Alumni Profiles

B.A., Philosophy and Community & Justice Studies (double major), 2008

Master of Business Administration candidate, Bryan School of Business and Economics

The University of North Carolina at Greensboro

Greensboro, N.C. 

To watch an interview with Elizabeth, click here.

Colleges will tell you that one of the majors listed most by incoming freshmen is “Unknown.” That certainly applied to Elizabeth Reilley of Hopewell, New Jersey, when she enrolled at Guilford College. 

“I didn’t know what size college I wanted,” she says, “much less what I wanted to major in. I was thinking maybe business management and accounting … but mainly I just knew that it was time to go someplace warmer than New Jersey!” 

She adds that choosing a smaller school was definitely the right choice. “Every single professor knows your name, and that is NOT everyone’s college experience — my friends at other schools did not have that kind of experience. The Guilford College faculty members are wonderful, amazing … still a huge part of my life.” 

Elizabeth says that even though she had been a successful student in high school, things were different for her at Guilford. “If you’re in a classroom with 15 people, and you haven’t done the assigned reading, everyone in there knows it. The thing is, it really helped me to be held accountable that way — I had to  do the work, to participate, and that really helped me.” 

She explains further: “The Guilford College faculty really care about the success of their students. They are there to teach, not just to do their own research. Other schools’ faculty put in graduate-school assistants to teach, but not at Guilford. And the students themselves are part of the support system. If you don’t show up for class, they’re on their cells, ‘Are you OK? Why aren’t you here in class?’ I didn’t think I needed that, but I benefitted from it. Here’s the thing — if you don’t need support, great; but if you do, it’s there.” 

As for what to major in, Elizabeth learned in her first year that a smart thing to do is to choose a subject you really like. And in that first year, she took a fascinating philosophy course. “I really enjoyed it, so I asked the professor how I could be reading these types of writings and take part in these types of discussions after the course was over. Not surprisingly, she suggested that I could become a philosophy major. So I did.” 

Elizabeth then discovered that as she took more courses in philosophy, she felt herself growing intellectually. “I felt myself acquiring skills in writing, in thinking, even in speaking through the philosophy program,” she says. Perhaps equally important, she soon saw how her studies in philosophy could help her in a business career. 

“I really arrived at my career choice through my work with the student Community Senate. I was secretary of that organization, and we were given unbelievable opportunities — we got to sit in on all the institutional committee meetings, the trustee meetings. We even got to participate. That is an amazing opportunity for students. And seeing how a college is actually run made me want to be a part of something like that.” 

Her plans, therefore, include earning the MBA and then going into a career in higher education, being part of the administration of a college. “I’d love to work in admissions for a small, liberal arts college like Guilford,” she says, “and I chose to earn an MBA because its scope is so broad that it will open many different possibilities for me … even if I veer away from academia to another form of nonprofit, or even to private industry.” 

Elizabeth credits her being admitted to the UNC Greensboro MBA program “because of the recommendations from Guilford College faculty and administration. The people at UNCG told me that my grades were good, but that the very personal and specific things in my letters of recommendation were phenomenal.” 

She adds: “Those letters of recommendation also earned me a teaching assistantship that’s really worth a lot of money to me! Let’s face it, the close relationships that Guilford students form with faculty and staff are unlike what happens in large schools, so my letters made a big difference.” 

The Quaker values at Guilford College also played an important role in Elizabeth Reilley’s development, she says. “Guilford College definitely changed me — the Quaker influence at the college means that I was exposed to processes in and out of the classroom that made me a much more effective communicator that I was.” 

She explains it this way: “The main thing I learned was that everyone’s ideas are important and have real value — not just Democrats, not just those associated with the military [her father joined the Marines right out of high school and served in Vietnam] … but everyone’s ideas. In truth, everyone has something important to say, something to contribute. Everyone has a little piece of the truth.” 

Learning to incorporate everyone’s thinking into her decision-making, she says, “makes me much more effective, and Guilford got me to that place in a genuine way — I truly do care about others and their thoughts and desires, because their ideas and their efforts will make my work and theirs stronger. Really. This is not just a consensus survival technique, but a genuine appreciation for the long- and short-term benefits.” 

While she was a student at Guilford, Elizabeth worked in many community service capacities, unpacking food for a local food bank, playing with Pathways kids, working with the disabled and homeless, etc. That service shaped her into the kind of MBA businesswoman she will become: “I got so much from helping people in need — I got much more from it than they did — that I want to do things like that in some way forever. I deeply appreciate what I have and have had, and I know now that service will always be a part of my life.”