For Alecsandra Dragne, a future career in the non-profit sector is in natural alignment with her background in international relations and economics. To achieve her goal for the next stage of her career, Alecsandra wanted the relevant operational, management, and business skills needed for a non-profit leadership position. The Graduate Diploma in Business Administration (GDBA) offered an avenue to pursue a new career track and the potential to transition seamlessly to an SFU MBA program.

My experience at SFU Beedie

The flexibility of the GDBA program was great. I was able to continue working, and I liked that I could work on everything at my own pace. It’s easy to fit the program into your life, and it made the transition to the MBA easier, especially into some of the more intimidating courses like accounting and finance. There is overlap in courses that strengthen your knowledge by examining subjects from different perspectives.

I have experienced a great deal of overall growth, especially in how I tackle complex problems. It’s given me more confidence, and I learned a lot about my leadership style.

My Journey

I had been out of school for a while and didn’t have any business experience, so it felt incredibly intimidating to think about going into an MBA program right off the bat. The GDBA seemed like a really good fit.”

I learned a lot about relationship management and working with different personalities. You learn how to take a step back and uncover what a group or team needs. I felt I was able to apply that throughout the whole program—my understanding of how to apply my leadership style and adapt it to different circumstances.

Highlights

I found a lot of benefits to virtual collaboration. You can build meaningful relationships with your classmates, even though the interaction is largely online. It was an experience in different ways of building relationships, and those are valuable skills to develop in business.

It helped that there were opportunities for overlap between the classroom and real-life. I also appreciated the focus on reflection, which is one of the differences I see between an undergraduate degree and graduate studies. It is something I have adopted in my life, personally and professionally.

Where I am today

Currently employed in finance and budget forecasting for the federal government, Alecsandra has successfully transitioned into graduate studies and is a year into her MBA program at SFU Beedie. Her long-term career goal is to explore opportunities in the non-profit sector.