Seniors on “Best & Brightest” list

Two Olin seniors are featured in Poets & Quants For Undergrads’ second annual “Best & Brightest Business Majors” feature. 100 of the most accomplished seniors majoring in such fields as business administration, marketing, accounting, operations, and human resources are profiled on the website.

Olin’s representatives among this year’s honorees:

Jessica Landzberg
Major: Double major in Finance and Accounting, and completing the coursework for the Marketing Major
Co-Founder, Owner, & CFO of the campus Bear-y Sweet Shoppe candy business that provides hands-on entrepreneurial experience for underclassmen. Link to Jessica’s profile.

Colton Calandrella
Majors: Economics & Strategy, Entrepreneurship
Minor: Latin American Studies
After piloting the Ferguson Small Business Initiative, he is the Undergraduate Fellow at the Center for Experiential Learning, a role created for 2nd-year MBA students. Link to Colton’s profile.

“This is a first look at some of the leaders who’ll be shaping the discussions and decisions around business in the coming decades,” says John A. Byrne, founder and editor of Poets & Quants and the former executive editor of Businessweek magazine and former editor-in-chief of Fast Company. “They are already so informed, creative, and versatile. I can’t wait to see what they do after they graduate.”

If this year’s “Best & Brightest” class could be summarized in one word, it would be “impact.” They were the scholars, advocates, volunteers, and mentors who often acted as the catalysts and consciences of their classes.

The 2017 “Best & Brightest” feature also includes in-depth profiles on each student in which honorees answer questions relating to their biggest lessons from business school, favorite executives and professors, dream jobs, and even the animal that best personifies them.

“We didn’t want to just list bullet points that you could find on Linkedin,” explains Jeff Schmitt, who organized and directed the “Best & Brightest” project. “We asked students to dig deep so readers could know why they pursued business, what they loved about it, and what they hoped to do with this knowledge. These students are role models. Our whole goal is to show potential business majors why it is such a valuable path — and what it takes to be successful in school and beyond.”

To compile this year’s Best & Brightest students, Poets & Quants reached out to 55 leading business schools, starting with programs listed in its exclusive 2016 Best Undergraduate Business Programs ranking. Overall, 49 programs responded, with faculty and administrators choosing two students per school based on “academic excellence, extracurricular leadership, personal character, innate potential, striking personal narrative, and overall impact on the program.” Due to the popularity of the 2016 feature, the number of student profiles was doubled to 100 in 2017.

The “Best & Brightest Business Majors” is the first of a three-part series recognizing the top business students. In May, Poets & Quants will unveil its 100 “Best & Brightest MBAs.” In June, Poets&Quants For Executives will honor the “Best & Brightest Executive MBAs.”

Source: Poets & Quants news release