Anthony Williamson, MBA

Most students like a professor who tells them how well they’re doing. Anthony Williamson ’16 says what he found most impressive about his Sage professors was the way they were able to detect when he was having a hard time and ask if they could be of extra help.

And it wouldn’t be like he was failing, he says. He just wasn’t excelling in a way they knew he should be.

“That’s how they take good students and turn them into great students.”

They’re able to do this, Anthony explains, by taking the time to fully get to know their students. “They learn about your background and discover what your goals are,” he says. “They identify your strengths, so they can help you reach your full potential.”

This was especially impressive to Anthony because he’d completed three semesters at the University at Albany, where classes could have as many as 450 students. He hadn’t had relationships with the professors anything like what he experienced when he transferred to Sage.

“With the smaller classes, you get so much more attention,” he says. “Which is great. But that means it’s also noticed when you aren’t there. And that’s not really going to fly, which is also a good thing.”

Anthony says he was inspired to learn to manage his time more wisely.

And that was key, he found, because he was also playing on the varsity soccer team, and enjoying spending time with the new friends he’d made on campus. 

After earning his BS in Business Administration, Anthony went on to earn his MBA at Sage. Along the way he had an internship at Novartis, a global pharmaceutical company, which turned into a full-time job that he’s thriving in today.

Anthony says he found the internship through a connection he’d made on his own, but says his professors and others at Sage helped him to prepare a winning resume and, maybe most important of all, made sure he had the confidence to succeed.

“Choosing to go to Sage was a great decision,” Anthony says. “It was the defining moment of my life.”