Great Grads 2020: Anamika Jayendran, MBA/20

On June 19th, Carleton University approved this year’s list of graduates! While celebrations have moved online this year, it gives us even more reason to celebrate all our amazing graduates of 2020. We’ve asked a few of our Great Grads this year to share their memories of Carleton and the Sprott community.

Anamika Jayendran is a graduate of the MBA program.

If you could choose one word to sum up your time at Sprott, what is it and why?

Multidimensional.

Sprott offered me an incredibly wide range of opportunities to take advantage of and learn from through my program. I had the opportunity to combine courses at the business school with courses at the schools for public policy and international affairs. My perspectives and take-aways from each of these courses was complimented by my understanding from the other two schools of thought. It also offered me an opportunity to combine practical applications with theoretical research, helping me balance the benefits and limitations of each approach.

What were your goals when you started at Sprott? Did you achieve them?

As an international student, the first set of goals were focussed entirely on making it through Ottawa winters! But on a serious note, I wanted to learn more about the intersectionality between the processes of business and the fervour of social impact. The end goal was to build a set of business skills, that would support a career with social purpose organisations.

While I did achieve some of the goals I started off with, my experiences in these last two years with Sprott have given me so many more goals to work toward. This inspiration is one of the things I’m most thankful for.

What is your favourite Sprott memory?

My first week in the MBA program was incredibly intimidating and I was convinced that not only could I never effectively solve a case study, but also I decidedly did not enjoy giving presentations. At the end of the first six weeks, especially with Julie Caldwell’s Case Study and Presentations class, my team (which was fantastic!), cracked the final case study and delivered a presentation that continues to be one of my all time favourites. The feeling at the end of that presentation was incredible and really made me feel like business school was something I could do after all!

What was your favourite course or professor?

I absolutely loved both of Dr. Linda Duxbury‘s classes, MGMT 5100 (learnt so much about myself!) and MGMT 5120; we got to work on a consulting project with the Ottawa Police Service. I also enjoyed Dr. Kate Ruff‘s ACCT 5013, Financial Reporting and Control in Public Organisations, which introduced me to social impact assessments and opened up a whole area of research interest for me. Julie Caldwell’s BUSI5106 as I mentioned before, was the confidence boost I needed to get through my MBA!

What was the most important lesson you learned during your time at Sprott?

You’ve never learnt enough! In a world that continues to throw big changes across industries, geographies and societies, there will always be something that you don’t know enough about. With each semester at Sprott, I added to the ever-growing list of things I wanted to learn, and found the support I needed to pursue them. We will constantly have opportunities to start new somewhere and re-start the learning process, and that’s an exciting prospect!

What will you miss the most?

The MBA Lounge! But also, more importantly everyone in the MBA program that could not have made the program any more insightful, supportive and fun! The cohort was a big bunch of amazing people who shared resources, found laughs in everything, taught each other, contended gracefully for the same jobs, while being shamelessly competitive when it came to group projects! There is no one else I would rather be prepping with at the last minute for big presentations and/or exams.

What’s next for you?

I’m currently working as an Associate with Assessment Programs at HSO.

In the future, I hope to continue expanding on my knowledge of business and social purpose integration, while pursuing research opportunities.

Is there anything else you would like to share with the Sprott community?

I would like to take the opportunity to thank the Sprott community for the incredible support as well as the strong sense of association that it offers. As a part of the community, I consider it to be an asset that everyone who’s ever been a part of Sprott, adds to and benefits from, making it one of my favourite gains from the MBA program!