Jennifer C. Gates

Jennifer C. Gates has big plans for her future after Questrom and she’s in the market of doing good to get there.

No stranger to making a difference, Gates has already created positive change. Following her 2007 graduation from BU’s College of Communication with a B.S. in Film and Television, Gates joined the Army as a Medical Service Corps Officer. In 2011, she was deployed to Afghanistan with a Combat Support Hospital where she worked in hospital operations. The following year she worked in Germany with a Warrior Transition Unit where she was in charge of the wounded ill and injured soldiers until she decided to leave active duty to return to BU. This time she returned, specifically, to Questrom.

Gates knew she wanted to continue her education and pursue a Health Sector MBA and a Master of Public Health because she knows, “it’s important to speak the language of business with grant donors and investors” in the industry. BU was where she wanted to strengthen those skills—for a second experience. “The great thing about BU is that there are so many options,” she says, “within the school, within the alumni network, and within the city.”

Gates explains one of the opportunities this city has afforded her. At her internship with Steward Health Care,Gates was able to get first-hand working experience as a Technology and Operations Associate. She explains, “This internship was tech and ops heavy. I’d done a lot of operations in the past, so the technology half was new.” Gates, who has a long term interest in information systems, says that having the opportunity of her internship helped her to build a foundation in Technology. That foundation, she says, “is crucial to the overall service delivery process.”

She says that a favorite Questrom professor of hers shared advice that resonates with anyone establishing his or her career path. She explains, “Jim French was my ethics professor for both ethics courses. He was very excited about the material. In the chaos that business can sometimes be, his advice has been to work hard, do what’s right, and live a good life – no one can regret that. Every time I hear him speak he reminds me that we live in a big world with lots to do and we will be consumed by work, so it’s important to find a job we enjoy.”

With her Questrom education in hand, Gates plans for world change, “I want to save the world or at least one small piece of it during my lifetime.” She says, “Before BU, I was on a trajectory and that’s how I thought I wanted to go. Now I’ve learned that there are so many other ways, opportunities, means, and resources to implement real change in the world.”