Class of 2024: The path to a business degree was its own workout for Mackenzie Gebroe

By Leila Ugincius

By 2019, Mackenzie Gebroe had a promising career in management and dropped out of college to pursue it full time. Timing wasn’t on her side.

“So I took the leap,” she said. “School wasn’t working out for me.”

But one pandemic and numerous ups and downs later, school has worked out for her. Gebroe made her way across the country to Virginia Commonwealth University, and she graduates this month with a bachelor’s in business administration from the School of Business.

Born and raised in Los Angeles, Gebroe began working the front desk of a boxing gym while attending community college in 2018. Soon, the gym promoted her to be a shift supervisor, and within a few months, it offered her the opportunity to manage its new, premiere New York City location. 

“I had been in community college already for about three years at that point, and it wasn’t working,” Gebroe said. “So I was like, ‘You know what? This is a great opportunity. It’s the beginning of a career. Let me do it.’”

She dropped out of school and, in February 2019, moved to New York, where everything went smoothly for about a year, she said. She readily embraced the management role, leading a team, running the business and keeping clients happy, all while making sure the company hit its financial goals. The gym even planned to open a second location in New York.

Then the COVID pandemic arrived in early 2020. At its onset, the company offered Gebroe the chance to return to the L.A. location and keep her position.

“And just a couple weeks later, everyone lost their jobs,” she said. “It was kind of a roller coaster of emotions. I thought that I had found a career for myself. I was living in a new city, and then the pandemic, and I lost my job. I had to move back in with my parents. … I definitely went through it for a little while. That first six months to a year was really hard on me.”

Around the same time, her best friend found himself in a similar predicament – unemployed, with no real direction for the future. His father, a VCU School of Business alum, encouraged him to hit reset and go back to school — at VCU.

“He brought up the idea to me,” Gebroe said. “So that’s kind of where we get started on the ending-up-in-Virginia track. … I did a lot of research based on the cost of living, how VCU was ranked, the School of Business — the whole thing. And the numbers were looking good.”

Gebroe became a Richmonder in summer 2021 and initially enrolled at Reynolds Community College to ease back into student life.

“When I came to VCU [in fall 2022], I wasn’t 100% sure of what I wanted to do,” she said. “I wanted to take my [previous job] experiences and I wanted to get that business management degree, but I wasn’t sure how to bridge the gap between having experience and a degree to getting a real job. …  I’ve always seen myself growing into a young businesswoman. I have big career goals.”

Katybeth Lee, Ph.D., assistant dean of student success at the School of Business, encouraged Gebroe to attend the school’s career fair. Throughout Lee’s Career and Professional Development course, Gebroe developed professional skills, including the effective use of LinkedIn and creating an elevator pitch.

“For me, it was finally starting to close that gap,” she said of the course, “and prepare me so that when I’m sitting in a room with executives, I don’t feel like an imposter. I feel confident in my skills and my knowledge, and I know that I can stand up and be a contributing member to the room rather than someone that’s just listening in.”

At the fair, Gebroe connected with a human resources manager from Cintas, a service company that provides businesses with uniforms, facility services, first aid and safety, and fire protection. She learned about the company’s internships and management trainee program for graduates within the first aid and safety division.

The application process was meticulous. Gebroe underwent four or five rounds of interviews throughout the fall semester before receiving an internship offer for the following summer. This past summer, she returned for a second internship with the company’s first aid and safety division, and after graduation, she will enter the Cintas management trainee program as a full-time employee.

“If you want something to happen, you can make it happen,” Gebroe said. “So for me, I dropped out of community college. … I thought college wasn’t for me. But change is inevitable and I’ve seen change be for the better. I’ve achieved that I never would’ve thought possible had you asked me five years ago.”