Class of 2024: The Lawyer Who Earned an MBA
When Shilphi Chaudhary MBA’24 followed her husband to the U.S., she faced a lot of uncertainty. Leaving behind her home country of India and her old career as an attorney, she was unsure of what to do next.
With a new chapter in her life waiting to begin, her husband made a suggestion. “Why don’t you go to school again?” he told her.
As part of our ongoing series spotlighting the Class of 2024 ahead of the College’s May 11 Commencement ceremonies, we look at how Chaudhary’s decision to enroll in Babson’s Two-Year MBA program brought her a new career and a new dream for the future.
“I look back, and so many things have happened in these two years,” she says. “Everything moves so quickly. You don’t realize it. I have come a long way.”
Her Old Career
Before coming to the U.S., Chaudhary worked in India as an attorney. The job took much of her time. She handled all manners of disputes involving land, marriages, and companies. She also took on many pro bono cases. “I knew those people couldn’t afford legal aid,” she says. “Helping them made me satisfied. I felt mental peace with that.”
READ more stories in our ongoing series spotlighting the Babson Class of 2024.
A first-generation college student, Chaudhary thought often of her mother, who hadn’t gone to college but who worked hard in social service roles. “I learned a lot from her. She had nothing, and she was making something out of it,” Chaudhary said. “That motivated me. That inspired me.”
A Positive Energy
Chaudhary’s father passed away as she was applying for Babson’s program. She remembers sitting for an interview with the College and feeling nervous and unfocused. “The answers I gave weren’t 100 percent. I didn’t know if I would hear back,” she said. “I was very close to my father. It took me time to get over it.”
Her time at Babson helped her heal. “Some kind of positive energy took over. I was so involved in these two years,” she said. “I was meeting people. I was so involved in everything.”
A Pivot
At Babson, Chaudhary concentrated in marketing and business analytics, the latter of which marking a departure for her. She was lacking in knowledge in the STEM fields of science, technology, engineering, and math and wanted to correct that. “I wanted to explore these areas because these areas I have never seen in my life,” she says. “I wanted to learn something new. I wanted to pivot.”
That pivot proved challenging. “I used to feel exhausted,” she says. Fortunately, her professors were helpful. “If you tell them what challenges you are facing, they will make you feel comfortable,” she says. “They said this isn’t rocket science. Everything can be learned.”
Chaudhary came to agree. “I think anything is possible,” she says. “Even a lawyer can write code.”
A Sense of Independence
Besides the new knowledge that it gave her, Chaudhary relishes that her new STEM-related degree enables her to stay and work in the U.S. for up to three years. That means she’s not dependent on her husband’s visa. “It gives me a sense of independence,” she says. “That gives me a different kind of strength.”
Chaudhary is still in the process of finding a job for after graduation. She wants to work on the management side. “In my mind, I think of myself as a leader,” she says.
A Dream for the Future
Chaudhary has other dreams for her life and career. One day in the future, she hopes to return to India and start her own business. She’s not sure what form that business will take, but the entrepreneurial spirit was ignited at Babson.
“I can’t give enough thanks to Babson,” she says. “They gave me a new perspective to my life journey.”
When she returns to India, she knows she can rely on fellow Babson alumni to help her there. Before coming to the College, Chaudhary admits she didn’t network or even know how. That changed at Babson. “Babson has given me a network,” she says. “Babson gave me the resources.”
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