From Zimbabwe to Wharton: Maud Chifamba, WG’25, Shares Her Story — and Discusses the Importance of Giving Back

When a viral LinkedIn post from recent graduate Maud Chifamba, WG’25, came across our feed, we couldn’t help but be inspired by her ambition and tenacity. We sat down with Chifamba in Philadelphia to learn more about her story, including how receiving support from MBA student experience funds provided by donors enriched her Wharton experience.

Tell us about your background. Where are you from, and what was your journey to Wharton like?

I was born and raised in rural Zimbabwe. From a young age, I was bright in school, but my family was poor, and I was also born into a patriarchal home. I made a decision when I was young that I wanted to be respected just like men would be respected, and I also wanted to get out of poverty, so I took school very seriously.

When I was eight years old, my family moved to an area where there was no formal school, so they had to batch a lot of classes together. And when I finished primary school, my family didn’t have the money to send me to high school. I ended up having to study by myself. It was supposed to take four years, but I did it in two. That’s how I ended up going to university when I was 14.

I chose to study accounting. I was curious about business because my family’s livelihood had changed from subsistence farming to vending, but they never earned enough to send me to school, and I wanted to understand why. I did my first degree in accounting, and straight after that I did my first master’s. Then I kicked off my career at Deloitte, where I was doing audit work, focusing mostly on telecommunications.

On the side, I was also advocating for the government to end child marriages in Zimbabwe. And, through my advocacy work, I ended up being appointed to the Zimbabwe Union Council, which is a board that represents the entire 6,000,000 Zimbabwean young people. At this point, I had gotten a lot of scholarships — a lot of help — and I wanted to help other people. But I figured I could have a greater impact as a private sector player. So that’s when business school came through.

What about your Wharton experience are you most thankful for? 

I came to Wharton wanting to pivot into high finance. And I did manage to get a job at Goldman Sachs, which I don’t think would be possible if I was in Zimbabwe. I’m going to be doing investment banking, telecom investment, and more in New York.

But I also wanted to be part of the Wharton community. I wanted to create a network, and I managed to find friends that will stay with me beyond business school. I think if I had moved anywhere else, it would have been more difficult to meet the people I’ve met and to create the community that I managed to create.

As an MBA student, you received MBA student experience funding to take part in a Global Modular Course (GMC) in India and a Global Immersion Program (GIP) in South Korea. What did you learn from those experiences?

One thing about coming to the U.S. from a developing country is that even if you’ve been working and saving, your savings don’t have as much buying power here, and you won’t always be able to afford the same experiences as everybody else. So I really appreciated the help I got from MBA student experience funds. It was great to be able to travel, which is a huge component of the MBA experience.

I’ve always been fascinated by India. They have a lot of startups coming up, and outside of the GMC, I didn’t see myself having many opportunities to go there. In the long term, I want to work in venture capital, so going to India was great because we got to see how people are applying innovation and running their startups.

With South Korea, I was always struck with how much they managed to grow their economy. Looking into the future, I want to work with developing countries, so getting to learn about their history, politics, and economy —what we can get from that — was very enlightening.

Speaking of the future, what are your long-term professional goals?

There’s a very high unemployment rate in Zimbabwe. Most people, when they leave school, can’t find jobs, so they wind up becoming entrepreneurs. We’re a hardworking people, but although we have good ideas, we don’t have much capital. So I wanted to move to a country with deep capital markets and learn what makes those markets deep.

In the long term, I want to operate at the intersection of profit and purpose. I want to have a fund that invests in businesses from underserved populations — not just in Zimbabwe, but globally. I’m interested in connecting people who have money, who want to invest, with people who have good business ideas and need that investment, wherever they are in the world.

Is there anything else you’d like to add?

I’ve been a recipient of a lot of scholarships that have absolutely changed my life, from people that I’ve never met. I try to pay forward that kindness. I don’t think the people that provided my first scholarship had any idea of what it would snowball into. That opportunity changed my life and allowed me to make a greater impact.

Kindness begets kindness. The people who have experienced kindness want to give. The impact of those people’s kindness still lives with me, and I will keep doing what I can to help the next person. What I do for the next person will live with them, and that keeps on making the world a better place. So I really respect people that go out of their way to help in situations where they don’t have to.