As a Temple undergraduate student, Jaldhi Patel, CST ’20, understood the importance of building a strong community of support around you.
Now, back at Temple University in pursuit of her Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree at the Fox School of Business, she’s leading the charge for graduate students at the Fox School of Business to do the same.
Patel serves as president of the Fox School’s Graduate Student Association (GSA) student professional organization (SPO). A freshly reestablished student group, GSA eyes a simple, but meaningful, goal: build a stronger graduate student community at Fox.
“Fox graduate students are spread across so many different programs, it can be difficult to actually meet people outside of your own classes, especially when most are also working full-time jobs or have families at home,” Patel explained.
“The GSA creates opportunities for students to connect with each other, with faculty and those within the larger Fox School community. Our group can be a strong connection point and help students build relationships that they otherwise may never have had the chance to make.”
While previous iterations of the group have existed before, Patel, a 30 Under 30 university honoree, explained that her appointment as GSA president in fall 2025 marked the beginning of the group’s reestablishment within the Fox community for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic. As she pursues her MBA with a concentration in healthcare management, she leads the group with an emphasis on “thinking about what graduate students want and what programming they are looking for.”
In addition to her personal affinity for “getting people together,” she believes in the benefits of a strong graduate student community for the school.
“I truly believe there can be a social aspect to graduate school,” Patel said.
“We are all here to earn a degree, yes, but also to learn and grow professionally. I think GSA can be an important bridge between those elements through creating opportunities for students to network, develop professionally, attend social events and generally find more ways to meet and learn from one another.
“Take the program I am in for example—an important factor of pursuing your MBA is built around networking and developing relationships. Community is critical because some of the most valuable parts of graduate school can come from people you meet.”
Patel is proud to report that the immediate efforts by her and her leadership team have not gone unnoticed. In addition to successfully rolling out ways for students to get connected to the organization, like through its LinkedIn page, it’s already found support through event outings: a spring 2026 networking night was well attended by graduate students and Fox faculty.
“We were really pleased by the turnout at our spring networking night and recognize how important it will be to stay consistent in offering events like that moving forward,” Patel said.
“I think it’s important that we establish offerings that create different types of opportunities throughout the year and ensure that there is something for everyone. In addition to social outings, we know some students might also be looking for dedicated events that center on professional networking or meeting faculty, and we plan to pursue those.”
In addition to offering a resource for connection, the organization also wants to emphasize that it is a pillar of support. Patel comments that the group also carries a goal to be a representative of the graduate student body, advocating on behalf of students or amplifying their voices when necessary.
While Patel proudly leads the group now, she’s also proactive at preparing the association for success beyond her graduate school graduation, citing that she’s “working to create a structure for the group that will last a long time.” In the meantime, though, she believes in the importance of what GSA is developing.
“It’s a great time to build up GSA again, and what’s been exciting about rebuilding now is that there seems to be genuine interest in having our community present and having a role at Fox,” Patel said.
“To me, success for our group would look like a world where graduate students know who we are, they want to participate with us and genuinely see it as an important part of their entire experience at Fox. While we are thankful for our early successes, and especially thank Fox faculty and staff members Kimberly Cherwinski, Crystal Harold and Kimberly Sakil for their help, I am very excited to see what the future holds for this group.”
To learn more about the Fox Graduate Student Association, including upcoming events like their new series, “Fox Faculty on Tap!”, visit its LinkedIn, Instagram or “Fox Graduate Programs” page on Canvas.