For Anoop Mishra ’94, the journey from high school to the Hilltop looked different than it did for many of his classmates.

A Birmingham native, Mishra had BSC near the top of his list, but his desire to move out of state made Duke University his first choice. Turning down a full-tuition scholarship from BSC, he started his freshman year at Duke in fall 1989. However, he soon learned that staying for four years wasn’t financially feasible.

“I had gotten a number of one-off smaller, independent scholarships to get me through my first year of Duke, but by the second year, it was clear that it would be really difficult for our family to sustain that investment for four years,” he recalls.

Seeking a first-class education without putting a financial strain on himself or his family, Mishra met with the BSC Admissions Office after his sophomore year. “While I couldn’t get back the original, full-tuition scholarship I was offered in high school, they were able to give me a partial one,” he says. “So between that, working thirty hours a week, and living at home to save money, I managed to finish the last two years at BSC debt-free.”

Although his time at BSC was spent completing a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science, Mishra’s minor in Business Administration opened his eyes to the possibilities of a career in business. And despite his previous eagerness to move out of state for college, he soon found that Birmingham was a prime location for a student wanting to branch out into the world of finance.

“I did a minor in Business Administration at BSC, which spurred interest in the business and economics realm,” he says. “But interestingly, I think that my Political Science major also played a key role. Through multiple classes and even interim (E-Term) projects, I found that I really enjoyed policymaking discussions – namely, thinking through and digesting a lot of information and perspectives and synthesizing them in a meaningful way.”

Now the regional executive of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta’s Birmingham office, Mishra puts his policymaking skills to the test by collaborating with business leaders and economists throughout Alabama to better understand current and future economic conditions to inform Fed decisions on monetary policy. He lives in Birmingham with his wife, Manisha, and their teenage son and daughter, and still enjoys exploring what the city has to offer, from Indian and Chinese restaurants to outdoor spaces and running trails.

Before starting at the Fed in 2018, he founded and ran his own business consulting practice, Mishra Consulting LLC. Before that, he spent 14 years as an executive in the business consulting and employment screening industries, working with companies like Birmingham-based EDPM, where he was chief operating officer, and Salt Lake City-based WorkforceQA, where he was chief executive officer. “After graduating from BSC, I taught English at a college overseas, worked for a local nonprofit, traveled for a global consulting firm, grew and sold a company, and started my own consulting practice … all before this latest chapter at the Fed,” he says. “It really made me appreciate the value of being open to opportunities, even those that were never on my radar.”

Mishra may have chosen BSC to avoid debt, but after starting classes and interacting with faculty and fellow students, he realized that he was making more of an investment in his future than he’d realized. “The smaller class sizes, engaging discussions with other students, and support of teachers were wonderful,” he says.” In fact, the first two jobs I had post-graduation were the direct the result of the support/recommendation of faculty and administration,” he explains. “Don’t get me wrong—I loved Duke and still keep in touch with friends there. But it was an eye-opening experience in terms of what it means to get an education.

“The coursework and curriculum at BSC were just as good as what I had at Duke, and the teaching and class size were refreshingly positive. But, the faculty and administration’s interaction—really developing relationships with them—is something I couldn’t imagine getting in the same way at larger institutions. All of this without breaking the bank.

“It’s a lesson that I’ve tried to impart to many family and friends with kids going to college, and talking to my own kids: Keep ‘brand power’ in perspective and really look at the full picture of education—curriculum, career, and cost.”

This story was published in a special business and economics edition of From the Hilltop, Birmingham-Southern’s alumni email newsletter.

You can email [email protected] to get in touch with the Office of Alumni Engagement, learn about upcoming opportunities and events, and tell us more about you.