To get a Master's degree or not to get a Master's degree, that is the question. If you've thought about higher education you've probably asked yourself:

✅ Is a Master's Degree worth it?

✅ Will it help me get the job I want?

✅ Will it help me make more money?

✅ Can I afford it?

✅ What are my options?

And many other practical and thoughtful questions. In this session, Menan Omar will talk about her personal experience from her undergraduate education at AUC in Egypt to studying public administration at Columbia University. She'll share information about how and why she got into economic research and how getting her Master's Degree empowered and advanced her for her role at the International Finance Corporation. She'll talk about her journey, her experience and her path to success.

.

About Menan Omar

Menan Omar is an Operations Officer at the International Finance Corporation, World Bank Group with ten years of professional experience in private sector development policy. Her current portfolio focuses on areas related to entrepreneurship policy and ecosystem development strategy, digital financial services and financial inclusion, with a focus on women and youth in the Middle East and Africa.

Prior to that, she worked as Economic Researcher at governmental, multi-lateral and academic institutions that include the Egyptian Ministry of Trade and Industry, the United Nations Development Program, the International Labor Organization and the American University in Cairo’s John D. Gerhart Center for Philanthropy and Civic Engagement, where she has developed analytical research and policy work on economic development, corporate social responsibility, climate change mitigation and environmental sustainability. She holds a Dual Master’s Degree in Public Administration from Columbia University and the London School of Economics, and a Bachelor of Arts in Economics the American University in Cairo.

.

About Brianne Kain

Brianne Kain serves as an Associate Director of Admission at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA.)

Brianne attended Marist College for her undergraduate degree where she studied Spanish and Secondary Education and spent a semester abroad in Sevilla, Spain at la Universidad de Sevilla.

Later, she earned her Master in Management at Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, NJ where she notes her proudest educational accomplishment was competing and winning first place in the University of New Mexico’s International Global Scaling Competition with recognition in strategy opportunity identification and strategy scaling. In her current role at SIPA, Brianne is primarily focused on the recruitment and enrollment process for incoming students.