“As a school, I found it to be very exciting. I really felt like I could be a shareholder in the school – I could shape where it was going and what I wanted my MBA experience to be like.”

Vital Statistics
	Graduating Year: 2007
	Hometown: Boulder, Colorado
	Undergraduate and Previous Work Experience: UCI undergraduate, Honors Economics with a minor in Computer Science, interned at Gateway Computers in corporate finance, held a global sales position at Asurant Technologies selling cellular site equipment.
	Major: Real Estate and Finance
	Internship while in the Program: Consultant, Deloitte & Touche
	Position upon Graduation: Senior Consultant, Deloitte & Touche ERS (Enterprise Risk Services) Division.
	Extracurricular Activities: President of The Real Estate Association, Vice-President of Finance, Net Impact Chapter
	Just for Fun: Competing in running and Triathlons, surfing
	OC Favorite Places: Mosun Sushi Thursday nights in Laguna Beach, Thai Paradise in San Clemente, Gina’s Pizza (best pizza in Irvine or anywhere!)

The Size of the School Sold Me The fact that I knew the Merage School was smaller definitely influenced my decision. The program seemed more collaborative than other schools – I never felt like I had to compete for jobs. It felt like collectively, we as students were all encouraging and supporting each other to do our best. Plus, being in a smaller class, I felt very connected to my classmates. I went on an international study trip to Prague in my second year and I have to tell you, some of the friends I made on that trip will be my friends for life.

An Amazing Thing Happened at the Career Center Now, if you had asked me what my career goals were when I first came to Paul Merage, I would have said corporate finance or real estate – but I really wasn’t sure. Fortunately, I was able to do a “mock” interview, and as it turned out, my interviewer was a Paul Merage alumni and one of the consulting partners at Deloitte & Touche. I started talking about my goals with him. I didn’t know where it was going, but the next thing I knew, he forwarded my resume to the Deloitte recruiter who was in charge of their summer internship program. She said he was very impressed with me and thought I would be a good fit for the internship.

"The program seemed more collaborative than other schools – I never felt like I had to compete for jobs." Chris Mackenzie

Is this what I Really Want to Do? As my summer internship began, I still wasn’t sure if this was what I really wanted to do, but guess what? I loved the internship! And at the end of it, I was offered a full-time job – which of course, I accepted immediately. Also, there are lots of the Merage School alumni there and I must have received about 30 emails congratulating me on my new position.

How I’ve Changed The biggest change I’ve noticed since going through the program is that I feel more confident in making decisions. Previously, when big decisions came along, I would get paralyzed. Now, with the tools I’ve been given, I trust in the skills that I’ve learned even in situations where I don’t necessarily have all the information.