Female
Vietnamese
1st generation high school and college graduate
age at matriculation: 25

University of California Berkeley
Bachelors of Arts (1) Operations Research & Management Science (2) Mass Communications
Overall and Major GPAs: 3.81

GMAT
710: 48 Quant/39 Verbal

Work Experience:
Teach For America for 2 years immediately after undergrad. I taught high school math on a Native American reservation and was considered the highest performing math teacher in that region the both years I was there. I also worked with TFA in other respects: executed and planned a 200+ person education summit, interviewed corps members over the phone, lead our region's math learning team, worked at TFA's summer institute as a School Operations Manager, and a variety of other things (speeches, etc.).

Then, I decided to pursue a job related to my Operations major. I joined a private industrial supply company as a "management hire" which is essentially a project and operations manager. I managed the daily operations for half the day where I oversaw a warehouse of over 250,000 different products and 80 employees. Then, I worked on an efficiency/operational project for the other half.

After 8 months there, I decided I wanted to rejoin the education movement. I now work at an educational start up that provides high quality education in Kenyan slums. I relocated to Kenya as its Training Content Developer where I develop the entire training program to train Kenyan high school graduates from the same slum communities to run and manage a primary school.

Other activities:
Amgen Fellow via TFA - only 50 chosen in the entire 2009 TFA corps; corps members are chosen based on their math and science background as well as leadership skills

New Leaders Council 2012 - a fellowship for progressive leaders

TFA Alumni Volunteer - hosted lunches for TFA applicants, spoke at events to welcome new corps members, answer corps members concerns, etc.

School Choices:
Top Choice - Stanford
Then, I would say any school in the Top 8
Which schools are my reaches, my shoe-ins, etc.?

Post MBA plans:
intersection of education and business, specifically closing the "achievement gap" between children from low-income/high-poverty backgrounds and others.

Weaknesses:
GMAT score - it is difficult to study in Nairobi because I don't have many resources, the internet is unreliable, and it is difficult to find a place to study. I don't think I will retake it.

Break in employment history - is it a weakness that I steered away from education for 8 months? Personally, I know it was a great and necessary move, but how will the admissions team view it?