Paula Parnes ’22

If you’re in the early stages of your career, the GBS degree is an amazing opportunity. Almost the entire curriculum is electives, which lets us tailor classes to our particular interests. I want to have my own business. So for me, it’s leadership, negotiation, effective communication, and entrepreneurship.

Leading a business means managing teams and conflicts, as well as reporting to stakeholders and making difficult decisions. Fortunately, we have courses at Yale SOM that address these crucial functions. This semester I’m taking Mastering Influence and Persuasion with Professor Zoe Chance, Negotiations with Professor Daylian Cain, and Patterns in Entrepreneurship with Professor A.J. Wasserstein. Our professors are true experts, and they’re extremely available to students.

In Professor Wasserstein’s class, I discovered new approaches to launching a business that previously I would not have considered. Learning from professors’ experiences, I’m constantly modifying my own plans. Knowing I have such an incredible network of experts—academic and professional—gives me great reassurance.

Half of my classes are sessions dedicated to GBS students, while the other half I’m taking mostly with MBAs. This lets me connect with people from different programs and gives me the opportunity to engage with a broad range of opinions and debates. 

Being at Yale is such an incredible experience. You’re attending one of the world’s leading business schools. I try every day to engage deeply with the community, thoroughly preparing for every class and taking part in extracurricular activities such as the Startup & Entrepreneurship Club and Tsai CITY’s Innovator Teams. The people here challenge each other to be better—more proactive, more questioning. Yale SOM is a life incubator, where you leave with more questions than when you arrived, in the best possible sense.