From dancing to system engineering: Urvi Sethia shares her MSIS experience

Urvi Sethia, MSIS’23, is classically trained in Bharatnatyam, an Indian classical dance. Dancing, she said, feeds her soul. But problem-solving and management drive her career passions. 

The Kelley MS in Information Systems program enabled Sethia to put those passions to work. 

Her on-ramp to a systems engineer career path

Sethia sought graduate business education opportunities that would help her improve and advance her career. She discovered the MSIS summer Jumpstart program, which provides students with a solid foundation for graduate coursework in business and was excited by the opportunity to work with other students of academically diverse backgrounds. 

“I studied with a computer science major, a fashion major, a finance major, a psychology major; all under the same roof. Being new to programming languages never became an impediment for me to excel in the course, and the summer bootcamps prepared me for the Core. It was the best time to learn technical skills from scratch.”

The Jumpstart program provides an opportunity for students from business and nonbusiness backgrounds to fully prepare for the MSIS Core, diving deep into the field of information systems and technology careers. One of the program’s fundamentals is the collaboration and relationship building within the cohort. There’s an exponential learning curve attached to working along with teams of people with diverse backgrounds, opinions, work styles, and experiences.  

The Kelley MSIS program serves as a perfect gateway for those who wish to break into the techno-managerial domain, irrespective of their backgrounds. 

Students are taught valuable people skills, including team building, diplomacy, and communication—crucial skills to succeeding in business—with professors who support every step of the way. Sethia is a reminder that when hard work meets passion, nothing seems impossible. 

“The program has made me more confident, personally and professionally,” she said. “I am ready to take up multiple roles in the market.”

Sethia works at Eli Lilly and Company as a senior associate SAP systems engineer within the ERP-Source to Pay team.