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Owner, Mathnasium (Cool Springs)
Erika Bacon has seen the world. After earning an engineering degree at Cornell, she returned home to East Tennessee to join a small, family-owned textile business. That job, in turn, took her to a factory in Mexico as an industrial engineer. Then she worked in Cambodia as an assistant sourcing director and traveled throughout Asia.
Scuba diving (a hobby Erika would pursue every weekend if she could) off Cambodia's coast was outstanding. But she wanted to shift from apparel into the energy field–a transition she realized would be next to impossible without an MBA.
Even before landing an internship with Chevron, Erika says the Owen experience surpassed her wildest expectations. The value of her Vanderbilt education dawned on her when she and three classmates bested 19 other teams to win Purdue's national case competition for global supply chains.
"As we were analyzing the case and crafting our presentation," Erika recalls, "we kept returning to things our professors had taught us in our three short months of classes. That's when it hit me that everything we were learning would be applicable in the real world, and that Owen was giving us every tool to succeed."
Erika Bacon
Vanderbilt MBA 2010Owner, Mathnasium (Cool Springs)
Diving Right In
Bacon Transitioned from Textiles to EnergyErika Bacon has seen the world. After earning an engineering degree at Cornell, she returned home to East Tennessee to join a small, family-owned textile business. That job, in turn, took her to a factory in Mexico as an industrial engineer. Then she worked in Cambodia as an assistant sourcing director and traveled throughout Asia.
Scuba diving (a hobby Erika would pursue every weekend if she could) off Cambodia's coast was outstanding. But she wanted to shift from apparel into the energy field–a transition she realized would be next to impossible without an MBA.
Even before landing an internship with Chevron, Erika says the Owen experience surpassed her wildest expectations. The value of her Vanderbilt education dawned on her when she and three classmates bested 19 other teams to win Purdue's national case competition for global supply chains.
"As we were analyzing the case and crafting our presentation," Erika recalls, "we kept returning to things our professors had taught us in our three short months of classes. That's when it hit me that everything we were learning would be applicable in the real world, and that Owen was giving us every tool to succeed."
