Profiles from the Class of 2022: Katherine Vieser

Katherine Vieser in black sweater

Katherine Vieser never intended to attend Duke. She thought she wanted to study undergraduate business and could not do that at Duke.

But she visited on a whim and decided to take a tour.

“I mean it sounds so cheesy but I had a great tour. It was beautiful day, and I just knew this was the school for me."

It turns out, Katherine was right; Duke was the school for her, and the lack of undergraduate business did not hinder her experience. In fact, she believes the ability to study so many different programs in an interdisciplinary manner has been an unexpected net positive.

In addition to the MMS certificate, Katherine is also a Psychology major and Political Science minor. She has found all three programs to be beneficial as they have helped her refine her interest in the client side of business. This was especially true during her recent internship in sales.

“I definitely found that people were really interested in the psychology major and consistently said, we need more people in your field and this perspective in this industry,” she shared.

She has also benefitted from getting to know faculty in multiple programs who have helped shape her Duke experience.

Two of her favorite professors were George Grody from the MMS program and Andrew Veil from Political Science. She shared that she enjoyed not only the courses she took with both professors but also how they engaged with their students and were willing to continue to advise them after the courses was complete.

In addition to academics, Duke allowed her to feel free to explore her other interests as well. She has been involved in Business Oriented women (BOW), First Generation Investors—a startup that she helped bring to campus—and Harmony for Health, an organization that performs for Ronald McDonald House and nursing homes.

But Duke wouldn’t be the same without people. She shared that the people she met at Duke and have been some of the biggest influences on her life.

“Something I love about Duke is the sense of community,” she said. “It’s that communal sense of being obsessed with your school.”

This kind of obsession and love of Duke might make students unlikeable to others, she joked, but the community within Duke is strong. Especially for students like Katherine who studied remotely for some of their time at Duke, she has learned to appreciate the people and relationships she has made while here even more.

Katherine is happy with the decision she made that day after her tour, and so is her family. She now has two younger sisters studying at Duke as well.

It's become a family school just from me visiting on a whim," she said.

Katherine will be working at Wells Fargo in sales and trading after graduation, and she is already looking forward to coming back to visit Duke.