In 2011, just 12 credits shy of earning an anthropology degree from a college in Oregon, Rachel Booth, ’19 B.S., took a break. “I wasn’t passionate about what I was studying,” she says. She moved to Minneapolis with her partner, worked in restaurant management, then opened a vegan creperie and ice cream shop in 2017. She also went back to school. 

“I didn’t know what college was like anymore,” she says. “So I approached the University of Minnesota.” She landed at the College of Continuing and Professional Studies, which helped her transfer credits and create a multidisciplinary studies program with a business emphasis. The Ingrid Lenz Harrison Scholarship in Continuing Education covered a significant portion of her tuition. 

Booth sold her shop, Crepe & Spoon, in 2019 and is now a full-time M.B.A. student at the Carlson School of Management, focusing on marketing and brand management. 

“It’s amazing,” says Booth, who will graduate in 2021 and hopes to work in the consumer packaged goods industry. “Running a business and going to school taught me a lot about time management and having clear goals. Now I zero in on the big picture and let it be my guide.”