Alexis Belliston wasn’t planning on graduate school—her focus was on creating a graphic design career at home while raising her family. But two years ago, when she was inspired to pursue an MBA at the BYU Marriott School of Business, she felt God pave the way for her to go back to school, building her faith and confidence along the way.
After graduating from Brigham Young University with a degree in graphic design, Belliston worked full time at a graphic design studio in Salt Lake City. She then focused on freelance work while she had her two sons. Belliston was pushed to keep creating as she faced health complications from her pregnancies. “My work helped me cope with the difficult things I was dealing with,” she shares. “I am really happy when I’m creating something beautiful.” Eventually, the company she worked for as a freelance textile designer asked her to transition to a full-time position as their creative director.
Belliston, in her new role, created more than 300 clothing designs and collaborated with Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Crumbl Cookies, and Nordstrom. “As I started to do more work, I realized that this career I had built really fulfills me, and I just loved what I was doing,” she shares. That realization led to an inspiration, she recounts, to apply to the MBA program at BYU Marriott.
The inspiration came with its own hesitation, though. She worried about how getting an MBA would impact her family. Her husband was very supportive, but others’ comments made her worry that her children would be negatively affected. So she took her concerns to God.
“I remember praying, asking God, that if this was the right thing for me and my family, to provide a way,” she recalls. The most daunting aspect of returning to school was finding childcare. Belliston and her husband had interviewed quite a few potential nannies but had yet to find anyone they felt right about. “I remember when our current nanny got out of the car, I had the most distinct impression—this is our nanny,” Belliston explains. She explains how their nanny was able to support their family in ways that, for her, have felt divinely inspired.
“I really struggled with the desire to pursue a career as a mother. But God inspired me to do an MBA, and He provided the way for it to happen,” Belliston says. “God cares about us, and He knows us well enough to know what will help us be happy. I wouldn’t have known how the MBA would change my life—but He did. He inspired me to come do it and gave me the strength to do it.”
Fully immersed in the MBA program, Belliston serves as president of the Women in Management student association, where she works with MBA leadership to better support and encourage women in the program.
She has also participated in the 2023 Venture Capital Investment Competition (VCIC), as the only first-year student on BYU Marriott’s team. She joined with little experience in venture capital or case competitions, but she felt encouraged by teaching professor Gary Williams’s invitation and praise of her unique perspective that she brought to the team.
“It was intimidating, but the skill of looking at a company, thinking about the problem they are solving, looking at the risks of the business, and finding a way to mitigate the risks is such a strategic skill,” Belliston says. “I will never forget being on stage defending our investment memo in front of more than a hundred people and feeling so empowered that I had learned something completely new, and I learned it well enough to defend my thoughts in front of highly intimidating judges.” Her team won first place at the regional competition and second place in the subsequent global competition.
For Belliston, those moments and experiences have combined to give her greater self-assurance not only in her role as a mother but also in her professional aspirations. “There were really hard moments,” she says, “but those successes gave me confidence that this is my path. I feel like the MBA has been very transformative in that way. I’m—at heart—a creative girl. Accounting is the opposite of how my brain works, but learning quantitative skills to complement my intuitive qualitative skills has given me a really unique perspective.”
Belliston graduates this April, and she has accepted a job as director for brand at Remi, a Y Combinator startup that offers a SaaS solution for roofing. “The job is amazing, and I love the ownership and excitement of being at a startup,” she says.
“Having knowledge gives you power. I have seen how the knowledge I’ve gained from the MBA program has helped me develop as a person,” Belliston says. “For the first month of my MBA, I would ride my bike to campus with a huge grin on my face. I couldn’t get over this feeling that God knew me personally and that He led me to this MBA experience—it’s changed my life.”
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Written by Stephanie Bentley
