Hello North Star blog readers. I am delighted to introduce you to Kyron Banks. Kyron is a current member of my Sirius program, which is a group consulting program designed to help first generation college graduates get into business school. Kyron has very graciously agreed to blog about his experience applying to school this year. I know that this will be incredibly useful and inspirational for many of you, and I greatly appreciate his candor and time as he tells us what it’s really like to apply to business school. I am also excited for you to get to know Kyron – he is truly impressive and very personable, and I can’t wait to see where he goes!
Hi, my name is Kyron Banks, 23 years old and more importantly, born and raised in New Jersey. My early childhood was spent with a lot of activities, family time and being told that I can do better than my young parents by graduating from college. My mother was 21 and my father was 17 when I was born and any dreams to pursue a college degree were placed on hold and passed onto me to become a first generation college student.
My mother never let me forget that her dream was to see me graduate from high school and then college. She never had the chance to see her baby boy graduate from either high school or college – she passed away from lung cancer at the tender age of 31, when I was 11 years old. Even before the wonderful and awkward stages of puberty, mentally I was already an adult and ready to accomplish not only my dreams, but my mother’s as well.
I graduated from high school and went on to graduate from Penn State University in 2013 with a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science.
Like most college students in any major that falls outside the umbrella of STEM, the task of getting a job in your field starts the day you officially declare your major. I worked really hard during college. My weekly schedule included a full time internship to gain experience, a part time job to make sure I stayed on top of my financial responsibilities and taking more than 12 credits a semester to ensure that I graduated earlier than projected by Penn State, but that is another story.
A couple days after I graduated, a friend who I met through one of my internships told me about an opportunity in the Mayor’s office in Philadelphia. While I was apprehensive during the interview process that they might not hire a 21 year old who was not even 60 days removed from college, I ended up being a great fit and started my new journey as the Mayoral Aide for Mayor Michael A. Nutter.
After almost two years working in the Nutter administration, I have learned a great deal about public service and what it means to truly serve the people, but what convinced me to explore applying to business school is my understanding of how great relationships and collaboration with the business community really drives a successful economy in a large city.
Which brings me to why you are getting to know me through reading this blog. I decided that I needed help to prepare the best application to apply for business school and I enlisted the help of Karen Marks, President & Founder of North Star Admissions. She introduced me to her program, Sirius which connects me with other MBA hopefuls to prepare our best application through projects, networking and selling the narrative.
Next post, I will tell you more about Sirius and why I decided to apply for Business School.
