Ryan Van Slyke

Daytime MBA Student Ryan Van Slyke

"Because of my training and opportunities to lead teams at Fuqua, I feel more empowered to operate within an organization as a servant leader. My involvement and learning from COLE, fellow students, and designing and executing large-scale learning opportunities afforded opportunities to further put leadership principles into practice."

Daytime MBA

Class of 2024
Industry:
Climate/Sustainability

Prior Education:

Indiana University-Bloomington

Hometown:
Syracuse, NY
Nationality:
USA

Why I Chose Fuqua

I decided to pursue an MBA because solving wicked problems in sustainable development requires an interdisciplinary toolkit, an ability to translate across sectors, and a servant leadership mindset, all of which I wanted to grow and deepen through a versatile graduate education. Fuqua is the best place to do this, in my opinion, because it is fundamentally a business school that trains students to consider the wide range of stakeholders, not just shareholders, of an organization. This stakeholder-centric perspective, coupled with a leadership-minded culture and outstanding faculty, alumni, and resources of a world-class university, made Fuqua a clear outlier for me.

Five Ways to Maximize Your Time at Duke

  1. Reach Out! Some of my best learning experiences have been finding and developing opportunities for collaboration between Fuqua, the Sanford School of Public Policy, and the Nicholas Institute for Energy, Environment, and Sustainability.
  2. Engage with Student Organizations. As a Fuqua student, you're also a Duke grad student, which enables you to join a range of affinity, identity, religious, and service-oriented organizations on campus. I joined the Duke University Chapel Choir, one of the best decisions I've made here at Duke.
  3. Be Curious! Leverage resources on campus to help develop your startup idea (with Duke I&E and the UNICEF Accelerator), fund innovative startups (via Duke Capital Partners), and expand your global business horizons (via courses in Sanford, Duke Law School, Nicholas School of the Environment, and others). I am pursuing a Certificate in International Development Policy at Sanford to deepen my toolkit for working in climate resilient development in emerging markets.
  4. Participate in Student Life. Sport your favorite Duke gear for sporting events, learn at seminars and lectures by world-famous scholars and practitioners, and join Duke Performances for concerts and shows.
  5. Meet Duke Alumni! The Duke Alumni Office supports Fuqua students in connecting with the broad university alumni community. Their tools have been instrumental for me in meeting and building relationships with Duke alums in my areas of interest.

My Fuqua Activities

CASEi3 Fellow
COLE Leadership Fellow
Net Impact Club Cabinet
Duke Energy Conference 2023 Cabinet
Duke Sustainable Business and Social Impact Conference 2023 Cabinet
Energy Club
Entrepreneurship and Venture Capital Club
Christian Business Fellowship
TA for Entrepreneurship Mindset in Action; EDGE Seminar

"CASE and EDGE have offered a range of academic and experiential learning opportunities, ranging from Cathy Clark's Impact Investing class and Dan Vermeer's EDGE Seminar to the CASEi3 program, which opened my eyes to the range of actors at the intersection of finance and strategy for sustainability and climate transition."