Where Are They Now?

By Emily Daniels

Each year, Dividends Magazine features some of the many College of Business students, faculty and alumni that are doing fascinating things. But do you ever wonder what any of them are up to now? We caught up with two of our recent graduates to see what they’ve been doing since we first reported on them.

You may recall a story from 2016’s Dividends about then-senior Anna Barker. After stumbling upon MSU’s Center for Entrepreneurship and Outreach in 2015, Barker founded her own startup company that focused on minimizing the risk of fire-related disasters by using comprehensive fire detection and analysis technology.

Fast forward to the spring of 2017. Anna teamed up with fellow COB students Allen Coe and Hassan Tariq to compete with students from 34 universities across the United States and Canada in the AIG University Innovation Challenge. They were selected as one of the four finalist teams to pitch their most creative concepts and business models to reduce business risk and improve operations using technology to a panel of AIG Insurance executives in Houston. The team won first place after pitching their fire-prevention business plan.

“AIG has the potential to leverage data and analytics-based information from existing resources that can be integrated with this technology to help make smarter decisions and reduce losses,” says Barker. “It was so encouraging that they were able to see that potential as well.”

After the competition, AIG offered Barker a position as a technology analyst at its office in Charlotte. After much careful consideration, Barker turned down the offer in order to work with fellow MSU entrepreneurs at Vibe, LLC, as the Director of Business Development, which would allow her to pursue her own venture.

“I think that staying in a startup setting really fosters an entrepreneurial mindset,” states Barker. “I have the opportunity to experience situations and gain skills that will be so valuable for my future with a company that is on a tremendous growth trajectory.”

Also featured in last year’s Dividends was Chinwe Okorie, MSU Women’s basketball center. Okorie was a business administration and marketing double major with minors in French and Business Information Systems. Okorie shared the story of her amazing journey from her hometown of Lagos, Nigeria, to the United States to play college basketball. This life-changing decision stemmed from continual encouragement from twin sister Chinedu and their late father Dr. Ephraim Okorie.

Chinwe Okorie quickly became an all-star on the court, in the classroom and in the community. She was nominated for the 2016 Allstate Good Works Team for her active involvement in programs such as the Mississippi Area 6 Special Olympics, the Make-A-Wish Foundation and Bully’s Book Blitz, which teaches local children about the importance of reading. In addition to volunteering and practicing basketball each day, Okorie made sure she had time to hit the books, making the SEC Academic Honor Roll for three years straight. And in April of this year, she and her fellow Lady Bulldogs made it all the way to the 2017 NCAA Women’s National Championship Game!

“It was really exciting because even before we got there as a team we had exceeded our goals, so it just was amazing to get the opportunity to compete for the title!” exclaims Okorie.

Okorie graduated in May and decided to further her education at MSU, pursuing a master’s degree in French.

“I want to eventually work in a global company, or even just in a large business firm,” she says, adding, “One of the things I really want to do is start my shoe company – because at six foot five inches, I wear a size 15 in shoes, and it’s really difficult to find pretty shoes that are classy in large enough sizes for bigger women.”