the essay needed to be included: “We didn’t care about their averages, all they had to do was to show an interest in improving their skills.”

Giving these youngsters the chance to make the most of themselves is a subject close to Riddick’s heart, as it was his parents’ desire to insulate him from the drug problems which dominated his native Queens in the 80s and early 90s which allowed him to receive the education he did.

“There were drugs being sold out of the local high school. High school students were selling drugs to junior high and elementary school students. That wasn’t the environment my parents wanted to put me in.” Through a gifted and talented program, Riddick eventually got into the highly selective Townsend Harris, for which a 95% average was necessary for admittance.

The school did not only emphasize academic success, but also giving back. Each student is required to complete 20 hours of community service a year. If the intention was to instill a sense of social responsibility, Riddick surely stands as testament to its success.

MBA leadership lessons

The intention of Groundwork, he explains, was to help the students become leaders. But, of course, it also gave him a chance to demonstrate his own leadership – and, of course, to learn. The chief thing he gained, it seems, is a grasp of the importance of the bigger picture: “My coworkers helped me with this; perhaps a kid hadn’t done what they were supposed to do today, or this week, but let’s look at the wider picture, at how they’re improving and where we can get them.

“You have to analyze the details, see where you want to go, while still paying attention to the day-to-day to get the larger picture.” This is as applicable to financial services, he believes, as it is to helping students get into university.

The other key lesson he learned was to adapt to the circumstances. “Two months after I started, our director was terminated, through no fault of their own. It forced everyone to focus harder; I had to do my job and my friend’s job because he had to take on another role. There wasn’t much leadership; it really forced you stretch yourself. It made me comfortable being uncomfortable.”Not at all a bad quality in business, we’ll sure you agree…

Finding the right MBA community

Despite his commitment to helping people, the QS MBA scholarship winner has another love: numbers and research. It was that which led him to do a master’s in finance and ultimately to Chicago Booth with a view to moving towards a career in financial services. “I love the stock market,” he reflects, “When I wake up I put on CNBC or Bloomberg first thing.”

He is confident that it is a field in which he can succeed. “I know I can do the work. I mean, I can do quantum physics, so the stock market and asset management doesn’t bother me. I’m going to a school that shows I can do the work – Booth is to the financial services like Stanford is to Google.”

Interestingly, however, Booth was not one of the four schools to which he originally applied, which were Wharton, Columbia, NYU and Yale. He found the two New York schools were not really for him. “My favorite professor from my master’s taught at Stern, I sat in classes and I liked them, but there was something about the community I wasn’t connecting to. Columbia was the same – that really hurt; it was my dream school, I couldn’t believe I didn’t feel comfortable there.”

Yale’s community excited him more, but the offer of a free ride at Stern led him to accept a place there. However, as the Booth deadline he approached, he thought he would give a shot: “There was no loss here. If I got in, I got to go to Booth, I was going to one of the top five schools in the country; if I didn’t, I was going to school for free.”

After a negative experience at an information session, Riddick was pleasantly surprised when he visited the school. “It was amazing, everyone there was so nice. The first years were very direct, asking you why you wanted to go there. It wasn’t a hazing, they were genuinely interested. My interview was a conversation, it was really natural."

As a career changer, the academic rigor of the program was the answer he could give to his questioners. “That fact is extremely important because it provides instant validation when I meet recruiters and business professionals. Booth offers the best training for financial services and an analytic approach that prepares students for leadership in business and society.  Analytical thinking and rigor is the hallmark of a Booth education.

“You end up going to the business school you’re supposed to go to because you feel at home there. At Booth, I felt really at home, so that’s why I went.” He had, he says a “goofy smile” on his face throughout the pre-program sessions.

Using MBA lessons to help non-profits help themselves

The Booth community offers more than agreeable classmates. “Ultimately, it’s for access. There’s so much to do, information sessions, people to meet, companies which are interested. I had a conversation with someone who was working on the IPO to provide internet services to airplanes. I met an investment banker alumnus, who had worked on a deal to help CDW get access to capital. I bought my computer from CDW! You meet people who are doing such interesting things, and companies which are interested in you.”

In the long-term, Riddick says he interested using his MBA leadership skills on the board of a  non-profit – something for which his experience at Booth is preparing him up well for.  “What people don’t know is that Booth has a growing entrepreneurship and non-profit sector. There’s a program which lets you sit on the boards of non-profits as a non-board member – how cool is that?” This, be believes, is how business can give back. “A lot of non-profits don’t know what they’re doing financially. If you can help a non-profit be better financially, you’re helping the world.”

But before entering the sector, he is aiming to get appropriate experience in the private sector. “My plan now is to do equity research or asset management. You’re in essence a researcher, which is what I was meant to do. Seeing whether or not you’re good enough to beat the market – that’s exciting!”

But ultimately, he does not know what the future holds for him. “You’re supposed to know exactly what you want to do. But that’s not true – you’re ultimately going to school because you have no idea what you want to do. You want a degree that will give you options. That’s ultimately why I chose Booth – because it’s going to open the largest amount of doors for me.”