2011 Entering Class Profiles

Tanya Hoke , 2013, United States

Why I chose Fletcher: When I was considering graduate school, I thought for a long time about what it would mean to take two years out of my career, and I knew that the opportunity would have to be compelling to make it worthwhile. The Master of International Business program is a unique opportunity to combine training in hard business skills with a high-quality education in international affairs, and it's turning out to be every bit as challenging and educational as I'd hoped. What sealed the deal for me in terms of choosing Fletcher, though, was when I visited campus and realized that every single student I'd met was someone that I wanted to get to know better. The community really is that amazing.

How my experience at Fletcher has changed the way I look at the world: I come from a strong liberal arts background as my undergraduate studies were a combination of Chinese history, politics, defense policy, and moral philosophy, and I loved it. At Fletcher, though, the emphasis is on learning from practice and learning for doing. For example, by the end of my Corporate Finance class, we’ll have done a real stock valuation, and by the end of my Social Network Analysis class, we’ll have been trained to use a sophisticated network analysis program and will have applied that training to a real-world case. These experiences are making me look at the world not just as a series of challenges to be studied, but also as a series of challenges to be solved.