Noelle Hallman graduated from the Master of Business Administration program at Antioch University Santa Barbara in 2015 as part of the program’s first-ever cohort.
Noelle was one of Antioch’s adult learner students and decided to enroll at Antioch because she liked the idea of social business. “At the end of the day, all businesses should be constructed that way,” she said. “Secondly, I liked the hybrid program; part independent study, part classroom, part group, etc. It was very innovative and appealing to me.”
For Noelle, Antioch was her top school of choice. “Antioch is different from many Universities, in that there is much more interaction with your professor. The class sizes are small which fosters this type of environment,” she said. “The staff is so friendly and personable. The setting is so inviting. It feels more like a living room than a University!”
Now armed with her MBA, Noelle has returned to her previous profession: educating financial advisors on certain Mutual Funds. She also has launched a nonprofit called Fund your Future dedicated to promoting financial literacy and retirement readiness and seeks to provide financial guidance for first-time investors, particularly young adults, and single women.
Noelle believes her time at AUSB helped grow her skill set and her career.
“My MBA studies taught me to think more critically,” she said. “I learned to evaluate issues from many viewpoints, to dig deep, to think strategically, and to defend my arguments. I constantly felt stretched. I became more aware of my prejudices and more open to the opinions of others.”
