As a recent graduate of the Costello MBA program from the Donald G. Costello College of Business at George Mason University, Kayla Smith, MBA ’25, has built a strong foundation in project management, recently earning a promotion to project manager at State Employees Credit Union.
With nearly four years of experience in the field, she enjoys the versatility of project management and the opportunity to collaborate with many different people. “I feel like a very team-oriented person,” she says. “I come from a team background. I was on the track and field team, so I like to work with others and help solve common issues or tasks.”
“I feel like a very team-oriented person,” she says. “I come from a team background. I was on the track and field team, so I like to work with others and help solve common issues or tasks.”
— Kayla Smith, MBA ’25
Smith competed as a division one track and field student-athlete at Virginia Commonwealth University during undergrad, but after an injury ended her athletic career, she embraced the opportunity to explore new directions. Her mother, a George Mason alum, encouraged her to consider taking a closer look at her alma mater.
Embracing the flexibility of the Costello MBA program—taking both virtual and in-person courses—Smith deepened her involvement in the Costello and larger university community by attending as many events as possible and connecting with other students. Inside the classroom, she soaked up as much feedback and knowledge as she could, determined to reach new heights in her career.
The final entrepreneurship course she took before graduating was found to be particularly helpful. “One of the most valuable experiences I’ve had was creating a business and feasibility study for a class project. It pushed me to look at my idea beyond the classroom and evaluate whether it could succeed in the real world,” she says. Working while enrolled in Costello, Smith noticed that her coursework was aligning with the work she was doing in her career, from finance and economics to operations and project management.
Driven to use her skillset to give back to the community, Smith has dedicated time to mentoring underrepresented students in Loudoun County, which has also helped her become a better professional. “Part of project management is coaching people on how to use documents and tools but also just building rapport with other people,” she says. She thoroughly enjoyed drawing upon her own experiences to help younger students prepare for higher education and their own professional lives.
After earning her Project Management Professional credential shortly after graduation, Kayla Smith is looking ahead to an even brighter future—one where she will have many different paths available to her. With a strong foundation in leadership and teamwork and a hunger for knowledge, she is poised to make a meaningful impact wherever her career takes her next.