UNC Kenan-Flagler MBA Blog

You know how sometimes you have a professor who is just amazing? They make you fall in love with the subject or help you understand something in a new way.

We have a lot of those professors here, and one of them is Alison Fragale. Professor Fragale taught our Leading and Managing core class in Mod 1, which happened to be the only qualitative class during that Mod (so I loved it!). Besides being a wonderful professor she also consistently wore the best shoes. Yes, shoes. It got to the point where even the guys in class would comment on how great they were. Every girl wanted her shoes.

Besides being our professor, Alison Fragale is also the Carolina Women in Business faculty advisor. Carolina Women in Business (CWIB) is one of the larger organizations on campus and provides its members with support during the job search and connections with alumni as well as events such as Women’s Weekend for prospective students, receptions with female alumni and speakers who discuss finding the work life balance just to name a few.

One of the events put on by CWIB during this Mod was a dinner at Alison Fragale’s house. Everyone brought something to share and we spent the evening eating delicious food and having amazing desserts while chatting with friends and meeting new members of our program. Many faculty and staff members joined us as well as some alumni who were in the area.

The event was a wonderful and welcome break from the weekday workload. The highlight however, was when Professor Fragale brought out a bag of shoes she was planning on giving away. Very quickly the room was filled with girls who had her size looking through the bag and slipping off our shoes to try different pairs on.

Many of us (and I am happy to say I was one of them) walked away with huge smiles on our faces when they fit and we could take them home. I gleefully wore my pair the next day and told the story of where they came from to anyone who would listen.

Having professors who don’t only teach you in class but interact with students through the various activities and clubs on campus makes the learning experience that much stronger. You learn their backgrounds and what their experiences are, and you begin to develop strong relationships from day one.

The moral of the story being: attend club events and get to know your professors. You’ll learn a lot and you just might get a fabulous pair of shoes in the process!