California State University, Bakersfield was a common sight for Aaron Falk while he was growing up.
Falk lived in a home just down the street from the university at the corner of Ming Avenue and Gosford Road. He often came to CSUB with his family to watch sports and even attended summer programs on campus when he was in fourth and fifth grade.
Decades later, Falk is graduating from the university this month with his master’s in business administration.
“I feel like CSUB is a part of me,” he said. “This was a good experience. I learned a lot and I’ve met some really great people.”
Falk’s journey to CSUB wasn’t a straightforward one. He earned his bachelor’s in political science from University of California, Santa Barbara in 2010 and was initially planning to go to law school and become a lawyer like his parents. However, Falk ultimately decided to opt for a different path.
“I knew I would be good at it, but I didn’t want to do another three years of school to get a job that I didn’t think I would ultimately like,” he said.
After struggling to find work after graduation, Falk was invited by an aunt and uncle living outside of Washington D.C. to stay with them and look for work there. He accepted the invitation and, after knocking on some doors, was able to get an unpaid internship as an assistant with the House Democratic Caucus.
Falk’s first paid job came in 2011, when he was hired as a clerk for the House Armed Services Committee. He worked in Washington D.C. until 2017, when he decided he wanted to return home to Bakersfield.
“I felt like I was having a good impact, but it wasn’t local to Kern County, which is home to me,” he said.
After learning that Falk was from Bakersfield and was planning to return there, Congressman Kevin McCarthy hired him as a local field representative. He held that position through December 2021.
By 2020, however, Falk was already looking to get out of government and pursue a different career track. That’s when he decided to apply to CSUB.
“I need to find some bridge to take what I’ve been doing in government and make it useful here in town. I figured the MBA at CSUB would do it,” he said.
Falk had some initial reservations about attending the university, as it had been a decade since he was last on a college campus.
“There was definitely a little nervousness at first,” he said. “I was thinking am I going to be 15 years older than everyone else in my class? Am I going to fit in?”
Falk quickly had larger concerns. Soon after he started the MBA program in spring 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic caused the university to close the campus and he had to adjust to learning online.
While it posed a significant challenge for Falk, he was able to overcome it and excel at the university.
“I’ve been able to develop friendships with several of my professors and fellow students now, especially over the past six months or so,” he said.
One of the faculty members he’s gotten to know well is Associate Professor of Management Dr. Jeremy Woods, who first met Falk while he was a field representative for Congressman McCarthy’s Kern County office.
“While he’s never actually been a student in one of my classes, he’s facilitated numerous introductions for me with local leaders, and we talk frequently about leadership, politics, and life in general,” he said. “In today’s sadly polarized political landscape, Aaron is a friendly and respectful partner who puts civility above partisan politics. We sometimes agree and sometimes don’t on political topics, but we pretty much always agree on our shared passion for growing the Kern County economy and society to be all it can be. Aaron is a great asset to the community, and the CSUB MBA program will be lucky to count him as an alum.”
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