Black MBA - Winter 2008/2009 - (Page 33)

From Medals to MBA Olympic Fencer Keeth Smart By Maya Payne Smart O n any given day, you can find Keeth Smart in the Thomas J. Watson Library in Columbia University Business School’s Uris Hall. It’s home to an impressive collection of business and economics texts, but in keeping with the collaborative spirit of MBA programs everywhere, it’s also social. A few years ago, students lobbied the dean for more study space and library officials capitulated sending 29,000 volumes off to a New Jersey shelving facility to make room. Now Smart, an MBA student, tackles economics, statistics, accounting and strategy assignments with anyone up to the challenge. “There’s no shame in my game,” he says. “I study with everybody who hangs out in the library.” “Hangs out” are the key words. Though serious about school and corporate finance in particular, Smart is most animated when describing the people in the MBA program with him. There’s the guy who climbed Mount Kilimanjaro last summer, the physician who is giving business school a go and the woman who just gave birth and is already back in class. “Everybody’s so amazing,” he says. “Literally, I’m blown away by how many things everyone’s involved in.” The same could be said of Smart, who spent the months before business school battling a life-threatening illness, family tragedy and stiff competition on the road to winning a silver medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. THE WILL TO WIN Smart was no one’s pick to become an Olympic medalist when he arrived, in 1991, at the Peter Westbrook Foundation, a New York Citybased nonprofit fencing program for inner city youth. Westbrook, a legendary fencer, likens the young Smart to a newborn puppy who moved right to left in order to go forward. “He used to walk sideways and fence sideways,” Westbrook says while demonstrating Smart’s awkward gait. “He was totally uncoordinated.” Even today, Smart doesn’t strike observers as particularly Olympian. He’s fit, but so lean that clothes fall over his slight frame as if on a hanger. His conservative glasses call to mind an accountant, not a sabre-wielding combatant. And then there’s the open smile and ready laughter that belie the intensity he’s known for in training and competition. He exudes a genuine Bla MB Wi ter 008 200 BlackMBA Wi ter 2008/2009 33 BlackMBA Winter 2008/20 BlackMBA • Winter 2008/20 9 33 lac BA l in e 08 00 8/ Matthew Stockman/Getty Images

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Black MBA - Winter 2008/2009

Black MBA - Winter 2008/2009 Contents Preserving Dr. King’s Legacy: Harry E. Johnson is Six Years and $100 million into his First Fundraising Effort Online: www.nbmbaa.org and www.blackmbaonline.com Up Front: Inauguration Takes Over D.C. From the President: Connecting With the Basics The First 100 Days – Already in Progress Back to Basics: Finances 101 Is the Middle Class Disappearing? – Your View From Medals to MBA Conference Highlights Market Forces: The Job of Trying to Find a Job in a Tight Market Applying to an MBA Program?: Avoid Making these Five Critical Mistakes How They Did It: Catching up with the Winning Teams from NBMBAA’s 2008 National Case Competition Change It Up: If a New Job is at the Top of your New Year’s Resolutions, it’s Time for Careful Planning and Preparation Bull Market: Now is the Time to Take Advantage of Web 2.0 On the Move: Member News, Promotions and More Backstage at BET: NBMBAA’s Leadership Institute Takes on BET’s Case for Growth Toronto Rising: NBMBAA’s Toronto Chapter is on a Progressive Track, Building Strong Partnerships and Exposure as Membership Climbs NBMBAA® Chapters: Find Your Local Chapter Here Do What You Love: Turning Your Passion into a Successful Business Requires Patience, Planning and Plenty of Hard Work Above and Beyond: Meet the Winners of the 2008 Wells Fargo/NBMBAA Entrepreneurial Excellence Award Decorating by Design: Michelle Rider Leaves Corporate Life for Entrepreneurship Culture Shock: Black Museums Nationwide Appeal for Greater Support from the People whose Heritage they Strive to Preserve Gear Up for 2009: Books to Herald Success in the New Year Advertiser Index: Who’s Who in the Issue

Black MBA - Winter 2008/2009

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