Originally posted in the Rundown in the Rice Business Magazine.

I attended my first Women in Leadership Conference (WILC) four years ago as a working professional. The next year, I submitted my MBA application to Rice Business with the goal, if admitted, to help organize WILC and inspire the next generation of female leaders.

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I was admitted to the Rice (Business) MBA program as a Forté Fellow in 2021 and immediately joined the executive committee for WILC 2023, tasked with marketing the conference. I organized panels and collaborated with a team of strong student leaders. Forté Foundation CEO Elissa Sangster gave the kickoff keynote speech and underscored the work that remains regarding pay gaps and gender disparities in executive roles.

What resonated with me most was Sangster’s call for us to all become vocal allies, mentors and sponsors. Advocating for women within an organization creates a culture of inclusion and equality. Women bring unique perspectives to the workplace and contribute to better decision making, which drives innovation and growth. Equal gender representation in leadership roles is critical for organizations to be competitive in the business world. Society has made progress in promoting diversity and bringing women to leadership positions, but women remain significantly underrepresented in the C-suite due to lack of advancement opportunities and the “broken rung” obstacle at the first step to management. 

Being part of the planning committee for WILC 2023 has been a highlight of my MBA experience at Rice Business. This year’s theme of “Every Woman, Every Voice” highlighted the importance of sponsorship, mentorship and allyship as critical components for equality and equity in leadership. WILC 2023 sold out and achieved record attendance, surpassing more than 500 in-person attendees. The event provided a valuable opportunity to connect, build relationships, learn new skills and strategize competencies to succeed in leadership roles. Most importantly, the conference empowered its participants — including me — to aspire to greater heights in their careers and to inspire the next generation of women in leadership.

Expore Women in Leadership Conference.

University’s 110th commencement was first led by President Reginald DesRoches

Across two days of joyful tears, stirring speeches, embraces and exultation, Rice University’s 2023 graduates celebrated the end of one chapter in their lives inside the hedges and the thrilling possibilities that lay before them in the chapters beyond.

This year’s graduation festivities were the first to be led by Rice President Reginald DesRoches, who ascended to the presidency in July 2022, and featured remarks from Karine Jean-Pierre, President Joe Biden’s White House press secretary and a key member of the administrations of both Biden and former President Barack Obama.

This year also saw the conferral of Rice’s first posthumous undergraduate degree to the family of Martel College’s Kamryn Sanamo, who died earlier this year after her yearslong fight against brain cancer.

Commencement fun kicked off May 5 with an evening event to honor Masters of Business Administration graduates from the Jones Graduate School of Business. It was followed May 6 by both the jubilant doctoral commencement ceremony, where Ph.D. graduates celebrated their ascension to the highest level of post-graduate education, and the equally joyful ceremony for recipients of advanced degrees at Tudor Fieldhouse.

The weekend culminated with the undergraduate commencement ceremony at Rice Stadium, capping off graduation celebrations for this academic year following the administration’s January decision to restructure Rice commencement going forward.

Despite the threat of showers, not one of the weekend’s four commencement events spread across Tudor Fieldhouse and historic Rice Stadium had to be altered due to weather. That said, the warm, humid conditions May 5 and 6 were a perfectly Houstonian backdrop for the festivities.

“We wanted to make sure the weather was authentic,” Rice Board of Trustees Chairman Rob Ladd quipped to the crowd Saturday night.

After graduates completed their ceremonial walk through Lovett Hall’s Sallyport and into Rice Stadium, they and their guests were welcomed by Ladd and Dean of Undergraduates Bridget Gorman, before DesRoches took to the podium to extend his congratulations and gratitude to those in attendance.

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Try things ‘exceptionally hard and perhaps uncomfortable’

“We welcome you to our campus, and we thank you for lending us these outstanding graduates who have contributed so richly to our community,” DesRoches said to the thousands of parents, relatives, friends and mentors filling the stadium. He remarked on the special connection he felt to the Class of 2023, based on both sharing their early days on campus while he served as dean of the George R. Brown School of Engineering, their shared experience of the height of the COVID-19 pandemic during his time as university provost and due to the presence of one graduating Sid Richardson senior particularly near and dear to his heart.

“How often does a first-year president get to hand out a degree to his baby girl? We are so proud of you, Shelby,” DesRoches said to his daughter.

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He asked graduates to thank those loved ones near and far who helped them along their academic journeys before challenging them to continue pushing themselves and to try things “exceptionally hard and perhaps uncomfortable” in the pursuit of intellectual and emotional growth, imploring them to always remember the values of courage and curiosity he first espoused during his presidential inauguration.

“Because of these experiences, you are adaptable, resilient, empathetic team players, with superpowers to change the world,” DesRoches said.

Outgoing Student Association President Gabby Franklin not only congratulated the 2023 graduates on the occasion, but made special note of how much their mentorship and guidance throughout the past several years of fear, uncertainty and upheaval amid the pandemic meant to Rice’s underclassmen.

“You are the last class to experience campus before COVID, the first class to define what the new normal at Rice is, and you’re full of the most accomplished, smart and determined people I have ever known,” Franklin said.

“During your time here, you have not only built up yourselves, but a new future. You succeeded in an academically and socially rigorous environment. You brought your voices to the table in one of the most difficult periods in history, and you’ve brought back the traditions that define Rice in a new era,” she said. “I’m proud to be able to spend one more year in the legacy you made.”

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‘Hope is a verb. Hope is action’

DesRoches — the first Black person and immigrant to be Rice’s president — introduced Jean-Pierre, a fellow Haitian immigrant and trailblazer in her field as the first Black woman, the first immigrant woman and the first openly gay woman to hold the post of White House press secretary.

“Although every graduation is an achievement, your path has been steeper and more difficult than most,” Jean-Pierre said. “Your class was just wrapping up your freshman year when COVID emerged and changed our world in an instant. Some of you became ill and had to suspend your studies. Others had to tend to sick family members, or step in and take care of your younger siblings when child care was no longer an option. Some had to deal with the incredible pain of losing friends and family to the deadly pandemic. Classes went virtual, to the word ‘Zoom’ that became part of our shared lexicon. And social activity — a cornerstone of the collegiate experience — was brought to a grinding halt.”

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“You’ve seen the worst of us, but you’ve also seen the best of us. You lived through a moment in history where every day was unprecedented, and now you step into a world rife with new challenges and rich in new opportunities,” she said. “I want you to know that today is not only an achievement, but also a testament: a testament to your strength, to your grit and your perseverance.

“You were determined to make it to the finish line. And guess what, Class of 2023? You did.”

She quoted civil rights pioneer Martin Luther King Jr., who told the world “‘we must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.’ And through everything we have been thorough, your class, your generation, gives me hope: infinite hope.

“Hope is one of the most powerful tools we have,” she continued. “Hope is more than an emotion, more than a feeling and certainly more than a vibe — I know you guys like to use that word,” she joked to her largely Gen Z audience. “Hope is a discipline and a practice. For me, hope is a verb. Hope is action. Because when we hope for a better world, we create a better world.”

Jean-Pierre referenced the deep font of hope that led her parents to leave their homeland of Haiti for a better life, inspired by that nation’s history as the first country in the Western Hemisphere whose enslaved people “overthrew their colonizers to create the first ever independent country of free people.” They upended their lives to flee the brutal dictatorship of François Duvalier and embarked on a globe-trotting journey that led Jean-Pierre, her parents and her siblings first to Martinique and eventually to the United States in New York City, where her parents worked tirelessly to give their children every opportunity in the world.

She cited Rice’s own reckoning with its history as an institution founded with the wealth William Marsh Rice accrued in no small part due to his enslavement of others as proof positive that meaningful, radical change is possible. “He insisted that this school would only serve the white men and women of Houston,” Jean-Pierre said. “But today, Rice University is open to all, and welcomed its first Black president, DesRoches.”

“The story of Rice University, and my story, stand with the principle that the world is malleable, and we are the ones with the power to transform it,” Jean-Pierre said. “But only if we are willing to take the chance. Hoping for more is not naive — don’t let anybody tell you that. It is brave.”

DesRoches concluded the ceremony by awarding Sanamo’s posthumous degree. “A sports medicine and exercise physiology major and member of Martel College, Kamryn passed away in January with just one semester of study remaining at Rice,” DesRoches said, as Sanamo’s friends and family watched on in the crowd. “She had been tremendously excited to complete her degree, and I’m very pleased that the faculty approved the creation of a posthumous degree policy and that we were able to confer her degree today.”

Degrees were formally conferred upon all those smiling faces lining the field. Tassels were turned and graduation caps were gleefully, triumphantly tossed in the air. The graduates and all those supporting them joined voices to belt out Rice’s alma mater, as a jubilant array of fireworks burst into dazzling color in the sky above.

“Thank you for being here to recognize these graduates and their achievements, and for all you have done along the way to help make this moment possible,” said Gorman. “And to the graduating Class of 2023: they say that every end has a new beginning. So to each of you, best wishes on your new beginning and the road ahead.”

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There is a lot to consider when choosing a graduate program, from the curriculum to the career outcomes to the student-life culture.

Rice’s tightknit Master of Accounting ("MAcc") community fosters the kinds of personal connections that can last a lifetime. We are proud of our unique student experience and wanted to give you an insider's view. 

Read below as Grant Ketterer, a MAcc Class of 2023 student, offers a first-hand rundown of one of his Thursdays during his spring semester in the program.

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6:30am: Day Starts

For classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays, I typically wake up around 6:30am. My morning routine is pretty standard: I take a quick shower, get my materials ready for class, and make a to-go coffee.

I have a dog, so I also take her out for a walk before I leave in the morning.

I live close to campus, so I usually leave my apartment 25 minutes before the start of my first class, which gives me plenty of room to arrive on time.

8:00am: Arrive on Campus

My Tuesdays and Thursdays this spring semester start with Data Analytics for Accountants II at 8:00am (one of my favorite courses), followed by Business Law at 9:45am, and ending with Data Analytics in Auditing at 12:30pm.

I find Data Analytics II especially interesting because we are able to use various software tools like SQL, Alteryx, and PowerBI, to solve a number of cases.

The professor, Yamil Kaba, is great at teaching us how to use the software and always gives us the freedom to incorporate our own approaches when solving the questions. This makes the course extremely dynamic, as you aren’t forced into a cookie-cutter process and can explore multiple ways to reach your conclusions. 

11:15am: Lunch Break

I eat off campus for lunch, usually in Rice Village. I enjoy spending social time with friends from the program, and I always look forward to our lunches.

However, today was somewhat unique as our team (a group of four students assigned by the program during the first semester for group projects) was invited to the Rice’s faculty club, called the Cohen House, to have lunch with Senior Associate Dean Barbara Ostdiek. 

Every team gets the opportunity to meet with her throughout the year, and we were able to discuss our backgrounds, future plans, and our experience thus far in the MAcc program.

Dean Ostdiek was interested in our recruiting experience and sincerely wanted to know how we felt about the program. 

We were able to give her feedback on specific courses. For example, we expressed our interest in connecting some of the material we learned in Data Analytics for Accountants I (mostly Microsoft Excel) with practical applications from our finance courses.

It was clear that she valued our opinion and made notes to discuss with the MAcc faculty. I think this is one of the benefits of the small-sized MAcc cohort at Rice. Our individual needs are important to the faculty ,and we have an open dialogue with administrators.

2:00pm: Classes Over

After our last class ends at 2:00pm, I go straight home and head to the dog park to play some fetch with my dog.

Most weekdays I give myself an hour or so to relax before I start working on schoolwork for the next day.

The workload can vary depending on the week, with some classes having frequent assignments and others having larger projects due every few weeks. The program is definitely condensed, but rarely do I feel overwhelmed by the amount of work we are given.

3:00pm: Thursday Pub & Partio

Thursdays are especially fun for those looking to spend some social time with classmates. The MAcc program provides us a weekly Thursday happy hour tab at the “Pub” on campus from 3:00-5:00pm, and there’s always a group of us there. 

Additionally, on various Thursdays throughout the academic year, the Jones School of Business holds a “Partio” (a wordplay on "party on the patio") in the business school's courtyard for all graduate business students.

Student groups organize and cater different types of food. Each Partio has a theme with various games and activities.

This week was the "Dean’s Partio," with mini golf, soccer pool, axe throwing, and dart soccer. This is always a great time and gives us MAcc students the opportunity to mingle with the MBA students and decompress at the end of the week.
 

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Above: Grant & other MAcc Class of 2023 students at the Dean's Partio 

8:00pm : End of Day

The MAcc program does not have any classes on most Fridays. Since final exams are coming up, tomorrow I am going to be taking advantage of the open day to study to study on campus.

Rice's business school has its own library, called the Business Information Center, specifically for business school students. It's a nice place where you can go to focus on school projects. 

Want to know about the MAcc student experience? Attend one of our admissions events!  For more about the Rice MAcc program, visit our Admissions page or email us at RiceMAcc@rice.edu.