Black business student and alumni associations at UCLA Anderson School of Management.
By Jason Lewis
The UCLA Anderson Black Business Student Association (BBSA) welcomes students from all backgrounds with interests in empowering Black business students with resources, mentorship and community while the the UCLA Anderson Black Alumni (ABA) creates opportunities that enrich the lives of their Black alumni through creating opportunities for deeper connections with fellow alum, current students, and prospective students.
While at UCLA Anderson School of Management, Black students obtain a deeper knowledge of business and the network of business professionals that they have access to is invaluable.
“If there’s marketing questions, website, or really anything, I’m a phone call away from speaking with somebody who I can actually trust to give me some really good advice,” said Stephen Johnson, ABA president. Johnson graduated from UCLA Anderson School of Management in in 2021.
Johnson spent portions of his childhood in Windsor Hills, Inglewood, and other areas of the Greater Los Angeles area. He started out in the STEM field, earning a B.S. degree in microbiology, immunology and molecular genetics from UCLA, but he went the business route after graduating even though his education and network in the business field was limited. The limitations that he had led him to pursuing a master of business administration (MBA) degree at UCLA.
“I felt that I maxed out my potential in my network,” he said. “I was running this education company and doing really well financially. Growth at that time was build an app, build a website, expand and buy real estate. Well I didn’t know anybody in real estate. I didn’t know anybody who codes. I would try to do a real estate deal and that would fall through. I would hire a web developer and they would screw me over. I just felt like a failure of not having a broad enough network. Everybody that I knew was from science from my undergrad years or were teachers from my education experience. But everything that I want to do is business. I’m looking to make real business decisions. Everybody that I talked to said that you get the MBA for the network. That’s what it’s all about. And that’s what I needed. I needed to graduate feeling like I now know people who I can call. When it comes to real estate and all these business things, I now have a friend on the other side of that line who I could trust, and it’s worked out for me.”
The networking begins well before the MBA is achieved. The student members of the BBSA host panel discussions, work together on events and projects, attend business conferences, and they have access to a robust alumni network.
“We have a repository of all of the Anderson alumni, and that’s a pretty hefty list,” said Nicole Martin, BBSA co-president. “You see a lot of people on there with these really big roles. I’ve reached out to a few people on there who are in my space, and they are very open to helping. The networking portion of having really cool speakers and even having second years that have gone into similar paths or talking with alumni is one of the biggest values that you can get from it because you can learn about all of the different paths that you can take and you learn about some jobs that you didn’t know were a thing. While the core classes have been great, I would say that the networking with your peers, the alumni, and through the different clubs has been the biggest things that I’ve taken from the program.”
Martin, who is from Houston, received a degree in management and finance from DePaul University, while BBSA co-president Kelly Young received a degree in psychology from the University of Texas. Young worked at a nonprofit that specialized in counseling, and she handled the marketing for the organization.
“Marketing was the only part of the job that I liked,” Young said. “So I’ve been in marketing and specifically social media for my entire career. I really wanted to get more of a marketing foundation. I found it harder to move up without a foundation in marketing, and that’s why I decided to go back and get an MBA.”
Working on an MBA in Los Angeles fits Young’s entertainment career path.
“I’m a huge entertainment fan in general, and I’m taking this opportunity of being in L.A. to take a bunch of entertainment classes,” Young said. “I’m really involved in our entertainment management association. I’ve sat in on a lot of talks from industry professionals. It’s been a really great experience getting to know exactly how the industry works. Especially on the marketing side of it since that’s where my career has been previously.”
Many of the speakers at BBSA panel discussions are based in Los Angeles, allowing the students to form relationships with industry leaders.
“So many of our guest speakers have said, ‘I live down the street,” Young said.
Martin is a sports fan who was interested in sports management while in college. She ended up doing more of a general management program, and now she’s going the sports management route.
“Wanting to pivot in my career is what led me back to business school to refine those skills as well as to work on my leadership skills,” Martin said.
Besides the networking, being a member of Black organizations is very helpful for Black students and alumni.
“Having a space to go to of all these people who look like me, have an understanding of what I’m going through, and have a similar mindset is super helpful,” Young said. “Because it’s not just about the academic part. It’s about having a community.”
“Everybody is super helpful and ready to give you everything that they know,” Martin said. “They help you prep for interviews, introduce you to people who you can talk to, personally recommend you. All of those things have been great as far having that community where you feel comfortable asking questions.”
Pursuing an MBA at UCLA teaches business students how to scale businesses, and look at business at a deeper level.
“My thought of business was all about the product,” Johnson said. “It’s like… if you have the best product, then you have the best business. Wrong, wrong, wrong. My first business was catering, so I thought that if I just had the best food then I’ll have the best business. But that’s just not true. Marketing is important. I learned about thinking about scale as you think about building your business. The decisions that you make, are they scalable? That’s what I learned in business school and it’s a thought that I had never had.”
The core classes include finance, accounting, marketing, organizational behavior, economics, stats, and operations.
“A lot of the things that I took from those classes is identifying some of the things that are happening within a business, and then being able to translate those into whatever area of the business that you may be in,” Martin said.
For younger students looking to get into the business field, looking into STEM programs at an early age can be very beneficial. Johnson started out in STEM and had aspirations of being a doctor.
“Once I got to UCLA I was thinking that I’m good at science and math, but I don’t like blood and being in a hospital,” Johnson said. “I found that I was much more interested in money and in business.”
“There are a lot of different programs to get children interested in STEM,” Martin said. “That’s a great place to start because our world is changing, and understanding technology, the science behind it and all of those math skills, are really pertinent for business. Starting there and getting some of those foundational skills, kids can see what they like and what they don’t like. I knew that I liked math but I did not like science. From there I opened up my mind to realizing that maybe I don’t want to do STEM per se, but I’m dangerous enough in business to understand the concepts of technology, and now I can use that in different areas.”
The BBSA and the ABA hosts events throughout the year that the public can attend. For more information visit https://www.anderson.ucla.edu/about/clubs-and-associations/identity/black-business-students-association-bbsa and https://www.anderson.ucla.edu/alumni/chapters-and-groups/affinity/anderson-black-alumni. Also follow both organizations on Instagram.
