And when he graduated? He did what any liberal arts undergrad with a dream would do; he moved to New York City in a “now-or-never” effort to be an actor. He loved it for time and even sang at Carnegie Hall with a choir, but a confluence of issues made the twenty-something re-think his path. Mew now lives in Waltham, attending IBS and applying his thespian chops toward a new career in business.
“In a way, getting an MBA is really no different than being an actor,” Mew wrote in his admissions essay. “It requires effective communication, problem-solving, creativity and collaboration.”
Mew has already discovered this is true. He’s worked on a sustainability impact study for a restaurant chain through the school’s Net Impact club and, in a separate project, helped build a database for a consulting firm focused on sustaining socially conscientious companies. This summer, Mew is lined up to work for a natural gas company in Germany, drawing upon his problem-solving skills and his German, which he learned from previous trips to Austria.
“Creativity plays a role in everything because it’s the only way you can [inspire] innovation, whether it’s technical or just a new way to look at process flow.”
Mew comes with a reservoir of creativity, culled from decades of performing. He admits he thought his lack of quantitative skills in numbers would leave him feeling behind; but he’s found it’s the softer skills, not so easily teachable, that’s put him at an advantage. That - and the New York hustle.
“It does’t fall into your lap,” says Mew. “You have to go get it. That mentality has stayed with me, so I never take things for granted.”
Though Mew leaves his singing for “the shower” for now and plans to join a chorus once he settles down, he’s got a new dream: “To work for a company that has something to do with energy, where I can make a positive impact on the world.”