Olin BSBA student merges management ambitions with a love of education

Sometimes, the path to your future isn’t a straight line. You make a turn here and take an on-ramp there, and before you know it, you’ve ended up someplace entirely unexpected.

For Noah Vermes, an incoming senior in the BSBA program, those turns took him from WashU’s College of Arts and Sciences to Olin—and allowed him to craft a path that combines a talent for consulting and a love of education. 

He’s finishing up an internship in Boston that capitalizes on both—working as a summer analyst at Tyton Partners, a strategy consulting firm in the global education sector.

“I’m working on a long-term project with a university, providing them with a go-to-market strategy and pricing strategy for the near and long term,” Vermes said. “I’m researching the types of students they hope to attract and seeing how they make decisions about colleges.”

The internship couldn’t be a better fit with Vermes’ interests and goals. “I have loved working in consulting for a sector I am so passionate about.”

The pivot

Vermes, a Cherry Hill, New Jersey, native, entered the university as a math major. “I had no clue what I wanted to study,” he said. “But I liked math and knew I was good at it.” The son of a school psychologist, he thought he might pursue a career as a math teacher.

Vermes said he enjoys communicating with people and using math to solve problems. “That naturally led me to pivot to business school. I found that I liked management consulting, which brings in so many aspects of what I enjoy—solving problems, working with people.”

But he never gave up his interest in education and decided to take on a second major in educational studies. He wasn’t sure how to reconcile these two interests until he discovered the world of educational consulting. Researching firms in that sector, he found Tyton.

“They work with universities, schools, nonprofits, foundations, education technology firms, everything under the sun,” Vermes said. He leaned heavily on his preparation at Olin’s Weston Career Center and advice from his management professors Staci Thomas and Rebecca Dohrman in pursuing the Tyton internship. “I used them as a sounding board, saying ‘Here’s what I’m thinking about doing.’ It was incredibly helpful.”

A broader perspective

Vermes said this summer’s internship gave him a broader understanding of the opportunities available in education.

“I had settled on the idea that I need education in my life in some way, but I saw it as separate from my business classes,” he said. “I’ve learned that there are opportunities out there, whether it’s in grad school, education consulting, even education VC (venture capital firms).”

Now he’s heading back to Olin this fall reinvigorated—and with a big challenge ahead. He’ll be the head teaching assistant for eight sections of the Management 201 class, supervising 15 other TAs.

“I definitely pushed for this and said I’d love opportunities to challenge myself,” he said.

Vermes encouraged students to look beyond traditional career paths to find the best fit for their talents and passions.

“It’s easy to silo yourself and keep to the path that everybody else is taking,” he said. “Look at what you really like doing and find out what you like about it. Olin gives you the foundation to take the skills you learn and apply them toward something that you really enjoy.”