A Shared Language: How a Part-Time MBA Became a Family Journey

Emil Nusbaum (PT Class of 2028) was thinking like a Darden student long before he ever stepped into a classroom.

Sitting nearby as his wife, Avital “Tali” Zenilman (PTMBA ’26), prepared for class, Nusbaum listened as she talked through complex business cases.

Over time, he found himself analyzing the material alongside her.

For Zenilman and her husband, Darden is no longer something that begins and ends in a classroom — it is a shared language.

Zenilman completed the part-time MBA program at the University of Virginia Darden School of Business in December 2025. Nusbaum began his own journey just months earlier, a decision shaped, in part, by years spent watching his wife prepare for class.

As she worked through cases, Nusbaum was often nearby listening, asking questions, and providing his own thoughts.

“I think I knew he was going to end up wanting to go to business school even before I started,” Zenilman said. “I’d be reading cases and talking them out, and he’d jump in and reframe things. At some point, I was like, ‘Okay, you’re definitely going to do this.’”

Those informal conversations — at home, by the pool, or during everyday downtime — planted the seed. By the time Nusbaum applied to Darden, it felt less like a sudden pivot and more like a natural next step.

Two careers, one growing curiosity

Zenilman is an engineer at Turner Construction Company, a role shaped by her upbringing in New York City. In high school, she watched Hurricane Sandy devastate her community and then watched it be rebuilt.

“That experience stuck with me,” she said. “I wanted to be part of the rebuilding process and understand how infrastructure decisions affect the public.”

After graduating, she joined Turner and moved through several departments, including estimating, procurement, business development, and job sites. Over time, her focus began to shift. She wasn’t just interested in executing projects, she wanted to understand how decisions were made at the company level.

“When I was in business development, I started asking questions about profitability and trade-offs,” she said. “I wanted to understand how project-level decisions affect the bottom line of the entire company.”

That curiosity led her to Darden’s part-time MBA program, where finance and strategy courses helped connect the dots between on-site projects and broader business outcomes. Later, as she moved into cost management and returned to a project site, now managing a team, the program’s leadership and organizational behavior courses took on new meaning.

“It’s my first time managing people,” Zenilman said. “The qualitative classes have been huge for me. Learning how to teach, how to support people with different learning styles — that’s something I use every day.”

Nusbaum’s path to Darden followed a different route.

He works in strategy and government affairs at the Automotive Recyclers Association, where he advises businesses navigating regulatory and policy challenges across the automotive recycling industry. He earned his law degree from the University of Maryland in 2019 and built a career focused on systems design, negotiation and regulatory strategy.

Business, however, was always part of the background.

“I grew up around a family business,” Nusbaum said. “So I was always thinking about how things worked, even if I didn’t have the formal language for it.”

Watching Zenilman move through Darden — and participating in the Darden Partners Association during her first year — gave him a closer look at the program’s rigor and relevance.

“Seeing how she applied what she was learning, both professionally and personally, made it feel real,” he said. “It wasn’t theoretical. It was happening in real time.”

When the case method shows up everywhere

Only a few months into the program, Nusbaum has already seen Darden show up far beyond the classroom.

Over the past year, he chaired a Maryland State Commission on Lithium-Ion Battery Safety, bringing together representatives from car manufacturers, battery producers, first responders, recyclers, public utilities, and environmental regulators. The group was authorized by state law and tasked with navigating complex, often competing interests.

Since starting at Darden, Nusbaum noticed a shift in how he approached those conversations.

“Coming from law, everything can feel very adversarial,” he said. “You’re trained to flesh out every risk and every argument. Darden pushes you to consider all relevant stakeholders, take a position, focus on the decisions that need to be made, and frame possible outcomes clearly.”

That mindset surfaced again in a board meeting for his local temple in Potomac, Maryland, where leaders were discussing tuition and finances for an early childhood education center.

“I remember thinking, ‘This feels exactly like a Darden case,’” he said. “I was thinking about the balance sheet, future finances, and how to frame the decision for the group. And it clicked — I have the tools now.”

Zenilman has watched that shift happen in real time.

“He sees Darden in everything,” she said, laughing. “It’s always, ‘This is a case.’ But honestly, it’s pretty amazing to watch.”

Balancing school, work, and everything else

Zenilman completed the part-time MBA in 28 months (faster than the standard track), which required careful planning and a lot of endurance.

She often commuted from Rockville to Baltimore for work and then to Rosslyn for class, sometimes leaving at lunch to beat traffic and finishing work in between sessions. During her final semester, she took four classes.

“There were times when it was hard to balance being an employee, student, and spouse, but that’s part of navigating work-life balance.”

Support made the difference. Her supervisors encouraged flexibility. Her family stepped in when needed. And Nusbaum never questioned the time trade-offs.

“If you need to not hang out on Sunday, that’s fine,” he told her. “Go do what you need to do.”

Now in the program himself, Nusbaum understands that balance firsthand.

“You really have to account for almost every hour of your day,” he said. “But there’s confidence that comes from realizing you can handle it.”

Both point to Darden’s intentionally designed part-time experience — learning teams, accessible professors, and a strong cohort model — as critical to making that balance sustainable.

“You never feel like you’re doing it alone,” Zenilman said. “Even after graduating, I’m still in group chats with classmates.”

What stays after graduation

When asked what she hopes to remember most from this chapter, Zenilman doesn’t hesitate.

“I’ll look back and be proud,” she said. “Proud of finishing, proud of balancing work and school at the same time, proud of what I took away from it.”

For Nusbaum, still early in the journey, the reflection is ongoing.

“What Darden does really well is make you think holistically,” he said. “It’s not just about skills. It’s about how you show up as a leader and as a person.”

For Zenilman and Nusbaum, Darden isn’t just something one of them finished and the other started. It’s a shared journey, one that continues to shape how they navigate their life together.

“I have a feeling we’ll still be talking about Darden even when he’s done,” Zenilman said.