Karen Ponte – Guru Supreme!

I was first introduced to Karen by Jenifer Raver from the Fortuna Admissions team given my preferences of applying to LBS & IESE and in the first 5 minutes of the call, I knew I wanted to work with Karen. I could tell that she was genuinely interested in my story, my career ambitions, my long-term goals and believed in my potential to make it all come true. (I had spoken to multiple coaches before from other companies; hence I was sure). We kicked off the process and through every conversation involving self-reflection, CV preparation, essay drafts - Karen unlocked aspects of my personality I never knew existed. I declared on Day 1 that I work better with clear timelines and defined expectations, and she let me set my own deadlines (which had to be acceptable of course). Karen was always super prompt on reviewing any material I sent across, her feedback – very organized, relevant and thoughtful. She makes you want to ask yourself “Why is this relevant?” “How did you impact the lives of others with this action?” and so on….and that’s precisely what business schools want – to understand who you truly are!
Sadly, I didn’t get through the first time I applied in 2021, it was a very competitive cycle and I’m sure I probably didn’t make the cut by a very small margin. But I was set on going to LBS and I promised myself that I would reapply. Even though she was not contractually obligated to, Karen offered to help out with my reapplication strategy. She helped me reflect on what went wrong, introspect about what needs to change, structure how I could improve my profile over the next year and also review my submission material again the next year. I came back much stronger, clearer and way more confident than last time, and I got through!
Karen has never missed my calls (When I got the admit email, she was out on a run and she answered!). We cried together in the ding debrief last year. We laughed and celebrated together on the admit this time (and cried some more, happy tears this time). We connected emotionally – and that’s rare. All my friends and family know her by ‘Karen Didi’, because that’s what I refer to her as (Didi = moniker for ‘Big Sister’ in Hindi - someone you have profound respect for).
It was a long hard journey towards achieving my dream of going to LBS, but working with Karen has been such a pleasure. I was stupid to think I could reapply to LBS the very next year, but her confidence in my capabilities helped shape my resilience. Whatever miracle of a career I build from the LBS MBA, I owe it to her. Thank you very very much Karen!