Q&A with Norma Lilia Ruiz Cruz
When it comes to choosing a major, figuring out what career you’ll pursue or deciding how to give back to your community, “doing what you love” can often be a deciding factor.
It’s what brought Norma Lilia Ruiz Cruz, who is a MBA and M.S. in Management Information Technology candidate, to OU in the first place. Eddie Edwards, executive director of Price College’s MBA program, encouraged Cruz to flip the phrase, however, when managing course work for two degrees in a new field became tough.
“Don’t do what you love,” Edwards said, “Love what you do.”
Price College had the chance to talk with Cruz and learn how she faced the challenge of finding joy in her new path.
About Norma
Hometown: Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico
Program: MBA and M.S. in MIT candidate; Certificate in Entrepreneurship
Expected graduation: May 2023
Extracurricular: LatinArte, Graduate Student Senate and Intramural Soccer 8v8
Why did you originally come to the University of Oklahoma?
I grew up in Tijuana, Mexico. When I was 16, I received a scholarship to attend the United World College in Mexico, which is a group of international boarding schools. Getting into the school was a rigorous process. If you graduate, you get the opportunity to receive a scholarship through the Davis Foundation. OU is a big partner with the Davis Foundation, and continues to win the Davis Cup year after year, so I looked at the list of partner institutions—specifically those that were good in theatre. OU was one of the highest-ranked schools for theatre that I found on the list. I didn’t know about the process for applying to theatre schools in the U.S., so I was an anthropology student my first year with the hope of being admitted, which I ended up doing. Theatre was so fun; it was difficult because it had long hours and lots of teamwork, but it was easy for me to find joy in it.
What led you to pursue Price College’s MBA program?
After I graduated from OU during the pandemic, I found a job in education that was related to theatre dramaturgy, my undergraduate major, but ultimately the employer couldn’t hire me because they didn’t sponsor Visas. For a few months I didn’t know what to do. Then someone suggested that I apply for an MBA. I basically had a month to study for the GRE, re-learn geometry and other math classes. After applying and being accepted to a few programs, I decided OU was where I’d go back to school because it’s the top MBA program in Oklahoma.
What was it like going from one industry (theatre) to business?
The whole process was very fast-paced and even terrifying at times, but I learned how to love business. The first semester we had accounting, management, financial modeling, brand new terms and mathematic equations. I was lost, but I was glad I wasn’t the only one with a non-business background who felt the same way. I found the joy in the introduction to management of information technology class. It was the class that led me to pursue a dual master’s degree.
I like making things, like crocheting, knitting, painting, doing theatre. With coding, even with databases, you’re still making commands—it’s just fun to make things. VBA is fun—it’s the Excel coding language used to program games and other fun things.
What do you hope to accomplish with your new degrees?
I want to be a data analyst and find the intersection of creativity and analytics. We have sentiment analysis and machine learning, but I think there are so many more things we can do with what we’re collecting and how we’re using qualitative data analytics. There is a surplus of data, but there aren’t always resources or the drive to figure out what to do with it. I want to work on solving those problems.
What’s been your favorite experience with Price College?
Going to New York City with the NYC Price Scholars program. You get to network and meet with board members of different companies. We had great dinners, and it was a wonderful time, and we received scholarships to be able to go on the trip.
