As the mother of two young boys working full time to help her husband fight a rare form of leukemia, Ivana Bajet was understandably overwhelmed and didn’t think she’d ever complete her master’s degree program — despite having only two classes remaining.

Often writing papers and joining classes online from her husband’s hospital room, Ivana proved herself wrong and earned her Master of Business Administration (MBA)* from the University of Arizona Global (UAGC) in 2021. One month later, she was offered a coveted IT administrative fellowship, setting her on a direct path to her dream position in health care management.

“My story is one of many examples that is a success story, despite the challenges I faced during my program, and my hope is to inspire others to earn their degree,” Ivana says. “Every student has a story with challenges, but sometimes no one knows those challenges, and it can feel lonely.” 

Difficult Lives as Young Adults

Born and raised in California’s capitol of Sacramento, Ivana was the second oldest of six, outnumbered by her five brothers. With separated parents, Ivana helped her mom raise the four youngest boys. Ivana graduated from high school in 2008. A year later, she met her future husband Pedro Bajet, Jr..

During the five years that followed, Ivana found herself working full time while attending a handful of junior colleges based on classes available.

Early on in her education, Ivana says she wanted to be a high school counselor, but after taking a few psychology classes realized that career wasn’t for her. Since she enjoyed science and math, she eventually switched to a dentistry focus. 

“I discovered that taking on being a full-time student wasn’t for me, so I was working more,” Ivana admitted. “I always told myself I wanted to be minimally enrolled, but I was overwhelmed with everything.”

In 2010 — in the middle of her junior college education — Pedro, just 24 years old at the time, received devastating life-changing news. 

“He was having a lot of symptoms,” Ivana says of the time prior to diagnosis. “His hips were hurting. His body was achy to the point where he couldn’t get up sometimes. He lost a lot of weight, and I kept telling him to go to the doctor.” 

Eventually, during a visit to the ER for a separate issue, the doctors discovered he had a myeloproliferative neoplasm, a leukemia so rare that his was the first case at Stanford University Medical Center.

Pedro needed a bone marrow transplant, which at the time required a donor who was a full match. With no one in the family to donate, Pedro’s name was placed in a donor bank. They waited, and years went by.

After taking a short break to care for Pedro after his diagnosis, Ivana returned to community college part time, taking one class each semester while working full time to help support her husband. In 2013, she discovered online education and decided to leave in-person junior college behind for good in favor of a degree path that provided the flexibility she needed.

UAGC MBA graduate Ivana Bajet

When not focussing on her career or spending time with her family, Ivana can be found working on her private pilot's license with her father.

Finding Her Strength and Passion

In 2013, Ivana started working in the customer service side of health care administration for a third-party company that provided billing services for local hospitals like Kaiser Permanente, UC Davis, and Stanford University Medical Center.

Once Ivana started working in health care administration, she knew she wasn’t going to be a dentist anymore. 

“It was about serving the patients,” she explains. “That experience is where I determined health care is a really big field, and I can go anywhere.”

Two years later, she graduated with an Associate of Arts in Health Care Administration from another online institution. That same year, Ivana and Pedro had their first son. Ivana took a break from her educational pursuits, but after discovering her company offered tuition reimbursement, she returned to school online in 2017 for her bachelor’s degree in management at another institution. In February 2018, Ivana and her husband had their second son. She had less than seven months to graduation but was concerned she wouldn’t be able to make it to the finish line with a newborn. 

“I was a little overwhelmed because I was having to finish my last course,” she recalls. “Being a mom of two and finishing the last part of school was challenging.”

Ivana knew an education would help her to get where she wanted to be in life, so she refused to give up. 

“At that time, I think the goal was getting a good job, having an education to support that, and not just having an entry level position, but something in management.”

In 2018, she got one step closer when she completed her BA. 

With a bachelor’s degree finally in hand, Ivana was confident she’d soon become a manager at her company, but she was quickly disappointed. Ivana had been with her company for three years, and although she wasn’t in an entry level position, she had been doing her job for a year and was looking for growth. Yet after applying for management opportunities in other departments, Ivana didn’t have any luck hearing from recruiters. 

“Nothing. Not even one interview,” she says. “That kind of frustrated me because I worked so hard on my undergrad degrees.”

In 2019, a caring mentor saw Ivana’s frustration and encouraged her to go back to school to get her master’s degree. 

“I thought she was crazy,” Ivana admits but agreed to do the research and see if it fit her lifestyle.

Then Ivana discovered that her company, CommonSpirit Health, still offered a path to her master’s degree that eliminated the financial barrier. That changed everything.

“I found out UAGC partnered with my company, so my master’s degree was free!” she exclaimed. “I couldn’t get over that. I knew it was going to be hard, but my husband was supporting me with the kids and he said, ‘Go for it.’ 

Thanks to her company’s partnership with UAGC, Ivana started her Master of Business Administration program in August 2019. During her MBA program, she was enrolled in a few Information Technology (IT) classes that interested her. 

“I was getting toward the end of my degree, and I said, ‘I need to figure out what I’m going to do when I get my master’s degree,” she says. “I researched more about IT and learned that field is a lot bigger than I realized. It’s a lot more than a tech person working on computers.”

Ivana was surprised to discover there were many operational IT positions available internally at CommonSpirit Health. Relying on the skills she learned in her master’s degree program coupled with a resume that demonstrated her education, Ivana applied for and landed an IT operations business analyst position, a role she says allowed her to tap into her strengths and discover her passion.

A Long Road Ahead

While Ivana focused on raising her sons and graduating with multiple degrees, 10 years went by. During that decade, she also continued to help her husband navigate his health issues, assisting with multiple trips to doctors and ensuring he took his medications. Unfortunately, there were still no developments regarding treatment his rare form of cancer.  

Eventually, Pedro was referred to a transplant doctor, and in May of 2021, he went through his first bone marrow transplant, which was also during the time of Ivana’s second-to-last class at UAGC.

“That was super challenging,” she says. “I was so close. I just had that one class and then a capstone class and I wanted to give up so bad.”

The bone marrow transplant required a one-month hospital stay. During the stay, she was promoted to a new position and wrote many of her papers there. It all left Ivana feeling overwhelmed.

“I wanted to give up so many times, but Pedro kept me going seeing how strong he was through his transplant, chemo, and radiation. He gave me the motivation I needed to push through. I look back and I have no idea how I did that,” she says. “

Pedro’s first bone marrow transplant was not successful, but this past April, he had a second transplant surgery and so far, the results are promising. 

“It’s a long journey to healing that will come with time and results,” she says.

On Her Way to Management

After earning her MBA, Ivana discovered her company offered an administrative fellowship for recent grads with a master’s degree. After two rounds of interviews, Ivana got the fellowship and began the 18-month program. 

Over the course of a year and a half, she will complete several rotations to gain exposure and develop valuable skill sets in various areas to train and prepare as a future leader in her company’s information technology division.

She believes it’s an opportunity she wouldn’t have had were it not for earning her MBA.

“My master’s program challenged me in so many ways. I think critical thinking was the biggest and based on that, I learned how to be more strategic and analytic.”

Now, she will be able to use her passion by supporting others to influence positive change and impactful contributions to the health care industry, she notes. 

“I am aiming to improve diversity in health care, cultivate equality, and be a voice for women who aspire to roles in IT leadership. I had a goal of becoming a leader to make a bigger impact in health care. I have a strong desire for organizational leadership opportunities that will allow me to provide a compassionate and long-term impact in health care.”

Ivana will soon be getting what she has been working for since high school. 

“I finally have reached a point where all of it was worth it, because I questioned it a lot during that time,” she recognizes. 

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Certain degree programs may not be available in all states. 

Successful completion of this program by itself does not lead to licensure or certification in any state, regardless of concentration or specialization. Students seeking licensure or certification in a particular profession are strongly encouraged to carefully research the requirements prior to enrollment. Requirements may vary by state. UAGC does not guarantee that any professional organization will accept a graduate’s application to sit for any exam for the purpose of professional certification.

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