As a first-year student in Wharton’s MBA Program for Executives, Priyanka Vergadia, WG’25, was excelling professionally and academically but she realized that she was neglecting something important: her health. Her “aha” moment came unexpectedly during a routine doctor’s visit.
“My doctor showed me a chart with my numbers going in the wrong direction,” Priyanka recalls. “It was a trend I had to reverse. That fear pushed me to make real changes.”
Building a Healthier Routine, One Habit at a Time
Priyanka’s first step towards better health was joining a small-group fitness program. She committed to attending a morning class five days a week, determined to create a lasting habit.

“Within two months, I felt more energized and excited about life,” she says. “I wasn’t seeing physical changes yet, but emotionally, I was in a much better place.”
Adding a nutrition coach to her routine accelerated her progress. She lost 15 pounds and began to feel significantly healthier and more balanced. “It became clear that physical activity and nutrition were lifting my mood in ways I had never experienced before.”
She also restructured her mornings. Priyanka set aside a dedicated, phone-free hour each morning just for exercise. Afterward, she and her husband began taking 20-minute walks with their dog, a new daily ritual that gave them quality time together and helped her feel more in control of her day.
That simple shift sparked a larger change. The couple also made a weekly date night, a non-negotiable part of their schedule. “If we didn’t plan it, it wouldn’t happen. Intentional time together became essential,” she says.
A Journey from India to Wharton and Google
Growing up in a small town in India, Priyanka learned the value of setting goals early. After earning her undergraduate degree in India, she set her sights on graduate education in the U.S., enrolling at Penn for her master’s degree in computer & information technology.
Watch Priyanka’s journey from India to Penn to Google
Her career path led her to customer-facing technical roles, and ultimately to Google, where she became Head of North America Developer Relations and helped build the Google Cloud Tech YouTube channel leading a team of developer relations engineers.
Throughout that time, she thought about getting an MBA.
“The seed was planted when I was in the master’s program at Penn and took Negotiations and Entrepreneurship classes,” She explains, “I realized how those classes would be even more valuable if I could apply them in real-time to a job and decided to come back to Wharton after I gained more work experience.”
When she had 10 years of experience, she applied to Wharton. “I didn’t apply anywhere else because I had seen the value of the Penn Engineering brand and network and wanted to join that same type of community at Wharton,” she says. “And with Wharton’s West Coast campus in San Francisco, travelling for class weekends only required a one-hour train ride from San Jose.
Health First, Then a Career Leap

As Priyanka prioritized her health at Wharton, a surprising side effect emerged: renewed confidence and energy to make a career shift.
“I had been approached by Microsoft when I started the program, but I wasn’t interested in making that kind of change,” she says. “By the second year, I had the clarity and headspace to revisit the opportunity.”
The more she explored the role at Microsoft—focused on developer go-to-market strategy and global training—the more it felt like the next leap in her career with an undefined space to define and chart a new direction in developer space for Microsoft.
Serendipitously, she was also taking Negotiations with Professor Mary-Hunter (Mae) McDonnell. “It was perfect timing,” she says. “The class helped me understand my market value and negotiate a fantastic offer applying the negotiation frameworks.”
Soon after, she began applying lessons from another course, Scaling Strategy with Professor Gad Allon, to her new role. “I was immediately using what I learned to shape how I grew my team and influence at Microsoft.”
A Lifelong Network
Now a proud Wharton graduate, Priyanka reflects on the broader impact of her MBA experience.
“Working in tech, my network was mostly tech,” she says. “Wharton changed that. Now I have a network of astronauts, doctors, lawyers, and professionals in just about every industry. They’re more than classmates. They’re lifelong friends.”
By Meghan Laska
Posted: July 1, 2025