Core Stories
Important moments in my personal journey that have made me a better teammate, student, and friend
Showed Leadership
In my management communications class, I worked with a team of four other students to develop a communication-based strategic recommendation for Citibank’s home mortgage division. We were challenged to figure out how to create a better customer experience using Citibank’s new service Home Captain, which is all about making the home-buying process as easy as possible. We developed a strategy, a foundational report, a pitch deck, an executive summary, two presentations, and communicated with the client throughout the process.
Working on this team was a challenge—the other four members were highly introverted and very selective about sharing ideas with the group. As the others struggled to participate in meetings, I saw myself taking action by facilitating discussion questions, checking in with members individually, and outlining project goals for each team member to keep the assignment moving forward. Ultimately, we were able to produce a very successful project, with easily implemented and thorough recommendations, but my team was never able to fully resolve our differences in communication. In the future, I now know how to spot this communication breakdown early and will work to combat it by setting expectations at the start of the project, encouraging others to provide their ideas before suggesting my own, and establishing the big picture and ensuring everyone is clear on what the deliverables include, along with timelines for achieving them.
At the end of the semester, each team member was also tasked with writing comprehensive peer evaluations that were sent out verbatim to the other members. I will always have space to grow and develop as a team member, but it’s encouraging to hear how I was able to lift up the people around me throughout the semester.
One of my team members wrote: “Stella was quite obviously the core person of this project. She kept us all organized and in-line, she communicated goals, words of encouragement, to-do's and more. Our project would've looked a lot different had she not been there to keep us moving.”
Gave a Presentation
Throughout the semester in my management communications class, everyone practiced giving a series of presentations that grew in importance and length. These presentations ranged from individual to group, spanned anywhere from two to fifteen minutes in length, and were recorded and sent back to you with live feedback.
The first presentation was individual, and each student had to present a two-minute story that demonstrated one of their core values. I was presenting to a class of people I barely knew, I had never had a presentation recorded before, and I was nervous. The second presentation, given with a group, was about presenting a pitch on a product that was randomly chosen for us. I felt I was able to focus more on skills to effectively communicate the value of a product or idea. Finally, at the end of the semester, I presented a communication-focused strategic recommendation to Citibank’s mortgage division with a team of four other students. This was the most formal and significant presentation, spanning 15 minutes and addressing a problem we had been working on for several months. After each of these experiences, I dreaded watching the videos. I was scared to see myself from perspective of the audience.
I clearly saw where I flourished—good voice projection and confidence in the idea I was presenting, ability to answer questions clearly—but I was also confronted with my weaknesses. At the beginning of the semester they were obvious, but each video was better than the last. I learned to trust myself in presentation contexts. I was able to calm my nerves, which not only made my performance better but also allowed me to have fun. I saw myself become more compelling and focused on everyone in the audience, and the frequency of my nervous habits decreased. Ultimately, the more I’m able to trust myself and the work that I put into a project, the more I’m able to effectively engage with my audience while delivering impactful results.
During final grading, my professor wrote: “Fantastic work! We could tell how much work you put into this project. Your presentation was persuasive, and you stayed engaged while your teammates spoke! And nice job fielding questions during the Q&A.”
Worked with Data
In my managerial statistics class, I worked with a small team of two other students to develop and explain the results of a multiple linear regression on salary data from the National Football League (NFL). We were tasked with running a regression with at least three independent variables (age, earnings fully guaranteed, and free agency year) and 100 data points, generating descriptive statistics with scatter and residual plots, correlation tables to determine multicollinearity between independent variables, variance inflation factor, and identifying leverage points using standardized and studentized residuals. These results were then translated into a written report explaining the significance of the results and drawing real-world conclusions from the data set.
At the beginning of the project, I found myself taking initiative to communicate with our professor and teaching assistants as we struggled to decide on a topic and find a large enough, cohesive data set. I coordinated several meetings to review initial results and ensure that our project was on the right track. I ran the multiple linear regression numerous times, created the scatter and residual plots, and was particularly instrumental in identifying leverage points. By running the standardized and studentized residuals of all 371 of our data points and verifying if any exceeded a certain threshold, we were able to identify any outliers that may have been skewing the results of our analysis.
This project not only allowed me to build skills running statistical software (Excel, R) and generating results from large data sets, it also allowed me to fully see the impact of data analysis in the real world. Our report generated conclusions that facilitate a discussion on ways that football players can make effective career decisions. Players can better understand what factors are most influential in earning higher salaries and managers can better understand how to incentivize players to join their team. I was able to play to my strengths and found that my detail-oriented nature made the challenge of learning how to handle data particularly rewarding.
*The final report is included on the Projects page.
Worked with a Team
During the summer of 2022, I interned at Living Arts of Tulsa, the oldest non-profit contemporary art gallery in Oklahoma and one of the first 10 in the United States. It’s a small organization, with a staff of only six people, so each member of the team is essential in keeping the gallery running smoothly and ensuring community impact. When I arrived in May, the communications manager was leaving.
As they didn’t have anyone lined up for the role, I was tasked with maintaining many of her responsibilities, including the creation of social media posts on Instagram and Facebook (15,000+ followers), writing the weekly newsletter sent out to gallery members, drafting press releases for upcoming exhibitions, along with a variety of other assignments with other team members.
This required constant communication with every member of the Living Arts team. I had to maintain structured timelines so that all posts and copy could be drafted, sent to the director, edited, and then scheduled to be posted in accordance with the events calendar. The variety of events held in the gallery space, ranging from painting to stand-up comedy, educational classes to performance art, meant I was constantly seeking information from different people—the events & facilities manager, the executive director, the program & development director, artists, and teachers.
This role pushed me in many ways. It put my organizational skills to the test in a professional context, it always encouraged me to ask questions, but more than anything, it strengthened my belief in the importance of relationship building. Without the mutual support and trust of everyone on the Living Arts team, stepping into such a broad position would have been far more difficult. I formed meaningful professional and personal relationships that I still nurture today, and I’ll bring my experiences from this summer into every future project.