Newly-Elected KSA President on Career, Leadership & Black History Month

Inside Kellogg recently connected with Sammy Goldstein (2Y 2022) on her non-traditional career path, the breadth of her interests and leadership at Kellogg, as well as her reflections this year on Black History Month.

Here’s what she had to say.

Tell me a little bit about yourself. Where are you from, and what did you do before Kellogg?

My path to Kellogg was a bit nontraditional because I started my career in academia. I interned at the U.S. Department of Labor and the Wellesley Centers for Women during undergrad at Wellesley College, where I double-majored in Economics and Women’s and Gender Studies. I then spent two years at MDRC, where I supported randomized control trial research on healthcare delivery models for Medicaid populations. I had originally planned to become an economist, but I was also curious about tech and took a huge risk by pivoting to the startup space. Immediately before Kellogg, I was working at a startup called Newfront Insurance that is developing technology to improve the personal and commercial insurance landscape. Newfront was an incredible experience where I was able to do everything from build workflows from scratch to lead an international outsourcing expansion to Latin America. A lot of the support and mentorship that I received at Newfront set me up for a strong start to business school.

At Kellogg, which program are you in and what clubs or activities are you passionate about?

I am a first-year student in the Two-Year MBA Program. I chose the 2Y Program because I wanted to fully immerse myself in my MBA experience and have enough time to try as many new experiences as possible. I am the First-Year Director of Careers for the Full-Time Black Management Association and the First-Year Director of Academic Quality for the Kellogg Student Association. Beyond clubs, I was selected for the Dean’s Consulting Alliance, so that has been a large focus of this quarter. I was also on a semi-finalist team for the national John R. Lewis Racial Justice Case Competition, where we completed a project for HP Inc.

In addition to these leadership roles, I am a current Professional Development Fellow and a former MBA Prep Accelerated Fellow for Management Leadership for Tomorrow, a Kellogg partner organization. Fun Fact: MLT is how I discovered that Kellogg was my #1 choice for business school!

What has Black History Month meant to you, and are you acknowledging it differently this year?

While growing up, BHM was always a yearly check-in point to reflect on my identity and how my racial heritage affected various aspects of my life (e.g., school, social experiences). This has changed as I’ve completed college, established a career in predominantly white work spaces and started my business school journey. I’d still consider BHM to be a check-in point, but now it revolves around strategizing my plans for community activism, identifying gaps in my own knowledge because the Black experience is not a monolith and finding new ways to contribute to young Black professionals via mentorship. The celebration aspect of my BHM happens everyday of the year because I am always surrounded by Black people, both inside and outside of Kellogg, who are accomplishing their goals and challenging society’s barriers.

What are you most excited for BMA to share with Kellogg this month?

I am excited to see how allies of the BMA show up for our events and challenge themselves to do better. Topics related to the Black experience can make some people uncomfortable, but I’ve found that Kellogg students genuinely want to do learn and will take action. Within BMA, many of us are finishing up with internship recruiting, so that’s given us a major reason to celebrate and admire everything that we’ve accomplished.