How does a student balance playing collegiate soccer with studying in the MBA program at the BYU Marriott School of Business? For Annabella Folino, it meant doing the program backward.
Folino’s journey to the MBA program started with her lifelong love for soccer. “From age 6 to 24, soccer has been my life. All I wanted to do was spend my time playing,” Folino says. Originally from Aliso Viejo, California, Folino developed a competitive streak both on and off the soccer field; this streak later drew her to Brigham Young University—where she played on the women’s soccer team—and to the strategy program at BYU Marriott.
Folino knew that business, with its competitive and high-stakes corporate situations, intrigued her, and the undergraduate strategy program, with its limited acceptance rate, appealed to her love of a challenge. Part of the reason why she applied was simply to see if she could get in. However, Folino didn’t anticipate just how much she would enjoy the major’s focus on solving complicated business questions and improving company performance. She says, “I love the basis of solving different companies’ problems. It’s how to win.”
Upon earning her bachelor’s degree in strategic management, Folino still had an additional year of eligibility to play soccer for BYU, so she decided to apply to BYU Marriott’s MBA program. She felt that the program’s emphasis on leadership, hands-on training, and practical skill development would take her business capabilities to the next level.
However, there was a problem: Prospective MBA students are required to work full-time for at least two years before applying to the program. For Folino, that wasn’t an option. After lengthy back-and-forth conversations with administrators in the MBA program and the athletic department, Folino applied and was accepted into the program shortly after graduation.
Her nontraditional acceptance means that Folino has had a nontraditional MBA experience ever since. MBA students generally take core classes during their first year and electives during their second year, but for Folino, the intense first-year schedule combined with a demanding soccer season would have created an overwhelming overlap. “We decided that I was going to do the program completely backward,” she explains, by taking the core classes in her second year.
Folino has enjoyed her “reverse” experience, particularly because it has allowed her to work and develop friendships with three different graduating classes. She compares the MBA experience to drinking through a fire hose—hard and fast. She has improved her practical management skills, learned to be comfortable with uncertainty, grown her ability to solve problems, and increased her understanding of business as a form of leadership, not just a way to turn a profit.
Although Folino has enjoyed the challenge, the MBA program hasn’t been easy for her. She developed an acute sense of imposter syndrome when she started the program. Many of her classmates were already seasoned with professional experience; the contrast made Folino feel underqualified and out of place. But as she interacted with mentors and faculty in the program, she found her footing, allowing her to see that she could enjoy and contribute to the program even as a nontraditional student.
From this experience, Folino learned that remembering achievements is key to tackling imposter syndrome. “It’s easy to get bogged down with what other people are doing and to compare ourselves with others,” she explains. “Taking the time to realize what you have already done and what you have accomplished can help you do more.”
Reflecting on how she has found confidence in her individual strengths throughout the MBA program, Folino says, “Each one of us comes into the program with different experiences, but we can still be Christlike leaders with the tools that we have. We come in with all of our broken bits and pieces, or our different experiences, and come out better, as more Christlike leaders.”
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Written by Katie Brimhall
