Consistency Over Perfection: Spotlight on Vira Aleksandrova

Each year, the Poets&Quants Best & Brightest Online MBAs list recognizes standout graduates from leading online MBA programs. The Class of 2026 represents what the publication calls some of the “most significant online MBA graduates at the top business schools.” Among them is Santa Clara University Online MBA graduate Vira Aleksandrova.

Ask Vira to describe herself, and her answer says a great deal about why she earned the recognition: “Ambitious and purpose-driven MBA student, strategist, and community builder who believes leadership starts with lifting others.”

Her experience at Santa Clara bears that out. She approached the Online MBA with a full life, a clear vision for her future, and a commitment to creating opportunities for others along the way.

For professionals wondering how they can possibly fit an MBA into an already-full life, Vira offers a principle grounded in her own experience: “Give yourself grace.” As Poets&Quants summarized her advice, that means choosing consistency over perfection.

A Different Kind of MBA Experience

Vira grew up in Alushta, Crimea, Ukraine, and was fluent in four languages by age 21. She earned a master’s degree in languages from V. I. Vernadsky Taurida National University before her professional path led her toward business operations.

Years later, she came to her MBA with a different perspective on what she wanted from higher education. “During my undergraduate years, I was young and energetic, but not necessarily purpose-driven yet,” she told Poets&Quants. “My MBA experience was very different because I approached it with much more clarity, purpose, and life experience.”

Life experience also meant life responsibilities. Vira estimates that the Online MBA demanded an average of about 20 hours each week, depending on which courses she was taking. At the time of her Poets&Quants interview, she was also the mother of a four-year-old and a six-month-old baby.

That made the flexibility of an online MBA not just a convenience, but a necessity. “I chose an online MBA because it gave me the opportunity to continue advancing my education without putting my life on pause,” she said. “It allowed me to stay engaged in leadership, family, and professional commitments while still being part of the MBA experience in SCU.”

Leadership That Lifts Others

Vira didn’t simply make room for the MBA among those commitments. She used her time at Santa Clara to make room for other people, too. She served as co-president of Graduate Women in Business, an experience she counts among the achievements she is proudest of.

“I helped grow a community focused on mentorship, leadership, and creating meaningful opportunities for women in business,” she said.

In 2026, Vira extended that commitment beyond Santa Clara by joining the board of Financial Women of San Francisco, where she has contributed to initiatives supporting scholarships, professional development, and the advancement of women pursuing careers in finance and business.

Her involvement puts substance behind her belief that leadership begins with lifting others—and reflects Santa Clara’s emphasis on using individual strengths to make a positive impact on others and the broader community. As she helped to create community, she became part of one at Santa Clara, too.

In an online program—a format sometimes assumed to come at the expense of connection—Vira found something quite different: flexibility without isolation. “The program brought together professionals from different industries, backgrounds, and experiences,” she said. “Even in a virtual environment, I built meaningful friendships, professional relationships, and communities that became a very important part of my SCU MBA journey.”

Building a Path Toward Strategy

Vira entered the Online MBA with experience in business operations. She emerged with a clearer understanding of where she wants that experience to take her next. “My MBA helped me strengthen my strategic, analytical, and leadership skills,” she said, “and confirmed my interest in transitioning from business operations into strategy.”

Her long-term goal is to move into strategy-focused leadership roles, bringing together three dimensions of her experience: analytical thinking, operations expertise, and human-centered leadership.

Her experience with artificial intelligence during the program reinforced the importance of that last element. She saw AI used as a teaching assistant, brainstorming partner, and tool for sharpening clarity and precision in written work, and she came to recognize the essential role of human input. “One important insight I gained is that AI is a very powerful tool, but its value still depends on human judgment, critical thinking, and the quality of the questions being asked,” she said.

That lesson reinforces the human-centered approach she hopes to bring to strategy-focused leadership: Technology may change the tools at a leader’s disposal, but not the need for thoughtful human judgment.

Consistency Over Perfection

Vira’s MBA experience makes her advice to future students particularly resonant. Poets&Quants asked its 2026 Best & Brightest Online MBAs what they would tell students beginning business school or professionals considering an online degree. Its summary of Vira’s answer was simple: “Give yourself grace.”

For her, that means choosing consistency over perfection. Her story isn’t about finding a moment when every competing demand disappeared. It’s about making progress while those demands are still present.

A Best & Brightest Tradition at Leavey

Vira’s Best & Brightest recognition adds another chapter to Santa Clara University Leavey School of Business’ record of developing accomplished business leaders. Poets&Quants currently ranks Santa Clara’s Online MBA No. 24 among the nation’s best online MBA programs and No. 11 for career outcomes.^1,2 The program also ranks No. 43 for admissions standards¹ and No. 32 for academic experience.³

Rankings offer one way to measure the strength of an MBA program. The people who emerge from it offer another. Being named one of Poets&Quants’ Best & Brightest Online MBAs is a recognition of how far Vira has already come. Her own philosophy suggests she is less interested in arriving at some perfect endpoint than in continuing to move forward.

Consistently. Purposefully. While lifting others along the way.

Santa Clara’s Online MBA can help you build the skills, perspective, and connections to pursue your goals successfully. To learn more about the curriculum and faculty, and how the program can support the next stage of your career, schedule a call with an admissions outreach advisor today.