One year after walking the Lawn, members of McIntire’s Class of 2024 are already applying the knowledge they gained on Grounds to make an impact in industries spanning finance, marketing, and consulting. For Skyla Bailey, Karly Fuentes-Paredes, and Luke Lamberson, the transition from classroom to career has been less about starting over and more about building on the strong foundation McIntire helped them create.
Now working in Washington, DC, New York, and Chicago, respectively, each alum describes a clear connection between McIntire’s hands-on curriculum and the professional demands they face daily. The same lessons in adaptability, teamwork, and confidence that defined their undergraduate experience continue to guide them through steep learning curves and evolving roles.
Bridging Business and Technology
Ask Fuentes-Paredes about her position at American Express, and she immediately links her McIntire coursework to her success managing co-branded partnerships. “I’m currently on the Hilton Co-Brand Partnership Marketing team,” she says. “The core of my role is partner management, where I focus on capabilities across Hilton’s marketing channels. As a student, McIntire’s Promotions class was the highlight of my undergraduate experience. Learning how to create a campaign from start to end has been really helpful as I build out digital launches on my team today.” Other courses in project and product management, she adds, were equally crucial: “Having a good understanding of how tech teams build digital products is really important for my role as well.”
Bailey, a Marketing Analyst with Deloitte in Arlington, echoes that sense of direct applicability. “What really helped me is project management in the IT track,” she says. “It allowed me to understand how systems and companies run. Promotions helped me think about brand truth and helps the practitioners I work with to explore marketing avenues they’ve never thought about before.”
Her current work blends those skill sets. “I do a lot of organizational change management,” Bailey explains. “I talk to clients, look at deliverables, figure out timelines, and execute. It’s that strategic project management side of things I loved at McIntire, and now I really understand agile methodologies and use them in real-life scenarios with multimillion-dollar clients.”
Bailey sums up the sentiment that often characterizes the first few months out of school and in that first full-time job: “McIntire has prepared me,” she says. “I understand how to talk to clients and to my team. Teaming was everything at McIntire, and it still is. McIntire prepares you to ‘fake it till you make it’ but with enough confidence to figure it out.”
For Lamberson, now a Quantitative Trader at Optiver in Chicago, McIntire’s curriculum offered an edge in a field that rarely chooses business majors as team members. “I was one of the few hires with a finance background; they mostly hire math and computer science majors,” he says. “That gave me a lot of benefits because we’re trading in financial markets. Factors like the Federal Reserve, interest rates, unemployment, all the things we talked about at McIntire, matter a lot.”
He credits his Comm School classes for preparing him in his work today. “People always joke that you can’t major in trading, which is true,” he says. “But McIntire literally offers classes in trading, and that definitely gave me a leg up.”
Learning to Learn
Beyond technical skills, each alum points to McIntire’s greatest gift: the mindset to keep learning.
Fuentes-Paredes acknowledges that navigating a large corporate structure has been a growth process. “Managing teams is doable, but there are always dynamics to consider,” she says. “Learning how to communicate with our internal and external partners has definitely been a journey, but I’ve enjoyed it every step of the way.”
Bailey describes a similar evolution. “The most challenging thing for me is understanding that feedback’s a blessing,” she says. “I’m always getting feedback, and it doesn’t mean I did badly: It means ‘here’s something to grow from.’ That’s how you become better.”
She’s also learned that professional life requires humility and self-trust. “No one has everything figured out,” she says.
“When you graduate, you feel like everyone knows more than you,” she says, imparting some reassurance to this year’s outgoing Comm class. “I promise, we’re all at the same level. Everyone’s drinking from the same firehose. You just have to get through it like you got through UVA.”
For Lamberson, the learning curve of trading remains steep. “It’s so fast-paced that it has a really high learning curve,” he says. “There are times I think I understand everything, and then something comes up and I realize I have no idea.”
He’s learned to embrace that process. “Being constantly challenged, making mistakes, and being corrected is part of learning,” he says. “It can be frustrating because I just want to make good decisions, but I continually find something new I’ve never seen before. Hopefully, next time, it’ll go better—but then something else will come up.”
That willingness to question and engage, he adds, came from McIntire. “Optiver has a very flat hierarchy; I can go up to the head of trading and tell him I think we’re doing something wrong. Being confident enough to propose that or to ask a hard question to your boss is something McIntire really instills.”
Giving Back and Staying Connected
Each of the three alumni has found ways to stay engaged with McIntire and give back.
Fuentes-Paredes serves on the McIntire Young Alumni Council and values the chance to stay involved. “It’s always really good to come back to McIntire every fall and spring for our board meetings—understand where McIntire is and what the Dean’s goals are for the school,” she says. “It’s exciting to be in that environment, where everyone wants to continue giving back.”
Her passion for community building started on Grounds. “I was president of the Latinx Student Network at McIntire,” she says. “We built a community of Latinx students with common goals for our business careers. We partnered with the Black Commerce Student Network, the Asian Student Network, Pride at McIntire, and the OneGen Network to bring our diversity initiatives forward, and McIntire really supported us.”
Bailey continues to pay it forward through recruiting and mentorship at Deloitte. “I’m doing recruiting for UVA and Howard University,” she says. “It helps me give back to the community that helped me and raised me—and to people who might not have had the same opportunities. To show kids that you can do this too. You are capable.”
Lamberson remains deeply connected as well. “I absolutely love McIntire,” he says. “I try to find as many excuses as I can to end up back in Charlottesville. One of those is joining the McIntire Young Alumni Council, and that’s been awesome.” His motivation is simple. “McIntire really shaped me,” he says. “It’s such a strong community. If I can offer perspective, be a small part of that next generation’s journey, or even just stay connected. It’s worth it.”
