We Asked Senior Reilly Johnson What it Takes to be a Top 30 College Mogul

Reilly Johnson, currently in her senior year, has been named as one of the top 30 college moguls in the US.

Reilly is a member of the Order of Omega Greek Leadership Society, composed of affiliated students in the top three percent of their class in terms of GPA.

She also previously interned for the United States Senate, the Vermont State House, and was a teacher in Ghana as a fellow for World Partners in Education.

The Tab caught up with Dartmouth’s mogul to ask her about her success.

We think it’s awesome you made the list for the top 30 moguls in the United States, that’s very impressive!

Yeah, I was like, completely shocked. I’m not sure exactly how I got put onto the list, who nominated me exactly, but I received a LinkedIn message from the CEO of Mogul yesterday saying that I had made the list. It was both very shocking and humbling to see that I had stuck out to them.

What does the award mean to you, what does it mean to be a mogul?

So I am still trying to figure out exactly what it means for myself. Being a mogul is about sharing information, life experiences, and empowering women. I read an article that states that only three percent of current CEO’s are women.

So I think that the award is about recognizing the achievements of female undergraduates who have held leadership positions within their own universities and who feel compelled to give back to their greater community in one way or another.

I try my best to give back to the Dartmouth and Upper Valley community whenever I am able. This is especially important to me, seeing as how I grew up in the Upper Valley. I think receiving the award is a recognition of those interests and achievements, and it’s a huge, huge honor to be recognized for what I have done.

What advice would you give to other women who are aspiring moguls?

That’s a difficult question. I think that for me personally I am very motivated by things that I am passionate about. When I believe in something strongly I will pour myself into that. My advice for other women is to become very involved in their communities and to invest their time with the people and activities that you care about the most.

I think that those things really start to show themselves over time. It’s definitely important to have people that you look up to and to have other people who see you as a role model. It’s important to stand up for things that you believe in and to never be afraid to voice your opinion, even when it may not be the most popular one in the room.

Could you tell us about what your experience at the Senate and Ghana?

I should probably preface this by saying that I come from a very small town. I live about 20 minutes away from Dartmouth. I went to a public high school and there weren’t many opportunities for me to travel and pursue various passions. I would say the group of people who I was around during my high school years wasn’t a particularly diverse array of people, and one of my favorite aspects about Dartmouth has been the chance to get to know and befriend so many unique individuals from various backgrounds. Dartmouth was a hugely eye-opening experience for me. I have had opportunities from coming here that have been out of this world, things that I never could have imagined.

The summer after my freshman year I applied for a position with World Partners in Education that gave me the chance to work in Ghana for a summer. Basically we were visiting schools for fourth through sixth graders and trying to understand how they were being taught versus what we consider to be a typical American education. We would visit the schools during the day and afterwards we had an after-school program that we set up where we were able to design the entire curriculum. We incorporated certain games and educational experiences into that program.

I think I learned so much about myself during my time in Ghana. I would consider that one of the most amazing experiences that Dartmouth has opened up for me. It is important to note that my mother is a reading teacher for elementary school children. Her career and passion for what she does really sparked my interest in the World Partners in Education program. The entire experience gave me a whole new perspective of life on a different side of the world.

Sophomore year I took my winter term off to work for the Vermont State house. I am a government major so I have always been interested in how local and state politics work. That was a really interesting experience, and I was able to work very closely with Vermont legislators on an array of fiscal and environmental policies. I then took off my junior spring to work for Senator Leahy in DC. I’m very interested in foreign policy. It has been the focus of my studies at Dartmouth. Senator Leahy is the Ranking Member on the Foreign Operations Appropriations Subcommittee, so I was able to do a lot of work for him on those specific issues. One particular project of interest that I worked on was a stakeholder database that I designed online to connect Senator Leahy’s staff with Vermont agencies and organizations with an express interest to his role on the Foreign Operations Appropriations Subcommittee. That was an amazing ten weeks.

What would you like to do when you graduate?

Obviously I have really enjoyed my off-term experiences working with those various government organizations. However, this past summer I was in San Francisco working in the private sector for Egon Zehnder. They are an executive research consulting company. I have always, sort of through my interest in government, been interested in leadership structures and what makes companies successful. I think that it starts with the kind of leadership that they employ.

I really enjoyed working for them and they offered me a return offer to go work in their office in New York City, so I’ll be working in their consumer and financial services sectors, specifically working on CEO placement, CFO placement and board advisory management. The goal is to eventually go to business school….I would say my dream job would be to do some sort of foreign policy analysis for a government organization, but I suppose I’ll take things one step at a time.

So based on what you have learned what advice would you give to future classes of Dartmouth students.

Of course. I think that when I first came into Dartmouth I was very humbled by my background and in a sense that made me initially not pursue leadership positions. I kind of hung back and didn’t fully take advantage of all of the opportunities that Dartmouth was literally throwing my way. So I just kind of sat back and didn’t fully embrace the experience I was given.

My advice would be to never doubt yourself and to never think that you aren’t good enough to be where you are because you do deserve to be there. I think you can always embrace positions of leadership when they come your way. You have the ability to surprise yourself. The world needs more females in leadership positions.