MBA Student Perspective: Andrew Jones

My Notre Dame experience has been really different from many of my classmates, because I am really different from many of them. First, while Notre Dame has an international reach that brings in students from every corner of the globe, I am actually from South Bend. My fourth-great-grandfather moved to northern Indiana from Ohio in October of 1842, a month before Father Sorin founded Notre Dame. But while my family has been here for over 175 years, I am only the second person in my family to ever enroll at Notre Dame.

Second, I have been an adjunct professor at Notre Dame for four years, teaching trial advocacy and evidence to undergraduates in the College of Arts and Letters and coaching the undergraduate mock trial teams.

Third, I am also a lawyer and own and manage a law firm in South Bend.

Fourth, I am Jewish and heavily involved in my synagogue. So, suffice it to say, I am not your average Notre Dame MBA student — but the Notre Dame MBA community has welcomed my perspective with open arms and minds.

Aside from the wonderful friendships and connections I have made with my fellow MBAs, the highlight of my experience has been taking classes with world-renowned faculty who are solely focused on preparing students to apply academic business concepts to real-world business problems.

Ethics Professor Chris Adkins instilled in my class that at Notre Dame, business leaders are called to a higher purpose — doing good in the world — and that we must always look beyond the bottom line and consider how our actions affect others.

Professor Jeffrey Miller helped me understand complex accounting principles while explaining how those principles are applied in the business world.

Professors Robert Battalio and Rick Mendenhall took an incredibly complicated subject — finance — and taught me more than just how to calculate option prices or the time value of money; they explained why businesses rely on these calculations.

Marketing Professor Shankar Ganesan helped me understand the unique tangible and intangible value that individual customers can bring to a business.

Serving as the graduate teaching assistant to Professor Ram Ramanan after taking his Strategic Cost Management course has added another dimension to my experience as a Mendoza student. Not only have I gained additional, helpful insights into how businesses (including my own) can control and limit costs, I have seen firsthand the profound level of commitment that Mendoza Professors have to their students and the Notre Dame community.

The extra-curricular opportunities at Mendoza have profoundly enriched my MBA experience. As the elected chief diversity officer of the MBA Association as well as the president of the Mendoza LGBTQ and Allies Club, I have had the opportunity to help ensure that Mendoza remains an inclusive and supportive environment for all students.

Truly great academic institutions thrive on the diversity of their students, and Notre Dame has always made me feel appreciated and like an important member of the Notre Dame family. The value of the education I have received, coupled with the connections I have made with my classmates, professors and alumni, has exceeded every expectation I had for my MBA. I will be forever grateful for the opportunities Notre Dame has given me and I look forward to applying the principles I have learned here to my business for the rest of my career.