They were introduced to each other twelve years ago and have now been together for seven, we met with Adriana Ingar Diaz and Arturo Pereyra to find out how their love story brought them to Manchester to study the Full-time MBA.
It is not often that two halves of a whole want to study an MBA, but to also want to study an MBA at the same time, in the same city is even rarer. Adri and Arturo are part of our MBA class of 2020 and came from Lima, Peru together to share their MBA experience. Both had around five years' working experience before coming to Manchester, Adri in marketing and Arturo in sales, which complement each other nicely.
Adri had always known that she wanted to study an MBA and a couple of years into their relationship, she started researching MBAs and where she was going to travel to study one. All this talk of MBAs encouraged Arturo to start his own research, and he decided that he was also at a stage in his career where he wanted to progress further and try something new.
With Adri's passion and forward thinking and Arturo's calm and logical manner, they work together well which helped when they were researching schools. They shortlisted three schools in Europe to apply for, including Manchester. "There was never an option that we would attend different schools" explains Adri, "one of the key elements of choosing our final school was that we both got in."
Their initial contact with Alliance MBS was a meeting with our admissions director in Lima. They attended this meeting together and they were proud to showcase that they were applying to schools together as a couple. "After meeting with AMBS in Lima, we had recommendations about the school from a friend who was already studying her MBA here," Adri said. "Manchester became our first choice as we wanted to study our MBA somewhere with good opportunities for work post-MBA."
"I am so happy that I am here with my boyfriend, " continued Adri, "we do try and do things separately, we don't like to sit together in lectures and we have different friendship groups within the class." Arturo also went on to say how having Adri with him is like that 'piece of home'. "We cook Peruvian food and it is nice to have that support with you when you come to a new country."
Currently the Class of 2020 is applying for internships, which means Adri and Arturo are applying for the same placements. Fortunately this never causes rivalry between the couple and they constantly support each other throughout their individual MBA journeys.
"An MBA is a once-in-a-lifetime experience and we are lucky we get to do this together. We have now seen parts of the world together that we would never have seen had we stayed in Lima and we are so grateful to have this opportunity to study together."
