A Day in the Life: Tiera Williams ’27

9:00 a.m.

Every morning, I walk to campus to help get my 10,000 steps in. I usually stop at Common Grounds, my absolute favorite matcha place. I like to have a calm moment to organize my main to-dos. Today, I entered some grades for a class I TA, Political Ethics and Issues for Organizations. I’m also the vice president of community strategy and engagement for the Black Business Alliance, and I had to finalize some details for our retreat.

10:10 a.m.

My first class of the day was Innovator. This class asks you to create a hypothetical business for yourself or a classmate, and you have free rein to be as creative and out-of-the-box as you want. I worked with my classmate Leslie Nut-Komlah ’27. His mom owns a home healthcare business, and our group came up with a digital product that would better connect some of the key constituencies—hospitals, patients, businesses, and community leaders. Today, we built a pitch deck for our final presentation.

My post-graduation goal is to become a social impact consultant, but I would love to one day have my own business—in high school, I was actually voted most likely to become a business owner. I used this course to cultivate the skills I’ll need for that.

11:30 a.m.

On my way out of Innovator, I ran into my friend Nursen Ogutveren ’26, who’s teaching me how to vibe code. Then I stopped by a giveaway table for Earth Day. They had a lot of books about the environment for students to take.

11:50 a.m.

Next fall, I’m spending the semester abroad at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Because of that, I didn’t do a global exchange this year. Since I was sticking around New Haven for spring break, I posted in the school Slack asking if anyone needed a pet sitter. That snowballed into a small business; I have eight clients now. I picked up Kivu in East Rock and walked him to Edgerton Park to play fetch, practice some tricks, and just hang out. One of the great things about this business is that I’ve gotten to explore New Haven much more than I would have otherwise.

1:00 p.m.

After bringing Kivu home, I headed to my next class, The Global Macroeconomy. It’s a core course that examines how factors like supply, demand, and inflation affect economies as a whole and influence current events. I sat with my friend Jason Rondinelli, who’s interning with me this summer at Huron Consulting.

2:40 p.m.

My Thursdays are normally stacked with four classes, but today one was canceled because of a guest speaker earlier in the week. I got to chat with some friends in Evans Hall and got lunch at Sabor Sajoma, a sweet little Dominican spot behind the school. I always order the plantains, chicken, and mixed vegetables.

I brought the food back to the student lounge in Evans Hall. SOM is small enough that you end up recognizing a lot of the faces, but big enough that you always have really engaging and interesting conversations. When I have lunch here, I know I’ll run into people I don’t see in class.

4:10 p.m.

My last class of the day is Product Management. I have some background in this field, and I want to hone these skills during business school. In this class, I’ve learned a lot about being a scrum master, navigating a back end, and understanding platform security. Today, we used a few case studies to learn about different frameworks for building growth models. The professor, Alex Dunlap, is so energetic and passionate about the subject—he really exemplifies being a Yalie, because he’s so smart but also super down-to-earth.

6:00 p.m.

For dinner, I met up with some of the first friends I made at SOM—Lucy Brice ’27, Deidra Pinnock ’27, Maiya Cook ’27, and Adama Kamara ’27. We call ourselves the “Boola Babes.” We all have leadership positions in the Black Business Alliance, and we meet up once a week to get a meal and catch up. Finding that kind of community has been really important for me. We also like to experiment with different events across campus, like golf outings or concerts at the Schwarzman Center.

7:30 p.m.

Before I went home, I stopped by a small-group dinner hosted by the First-Generation/Low-Income Club. I got to have some great food from different countries at another student’s house. Then I wrapped up the night with a quick jog—I had to get to 10,000 steps!