Challenges, Risks Paved Way for Alumna’s Success
September 15, 2022
Michelle Coyle BS’03 can’t forget the uncomfortable moment she endured while buying textbooks as an undergraduate at The University of Texas at Dallas. Standing in a busy checkout line at an off-campus bookstore, Coyle knew she didn’t have enough money to buy needed books for the upcoming semester and resorted to a common fallback for many students.
“I have this very distinct memory of trying to buy my books for the semester and having to put them on five different credit cards,” Coyle said. “I remember all the people in line behind me being exasperated and rolling their eyes, and I felt so self-conscious and embarrassed.”
Now a successful business owner and entrepreneur in Alexandria, Virginia, Coyle said her education, including earning a degree in political science at UT Dallas and a Master in Business Administration from Dartmouth College, has made all the difference in her life. In 2021, Coyle decided she was at a point in her career where she wanted to give back by helping students in financial need at UT Dallas.
“When I was thinking about my own experience and how I could help, one of the things that I knew would make a difference is if there were just $500 a semester for a student to cover their books so they wouldn’t have to worry about which five credit cards to put them on or having to choose between books and groceries that month,” she said.
In 2021, Coyle established the Michelle Coyle Student Support Fund for Single Parents in the Social Sciences, which, when fully funded, will support undergraduate and graduate students who are single parents pursuing a degree in the School of Economic, Political and Policy Sciences (EPPS). The endowment will provide financial support as well as student enrichment, research support and travel expenses related to the student’s education at UT Dallas.
Originally from Lawton, Oklahoma, where she grew up the daughter of a teacher and single mom, Coyle attended UTD on scholarships. She was not a single parent at UTD, but she was while a graduate student and said she is all too familiar with the pressures and financial challenges facing students raising a child alone.
“It’s extremely difficult to do,” she said. “I remember having friends who were single parents at UTD and just being extraordinarily impressed with everything that they were doing to make their dreams happen and take care of themselves and take care of their children, often with no familial help.”
After graduating from UT Dallas and working as a political consultant for a time, Coyle was accepted into the MBA program at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College. Coyle, now the single mom of an 18-month-old, moved to New Hampshire for graduate school, a step she now characterizes as crazy, but one that she knew was needed to secure her son’s future.
“Now that I look back and I think, I don’t know how I did that,” she said. “Once you have a child, you don’t really have a choice, but it made me an insanely stronger person and a much more ambitious person.”
Attending graduate school as a single mom was one in a series of risks that Coyle took early in life that paved the way for future success. Another risk was accepting an Archer Fellowship while a senior at UT Dallas, which led to an internship with a small political consulting firm in Washington, D.C. Coyle said at the time she felt moving to Washington for a semester was a huge risk because she had to quit a job, take out a student loan and give up being vice president of her UTD sorority.
“But that experience was really a foundational life lesson for me,” Coyle said. “Now, in hindsight, it seems like a really minor risk to step away from my sorority and take out a student loan because once I got there I didn’t want to come back.”
The internship introduced her to a new career path working in the world of political campaigns. After graduating from UT Dallas, Coyle was offered a job as a field organizer with the 2004 primary campaign of U.S. Rep. Dick Gephardt who was seeking the Democratic nomination for president. At 22, she oversaw Gephardt’s campaign in Des Moines County, Iowa.
“I can’t think of another opportunity that a 22-year-old would have where they would be handed that much autonomy and responsibility,” Coyle said.
Coyle continued to work for several years as a political consultant while also putting her entrepreneurial skills to work, including founding a cosmetic company. In 2017, she founded her own consulting company, BGSD Strategies, to help political consultants on the Democratic side of the political spectrum to be more successful by applying business principals to their organizations. Beginning as a one-person shop, Coyle soon expanded her company’s offerings and hired staff to provide executive and entrepreneurial leadership development training and marketing know-how.
Reflecting on her own career journey overcoming a variety of risks, Coyle said working with entrepreneurs often means coaching them past their fears.
“As the business evolved, we went from being solely a business-strategy shop to really incorporating more and more mindset work, mindset coaching and executive coaching.” Coyle said. “We help clients take the appropriate actions and risks they need to take to get traction in their business or figure out that the business is not actually what they want to do.”
Whether a promising entrepreneur or a young, single mom earning a college degree, taking risks in life prepares you for success, Coyle said. She is particularly impressed with the resolve of young mothers tackling college, and she hopes her endowment will help many stay on track.
“These are just really determined, amazing people,” she said. “And with just a little bit of help and a little bit of leverage, these are the kind of people that are going to make a very big difference in the world.”