Former PSEO Student Pursues Four Majors
One word describes Carlson School of Management student Yinebeb Kebede, '25 BSB, and his academic journey: unique.
Most people earn some sort of degree before creating a business, but Kebede breaks the mold. While still attending DeLaSalle High School in Minneapolis, the Brooklyn Center native founded a nonprofit to assist schools in his family’s home country of Ethiopia.
“I've always gravitated toward news about big companies, big business decisions, and even toward the stock market pretty early on—anything correlated to business,” he explains. “I would definitely say it was initiated by my dad's pursuit of business.”
“Because of the credits I accumulated as a PSEO student, I am now able to have four majors, all while having a manageable credit load every semester.”
His father originally worked as a real estate agent after their family’s immigration to the United States in the early 2000s, and he now works as a broker. Kebede shares his father’s interest in finance, choosing it as his college major. Wait, no—he’s majoring in mathematics. Or was it accounting? Or management information systems?
Oh, that’s right: he’s quadruple-majoring in all of them. (And did we mention the business law minor?)
His titanic academic load was made possible by the Post-Secondary Enrollment Options (PSEO) program at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities, allowing him to earn college credits while still in high school.
Kebede notes that because of his early completion of college prerequisites, he was able to start taking courses in his major as a U of M freshman. He also had the flexibility to enroll in courses of personal interest, like Real Estate Law, Contract Law and Corporate Regulation, and Introduction to American Law and Legal Reasoning.
"It [PSEO] helped me come to college with the proper discipline and study habits to achieve academic success early on.”
“Because of the credits I accumulated as a PSEO student, I am now able to have four majors, all while having a manageable credit load every semester,” says Kebede. “My experience in PSEO also prepared me for being in a self-guided environment … It helped me come to college with the proper discipline and study habits to achieve academic success early on.”
Currently a U of M junior, Kebede credits his advisor and the Carlson School’s admission team for helping his goals become a reality.
That same spirit of assistance has permeated Kebede’s time at the Carlson School, where he’s supported by the Bennett and Sharon Morgan Family Scholarship and the Frederick Grose Scholarship. In kind, Kebede hopes to support others in the campus community, as he stays involved with organizations like the Carlson School Ambassadors, UMN National Association of Black Accountants, Emerging Leaders of Color, and Diverse Leaders For Tomorrow.
“I had a couple of mentors who had done a lot of impact in terms of promoting diversity,” he remembers, “and that’s something I’ve found myself to be super passionate about, not just within the school itself, but with diversity in corporate America and greater society.”
This story is adapted from the original version by Garret Fettig. Story and photos courtesy Carlson School of Management.
