We are incredibly proud of our Darden MBA students — as a dual degree student and co-founder of the student-led Darden Disability Alliance (DDA), Seiver Jorgensen (Class of 2025) makes it easy to see why. Read about her MBA journey below!
Name: Seiver Jorgensen
Pronouns: she/her
Program/Graduation Year: Full-Time MBA 2025/Master of Engineering 2025
Hometown: Longmont, Colorado, USA
Why Darden?
I came back to school so that I could pivot out of healthcare software into construction/real estate. UVA is one of just a handful of schools offering a combined MBA and Master of Engineering in Civil Engineering degree in the United States. That, combined with Darden’s reputation for academic rigor and an incredible classroom experience, sold me.
What did you do before coming to Darden?
Before coming to Darden, I worked in product management and technical solutions for Epic Systems Corp. in Verona, Wisconsin.
How has being a member of the disability community impacted your professional, academic and personal journey?
During my first year of graduate work, I could finally nail down language that helped others understand how I walk through the world. In addition to identifying my autism/ADHD, during my time at graduate school, I have also added a few new chronic illnesses to my collection.
What has been the highlight of your Darden experience so far?
This is an easy one: co-founding the Darden Disability Alliance with so many wonderful people (including Darden staff and faculty) and serving as the first president of the new student club. Within two weeks of starting as a student at Darden, I was forced to reckon with all the ways that the societal expectations for a business school student and graduate are miles from those of an engineer. At the end of those two weeks, I visited the Office of Student Affairs (OSA) to see if there was a student club or initiative with folks dealing with similar things. The reality was that although Darden had such a student group on and off in the previous years when I needed it, it was an off year. I felt like I had just been issued a challenge to build the club in a way that wouldn’t break up when I graduated.
I made a friend during opening week (orientation) when I shared my recent diagnosis experience with 60 random strangers against my better judgment. They confided in me about their own experience as an ADHDer. Once I had the idea that Darden needed this club, they were the first person I thought might be interested in co-founding it. After one lunch, we were off to the races, and very quickly, the future executive board grew by word of mouth from there.
Can you describe the scope of your role?
I hope that folks remember my term as club president for two things: (1) making sure that everyone else on the board had the support they needed to be successful and (2) as a fierce advocate for engagement on and awareness of student experience as it relates to academic accessibility, physical accessibility, and whatever else comes up. As president, I am also responsible for facilitating the club’s partnership with Darden’s and UVA’s departments’ existing and new disability/accessibility work. I will be the first Darden student/Darden representative to sit on the UVA Disability Advocacy Committee and in partnership with Ed Warwick, Assistant Dean of Student Affairs, the co-founder of the new Darden Disability Access Group. The work that we do as students at Darden is only one piece of the puzzle towards making business school more accessible for all students regardless of disability status, so we are incredibly lucky to be at a school that already cares so deeply about this work and was thrilled to have students pick up part of the mantel.
What is your favorite DDA memory so far?
It is hard to pick just one favorite memory from all our fun and hard work, so I will give you two. On a less serious note, I have catered First Coffee twice, which was so cool! Between both First Coffees, I made over 1400 chocolate chip cookies in five flavor variations and my best gluten-free/vegan cookies ever. We had a fantastic turnout, even pulling folks to Darden from the Student Disability Access Center on UVA’s main grounds. The other memory is reading the feedback survey results at the end of our human-narrated case recordings pilot. The number of hours everyone involved in that effort put in to make it possible showed so much dedication to improving academic accessibility as an all-hands-on-deck effort. We received lots of heartfelt thanks, and now I am part of the team making high-quality case recordings (think audiobook) a permanent part of Darden’s resources.
What advice do you have for students about embarking on their time at Darden?
Please ask for what you need! OSA isn’t kidding when they say they are accommodations positive. If you want to have that conversation with a peer first because this landscape is all new to you, just like it was for me, don’t hesitate to reach out to the current president of DDA. They will be just as excited as I would be to help you think through those or find another peer for a brainstorming session. Always remember that OSA cannot help you if they do not know you need it; stop by their office, where the chairs are comfortable, and there is always candy.
