As a child, Bethany Bahr loved riding on towering roller coasters, and her mom would joke that Bethany wasn’t scared of anything. Since then, Bahr has enjoyed the twists and turns that come from stepping outside her comfort zone. On one of her most recent adventures, Bahr applied to the strategy major at the BYU Marriott School of Business.
“I came to BYU in 2017, and for a year and a half, I was conflicted about my major,” says the senior from Keller, Texas. “Trying to find a career path that would allow me to someday be the mother I want to be and still add value to the workforce was hard for me.”
Bahr decided to apply to the strategy program after a conversation she had with one of her companions while serving as a missionary at Temple Square for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. “My companion’s dad worked in strategy, and she told me about his career. It sounded super interesting, and I was intrigued,” she says.
When she was accepted into the strategy program in 2021, Bahr remembers feeling inadequate. She shared her concern that she was not data driven or analytical enough for the major with a professor. He explained that Bahr’s emotional intelligence and ability to connect with people would help her in strategy in a way that being a data analysist couldn’t.
“He told me that those skills would help me achieve whatever I wanted to,” Bahr says. “I realized that I didn’t have to fit a mold, and I could still be me.” That short conversation inspired Bahr to continue studying strategy.
Currently, Bahr is working toward becoming an industrial psychologist, someone who applies scientifically based solutions for human issues in the workforce. “I want to go into organizations and help train leaders in management styles that will promote loyalty, creativity, and efficiency among employees,” she explains. “There is so much improvement that could happen to help employees perform their best and benefit more from their work.”
For herself, Bahr is hopeful that a career as an industrial psychologist will allow her flexibility for a family. One of the aspects of her career that she is looking forward to is training leaders at various workplaces on how to better support parents.
Bahr explains that one of the reasons she loves BYU Marriott is because she has learned things that she didn’t know before (such as the term industrial psychologist). “I think I came to BYU under the impression that I had to major in something I naturally excel at, but that couldn’t be further from the truth,” she says. “In reality you go to college to develop skills you never thought you could develop.”
One example of this was Bahr’s internship with Ulrich Allen Leadership Capital in Provo at the beginning of 2022. For six months, Bahr worked as an instructional designer for the company, creating content for one of the cofounders’ consultations with the country of Bhutan. “I like to do things that challenge me and take me out of my comfort zone,” she says. “My internship definitely did both.”
After her internship, Bahr continued working as a teaching assistant for entrepreneurship professor Corbin Church. “This is my fourth semester working as a TA for Professor Church’s Entrepreneurship 101: Introduction to Entrepreneurship class. I took his class before my mission, and it was one of the reasons I decided to go into business,” Bahr explains. “I love how he teaches. He firmly believes that the way to capture students’ attention and to help them learn is by being entertaining and interactive.”
Earlier in her education at BYU, Bahr searched to find a major that would lead to a fulfilling career and leave space for parenting. Now, Bahr knows that no matter her career or personal goals, she can conquer the roller coaster that is the life of a college student.
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Writer: Liesel Allen
