Aarshia Jain is pivoting her career with an online business master’s degree
When Aarshia Jain, F26, began thinking seriously about business school, she knew she needed a program that offered real flexibility. After a demanding career in healthcare and financial consulting—and a creative reset pursuing her culinary degree—Jain learned about Fletcher’s online Master of Global Business Administration (GBA) program. Interested in how she might be able to make the transition, she reached out to faculty and alumni.
“It was the people that made the program enticing,” Jain shared. “Even before I was admitted, people were in my corner asking, how can we help you? It really cemented my decision that Fletcher was the place I would put roots in.”
A Classroom Spanning Industries
At Fletcher, Jain found herself surrounded by a cohort with various backgrounds and at different stages of life.
“You have people who are like me, in their mid to early 20s,” she said, “and then you have people who are mid-career doing this alongside a full-fledged job, family, buying a house, putting money into their 401k."
In a program that leans on discussion-based, Socratic teaching, the mix of perspectives has made the classroom particularly engaging.
“It's so interesting to have your views challenged in the best way possible,” Jain added. “You get these additional resources from your peers and their different areas of interest. Everyone brings their own kind of subject matter expertise to class.”
Reexamining Public Policy Through an International Lens
For Jain, being part of such a varied cohort means sharing her own perspectives from her background in healthcare and financial consulting.
With a bachelor's degree in healthcare management, psychology, and public policy, Jain saw the GBA program as a way to strengthen her public policy lens and eventually pivot into more international work. But as the United States government shifted its priorities under the new administration, she began to reconsider the path she imagined.
“One of the first classes I took at Fletcher was Sustainable Business Dynamics,” Jain shared. “Professor Jette Knudsen helped me understand that I did not need to limit myself or give up on my interest in public policy at the international level just because the U.S. government wasn’t looking for that right now.”
Jain is now focusing on roles in the international nonprofit and policy sector, particularly with relief organizations or sustainable businesses operating on a global scale.
Fletcher’s Immersive Approach
A signature element of Fletcher’s GBA program is its required immersions, which bring together students—both internationally and on campus—for intensive hands-on learning experiences. For their international immersion, Jain’s cohort traveled to India, a place she was already familiar with after living there for years. The immersion focused on India’s national initiative, Viksit Bharat 2047, centered on economic and sustainable growth.
“I have family in Delhi, but I still saw parts of India that I would have never seen before,” Jain said. “We spoke to ambassadors, went to the U.S. embassy—experiences I would not have had even as someone who’s lived there.”
While the GBA program offers flexibility through its online modality, the immersions provide students with an invaluable opportunity to meet each other in person.
“I got to meet a bunch of people that I hadn’t met yet at campus events,” Jain said. “I loved that. A lot of students in the program are very people-forward. I think if you are in any type of business, you have to be.”
Based in the Boston area, Jain appreciates all that it has to offer for someone in her field.
“I’m one and a half years into this and I still haven't gotten over the fact that you can have so many new experiences here,” Jain said. “There are so many new perspectives because no two people have the same background.”
Read more about Fletcher’s Master of Global Business Administration (GBA) degree program.