A total of 72 students in the Class of 2019 graduated from the Berkeley MBA for Executives Program Saturday, surrounded by friends and family.
“Today is a celebration of your personal achievements,” Haas Dean Ann Harrison said. “Finding ways to balance (work, family, and school) commitments is nothing short of remarkable, and we applaud you.”
Watch the slideshow! All photos: Jim Block.
Berkeley Haas MBA students in the Class of 2019 were urged to be brave and embrace their power to make significant contributions to improve the world at Friday’s commencement.
The commencement was held under sunny skies at the Greek Theatre, where Dean Ann Harrison welcomed parents, friends, and family of evening & weekend MBA and full-time MBA students. “All of you have been transformed in some profound way. That is, after all, why you came here,” she told them.
Watch the video of 2019 MBA commencement.
Commencement speaker Patrick Awuah, MBA 99 and founder of Ashesi University in Ghana, told graduates the story of how he arrived at Berkeley Haas in his early 30s, with a new baby, having quit his job at Microsoft. He had a singular goal to prepare himself to start a successful university, and he built his plan for Ashesi during his entire time at Haas.
“Ashesi started here, and I recognize the fact that there are not many places where this could have happened,” said Awuah, whose school has grown from 30 to 1,000 students. “We all had hope that it was going to be a remarkable institution, but it has exceeded even our loftiest dreams…At Ashesi today I see echoes of Berkeley: In our classrooms and the curriculum that we teach and the values we share; in the open embrace of equitable access to the opportunity for learning and development. I see echoes of Berkeley in how our community works and in our corporate culture. I see echoes of Berkeley in Ashesi’s people and leadership.”
Full-time MBA student speaker Bree Jenkins, who is co-founding the Hayward Collegiate Charter School, shared a personal story of feeling powerless as a teen.
“Age 15, days before my birthday, on a bitter December night, my mom leaves for a tour in Iraq. I honestly don’t know if she will ever come back. When this feeling of powerlessness grabs hold of you, it is usually dark. And you’re typically alone. Your whole body clenches. Palms sweaty. There’s a tightening of your stomach as you realize there is nothing you can do.”
Jenkins said the transformation from powerlessness to power has many faces. “As a new graduate of the Haas School of Business, it has your (face),” she said. “And as a black woman who represents just 1% of her class, yet has the privilege of speaking on your behalf, it has mine. Right now, we have power. And with this power, we share an incredible responsibility to this world and to one another.”
Calling out classmates by name, Nancy Hoque, student speaker for the Evening & Weekend MBA Program, addressed why they were brave for different reasons: for risking it all in changing a career, for joining her in protesting the immigration ban at the San Francisco Airport, for traveling across the world to help Syrian refugees, and for organizing female students to wear white on their commencement caps to symbolize the strength and unity of women who completed the program.
“Yes, absolutely they were all brave, because bravery entails taking a chance,” she said. “Grabbing onto that door which is cracked open and, regardless of the obstacles and unknowns, walking through it.”
Full-Time MBA Program
Academic Achievement Award: Somiran Gupta
Full-Time MBA Defining Leadership Principle Awards:
Question the Status Quo: Tam Emerson; Confidence without Attitude: Somiran Gupta; Students Always: Mariana Lanzas Goded; Beyond Yourself: Matthew Freeman Hines; The Berkeley Leader Award: Bosun Adebaki
The Earl F. Cheit Award for Excellence in Teaching: Adair Morse
Cheit Award for Graduate Student Instructor: Margaret Fong
Evening & Weekend MBA Program
Academic Achievement Award: Eppa Rixey
Defining Leadership Principles awards:
Question the Status Quo: Tess Peppers; Confidence Without Attitude: Aimee Bailey; Students Always: Eppa Rixey; Beyond Yourself: Michael Toomey; The Berkeley Leader Award: Melanie Akwule
The Earl F. Cheit Awards for Excellence in Teaching: Prof. Ross Levine (for weekend program) and Assoc. Prof. Yaniv Konchitchki (for evening program)
Graduate Student Instructor: Zachary Olson for the Data & Decisions course
Education pioneer Patrick Awuah, MBA 99, founder of Ghana’s Ashesi University, will be welcomed back to campus this week as the 2019 MBA commencement speaker.
Commencement for both the Full-time MBA and Evening & Weekend MBA programs will take place on Friday, May 24, at 2 p.m. at the Greek Theatre.
Born and raised in Ghana, Awuah came to Berkeley Haas after attending Swarthmore College and working at Microsoft. His son’s birth inspired him to want to give back to his home country by establishing a new university that would offer a liberal arts education.
In past interviews, he has emphasized the need to teach through critical thinking rather than through rote memorization, which was the general practice in Ghana. His dream was to develop ethical and entrepreneurial leaders who would go on to revitalize Ghana and the African continent.
At Haas, Awuah turned his idea into a project through the International Business Development (IBD) Program. For several years, Berkeley MBA students helped build the business plan for Ashesi University, and Haas faculty served as advisers. Classmate Nina Marini helped Awuah launch Ashesi in 2002 in a rented facility with just 30 students. Today, Ashesi has a new 100-acre campus outside Accra with an enrollment of more than 1,000 students who hail from 15 African nations. The school has more than 1,200 alumni.
“Patrick is an inspiring business leader who truly represents our Defining Leadership Principles,” said Laura Tyson, former Haas dean and faculty director of the Institute for Business and Social Impact. “We are very proud of all that he has accomplished and honored to welcome him back for commencement.”
Awuah, who was profiled in BerkeleyHaas magazine, has earned many accolades, including:
Rain didn’t dampen the spirits of the Berkeley Haas undergraduate Class of 2019 Sunday morning, as close to 400 students were urged to make an impact on the world and “elevate and empower” others.
The threat of bad weather moved the typical commencement ceremony from the Greek Theatre to Chou Hall’s Spieker Forum, where Dean Ann Harrison welcomed the crowd indoors, thanking parents, families, and friends for supporting the grads.
“Today we celebrate your achievement,” said Harrison, herself a Berkeley undergraduate alumna in economics and history. “You have persevered through four years of a rigorous undergraduate curriculum. You have mastered new knowledge and skills, and you have adopted a larger view of the world. You have met new people, volunteered for great causes, and made many friends. You should be proud of yourselves. I know we are.”
Commencement speaker Steve Etter, BS 83, MBA 89, a Haas finance faculty member who co-founded Greyrock Capital Group, pointed out the diversity and accomplishments of the 2019 class: three quarters of the grads started at Cal as freshman, while a quarter came from the community college system. Many hail from around the globe, including Asia, Europe, and Latin America; and many, like Etter, are the first generation in their families to attend college. A third of the class completed simultaneous degrees across 34 majors.
Etter, who has taught at Cal for the past 24 years—even while going through cancer treatment—shared four themes “for students to live their life by” when they leave Berkeley Haas: choosing to have a good day instead of a bad day, every day; focusing on how you treat others on a daily basis—not just friends and family, but everyone from the airport security checker to the Starbuck’s barista; thinking about ethics and “living your life consciously within your views”; and finally, focusing on your contributions to society.
“This has nothing to do with how your work day contributes to the world economy,” he said. “This focus is on the donation of your time, knowledge and dollars outside of the workforce.”
In his speech “Business is Boomin’,'” a nod to a DJ Khaled lyric, student speaker Sreyas Sai Samantula noted that the business world and the hip hop world share a lot in common. “At its core, hip hop music is a catalyst, paving the way for progress and change,” he said. “It’s about uplifting yourself and your community and, in its purest form, it’s about utilizing personal success as a means of elevating others. Business should be the same.”
Watch student speaker Sreyas Sai Samantula’s commencement speech: Business is Boomin’.
Holding a diploma is a privilege that many others around the world will never have, he told the grads. “Many of my brothers and sisters in my birthplace of South India who go hungry for food every day will never have this privilege,” he said. “Many of our brothers and sisters right next door in Oakland and L.A. who suffer from violence, discrimination, inequity every single day of their lives will never have this privilege….. but that can change.”
Like song writers, business people, through the companies and products they create, share a distinct and rare opportunity to inspire millions of people, he said. “On our professional journeys, we have the ability to elevate and empower others,” he said. “As Haas grads we need to understand that we do have the power to be socially responsible, to support diversity, and to invest in our communities no matter what we’re doing, what industry we’re in.”
Culture of Haas Awards:
Ana Mancia for Question the Status Quo
Patrick Ong for Confidence Without Attitude
Mark Ansell for Students Always
Jaskirat Gaelan for Beyond Youself
The Cheit Award for Excellence in Teaching: Janet Brady, distinguished teaching fellow
The Graduate Student Instructor (GSI) Award for Excellence in Teaching: Cori Land, MBA 19
The Departmental Citation for the most outstanding academic achievement: Tyler Barbee, who has been inspired throughout his life by the determination of his older, autistic brother, Connor. “In his time at Berkeley and at Haas, he has sought to develop a similar work ethic and perseverance as his brother in all that he does,” Harrison said.
“If you had asked me five years ago if I’d be walking out of Berkeley Haas to start a new elementary school in Hayward, California, I would have politely smiled and shook my head. I had no interest in going to graduate school, never mind business school.
Bree worked as an industrial engineer at Disney. (Photo courtesy of Bree Jenkins)
At the time, I was an industrial engineer at Disney, and every day, I created magic. My favorite project was with Disney Cruise Line, supporting the largest dry dock in cruise line history, the Disney Wonder. In Cadiz, Spain, I joined thousands of people from all over the world renovating the ship. We switched out ceilings, floors, stages and walls to convert to new themes like Tiana’s Place (a restaurant themed to Disney’s the Princess and the Frog), my team handling the scheduling.
My work was chaotic and intense, and I couldn’t have been happier. Decades could have passed quickly and I might have stayed on at the company, if not for one question nagging me: Were there other jobs, other opportunities, that I could equally love and find purpose in?
That’s what brought me to Berkeley to earn my MBA, with a focus on social impact.
Growing up in Flint, Michigan, I was steeped in a community that cared deeply about its children, but lacked adequate resources. My mom, a military reservist, earned her bachelor’s degree in business and worked seven days weeks — sometimes only to come home to eviction notices on our apartment door. She struggled knowing that the schools were not providing a great education, and she needed a better job. So, we moved to Southfield, Michigan, where we found both.
A different zip code meant a better school and more opportunities. I had access to the Academic Games, where I could “get my nerd on,” competing to outwit my opponents with mathematical equations. My mom encouraged me to join the band and, thanks to a small black clarinet and a brilliant teacher named Mr. Scott, I learned to train my fingers and mind to the sounds of music. Our lives changed.
Years later, at Disney, I recognized that I had gained everything my mother could have wished for when she moved my brother and me to Southfield: responsibility, independence, mobility and financial security. But it wasn’t enough. While I enjoyed these privileges, my family and friends back in Flint, who were just as talented and intelligent, lacked the security that I felt. They were let down by their zip codes and school districts.
So, when I was considering my career path at Berkeley Haas, I thought of all the teachers and mentors I had and how my educational experience had changed me. Through a social impact speaker series at Haas, I heard someone talk about their work in education and got curious. How could I use my skills in operations in this field?
I turned to my Consortium mentor and friend, Om Chitale, who helped me find an internship as an Education Pioneers Fellow at ACE Charter School Network. Because of him, I started thinking about how I could work in education and, as a result, I built Cheetah Tank, a Shark Tank-style pitch competition for elementary school students in Oakland. Co-created with the incredible Andrew Davis, the program focuses on idea generation stemming from the simple question, ‘What problem are you trying to solve?’ This project, and an introduction from Om, led me to my full-time position at Hayward Collegiate Charter School.
As head of operations, I’m working with our determined founder, Neena Goswamy, to open a new tuition-free charter school to serve the students of South Hayward and provide them with an opportunity for an excellent education. I know that opening this school will not be easy. I’ve been working on it part-time since January, while finishing my MBA program. Each time we speak with families, we promise that we will prepare their scholars to have agency over their lives. We are being given an incredible responsibility to make a positive difference, striving to ensure that our students leave us as hardworking, creative and kind individuals. Not only that, we want them to know where they come from — and that they represent and belong to a community that supports them.
I believe that who we are surrounded by affects what we think is possible. Whether it be in the form of blood relationships, teachers, my amazing partner and his relatives, my peeps at Disney or the talented individuals inside and outside of Haas who I call my friends, my family has held me up and shown me that anything is possible for me. As I leave Berkeley this month, I want to do the same for my young students.”
In summer of 2015, Cal football had its eyes on Russ Udé, a 6-foot-3-inch, 230-pound star linebacker, as a key addition to the team’s struggling defense.
Sports reporters wrote that Udé, who came to UC Berkeley from Westminster, a private school in Atlanta, had the talent to follow in the footsteps of Cal football players who went on to the National Football League (NFL). And Udé hoped he’d follow that path.
But knee injuries he suffered in high school kept threatening to dash his dream. For fear of losing college scholarships, Udé played through his injuries, helping to lead his team, for the first time since 1996, to the Georgia High School Association Class AAA semifinals.
Udé chose to attend Berkeley, but redshirted his freshman year to fully rehabilitate from knee surgery. Then, the following summer, he struggled with an illness that caused him to lose 25 pounds just two weeks before football training camp. He played football his sophomore and junior years, but his medical setbacks forced him to retire from sports after that.
Udé’s parents had always pushed him to also excel off of the field, so after a few dark months, the college junior redirected his energy to his business classes at Berkeley Haas and to launching a career in the entertainment industry.
“I’m at peace with it now,” says Udé, a Berkeley Haas senior who graduates this Sunday and will head to a job at either Deloitte or Merrill Lynch in Southern California. “I’ve learned so much from my experiences. You have to roll with the punches and keep going. I never wanted to self-identify as just an athlete, nor did I want anyone to marginalize me.”
Born to Nigerian parents, Udé moved as a child from Nigeria to London to Belgium before the family settled in Atlanta. At the time, his mother, Uche, was a fashion designer with her own label, Uccé, and Udé modeled as a teen during fashion week in Atlanta. (He was also featured in an episode of ABC’s “Grown-ish.”)
In addition to his mother’s creativity and drive, Udé says he’s been inspired by the multifaceted careers of fellow Atlanta native Donald Glover and other successful creative types and business executives.
“Donald never puts limitations on himself,” Udé says. “He just does what he wants to do. That’s what led me to study business. I felt if I had a business education, I could take it and run with it and apply it to whatever interested me.”
Like Glover, Udé’s interests are eclectic. The summer before his senior year at Berkeley, Udé worked as an investment banking intern in San Francisco. Meanwhile, he was hired by Universal Music Group to do urban marketing and brand partnerships. With Ethan Erickson, a former kicker for Cal football, he created a YouTube content series. Udé also produces and records music, citing influences from Kanye West to Pink Floyd to the rapper Kid Cudi. Last February, he shot his first music video in London and, on his 22nd birthday, released his first single, “Makin’ Conversation,” under the name “RussThe404.”
Udé teaches, too. On most Monday nights last fall, he co-facilitated a two-hour DeCal class and lecture series at Berkeley Haas on the music business.
Steve Etter, a Berkeley Haas finance lecturer who advises student athletes, says Udé was the driving force behind Udé’s own non-traditional career path. “Haas is not an entertainment industry-focused school, so he had the courage to let everyone know what he wanted to do here,” says Etter. “And for Russell, being a student was always as important as being an athlete.”
In class, Udé left strong impressions. “Russ is like no other — a true Renaissance man: creative, entrepreneurial, intellectual, multi-talented, interesting and, his most compelling attribute — he is interested,” says associate professor Dana Carney, who taught Udé in her leadership course. “He loves life and is interested in everything — how it works, why it is, who the players are.”
“He was a real force,” adds lecturer Dan Mulhern, who also teaches leadership to undergraduates. “He has a big presence, literally, but he was also very thoughtful and very engaged and, at times, outspoken in a good way.”
Udé also gives back. Over the past few years, he’s joined in Berkeley and Cal football community outreach programs to teach middle school students leadership skills, to volunteer with after-school programs for kids in low-income school districts and to speak on panels to Berkeley students and student-athletes on the importance of professional development.
Udé says he’s excited to graduate, but that he also will miss his Berkeley family.
“My own family lives so far away, but I have a bunch of friends here whom I consider close family,” he says. “I’m just excited to spend time with them at graduation, but there’s so much I want to achieve after.”
“I’m shooting for the stars,” he says.
Patrick Awuah, MBA 99, founder of Ashesi University in Ghana, will be the speaker at the 2019 Full-time MBA and Evening & Weekend MBA commencement, while Steve Etter, BS 83, MBA 89, a founding partner of Greyrock Capital Group and a long-time Haas finance lecturer, will speak at undergraduate commencement.
The 2019 MBA commencement will take place on Friday, May 24, at 2 p.m. at the Greek Theatre.
The undergraduate commencement will take place on Sunday, May 19, at 9 a.m. at the Greek Theatre.
Patrick Awuah, MBA 99
Born and raised in Ghana, Awuah came to Berkeley Haas after attending Swarthmore College and working at Microsoft. His son’s birth inspired him to want to give back to his home country by establishing a new university that would offer a liberal arts education.
In past interviews, he has emphasized the need to teach through critical thinking rather than through rote memorization, which was the general practice in Ghana. His dream was to develop ethical and entrepreneurial leaders who would go on to revitalize Ghana and the African continent.
At Haas, Awuah turned his idea into a project through the International Business Development (IBD) Program. For several years Berkeley MBA students helped build the business plan for Ashesi University, and Haas faculty served as advisers. Classmate Nina Marini helped launch Ashesi in 2002 in a rented facility with 30 inaugural students. Today, Ashesi has a new 100-acre campus outside Accra with an enrollment of more than 1,000 students who hail from 15 African nations. The school has more than 1,200 alumni.
“Patrick is an inspiring business leader who truly represents our Defining Leadership Principles,” said Laura Tyson, former Haas dean and faculty director of the Institute for Business and Social Impact. “We are very proud of all that he has accomplished and honored to welcome him back for commencement.”
Awuah, who was profiled in BerkeleyHaas magazine, has earned many accolades, including:
Stephen Etter, BS 83, MBA 89
Etter has spent the last 30 years of his career working in private equity. As one of the founding partners at Greyrock Capital Group, he helped raise and invest almost $1 billion over four funds.
Previously, he held positions at Bank of America, GE Capital, Citibank and PricewaterhouseCoopers, where he obtained his CPA. Most recently he has transitioned into the world of social impact investing.
For the last 24 years—48 consecutive semesters—Etter has been a professional faculty member in finance at Berkeley Haas. He has twice earned the school’s prestigious Cheit Award for Teaching Excellence from his undergraduate students.
Alumnus Kevin Chou, BS 02, cites him as an inspiration for his gift toward the funding of Chou Hall.
“The personal commitment and coaching Steve provides his students is extraordinary,” said Erika Walker, assistant dean of the undergraduate program. “Steve’s classes have inspired scores of students to go beyond themselves.”
Etter’s role at Haas goes beyond teaching. He coaches Haas external case competition teams, helps with professional job searches, and works with many student athletes who go on to professional sporting careers (including Jarod Goff, Jaylen Brown, Missy Franklin, Ryan Murphy, and Marshawn Lynch).
Riley Brown, BS 19, and a Cal varsity crew coxswain, said Etter helped her think more seriously and deeply about what set her apart as a student when she was applying to Haas. “He gives me incredible advice,” she said. “Every time he opens his mouth I have to listen because I know there will be a nugget of gold.”
Hundreds of UC Berkeley Haas School of Business graduates walked the stage at the Greek Theatre last week, celebrating May commencement as speakers shared a common theme: now more than ever, business has the power—and responsibility—to change the world.
Last Monday, in the morning chill, 350 Berkeley Haas undergraduates received diplomas. On Friday afternoon, as the sun broke through the clouds, both the Full-time MBA students and evening & weekend students came together for commencement. Graduates included a total of 249 full-time MBA students and 309 evening & weekend MBA students.
Dean Rich Lyons, who delivered welcoming remarks during both commencements for the final time before wrapping up 11 years as dean to return to the faculty, spoke of the impact of the school’s culture and Defining Leadership Principles (DLPs): Question the Status Quo, Confidence Without Attitude, Students Always, and Beyond Yourself.
“Taken in whole, these Defining Leadership Principles reflect who you have been as students,” he told the MBA graduates. “And I know they will serve as guideposts for you going forward. Use them to create purpose for yourselves and those around you.”
Watch the full ceremony:
Watch the full ceremony:
Academic Award: Dmitry Kovalev
Question the Status Quo:
Pedro Moura & Miles Scotcher
Confidence Without Attitude:
Anthony Barrs
Students Always: Bill Collins
Beyond Yourself: Myles Young Lam
The Berkeley Leader Award: Candice Madruga Knoll
Academic Award: John Richard Morgan
Question the Status Quo: Erin Nikole Gums
Confidence Without Attitude:
Gabriela Belo
Students Always: Liz Koenig
Beyond Yourself: Tal Eidelman
The Berkeley Leader Award:
Om Dattatraya Chitale
When identical twins Cameron and Tyler Haberman graduate in two weeks, they’ll sit side by side at the Greek Theatre and both receive undergraduate degrees from the Haas School of Business. Then they’ll hop a plane to explore Europe together and, when they return, head to dream jobs — both in finance — at Apple.
None of this surprises those who know the 21-year-olds well. The twins have shared nearly every step in life, from their upbringing in Visalia, a blue-collar city in the Central Valley, through four years at Berkeley, where they grew from nervous, first-generation college freshmen to honors students with bright futures and a deep commitment to helping others.
At Berkeley Haas, their passion for learning includes understanding gender and equity issues. They were two of five men who, along with 50 women, took the course “The Business Case for Investing in Women” taught by associate adjunct professor Kellie McElhaney.
McElhaney, founding director of the Center for Gender, Equity & Leadership, says the brothers “speak up a lot” in class. “They are humble, and they show vulnerability,” she adds. “They call themselves out on things they’ve done wrong in the past, and they advance others in the classroom.”
How does she tell them apart? “I don’t,” she says. “They sit in the same seats all the time, they’re always together, they do everything together, and they’re both equally amazing.”
Twins aren’t unusual at Berkeley. There were 120 sets of twins and triplets in the entering freshman class last fall, according to the Office of Undergraduate Admissions. But at Berkeley Haas, the Habermans are one of two sets of twins in the undergraduate program.
Some twins exert their independence in college. But the Haberman twins’ idea of going their separate ways is living in different rooms in the same house. At Berkeley, they took most of the same courses, joined the Chi Phi fraternity, entered Berkeley Haas as juniors and interned at AT&T and then Apple.
“We’ve just always had similar interests,” says Cameron, who is one minute older than his brother. “We love the same sports —basketball and baseball — and the same subjects, we love to eat right and work out together.”
Tyler and Cameron study together, too, using a system Cameron developed freshman year that includes creating outlines and elaborate schedules for homework and test preparation. “It’s added efficiency to our lives,” he says.
They’ve come a long way since they were incoming freshmen with imposter syndrome.
“I thought everyone here was so much smarter than me,” says Tyler. “They had taken way more AP classes, scored higher on the SAT.”
They felt like outsiders, too. The brothers had only visited San Francisco once. They’d never been on an airplane. In Visalia, gang fights were a daily norm; bragging about good grades wasn’t. At Berkeley, they met sophisticated students from affluent cities around the world, many who had traveled extensively and largely shared the same liberal politics.
Gradually, the twins adjusted to life at Berkeley and started to thrive, waking up as early as 5 or 6 a.m. every day to work out at the gym before class.
They tackled tough courses together, including Math 1B, a calculus class that they now joke “nearly killed” them.
The brothers studied for it for eight hours a day using Kahn Academy’s online resources. When they took the final, “I don’t think we’ve ever been more proud to get an A, and Tyler actually got an A+,” Cameron says. “I’d worked through some really tough hours with Tyler, struggling over problems, grinding it out until we did well.”
Tyler admits his brother is the better student who challenges him when he fades and thinks he can’t study anymore. “There will be times when I’m, like, ‘Dude, I want to play FIFA or sleep,’ and he’ll say, ‘Come on! You’ve got more in you,’” he says. Tyler credits that drive to having parents who always praised their efforts rather than results — a strategy called the “growth mindset” that Tyler later learned about in Berkeley Haas lecturer Holly Schroth’s class.
“I’ve never seen anyone go as hard as they do to accomplish a goal,” says their friend Parsa Attari, a senior majoring in computer science and cognitive science who has known the twins since freshman year. “They’re just so dedicated.”
Part of the twins’ decision to apply to Haas as sophomores was to learn to manage money, a skill that was lacking in their family. Says Tyler, “I knew that I wanted to be financially stable.”
At Apple, they will both work in the Finance Development Program with a group of new college graduates. They’ll be assigned to teams that rotate every 12 weeks and settle into more permanent roles after two years.
The brothers’ Berkeley experience also included their ongoing work with the Native American community. Although their father is part Cherokee and their mother is part Muscogee, the twins knew very little about their Native American heritage until after they graduated from high school.
At Berkeley, they joined the Native American Recruitment and Retention Center, which works to keep higher education accessible and attainable for Native Americans.
Cameron and Tyler also took a few courses in Native American studies, which opened their eyes to the struggles of the nation’s indigenous peoples. “Back home, you heard, ‘The Indians are fine, they have casinos,’” Cameron says. “But they also have higher rates of incarceration and alcoholism, they earn less pay, they fall at the bottom in everything. I just felt like, if I can, I should be doing something to help out.”
Cameron’s first role with the recruitment and retention center was making posts to its Facebook page. He and Tyler then shared the task of being budget coordinator. The last two years, he says, they’ve been “immersed” in this group and its mission.
Haas alumna JoAnne Lee, former executive director of the center, which is now called the Indigenous and Native Coalition, says the twins were instrumental in helping her develop an outreach plan to expand the size of the group. “Once we did that,” she says, “the numbers grew. We went from four members to 17 and then to 30 people the following semester. Now they have 41 members.”
There are only a few ways to tell the twins apart.
Cameron has had surgery on his nose, which he’s broken three times; its slightly upturned shape is a fail-proof identification strategy.
Tyler has taken a few courses by himself, including “Leadership and Personal Development” and “Improvisational Leadership” with Berkeley Haas lecturer Cort Worthington. “I’ve gained more from those two classes than any classes at Cal,” Tyler says. “They’ve helped me to be a leader and to reframe how I look at the world.”
Their GPAs are also slightly different— 3.96 for Cameron, a member of Beta Gamma Sigma, the top business honor society, and 3.88 for Tyler.
At the Berkeley Haas graduation ceremony, with everyone in matching regalia, it may be difficult to distinguish one twin from the other, at least from a distance. But their parents, Tony and Victoria Haberman, and sister, Isabella, will know and feel pride for Tyler and Cameron’s achievements — separately and together.
The brothers’ dad, a computer technician, and mom, who worked overnight hours at the local grocery store in Visalia so that she could attend all of her sons’ high school basketball and baseball games, will head up from Visalia to cheer them on. So will their sister, who is attending Fresno State next year on a track scholarship.
“They made so many sacrifices for us. They were all about improving our lives so we didn’t have to go through what they did,” says Tyler. “To be the first people in the family to graduate — I don’t think my parents could be more proud. It’s cool to be able to give this to them.”
The close-knit 2017 Berkeley MBA for Executives class came together for commencement last Saturday, celebrating their achievements and acknowledging the program’s life-changing impact.
About 400 people attended the ceremony for the 68 graduating students at UC Berkeley’s Hertz Hall.
“The way you have come together as a group, as a team, really, is nothing short of extraordinary,” said Dean Rich Lyons, in his welcoming remarks. “Your class is leaving its mark on our institution, and contributing to the experiences of those who come after you. You set the standard.”
Commencement keynote speaker Karesha McGee, BCEMBA 12, and head of global corporate communications at Slack, reminded the students that graduation, while an extraordinary achievement, is just a beginning.
McGee shared a story of how being laid off from a job within her first year of graduating from her MBA program taught her to learn from the failure and choose a path of continuous growth.
“By looking inward and reflecting on all of the challenges, but also the strengths that I sharpened here in school, I recognized that my stalk—and that’s S-T-A-L-K—and my roots, my vine, was so much stronger than I had ever imagined,” McGee said.
During the 19-month program the students, who are often well along in their careers, engaged in five field immersions in locations that range from Silicon Valley to Washington, D.C. to Singapore.
Students noted that a classmate’s tragedy brought the group closer together during the program. Members of the EMBA Class of 2017 established the Sanaya Shah Memorial Fund after the passing of Sanaya Shah, the daughter of their fellow classmate Sumit Shah and his wife, Astha Shah. Sanaya was born prematurely and passed away after just 52 days due to complications from prematurity and a rare heart condition.
With 100 percent participation by the class, the record $145,000 raised for the fund will provide seed grants to underrepresented minority students at Haas, or for students starting companies with social impact.
“For 19 months we have struggled together, we have overcome together,” said class president Eli Andrews. “To all of you who have helped shape who we are, to all of you who have taught us, to all of you who have cared so deeply for our development, thank you for helping us to develop the unique value that we have to bring to this world.”
Watch the EMBA commencement video
Class valedictorian John Illia reflected on the diversity of the class, and shared his experience of bonding with classmates who at first seemed to have little more in common than a desire for a master’s degree. “This is a group of people focused on collaboration, not competition,” Illia said. “During this program, I witnessed 68 individuals who approach the world and each other with respect, compassion and empathy. I could not be more proud to be part of this family.”
Dean Lyons spoke of the transformation students undergo while in the program. “You came in thinking ‘They do that’ and you walk out of this place thinking ‘I do that,’ ” Lyons said. “These transformations are possible because of how and what you’ve learned here about leadership. In short, you’ve become Berkeley Leaders.”
The day’s awards included the Earl F. Cheit Award for excellence in teaching, which Distinguished Teaching Fellow Maura O’Neill received for the third year in a row. O’Neill, the former Chief Innovation Officer for the U.S. Agency for International Development, has organized and led the Washington DC Immersion Week for EMBA students for the past two years.
“She does more than connect people, she invests and takes pride in them,” said Jay Stowsky, Senior Assistant Dean for Instruction.
The award for Outstanding Graduate Student Instructor (GSI) was given to Veselina Dinova for her support in Financial Accounting, one of the first classes the EMBA students take.
The Defining Principles Awards: (presented by Jamie Breen, Assistant Dean of MBA Programs for Working Professionals, and Emma Hayes-Daftary, Director of Academics and Student Experience)
Question the Status Quo and Confidence without Attitude: Tansy Brook.
Students Always: Chien-Hsin Lee.
Beyond Yourself: Sonali Patel.
Fifth Principle Award: Hallie Higbee and valedictorian John Illia.
After the ceremony, students celebrated at a reception held at Haas. Dean Lyons capped off the evening with an acoustic guitar performance, and O’Neill toasted the group.
Graduates acknowledged the sacrifice that their partners and, in some cases, their children made during the program, and presented the children with teddy bears and the adults with long stemmed red roses.
Student speakers Álvaro Silberstein and Tiffany Barbour spoke of overcoming obstacles and gaining the confidence to achieve the impossible at the Berkeley MBA Commencement held at the Greek Theatre last Friday.
Classmates and friends—among a crowd of 500 Full-time and Evening & Weekend graduating MBA students—chanted “Álvaro” as Silberstein, MBA 17, wheeled to the podium to speak in the warmth of the midday sun. Silberstein, MBA 17, who was paralyzed as a teenager in his native Chile, spoke of the fear he felt in leaving behind his supports for the first time to pursue an MBA at Berkeley.
Despite challenges like steep hills and the initial language barrier, he said he felt his fears melt at Haas. “We have shared our most intimate stories, in Leadership Communications class or Story Salon, showing who we really are, and what we have passed through,” he said. “This community pushes everyone to show our most authentic version of ourselves, accepting our differences, our weaknesses and beliefs.”
Last December, Silberstein trekked an iconic route through Patagonia’s Torres Del Paine National Park with a team, including classmate Matan Sela, also MBA 17. Silberstein’s startup, Wheel the World, left a trekking wheelchair behind at the national park, which has already been used by three people. “This place, this program, has transformed all of us, by giving us the tools and the confidence to achieve impossibilities,” he said in his MBA commencement speech.
Barbour, EWMBA 17, an engineer who works in management at Genentech, recalled an encounter 17 years ago when her eighth grade science teacher told her parents that she had neither the aptitude nor the determination to excel in the sciences.
“I was crushed—not because I believed him. I mean, I stand before you an engineer at arguably the best biotech in the world. No, I was crushed because in that moment I realized that there are likely other people in the world who viewed me the way that he did.”
From that moment on, Barbour said her academic career has been “molded by defiance–defiance of the artificial limitation forced upon me by those who were either unable or unwilling to see past my gender or the color of my skin.”
“My dreams, my aspirations—they’re the fire in my soul,” she said. “The words ‘you can’t,’ well, that’s just like fanning the flames with oxygen. It just makes those flames grow.”
When Barbour arrived at Haas three years ago, she asked the question: What do I want to be when I grow up?
“Every workshop, every class, every conversation opened up a world of new possibilities,” she said. “I could be a consultant, an entrepreneur, a strategist, a product manager, a financial analyst. I could be president of the United States. I could be anything. And there were no ‘you can’ts’ in sight.”
Dean Rich Lyons (above) spoke of the transformation students make during their time at Haas.
“You have learned a tremendous amount about yourselves and each other, and you’ve built connections for a lifetime,” he said. “Many of you have transformed your career trajectories or your roles within your organizations. More than a few of you are creating new ventures. All of you have been transformed in some way.”
Commencement speaker Joe Jimenez, MBA 84 and CEO of Novartis (above), spoke of three things he wanted graduates to remember:
Undergraduate Commencement: “A Sikh’s Speech to Unite the World“