UCLA Forté Fellows Influenced by Asian-American Heritage

When Anh Cao and Jenny Muliawan met as first-year MBA students at UCLA’s Anderson School of Management, they connected over their shared California upbringing, desire to expand their business knowledge, and Asian-American heritage. As they near the end of their MBA program, these Forté Fellows share the cultural values that will keep them grounded as they launch exciting business careers.

Immigrant Influences

Both Anh and Jenny were influenced by their elders.

Anh grew up in the Bay Area, in Sunnyvale, California. She was deeply influenced by her grandfathers, one a poet in Vietnam and the other lived near her in California. Her maternal grandfather in California was an essential link to her Vietnamese heritage. “He helped raise me and taught me to speak Vietnamese fluently. I feel very grateful for that skill because I can communicate with cousins and aunts and uncles in Vietnam,” she says.

Anh learned from her dual experiences in California and visiting family in Vietnam “to always help others, that family and sacrifice go hand in hand – since we were helped along the way in our lives, we should give back to the communities that shaped us,” she explains.

Jenny’s parents immigrated to Los Angeles in their twenties and ultimately settled down in Rowland Heights, California. As small business owners, “both were very scrappy,” Jenny says, “and had to figure things out on their own to survive.” Her parents also typically worked late hours and only took Sundays off. Growing up in this environment, Jenny learned to be “resourceful, adaptable, and independent,” which would later influence her approach to her career. She credits her success in her pre-MBA career to “finding solutions through experimentation” and “making things happen with little budget” because of her upbringing.

Pre-MBA: Managers as Mentors

After graduating from the University of Southern California with a degree in Business and Cinematic Arts, Anh decided to focus on technology and “let watching television and movies be for fun.” First, she worked at Oracle, “helping clients solve problems while using our full stack of software,” and then she was at EverString, a start-up that leverages artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning models for prioritizing businesses’ next clients, where she discovered a passion for product development.

Jenny, on the other hand, focused her pre-MBA career on people. After majoring in Cognitive Science at UC Berkeley, Jenny spent seven years honing her skills in People & Culture (Human Resources). First, she worked at a small company called Ubiquity and later at Redbubble, an online marketplace, where she was responsible for global people operations, payroll, compensation, and analytics.

Both Anh and Jenny decided to pursue an MBA after co-workers planted the seeds. In Jenny’s case, her manager at Redbubble was the source of inspiration. “She was the first person in my life and immediate circle who had an MBA,” she explains. “Seeing the way she would lead and make company-wide decisions with other executives” inspired Jenny to apply for an MBA, and she asked herself, “Why don’t I take a chance at this and see if it is something I can actually do?”

Anh had a similar experience with a former manager who saw her affinity for problem-solving and told her, “You’re on a great trajectory here, but I think you’d be even greater if you pursue your MBA now.” Anh aspires to become an equity-fluent product founder and, while she has loved using AI to help companies, she also has dreams of applying her tech know-how to solve larger societal problems, such as mitigating bias in healthcare or politics.

[MBALaunch] helped me understand the financial options and make connections with people I would have never met otherwise.

Broadening the MBA Experience with Help from Forté

Anh was introduced to Forté while preparing to apply for her MBA, when someone told her about MBALaunch. Participating in the pre-MBA program, Anh says, “It helped me understand the financial options and make connections with people I would have never met otherwise,” which was useful to her since she did not know many people with MBAs. The cohort was supportive, as they helped proofread each other’s essays and prep for interviews, for both admissions and internships. Still friends with women in her cohort and, as a Fellow, Anh has expanded her network and opportunities. “I would not have these relationships without Forté,” she explains.

Jenny did not learn about Forté until she was well into the application process. She was fortunate to attend the 2021 MBA Women’s Leadership Conference, which she says, “allowed me to network with other admitted MBA students and professionals in a friendly and comfortable environment.” Not having had the experience of networking in a professional environment before, Jenny left the conference feeling inspired by the successful women who have paved a path forward, and more confident about her ability to network in business school.

When Jenny received her acceptance letter from Anderson, it also included the Forté Fellowship, which had a profound impact: “It made business school a feasible reality for me, and gave me the freedom to learn about different career opportunities and take interesting classes without the financial burden nor guilt of proving the ROI of my attention and time.”

“If I didn’t have the Fellowship, I likely would have stayed safely within the boundaries of what I knew, such as a career adjacent to my HR experience, in order to secure a summer internship,” she says. She has now accepted a post-MBA role as a Consultant at EY-Parthenon.

We want to have transparent conversations with prospective students so they have the information they need about what business school is. “I always thought business school was unattainable for myself, and I hope through these conversations, I can demystify the process for someone who is like me.

One activity both Jenny and Anh invested their time into was serving on leadership boards at Anderson that focused on increasing female representation in MBA programs, either in Women’s Business Connections or Admissions Ambassador Corps, both important organizations on campus. An aspect of their roles has been to show prospective women candidates the value of an Anderson MBA. “We want to have transparent conversations with prospective students so they have the information they need about what business school is,” Jenny says. “I always thought business school was unattainable for myself, and I hope through these conversations, I can demystify the process for someone who is like me.”

While Jenny plans to stay in Los Angeles after graduation, and Anh is eager to move back to the Bay Area, they believe their friendship – forged from common values, shared experiences, and personal and professional growth – is for life.

Anh’s grandfather in Vietnam captures the essence of their connection in his poem:

When birds sing together, they’re happier,
When horses run together, they’re stronger,
When you study together, you’ll do better,
When kids play together, they’ll have more fun.