As another generation of business school students conclude their studies we ask them to reflect on Graduation Day and the lifelong impact of their studies…
- Name: Alvaro Quispe
- Programme: MBA
- School: SDA Bocconi School of Management
- Graduation: December 2026
- Current job OR career plans after graduation: AI Strategy, Beiersdorf
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aquispehure/
How does participating in a graduation ceremony help you emotionally mark the end of your student journey and prepare for what’s next?
I haven’t graduated yet, but, lately, I find myself imagining that day often and I think that says something about what it means.
The end of classes didn’t really feel like an ending: Regardless of your next step, you may still see your friends, you may still be in the rhythm of student life and perhaps you might even stay in the same city as where you did the MBA.
However, I picture the graduation ceremony as the moment you have a closure of your chapter as a student: Seeing all your classmates together in their robes, people who started this journey as strangers and became not only friends, but family, and realizing this journey is truly closing.
What do you look forward to most about the ceremony?
The graduation ceremony will be bittersweet moment, of course, but what I look forward to the most is sharing that moment with my family, showing them the city that became home, the campus where I studied, and introducing them to the people who made this experience unforgettable.
The MBA has been such a defining part of my life and having the people I love witness the end of it feels like the perfect bridge between who I was as a student and who I’m becoming next as a professional.
What does it mean to you to be recognised publicly for your learning and accomplishment – and who do you feel you’re representing as you cross the stage?
When I think about crossing that stage, the word that comes to my mind is “gratitude”. Because as personal as this accomplishment feels, I did not get here alone.
“Public recognition, for me, is just a chance to make visible everyone who quietly made it possible”
– Alvaro Quispe
I will be carrying a lot of people across that stage with me. My family, that gave me unconditional support, even from a distance. My wife, who lived this experience with me and became my anchor through every moment of uncertainty. My friends, who always had my back. My classmates, who turned a demanding year into an enriching learning journey. And my mentors, who guided me through moments of doubt.
So, when I walk across that stage, I will be representing a little piece of every one of them.
Public recognition, for me, is just a chance to make visible everyone who quietly made it possible.
In a world where learning never really ends, what does ‘graduating’ mean to you – and what kind of impact do you want to make with what you’ve learned?
To me, graduating marks the moment I stop learning inside the format of a class and start learning in a different type of complex and unpredictable environment: work.
The MBA gave me tools and frameworks, but what I value most is the mindset it built. And the real test of that mindset comes when you step into something new. For many of us, that’s not just a new role, but a new industry, a new country, sometimes all three at once. In that sense, learning will become the application of what you know to an unfamiliar ground, while staying open enough to keep learning with a different perspective than before.
And that’s the impact I want to make. I would like to carry this mindset into every team I join and share it with my future peers, mentors, and teammates: to encourage the people around me to take on challenges they might otherwise avoid, to stay curious and open.
If graduating means anything to me, it’s earning the ability to help others grow.
What is the single most memorable aspect of your studies that you will remember long after graduation?
For me, the most valuable part has been the personal growth that comes with the MBA. The kind of thing you don’t sign up for but get anyway.
Because if there is one thing an MBA does not come with, it’s structure. Of course you have classes, assignments, and networking events, and yes, they come with a schedule but, in practice, you are also living in a new country, speaking a different language, and rebuilding your entire social life from zero. And all while trying to look composed in a strategy class you prepared for at 11p.m. the night before.
But when you actually pause and reflect (assuming you can find a moment to pause) it turns into something truly transformative. You get to know yourself a little better, you learn to plan ahead, to prioritize, and above all, to make peace with uncertainty in basically every area of your life at once.
Now, none of this is as easy as it sounds (and it sounds pretty hard). What makes it manageable are the friendships and connections you build along the way. In my case, I have to be honest: my wife played the biggest role of all. She’s the main reason I made it through without losing it.
What one piece advice would you pass back to the next class, to help enhance their study experience?
My advice would be: be ready to embrace uncertainty and stay open to ventures you never planned for.
Before the MBA, I had a crystal-clear picture of my future: go back to the tech industry, in a commercial role. Simple. But the MBA kept opening doors I didn’t know were there: the start-up and scale-up ecosystem, the AI wave, venture capital, you name it. And the more I explored, the more that clear picture started to blur, in the best possible way.
That explorer mindset is how I ended up where I am now: doing AI Strategy at Beiersdorf, a global leader in skincare and personal care. If you’d asked me on day one, I never would have pictured myself outside of tech, let alone in an AI strategy role at a consumer-goods company.
And if you ask me now how I feel about that detour? I’m loving it. Learning like crazy and genuinely seeing my career taking shape around AI.
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