“I am super appreciative of the opportunities I had at Illinois.”
Double major doubles down on giving.
These days, it’s not uncommon for someone to pursue a second degree at Illinois while earning their MBA, but when Chirantan “CJ” Desai (MBA and MS Computer Science ‘95) did it nearly 25 years ago it wasn’t so typical. Then again, nothing about his career path was.
CJ Desai arrived on the University of Illinois campus in 1993 with an ambitious plan — to earn dual master’s degrees in computer science and business in two years. There was only one problem. Both programs were expensive. As Desai began looking for a campus job, he bumped into Dr. Paul Handler, a physics professor in search of a research assistant.