On paper, Catherine Chénier-Gagnon’s path to business school makes little sense. A Neuroscience major from McGill University in Montreal, she spent her undergraduate years immersed in psychology and biology courses and lab research. Today, she is in the Biotechnology Track of UVA McIntire’s M.S. in Commerce (MSC) Program, learning how drugs, devices, and discoveries actually reach the people who need them.
For Chénier-Gagnon, the pivot was less about changing direction and more about completing the picture.
“I’ve always been interested in new technologies, new treatments, progressing what’s available right now,” she says. “But there was always a gap in my knowledge between the people that are in the lab and working on this research versus having a finished product that is fully marketed and fully available to communities.”
That gap is exactly where McIntire steps in.
Chénier-Gagnon discovered the MSC program while searching for a one-year graduate opportunity that would allow her to continue rowing competitively in the U.S. What she found was more than a logistical fit. It was an academic bridge.
“It’s specialized in biotech. It has a science focus for someone who has a science background without necessarily having the business knowledge yet,” she says. “So for me, it was a really good fit in terms of the education I wanted to continue.”
Unlike traditional business programs that assume a foundation in finance or accounting, the MSC is designed for students like Chénier-Gagnon. “The program is built for students that didn’t necessarily have this background before,” she explains. “I didn’t feel like this was an insurmountable challenge. It was a shift, but I’m always happy to learn new things and new ways to learn as well.”
Her neuroscience training turned out to be an asset. At McGill, her coursework required integration across disciplines. That habit of synthesis now fuels her success on Grounds.
“I’ve been able to switch between different subjects while still keeping the big picture in mind, bringing them together to create a whole,” she says. “The program that I did at McGill was quite multidisciplinary, so I found a resemblance here for sure.”
McIntire’s Integrated Core also felt familiar in structure. While the fall began with approximately 130 students moving through courses together, the spring semester narrows into smaller, more specialized cohorts. “As the program goes on, the classes get smaller and more specialized,” Chénier-Gagnon notes, echoing the trajectory of her upper-level seminars at McGill.
In the Biotech Track, theory quickly becomes tangible. “Professor Nikki Hastings is extremely knowledgeable in the whole process of bringing a drug to market or medical devices to market. Learning from her has been amazing,” she says. Industry voices frequently join the classroom. “We had a guest speaker recently who was from the University’s licensing office to talk that side of the whole process, and then we’ve had some doctors who created a medical device that came to talk to us. The variety of all these perspectives has been really insightful.”
Even outside the Biotech curriculum, Chénier-Gagnon finds continuity with her scientific roots. Organizational Behavior stood out as unexpectedly resonant. “It reminded me a lot of the psych courses that I’ve taken before, but applied to the workplace and how it can factor into workplace dynamics and in leadership.”
For students in fields like neuroscience, biology, or psychology who may be curious about business but unsure whether they belong, Chénier-Gagnon offers clarity. “The program here creates a good bridge to take our experience as an undergrad and incorporate it in the learning that we do,” she says. “Your previous experience and knowledge are highly valued here.”
