Nicola Roark attended UCCS for her graduate degree and earned a Master's in Business Administration (MBA) in 2011. She currently works at T. Rowe Price as the Site Strategy Manager where she focuses on driving site strategic priorities, including associate engagement, brand awareness, community involvement, and weaving diversity, equity, and inclusion through all initiatives. Roark chose UCCS for her graduate education because of the university's reputation, the caliber of instruction offered by the school, and the ability to flex between online and in-person learning. For post-traditional students such as Roark, UCCS offered plenty of flexibility and a collaborative learning environment. She describes her student experience as supportive and explains how she really enjoyed the teamwork in her classes for group projects in courses like Accounting and Statistics. Roark found her fellow students to be encouraging to one another as well as cultivating an environment where everyone could contribute.
Roark volunteers with UCCS in a variety of ways, including career coaching, search committees, and on the Theatreworks Advisory Board. She chooses to volunteer with the university because it is important to pay it forward, she learns from the student and faculty perspective, and because volunteering has a "ripple effect" where the volunteer gets just as much out of it as those being served through volunteer work. In her free time, she enjoys cycling, traveling, reading, and the performing arts. Roark encourages everyone to explore volunteer opportunities, both as a way to build their existing skillset and as a way to engage with the specific needs in our community.
