By Ignacio Cabrera T’18
Ignacio grew-up in Puerto Varas, Chile. He holds a BS in molecular biotechnology engineering from Universidad de Chile and an MS in bacteriology from University of Wisconsin-Madison. Prior to Tuck, he was a research scientist at BioAmber and a microbial applications scientist at Kerry Inc. He is a Consortium for Graduate Study in Management Fellow.
The decision to leave my scientific career to pursue an MBA at Tuck was probably one of the most difficult ones I have ever made. Since I was a little kid I had the dream of becoming a scientist, doing (crazy!) experiments, and discovering and explaining the world.
When it was time to go to college, I decided to study science against the advice of many people who said I should go to medical or engineering school. They said Chile was no place for a scientist; and it wasn’t, but I knew I needed to pursue my passion. In 2009 I decided to move to the U.S. to pursue graduate studies in microbiology at the University of Wisconsin, leaving family, friends, and pretty much everything and everyone behind.
What happened next? I became a scientist! I worked in microbial genetics, industrial biotechnology, and in nutritional and pharma ingredients. I had realized my dream. My work would help make chemical production greener, or productions of drugs and food more efficient, and was fulfilling my constant desire to learn how the world works. I also discovered that I wanted to go beyond the lab to manage innovative businesses. The question was how.
I knew I wanted to continue to be involved in science, but needed to grow both professionally and personally. In science, one specializes and solves extremely specific problems and is (for the most part) strictly academic. I realized that I needed to take a step back and focus on the bigger picture, develop leadership skills, and understand how innovation fits within a business.
I decided that an MBA was the right path to do this, and Tuck emerged as the perfect place for me to take on this challenge. First, I knew that this shift in my career was so big that I needed to find an immersive MBA, and tuck is not just a full-time MBA it’s a 24/7 MBA. Living on-campus and far away from the distractions of the city means you are always interacting and learning with your classmates and professors. At Tuck, you are living the MBA program at all times. Second, being an immigrant with my family and life-long friends far away from me, I needed a place that would offer a supportive community to help fill that void. I was not wrong. It has been a little over two months since I started, and I have already made friendships that will last forever. I’ve felt the support of this community in the moments that I needed it the most.
Finally, I knew I needed to develop my business and leadership skills, but coming from an untraditional background in which I had not interacted with MBAs, I needed structure. Tuck is unique in that it has a core curriculum for most of the first year. This gave me the assurance that I was going to learn what I needed to be successful in my career and before deciding what my specific academic path would be.
In all, Tuck is (as so many other will say) a very special place. But to me it is special because it is a place I can call school and call home at the same time.