"Better Thinkers. Better Leaders. Better People.”: MDA Graduates Reflect on Community and Decision-Making at Minerva University

At Minerva University’s 2026 graduation ceremony in San Francisco, graduate speaker Katarzyna Buszka reflected on the experience of pursuing a master’s degree while balancing careers, responsibilities, and life across multiple time zones.

Buszka, a member of Minerva’s Master of Decision Analysis (MDA) Class of 2026 from Poland, addressed fellow graduates during the university’s Degree Conferral Ceremony at Herbst Theatre.

“We took on the challenge of pursuing a master’s degree without putting our lives on hold,” Buszka said. “Every MDA class showed up on Forum, screens lit, minds open. We were ready to be challenged.”

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Throughout her remarks, Buszka reflected on Minerva’s active learning model, emphasizing the program’s focus on participation, intellectual humility, and collaborative problem-solving.

“Minerva doesn’t let you sit in the back of a lecture hall and nod your head,” Buszka said. “There are no lectures. From day one, we were thrown into active seminars where you can’t hide behind a muted mic and a profile picture.”

She described how the program encouraged students to think critically, challenge assumptions, and engage openly with uncertainty.

“What Minerva didn’t give us was a set of answers,” Buszka said. “It’s a set of habits. The instinct to question our assumptions before we act on them.”

Buszka also reflected on the ways those habits extended beyond the classroom and into everyday life and leadership.

“These are not skills you put on a resume,” she said. “This is a reflex now. This shapes how we lead meetings, read the news, raise our children, and show up in the world.”

Across the speech, Buszka repeatedly returned to the importance of community, particularly among working professionals navigating graduate education while balancing careers and personal responsibilities.

“But if I’m honest, the thing I will carry the longest with me is not a concept or a framework,” Buszka said. “It’s the community.”

She reflected on the relationships built through late-night study sessions, discussions across time zones, and immersion experiences in Tokyo and London.

“It’s the late-night or early-morning study sessions across more time zones than I can fathom,” Buszka said. “It’s the immersion weeks in Tokyo and London where we hugged the people we’d been debating with for months.”

Buszka also closed her remarks with humor, recalling the challenge of finally meeting classmates in person after months of virtual collaboration.

“Here’s the best part about meeting everyone in person,” she said. “We could not for the life of us decide which museum to go to or where to get dinner. Turns out the hardest decisions aren’t in the classroom.”

As graduates prepared to enter the next chapter of their personal and professional lives, Buszka encouraged classmates to carry forward the habits of reflection, collaboration, and thoughtful decision-making they developed throughout the program.

“To my fellow graduates, we came here to become better decision makers,” Buszka said. “I believe we’re leaving as better thinkers. Better leaders. Better people.”

“The world is full of noise, uncertainty, and consequential choices,” she continued. “We are now more than ever equipped to navigate them, because this program taught us that the best decisions are informed by many perspectives.”

As graduates prepared to leave San Francisco and return to cities and careers around the world, Buszka’s remarks captured the spirit of the MDA experience, which is that the most meaningful learning often comes from learning how to think more openly, collaboratively, and intentionally alongside others.

Congratulations Minerva University Class of 2026. View the full degree conferral ceremony here. 

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Learn more about Minerva’s Master of Decision Analysis program and how professionals around the world are building new approaches to leadership, decision-making, and collaboration.

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