AGSM @ UNSW Business School is determined to future-proof the business world by awarding a rare opportunity to an MBA student to help foster their growing career.
Business student Trisha Shastri has become the latest recipient of the Luminis AGSM Wharton Business Innovation Scholarship, which is co-funded by AGSM and the Luminis Foundation. The scholarship is awarded only once annually and is reserved for those who ‘demonstrate leadership potential and a record of business innovation’.
Recipients receive a full waiver on their tuition fee waiver plus a stipend of up to $AU41,750 for international exchange.
Ms Shastri joined AGSM’s full-time MBA 2020 cohort and will study at both AGSM and The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, along with the possibility of a US-based work placement.
“The Luminis Scholarship offered the perfect trifecta for me,” Ms Shastri said.
“I want to build and maintain my networks here, but I’m also keen to expand my options overseas.
“Plus, it’s an incredible opportunity to study at two of the best business schools in the world.”
Ms Shastri was chosen for the scholarship because of her significant innovative contributions at professional services firm KPMG while working as an operations consultant, despite being in the mere early years of her career.
“I worked on an internal data coherence initiative, looking at KPMG’s internal practice management to find new ways to improve how it works,” Ms Shastri said.
This project involved pulling together data from different sources within KPMG to help senior Operations Advisory leaders make more informed decisions on managing business performance.
“The diverse data sources had never been aligned and captured in a single dashboard, making it difficult for senior leaders to make optimal decisions,” she said.
“I came up with the idea and rolled out a new integrated dashboard. It has the ability to harmonise data from multiple sources and helps the users drill down on both opportunities and problem areas for the business.”
The success of the project sparked Ms Shastri’s interest in how data informs decision-making so she decided to explore further study, and the experiential learning style from a full time MBA program was the ideal choice.
“I had reached a point in my career where I wanted more challenges, to understand other options that would suit my interests in terms of analysing data, thinking strategically, improving performance,” she said.
“It’s been amazing so far. The AGSM MBA is already exceeding my expectations.
“You get thrown into situations where there’s no time to plan or think, so you really have to trust your instinct and trust the people around you. You have to find the confidence to say ‘yes this is what we’ll do as a team’, then act quickly and act with courage – I’ve already seen a big improvement in my confidence.”
The Luminis AGSM Wharton Business Innovation Scholarship was launched in 2016 and is one of several other MBA full time scholarships to support future leaders from diverse backgrounds, and help them gain a world-class education.
