A Day in the Life: Ano Shonhiwa ’25
We spent a day with second-year MBA student Ano Shonhiwa as he attended class, caught up with friends, and participated in SOM traditions. Photos by Tony Rinaldo.
10 a.m.
If I’m not rushing to class, I like to start my day at McNay Café in Evans Hall. I love McNay because it’s a nice space to work, and if you sit around long enough you end up bumping into a friend. That day, I chatted with my friend Tim Johnson about a case competition we were participating in. Then I spent some time checking emails and Slack. One thing no one mentions about business school is the number of Slack messages you get every single day!
12 p.m.
One of my biggest priorities in my second year has been to explore Yale outside SOM. After breakfast, I walked to the law school, where I’m taking a class on infrastructure finance in emerging markets. It’s taught by Gerald Tanyi, the chief counsel of the International Finance Corporation, where I worked before SOM. This class is informing part of what I want to do with my career—in my post-graduation work, I hope to help developing countries build the sustainable infrastructure they need to mitigate climate change. And even though it’s a law school class, the registration process was straightforward. I emailed the professor and he responded quickly, accepting me into the class.
I got to class early and chatted with my classmate Charlotte Wang, who is a Yale World Fellow. She has founded multiple energy businesses in China, and it’s been great to swap notes with her in the classroom—she even connected with another Yale student from Zimbabwe, the country of my birth. One of my favorite things about SOM is the opportunity to make these random connections that can lead to really insightful conversations.
2:15 p.m.
I left the law school with a few classmates and walked to the School of the Environment, where I’m taking a course called Carbon Dioxide Removal. I had read about one kind of removal technology before arriving at SOM, and I thought a solid grounding in the process would be helpful for the kinds of infrastructure development roles I’m interested in. Sometimes I feel out of my depth, because my YSE classmates are so focused on the scientific processes, whereas I’m more attuned to the business and commercial elements. But my classmates are super passionate, and our interests are very aligned. When I arrived at class, I got to catch up with my friend Mandakini Chandra, whom I met last summer when we were both interning in D.C.
5:30 p.m.
Carbon Dioxide Removal is a three-hour class, so I was low on energy by the time I left. But the weather was great, and I ran into my Derek Nong, also a second-year SOM student, on my walk back to Evans. When academics and recruiting get busy, it’s easy to deprioritize my social life, so I love running into people around campus. It gives me the chance to catch up when I don’t have a lot of time.
5:45 p.m.
I headed back to Evans Hall for Voices, an SOM tradition where students volunteer to talk about their background, dreams, and experiences in a totally candid way. People often choose to be vulnerable, and no recording is allowed—what happens in Voices stays in Voices. Dinner is always served before the event, which was great, since I’d been in class all afternoon. I grabbed some food and saw my friends Katie Valentine-Urbschat, Luisa Locatelli, and Reika Ishii doing homework, so I sat down with them to eat.
6:30 p.m.
That day, my friends Miguel Baca and Jai Singh were speaking at Voices, so it was a great opportunity to support them. Miguel spoke about why he chose to do an MBA, why he picked Yale, and how important it is to have other people believe in you. His talk moved me so much that I signed up to for my own Voices!
