Maryland Smith Grads Among Poets & Quants MBAs to Watch

Two full-time MBA graduates, Maria Herold and Rachel Loya, from the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business, are among Poets & Quants MBAs to Watch – Class of 2021.

According to the news site devoted to global coverage of business schools in its “MBAs to Watch” overview, the individuals collectively were “passionate about their causes, be it economic development, venture building, or social justice. Their options were curtailed by COVID. Still, they acted as the community builders who made the best from what was available.”

Herold, who works in M&T Bank’s Executive Associate Program, also interned with M&T and was president of the Smith Association of Women MBAs, which was “one of the most active clubs this [past] year,” Associate Dean of Master’s Programs Wendy Moe told Poets & Quants.

In this role Herold led events connecting women across the MBA programs and implemented a book club focused on female authors. She also was selected as the industrials and materials analyst on the Mayer Fund, where she worked with 11 other students managing a $6.5 million fund. “She is driven, dedicated and collaborative – all things that Smith values,” Moe said. “She is passionate about advocacy for women in business.”

Loya, a senior consultant in Deloitte’s Government and Public Services Group, worked as a Liberty Mutual intern and held multiple Smith MBA leadership positions, including vice president for finance for both the Smith Association of Women MBAs and the MBA Consulting Club. As communications chair on the Orientation Committee, “she had the unique challenge of being the ‘voice’ of the second-year MBAs to the incoming [first-year MBAs] during the first ever virtual Orientation,” Moe said. “Rachel’s positive attitude and energy was contagious, even over Zoom, from the committee planning meetings to the Orientation events.”

Loya has also worked closely with the Office of Career Services as a Leadership Fellow. Overall, she was “the “epitome of a Smith student and excel[ed] both inside and outside of the classroom,” Moe said. “[Loya] strengthened the Smith community from her first semester and [through] graduation.”

See Poets & Quants profiles of Maria Herold and Rachel Loya, and read more about Maryland Smith’s Full-Time MBA Program.