Chancellor’s Fellowship Challenge Empowers Future Leaders at the Rady School of Management

Edgar Leon, a second-year Full-Time MBA student at the Rady School of Management.

Edgar Leon: A Fellowship was his Ticket to a Brighter Future

A fellowship helped bridge the gap for Edgar Leon as well, a second-year Full-Time MBA student from Fallbrook, California. “I’ve had an interesting journey—if you were to ask people that I grew up with whether I would be where I am now, they probably would not believe it,” Leon said.

After high school, Leon enrolled at Palomar College, but his grades suffered while working 30+ hours a week. His parents intervened and said they would support him so that he could quit working and focus on his studies. His GPA rose from 1.5 to 3.7 and eventually, he transferred to UC San Diego.

The first-generation college and high school graduate continues to make his parents proud. He earned a degree from UC San Diego in political science in 2020 and then went to work for Goldman Sachs as an analyst. He was succeeding in his career, but Leon wanted more.

“I was on track to be promoted to associate, but that’s where I could basically cap out,” he said. “In order to be a vice president and higher, you need some sort of advanced degree like an MBA, so I decided to go back to school so there would be nothing holding me back.”

Leon is on track to graduate early in Winter of 2025.

“Getting a fellowship is an amazing opportunity,” he said. “It made the dream of grad school a reality for me. It has allowed me to be a student full-time and not to worry about balancing work…I am super grateful to Rady and the donors, Charles and Renée Brandes, who made my fellowship possible. I look forward to making them proud.”

He added, “It’s my intent to give back to the school as an alum because an investment in Rady can have a major impact.”

Expanding the impact of donations, gifts and commitments of $10,000 or more to support Rady graduate fellowships will be matched on a 1:2 basis by Chancellor Khosla as part of the Chancellor’s Rady Fellowship Challenge. Gifts of $100,000 or more can be directed to establish a named fellowship, with matching funds. Please contact Henry Geng, senior director of Development ([email protected]) to learn more about how you can support fellowships at Rady as part of the matching challenge.