Master's in Human Resources Management
Jessica Wojcik
It was the best class Jessica Wojcik had ever taken—and, in some ways, the most challenging.
Like other courses she had completed in the Master’s in Human Resources Management program, Coaching Skills for HR was rigorous. But it wasn’t the academic content that made it demanding: it was the kind of questions the class was asking, questions like, “Who are you?” “What are your strengths?” “And what are your values?”
The answers to these questions, said Shonna Waters, Ph.D., the course’s instructor and an organizational psychologist and leadership coach, “will guide you in how you manage people.”
The class had a special resonance for Wojcik, an immigrant from Germany who moved to Washington, D.C., in 2017, not long after finishing college. She knew how those kinds of questions could arise for people trying to find their way in a new culture. She just never thought she would be considering them in an academic setting.
“When I first came to the United States, I didn’t even know what a resume looked like here,” says Wojcik, who would go on to graduate in 2024 and be honored with the program’s Tropaia award for academic achievement. “So, I had to teach myself how to apply to jobs and learn what the working culture was like in the United States.”
She also didn’t know a lot of people. But that changed in 2021 when she started the program.
"The program was invaluable,” Wojcik says. “It connected me with experts and mentors who have become long-term resources, both professionally and personally. I feel confident I can always reach out to them for guidance on my career and other important topics.”
Wojcik is now a manager at a global biopharmaceutical company that specializes in treatments for rare disorders. She also works, on a contract basis, as a senior HR consultant for RecruitWrite, which uses artificial intelligence to help employment managers write better job descriptions. Wojcik earlier worked for the company as part of her Georgetown Capstone.
Wojcik has a natural affinity for human resources.
In any enterprise, “the bottom line is always the people, and I find that fascinating,” she says. “My undergraduate degree was in psychology, so I have always been interested in bringing people together and getting the best output possible. You can only do that so much when the culture isn’t good. I think that human resources has been an overlooked field for many, many years. And, finally, we have come to realize how impactful it can be.”
A company or institution can have a wonderful mission statement and ambitious goals for creating a dynamic, supportive, and inclusive environment. But if people in human resources aren’t buying into it on a personal level, those goals have little chance of success. In order to internalize that mission and truly support those goals, they first need to answer the kind of questions that Wojcik’s coaching class posed. That is, they need to know themselves.
“We often get caught up in the routine of everyday work,” Wojcik says. “And this class helped me pause and reflect on what truly motivates and fulfills me.”
Another lesson from the program was the realization that—with hard work, dedication, and a measure of courage—a diverse group of people can create something truly worthwhile.
“I’ve made lifelong friends with people from such different backgrounds,” Wojcik says. “And I think that’s only possible in a classroom where you have a safe space and sense of belonging, and where you can actually talk about different perspectives, which makes everything so much more insightful while learning from each other as well.”