Karla Magana Figueroa is the proud daughter of a Mexican immigrant who started out picking grapes in the fields of California to provide for her family. Karla has applied the hard work and perseverance that she learned from her mother to her academic and professional endeavors. Karla appreciates that the world of scarcity and lack of agency that her mother grew up in is vastly different from the world of opportunity that she has built for herself. After five years of consulting for financial services clients, Karla is returning to school in fall 2018 to pursue her Master in Business Administration (MBA) at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business as a Forté Foundation and Toigo Scholar. An MBA will provide Karla with the training to address business and society’s foremost opportunities and most pressing challenges. Karla believes she is a worthwhile investment given her strong academic, professional, and community service track records. Karla attended Beloit College in Beloit, Wisconsin, and graduated magna cum laude in 2013 with a Bachelors of Arts in International Relations and Economics and a minor in Chinese. After graduating, Karla provided leading strategy and technology recommendations to address business priorities across financial services firms. Outside of work, Karla is a champion for economic empowerment and educational advancement. At Sponsors for Educational Opportunity (SEO), she founded the Scholars Mentor Council and served on the Junior Leadership Board where she spearheaded initiatives to raise over $150,000. Karla also serves as the youngest-ever member of the Board of Trustees of her alma mater, Beloit College. Through her work, Karla hopes to empower women, people of color, LGBTQIA+ youth, and underserved populations to maximize their educational and career outcomes.