Carlson Alum Leverages Network to Inspire Business Students

Mohamed graduated from Carlson into a pandemic job market with few work opportunities. She landed a supply chain role and coached high school soccer on the side.

“A few months in, I realized I didn’t find any joy in my 9-to-5 work — but then I would leave and go coach soccer, and I really enjoyed that,” Mohamed says. Working with the students felt impactful to her.

Around that time, Mohamed’s former Academy of Finance teacher asked her to speak to a high school class about what it was like to attend Carlson. That connection with her former teacher eventually turned into a job interview for a teaching position with the Academy of Finance. It was a full-time opportunity for Mohamed to do the work she enjoyed: mentoring students.

“I am really happy to be back here with the Academy of Finance,” she says. “And having been in the business world at Carlson and then working corporate for a little while, that really helps. I think it’s eye-opening for a lot of these kids to just hear my experience.”

Alumni Connections

One of Mohamed’s top priorities as a teacher is to expose her students to the range of opportunities that business education can provide. She brings her classes on field trips to companies around the Twin Cities, and she seeks out mentors to come into her classroom.

One of these mentors is Matt Grimes, ’98 MBA, who is the head of money market research at Allspring Global Investments. He volunteers to guide Academy of Finance students as they work on a semester-long project to create business plans. Each semester ends in a “Shark Tank”-style presentation where Grimes and other mentors select a winning business proposal.

Like Mohamed, Grimes believes in fostering business education for the next generation. (To that end, he is also a volunteer mentor for Minnesota Carlson students in the Carlson Funds Enterprise.)

“It’s a great way to introduce the students to the potential of what is out there,” Grimes says of his work with the Academy of Finance. “We love for them to look at downtown St. Paul or Minneapolis and see that there are good jobs, but in order to get there, there are steps you need to take. We try to encourage the students to see that they need to continue to do well in school and push toward that path to college.”

Grimes adds that he also benefits from volunteering as a mentor. “I continue to grow and learn from these students,” he says. “It’s great to stay engaged and meet the next generation who are just starting out.”

And working with Mohamed, as a fellow Carlson alum, is another plus, Grimes says. “She is so great with the students in terms of keeping them engaged. They are required to participate in class and produce results, but she does it in a way that gets them excited and keeps them on pace moving forward.”

Staying Connected to Carlson

Mohamed’s commitment to education and mentorship extends beyond her job at the Academy of Finance. For a few days each summer, she teaches at Carlson’s Business Innovation Academy program, a summer camp for middle school students.

“It’s something I enjoy doing,” Mohamed says, “and it’s truly a treat for me to come back to Carlson to help out, especially because there are people there who have helped me along the way.”

This opportunity came through Mohamed’s relationship with Angie Murray, assistant director of access and belonging for Carlson’s Undergraduate Program. Mohamed considers Murray to be one of her mentors from Carlson, among other staff and faculty.

“Without these people who mentored me, my undergrad would not have been what I aspired it to be,” Mohamed says. “I’m grateful for every single opportunity that they shared with me.”

Murray met Mohamed as a first-year student, and the two stayed in touch throughout Mohamed’s four years at Carlson. To Murray, it makes perfect sense that Mohamed has become an educator invested in shaping young students’ futures.

“Sam is just an amazing human being who cares about everyone around her,” Murray says. “And her students love her. She does an amazing job. She’s interactive, and the kids react really well.”

Positive Outcomes

Mohamed’s efforts to inspire young students have contributed to positive outcomes for many — including some who have pursued their business degrees at Carlson.

Michelle Xiong, a senior at Carlson, says her experience in the Academy of Finance helped her envision a future career in business. This contributed to her decision to attend Carlson, where she double-majors in Human Resources & Industrial Relations and Supply Chain & Operations Management.

“Sam talked about her journey, and it made me think a lot about what I wanted to do after college,” Xiong says.

Xiong adds that she liked Mohamed’s teaching style centered on highlighting real-world business experiences through field trips, mentorship connections and sharing her own story.

“It gave us more exposure to what we could do with a business degree. And she was just generally a very open teacher, so she was always open to having conversations with us about what we wanted to do,” Xiong says. “It’s important to have people around you encouraging you to try new things and broaden your horizons, and Sam really did that for us.”
 

Building Community

For Mohamed, teaching and mentorship are about more than where her students end up after graduation — it’s about continuing to build relationships and share perspectives, showing young students the many possibilities for their futures.

“This is building community, what we’ve built here at the Academy of Finance and what continues to be built at Carlson,” Mohamed says. “When people stay connected with their school, coming back and sharing more opportunities with students, it’s just a revolving door of mentorship.”

As someone who ended up in a career that she didn’t expect, Mohamed hopes her students remain open to whatever opportunities may arise in the future. And she aims to help her students along the way, if they ever need it, just as her mentors and former teachers have helped her.

“The Academy of Finance opened up a lot of doors for me, and then Carlson opened up even more,” she says. “I didn’t even realize it was mentorship for a long time until I left college and was like, ‘Wow, these people really shaped who I am and helped me go through this journey.’ And it’s the same with my students. Once they leave high school, they tend to see, and they come back and say, ‘Thank you.’”

Photography by Pat Vasquez-Cunningham