Aaron Eisenberg (‘94) spends his days solving problems for big-ticket clients in the consumer products industry.
It’s a challenging gig. And the undergraduate degree in clinical psychology he earned from the College of Letters & Science taught him the skills to excel at it.
“My undergraduate degree really helped me figure out and narrow what I wanted to get into,” explains Eisenberg, a principal for the Chicago-based office of Deloitte, a professional services firm that helps clients address a wide range of business challenges. “My UW degree helped me really learn how to think critically and analyze the root causes of problems in the pursuit of ultimately solving them. That's a skill set that’s invaluable today, and it served me incredibly well throughout my career.”
Eisenberg’s keenly aware of what UW–Madison and the College of Letters & Science have given to him, both personally and professionally. That’s part of what fueled his decision to give back to the College. This year, as part of the Day of the Badger annual day of giving, Eisenberg is making a generous gift to the College’s Annual Fund that’s being matched by his employer.
“It's just something that is very important to me, to have that opportunity to give back,” he says. “And now I'm at a point in my life where I can do it in a more substantial way, and hopefully in a way that creates even greater impact through programs offered through the College of Letters & Science.”
Eisenberg grew up in Duluth, Minnesota, but had his path to Madison paved by his older sister, who matriculated at UW three years earlier. The reciprocity agreement between Minnesota and Wisconsin was also a factor.
“There was just a comfort zone, a familiarity going there,” says Eisenberg. “Everybody I knew that went there absolutely loved it. So, it was a very easy decision.”
Like a lot of new L&S students, Eisenberg took Psychology 101, a class that clued him into the spectrum of career offerings within the field. At first, he thought he might pursue clinical psychology, but his graduate work convinced him that industrial organizational psychology was a better fit.
“That Psych 101 class taught me how to think, it taught me how to process information, it taught me how to critically analyze information and, in my profession today, there's no taking anything at face value,” Eisenberg says.
Eisenberg’s oldest son is now also a Badger, a sophomore pursuing a degree in business and finance. And he’s loving his UW-Madison experience as much as his father, mother and two aunts did.
“Like many sons and daughters of Badgers, he grew up 'bleeding red,' so to speak,” Eisenberg says. “He’s having the time of his life. And it's been wonderful to be able to visit and go through the experience with him.”