MNSU graduate student invited for prestigious PhD conference
Michael McShane
News Editor
An MNSU graduate student has more than just graduation to look forward to.
The PhD Project, an award-winning program founded by the New Jersey-based KPMG Foundation, announced early this month that Mallory Sackey, a Minnesota State University, Mankato graduate student, has been invited to attend the 25th annual PhD Project Conference in Chicago.
Sackey, who is in the Master of Business Administration program, will be going along with 300 other students invited nationwide to the highly exclusive conference which will go from Nov. 21-23.
“Through my personal journey, I have learned the value and opportunity of higher education many people do not have,” Sackey said. “Coming from a diverse family background, I never thought college, or even grad school, would even be possible.”
The PhD Project focuses exclusively with minority college students, helping boost the number of minority students enrolled in business PhD programs in universities across the country.
The 300 students selected to go to the conference must be of either African American, Hispanic or Native American heritage and must be in their senior year of college.
The participating students will have the chance to network and meet doctorate-granting universities and speak with deans, professors and currently enrolled doctorate students from those universities. Universities Sackey is most interested in is New York University, University of Southern California and the University of Minnesota.
“It is organizations like these that become a support system and provide opportunity to transform and recognize the leaders of tomorrow,” Sackey said.
Sackey is well-known within the Mankato community. In 2017, Sackey won first-place runner-up in the Miss Mankato Pageant and will be a contestant in this year’s pageant.
Sackey is the first in her family to graduate with a master’s degree and will walk the stage as part of the Spring 2020 graduating class. Sackey’s research during her time at MNSU involved quantitative approaches within organizational marketing and management practices.
“My life over the past five years has soared to new heights through the College of Business at MNSU, Mankato, and I am forever grateful for that experience,” Sackey said.