The following article originally published on BusinessBecause.
Considering enrolling in an MBA as someone from a nontraditional student background? Find out three valuable lessons this former hospital nurse has learned during his MBA.
There are some careers where enrolling in a two-year business degree doesn’t seem like an obvious step to get ahead. While finance professionals and consultants often build an MBA into their plans, it’s less common for ballet dancers, for example.
But, each year nontraditional students enroll in MBA programs seeking to enhance their professional opportunities. That was the case for hospital nurse, Joshua Copeland 25MBA.
After a six-year stint at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, where he rose to a leadership role in the intensive care unit, Copeland began considering his future. He participated in projects implemented across the entire hospital and had come to appreciate the impact he could have in a more strategic role.
I wanted to have a larger impact on healthcare and society, and not just on my patients, but also on clinicians as well.
Joshua Copeland 25MBA
Conversations with members of the hospital’s nursing leadership team led him to consider business school, and, in 2023, he made the decision to leave the hospital and enroll in an MBA program at Emory University’s Goizueta Business School.
Now midway through his two-year program, and having recently completed an MBA internship with health solutions firm CVS Health, Copeland has identified three key lessons he’s learned as a nontraditional MBA student.
Lesson 1: You can gain valuable support by joining a wider community
Expanding his network was a key reason behind Copeland’s decision to enroll in the Goizueta MBA. His professional community was composed of medical professionals, many of whom had undergone similar paths via nursing practitioner schools and specialist degrees.
“I wanted to take a different route, a route that could really open my network wider and give me more opportunities to do something unique and new,” he explains.
After arriving on campus, Copeland quickly immersed himself in MBA life, committing to interacting with people from a variety of backgrounds both inside and outside of the classroom.
I’ve been very diligent in connecting with my classmates. I know all my classmates by name, and while sometimes you can’t really remember where everyone goes for their internship, I know what industries they’re interested in.
Joshua Copeland 25MBA
As one of a number of nontraditional students—others within his class include a helicopter pilot and a physician—Copeland also notes the strong bonds he’s been able to form with those from diverse backgrounds.
One particular surprise: enrolling in the Goizueta MBA has even brought Copelanda into a community of former nurses studying MBAs across business schools in the United States.
“I’ve had other nursing students from other schools reach out to me and we’ve all connected,” he explains. “We’re just creating a large group of all these nurses at top MBA schools both to help keep a tight group and just support each other throughout the whole process.”
Lesson 2: You can expand your abilities with new experiences
While Copeland’s primary objective in enrolling in an MBA was to enhance his generalist knowledge and business acumen, he feels the array of experiences available to him during the MBA has significantly impacted his professional development.
Like all Goizueta MBA students, Copeland has participated in the IMPACT module, a course focused on strategic problem-solving that involves working on real consulting projects for client companies.
As a student with an altogether different pre-MBA experience to many in his class, working in a practical environment has both enhanced his learning and showed him the value of different perspectives.
I did some structured problem-solving development in nursing school—we actually have our own process that we follow, and I did implement a little bit of this.
Joshua Copeland 25MBA
“It’s a bit different to how we do it in the business setting, but still similar to some degree, and that really was powerful,” he explains.
Through the program’s required internship, Copeland has also spent four-months working in strategy and operations within a leading health solutions corporation.
“I was using the skills and tools [I learned] to help me when I began my internship,” he says. “CVS Health, it’s a little different from nursing—the corporate setting—so I took those structured problem-solving skills and applied them from day one.”
Lesson 3: You can overcome personal challenges and unlock different opportunities
Entering a cohort of students who largely hail from business backgrounds was initially daunting, Copeland admits. “Being a niche candidate. It can be a little nerve wracking in the beginning. Sometimes you can feel like you may not necessarily belong, but that’s not the case.”
Within the MBA environment, where participation is encouraged and students must collaborate and communicate during team-based projects and in-class discussions, Copeland feels he has overcome these doubts.
Being a nontraditional student, I’ve learned that I actually have a lot of knowledge and a lot of wealth to offer to the classroom setting.
Joshua Copeland 25MBA
Now more than halfway through his MBA, the experience has encouraged Copeland to search for post-MBA opportunities that harness the unique knowledge and perspective he can bring.
As he prepares for his next career steps, the combination of a specialist pre-business school background and MBA knowledge have already proved fruitful. With the help of the Goizueta MBA Career Management Center, he identified CVS Health as an internship opportunity where both clinical experience and business knowledge were highly valued.
“A lot of my goals lined up with their goals as a team and a company,” he explains. “They really valued that clinical experience and being able to take that and apply it in a business setting.”
Bringing diverse industry experience into the MBA classroom can make nontraditional students a unique and valuable member of the cohort. For Copeland, he feels it can make for an overwhelmingly positive journey.
“There are a lot of things that you will know that others will not know in terms of industry experience,” he says. “If you’re a nontraditional candidate, don’t be afraid to apply to an MBA. It can be something that can be really helpful and beneficial to you and your career.”
Interested in learning more? Find out how the Goizueta MBA takes students beyond business as usual.
