After receiving his bachelor’s degree from Georgetown University and his JD from the University of Notre Dame, Ryan Fitzgerald chose the Whitman School to build upon his legal training by gaining business and management knowledge and experience.

Before coming to the Whitman School, Ryan practiced law in his hometown, Cleveland, at McDonald Hopkins, a business law firm. As an attorney, he litigated business and commercial cases through trial and appeal.

As an MBA student at Whitman, Ryan works with the South Side Innovation Center, helping small-business entrepreneurs develop business plans for new ventures in the low-income South Side of Syracuse.

“A Whitman MBA is about more than simply learning management theory in the classroom,” Ryan says. “This experience has opened me to the real nuts and bolts of starting and operating a successful business.”