Alumni Success: Angila Petris

Sitting in her office in Coos Bay, Ore., Pacific MBA alumna, Angila Petris, MBA is employed in her dream job. After completing her Pacific MBA in 2017 she moved with her husband to Coos Bay where, after a stint working as a Staff Accountant at a CPA firm, she began her current role as the Director of Finance for the South Coast Education Service District.

A little over three years ago, Petris began looking into MBA programs to further her current career as a Branch Manager for Pacific West Bank, a small bank in Lake Oswego, Ore. Living in the Portland Metro Area at the time, she looked at four local universities for her MBA, but only applied to Pacific.

“The main thing which swayed me was the schedule,” Petris cited referencing the weekend schedule and fifteen months to completion. She stressed, “I worked Monday through Friday so being able to attend classes on Saturdays was a big plus for me.” She initially found the program through her husband who was enrolled in the Pacific University School of Pharmacy at the time.

Petris was elated about the cohort aspect of the MBA program. At orientation “…I worried that I would be a lot older than the other students and feel out of place because I was in my 30’s…But I was totally wrong. There were students of all ages...” She reminisced that “We were all just students and faculty, and everyone was very accepting and fun to be around.” Petris found the group activity to be meaningful describing it as being “…really cool to see the different ideas and passions of my soon-to-be cohort.”

She feels the Pacific MBA helped prepare her for the future. “Pacific helped prepare me for a higher level of management, which required a higher level of thinking,” she reported. She felt that the international travel course, course lectures, classroom discussions, and the projects caused her to think in ways which her prior experiences and education had not afforded unto her. She also felt that the finance classes in the MBA program were an outstanding value. She noted that they “…weren’t easy…”, but found them to have “…a huge impact on my career, my financial competence, and my personal confidence.”
Although she completed the Pacific MBA, she does not plan to stop learning. “I am now in my dream job, and plan to continue growing my skills through the New Business Manager Institute offered through the Oregon Association of School Business Officials,” she confirmed. She intends to earn her School Finance Operations certification in the near future. 

Petris summarized the benefits of the Pacific MBA, “The skills I have gained in management and finance are huge aspects of what qualifies me for my career now, but the thing I’ve found most valuable is the critical thinking skills I gained throughout my MBA experience.”

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