Mary Schrott, MSUS + MBA '21 is sharing sustainability with the corporate world
Read how this alumna’s Chatham journey moved smoothly from coursework, to internship, to employment.
Mary Schrott, MSUS+MBA ’21 knows what she wants. When she was an undergraduate at Miami University in Ohio, it was a degree in journalism, followed by a move to Washington, DC. She obtained these things, working in public relations for a green nonprofit called the US Green Building Council, where her eyes were opened to sustainability as a career. “I knew I wanted to be a leader in the sustainability space in some way,” she says.
Schrott began looking into MBA programs that focused on sustainability.
“I really wanted an MBA so I’d be more marketable,” she says, “and when I found Chatham, the combination [of the MBA with the Master in sustainability] was just really appealing. Chatham stood out with that unique blend, and I love my hometown of Pittsburgh, so it all seemed to line up.”
In the Falk School
Schrott counts Environmental Reporting as one of her favorite courses in the program. “I really liked it because it focused on corporate social responsibility, taking data and structuring how a company is doing in regard to social and environmental initiatives, which is the direction I wanted my career to go in,” she says. “We got to work with Marburger Dairy Farm, which is local, and we helped them build out a sustainability report using their KPI metrics. The report felt important because it got to be used in conjunction with getting Marburger’s products into Walmart and certified as sustainable. That was really cool.”
Schrott also enjoyed Sustainable Human Capital, which looks at how you can engage employees through sustainability initiatives. “That course was also really inspiring to me as it kind of guided me to where I am now,” she says.
Starting Out at FedEx
That’s working full time as a sustainability specialist for FedEx Ground, and getting to her career there was a series of connecting the dots. First, she researched Fortune 500 companies in the area that had a sustainability department. Then she found a contact on LinkedIn that was shared with one of her professors. “My professor gave me their contact info and I reached out to express my interest in a sustainability internship that they had publicized,” she says.
Schrott got the internship and found that it connected directly to her coursework. “I was looking at one of their employee engagement programs to help people working in the field engage with sustainability, to see where improvements can be made,” she says. “And then I asked the FedEx team if I could take it on as my capstone project, and they said yes. So I was able to apply my academic research to the problem. I conducted research and surveys last summer with employees about the program, and it all went into my capstone project in the form of recommendations. And that capstone project opened up the opportunity for employment.”
Schrott kept in touch with the people with whom she worked at FedEx, and when a position opened up in the sustainability department, she was told about it, applied, and was hired in March, 2021.
Today, Schrott is continuing to inspire FedEx employees to adopt more sustainable measures, at work and at home. Her work has been remote, but she’s looking forward to opportunities to meet employees and see how her recommendations are working.