Lei Song

Washington University in St. Louis, Olin Business School

“A person who loves food, dogs and nature.”

Hometown: Gansu, China

Fun Fact About Yourself: I love hotpots and could eat four times more than what an average person could eat. This surprised one of my classmates in my MBA cohort after seeing me finishing those large amounts of food in one meal.

Undergraduate School and Major: Undergraduate: China University of Political Science and Law, Bachelor of Law; Graduate: Washington University School of Law, Juris Doctor

Most Recent Employer and Job Title: Legal Services of Eastern Missouri, 2022 Summer Consumer Law Intern

What has been your favorite part of St. Louis so far? What makes St. Louis such a great place to earn an MBA? My favorite part of St. Louis is its great outdoors, covering bountiful parks and attractions city-wide. You can easily find hiking or camping sites in a state park, and you can also find art attractions at certain sculpture parks. These all make St. Louis a great place to earn an MBA, as it offers the best weekend activities after finishing an entire week’s intensive study and team projects.

You completed your global immersion earlier this year. What was the best part of the immersion experience for you? What was the biggest takeaway you gained? I completed my global immersion earlier this summer (2022). For me, the best part of the immersion experience is the in-person lecturing in a global atmosphere, including the case discussion and problem-solving part led by classmates from many backgrounds and disciplines. By collaborating with my classmates on challenging cases and projects covering growth-generating strategy, operational challenges, and international market expansion, I increased my understanding of complex business problems from diverse perspectives. Most importantly, I developed new skills and experience to help my future career.

Aside from your immersion and classmates, what was the key part of WashU Olin’s MBA programming that led you to choose this business school and why was it so important to you? Olin’s MBA offers you a clear career-assistance track and guides you with its well-designed platform structure, awesome career coaches, respectful faculty, and bountiful opportunities and resources.

What course, club or activity have you enjoyed the most so far at Washington Olin? Professor John Horn’s “Managerial Economics” is one of my favorite courses for the fall semester. The course offers you excellent lectures and insights on how to apply microeconomic tools to make daily business decisions, which is important for every type of business work of entry-level analysts and business leaders. All Olin faculty members offer great course selections, which enable me to learn business knowledge and develop insights for real-world practice.

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far: I have been diving into public interest work and pro bono service since my undergraduate. I used to work as the president of my undergraduate law school’s legal aid center, providing legal services to underrepresented clients nationwide. After college, I worked in diverse industries, including United Nations institutions, large nonprofit legal service organizations in the U.S., and private sector startups in China – all of which aim to promote the sustainable long-term development of local communities. My biggest accomplishment in my career so far is that I have been working and exploring pro bono work since my teens, and for the past six years, I have been spending more than 450 hours per year on pro bono services to a wide range of clients.

Describe your biggest achievement in the MBA program so far: I learned how to deal with and implement value-based and data-driven decision-making, which is one of the most important aspects of a WashU Olin Business School education.

What is one thing you have recently read, watched or listened to that you would highly recommend to prospective MBAs? Why? I am recently listening to a podcast called “The $100 MBA Show,” which talks about some ideas and processes to implement them. This offers insightful ideas and some guides for entrepreneurs and startups on their business planning in daily life.

What advice would you give to help potential applicants gain admission into Washington Olin’s MBA program? Just pursue it. This is such a nice place and educational experience; you will benefit for a lifetime.

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