15 LeBow Students Selected as Forbes Under 30 Scholars

BY DAVID ALLEN

October 24, 2019

Fifteen undergraduate students from the LeBow College of Business have been selected as Forbes Under 30 Scholars. The honor grants them a scholarship to attend the Forbes Under 30 Summit, a prestigious business conference held annually that connects leaders in business, tech and entertainment with top young talent, including 1,000 Under 30 Scholars. This year’s summit, to be held Oct. 27-29, includes talks and panels featuring the CEO’s of Allbirds, DraftKings and Squarespace, as well as athletes Kevin Durant, Blake Griffin and Serena Williams.

LeBow’s Forbes Under 30 Scholars are:

Nicole Alkhazov ’19, international business and technology innovation management
Kaseir Archie ’19, finance and MIS
Lotus Barron ’19, marketing and business analytics
Lidia Drybushar ’22, finance and marketing
Ananya Kashyap ’19, marketing and business analytics
Jasmine Lee ’21, MIS and organizational management
Victoria Liao ’23, finance and business analytics
Tiffany Linh ’19, business and engineering
Rohan Paliwal ’21, finance
Maria Palmieri ’19, business and engineering
Chaiti Phanse ’20, finance
Erika Pleskunas ’19, MIS
Benjamin Red ’19, marketing
Neeharika Simha ’19, pursuing a custom-design major
Joseph Ucci ’20, marketing, business analytics and organizational management

As students prepared for the Summit amid midterm exams and co-ops, they took time to respond to a few questions.

How did you hear about the Forbes Under 30 summit? What about it appealed to you and made you want to apply?

My first co-op was heavily focused on research and looking at trends for the next five years. Because the Summit is a collection of bright minds, I felt it was a great opportunity to see what innovations are in the works. – Nicole Alkhazov

My older sister was in the Under 30 Scholars program last year. I wanted to apply because I wanted to be in a diverse environment in which people are motivated to succeed, and where I can use what I learn to make an impact on campus. – Jasmine Lee

The networking is really invaluable at the Under 30 Summit, with all the C-suite executives who will be there. Plus, with the workshops on design thinking, problem solving and women in business, it sounds like a really collaborative environment. – Maria Palmieri

What did you write about in your application, and what do you think made you and your story stand out?

I wrote about my personal story as a first-generation college student, growing up in Kensington and being surrounded by drugs and poverty, and how I really want to become the kind of mentor that I needed when I was growing up. – Kaseir Archie

I mostly wrote about growing up, the pressure to succeed and about how my past jobs and co-op experiences led me to work harder to prove myself. I think what made it stand out was that it was honest and more of a story, not just “I want to go to the Summit because of this.” – Lidia Drybushar

I wrote about the talk I gave for TEDx LeBow last year. I think it showed Forbes that I was a person with a powerful voice. – Chaiti Phanse

What are you most looking forward to about the Summit, and what do you hope to get out of it?

I’m really interested in the featured speakers and just being the same room as them, as well as the activities and workshops and being around 1,000 bright young individuals. – Kaseir Archie

I am mostly looking forward to the “industry content tracks,” which allow attendees to attend speaker events tailored to a certain industry of their choice. It should be a great opportunity to meet other students who share the same professional goals as me. – Erika Pleskunas

I am most excited to hear from all of the innovative and inspiring leaders, and I want to meet tons of new people and network with professionals at big companies to hopefully build a relationship for future internships or full-time employment. – Joseph Ucci