Meet The MBA Class Of 2026: The ‘Do Anything, Be Anyone’ Cohort

In the movies, you can become anyone you want. A nerd can transform into a superhero from an insect bite or a domestic can upstage her step-sisters using magic. You just need a good heart and a can-do spirit. Business school follows a similar logic. Students may start off as underdogs. By tapping into their imaginations – and the support around them – they too can become someone extraordinary.

That’s what JP Cannistraro is betting on. Growing up, he found comfort in Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man because he “looked just like me.” And he pursued math because Iron Man’s Tony Stark made engineering “cool.” Like many Marvel icons, Cannistraro dove into STEM, earning a BS in Product Design Engineering and an MS in Biology from Stanford. Along the way, he adopted Stark’s love of sailing, earning Collegiate All-American status as a junior. While Cannistraro was living the quant dream, building medical devices for Boston Scientific, he also understood that he was a creative at heart.

THE RIGHT PLACE WITH THE RIGHT RESOURCES

That impulse led him to business school. He enrolled at UCLA’s Anderson School of Management this summer. His goal: Make the daunting transition from R&D engineer to movie studio strategist. To make this happen, Cannistraro has joined Anderson’s Entertainment Management Association (EMA). Here, he can learn the industry through events and networking – and “nerd-out” with classmates who share his love of cinema. To accelerate his transition, he plans join the Leadership@Anderson program, which offers one-on-one coaching and customized leadership training. Of course, the Tinsel Town digs bring another advantage to a career changer like Cannistraro.

“The proximity of UCLA’s campus to the largest and most influential movie studios, coupled with Anderson’s extensive alumni network within the entertainment industry, is invaluable,” he adds. “If entertainment isn’t your thing, that’s okay too! LA is the second-largest city in the U.S. and offers a plethora of industries ranging from real estate to tech. Anderson students have the luxury of exploring diverse career paths without the need to travel very far.”

By being at the center of the action – and earning his MBA In the process – Cannistraro can fulfill his true purpose rooted in his childhood. “I have loved movies ever since I was a kid, and the characters I saw in theaters have always influenced my mentality,” Cannistraro adds. “I am motivated to bring that same focus to the entertainment industry because everyone deserves their own ‘Spider-Man moment’.”

TRIPLE THREAT: HARVARD GRAD, BAIN CONSULTANT, RACE CAR DRIVER

JP Cannistraro personifies the spirit of the MBA Class of 2026 – a do anything and be anyone group who channel their passions in unexpected ways. Take the University of Michigan’s Desha Dike, a globe-trotting adventurer who describes herself as a “Hip-Hop dancer from the South turned tri-coastal engineer.” In contrast, Eliza Harrison, a first-year at Duke University’s Fuqua School, calls herself a “woman of the American West” who is dedicated to “restoring ecological health.” She would find a kindred spirit in INSEAD’s Coralie Grand, who hopes to move into sustainability. Before business school, Grand spent nine years dancing professionally for the Royal Danish Ballet, the Finnish National Ballet, and the Stuttgart Ballet – a dream she had pursued since she was four-years-old. Her biggest moment came in 2019 when she performed solo, which required her to master an “intricate” series of steps with all eyes focused on her. It was an ambitious role, one that prepared Grand for the demands of business school.

“This experience taught me the importance of perseverance, the value of having a supportive network, and the joy of achieving a goal that once seemed out of reach. It reinforced my belief in the power of hard work and dedication, lessons that I carry with me as I transition into my next career chapter.”

Aurora Straus boasts an equally unconventional background: “Total nerd turned race car driver.” Now a first-year MBA at Emory University’s Goizueta Business School, Straus won her first professional race driving for BMW in 2018, when she took a year off from Harvard. Four years later, she became the first woman to win a Radical Cup North America race. Let’s just say she doesn’t lack for ambition. Alongside racing, she worked as an associate consultant for Bain & Company. As an MBA student, Straus will be busy flying back-and-forth to Southeast Florida, where is helping to launch a new racetrack. Back on campus, Straus expects to bring her superpower to bear for classmates.

“I’m a perpetual under-reactor,” she tells P&Q. “Racing cars is like taking drugs – it’s a completely altered state fueled by adrenaline and concentration. Once you crash at 200 miles per hour, normal life slows down. Because “life or death” is my baseline, I have discovered I am very calm during otherwise stressful situations! Over time, I have found that being a “stress absorber” is infectious, especially in a tough academic setting – friends who are frustrated with coursework or relationships come to me looking for calm reactions. My ability to help my classmates put crises into perspective and see the silver linings of stressful situations is the most unique quality I’ll bring to the table as a Goizueta student.”

That’s not to say Straus never gets anxious, however. “I founded the world’s only sleepaway teen racing camps,” she adds. “As a 13-year-old girl that learned to race around 25-year-old guys, I felt like there was quite a gap in the market there! I promise you have never known true stress until you are personally responsible for 15 teenagers simultaneously driving $250,000 race cars.”

FROM CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE TO CYBERSECURITY

Indeed, the Class of 2026 shouldered heavy responsibilities long before they streamed onto campus this summer. They handled finances for Disney and Microsoft, managed projects for Lockheed Martin and Anheuser-Busch InBev, and developed strategies for Procter & Gamble and Coca-Cola. Outside work, they aspired to be gymnasts and figure skaters. They raised cattle and sang opera, practiced juggling and banjo. In college, they didn’t always compete in the usual sports Think fencing, bowling, rugby, squash, and rowing. In the case of the Wharton School’s Winny Myat, they enjoyed the best job in the world.

“I was the Tiger mascot for Princeton during my senior year,” she cracks.

No, the Class of 2026 didn’t all started out as analysts at McKinsey or Golden Sachs. Montgomery Miller, for one, joined the University of Chicago’s Booth School after serving as a Special Agent in the FBI. Along similar lines, Monika Upadhayaya worked as an Assistant Central Intelligence Officer in India’s Ministry of Home Affairs.

“I came from a very core government organization whose sole focus was National security,” writes the IIM Ahmedabad student. “From working in a high-stake environment on sensitive tasks to learning Business courses, the self-transformation I have been through is my biggest accomplishment so far. How I am redefining myself as a student after working for over nine years is something I am really proud of. It is easier to learn but to unlearn and then learn takes effort.”

Miller and Upadhayaya weren’t alone in protecting their nations’ interests before business school. Before working as an investment manager, Jay Chung served in the Republic of Korea Air Force as an interpreter and foreign liaison aide. In one role, the USC Marshall student even guided the country’s highest-ranking Air Force General in his interactions with foreign counterparts. After studying at West Point, Araceli Sandoval made history. The Wharton first-year was commissioned as one of the first female officers in the U.S. Army Armor Branch. Some veterans even built their reputations in pressure-packed events that made the news. Case in point: Christian Letsinger. He joined the Class of 2026 at the UC Berkeley Haas School after serving as the Chief Data Officer in the U.S. Army Cyber Protection Brigade. His moment came when the U.S. Department of Defense experienced its largest cyber intrusion, the SolarWinds Hack.

“During the incident response, the organization leaned on my subject matter expertise on the structure and data flows across the DoD enterprise network. I was able to help directly lead the response, resulting in the successful remediation of all affected Army assets across the globe and the development of the active hunt concept. This concept is a proactive methodology that uses data science and analytic development to pursue advanced threats and enable decision making in multi domain operations. This concept was so well accepted that it found its way into codified doctrine, becoming the standard for how we conduct Defensive Cyber Operations today.”

BALANCING MEDICINE WITH BUSINESS

For Duke Fuqua’s Dalia Rais, just making it to business school – after serving as a U.S. Air Force Flight Chief overseeing 32 medical professionals – was accomplishment enough.

“As a first-generation student, attending college was highly improbable. This achievement is even more significant because I completed it while serving on active duty. Taking one class at a time while balancing military commitments, it took me eight years to earn this (incredibly expensive) piece of paper. I even took a few finals in a tent while deployed—an experience I wouldn’t recommend!”

Medicine is another area where class members channeled their passion for service. At USC Marshall, Shannon Jordan is pursuing a dual MBA-MD with the Keck School of Medicine. Across town at UCLA Anderson, Lilia Diaz is doing the same in conjunction with the Geffen School of Medicine. As a child of Mexican immigrants, Diaz hopes to meld her family background and medical training to boosting the quality of care to families like her own. In Sophie Delaye’s case, she was already a general surgeon before pivoting to business school. A young mother, Delaye plans to eventually move into healthcare management. To do this, she is counting on being exposed to a wide swath of problem-solving strategies and functional expertise possessed by her INSEAD classmates.

“As a doctor for nearly a decade, I have a deep understanding of the intricacies of patient care and the management of the UK NHS healthcare system,” Delaye tells P&Q. “It is a narrow but very specialist point of view. I am eager to bring this viewpoint to my cohort and, more importantly, to learn from my peers’ diverse experiences. I am excited to integrate into a cohort with such a wealth of experience and use this opportunity to challenge both our own and our peers’ ideals and points of view.”

DISRUPTING THE SPACE INDUSTRY

For the Class of 2026, success can be defined in varying ways. Working as an associate for Copley Equity Partners, Natalie Madden sourced and closed the firm’s largest-ever deal. And the MIT Sloan MBA did this during her first year at the desk! Gabriel Melo’s bona fides are equally compelling. Growing up in a low-income household, Melo became a private equity star in his native Brazil.

“I come from a low-income family in Brazil that did not have access to good education,” writes the London Business School first-year. “It is nearly impossible to imagine that a newborn would one day be working alongside the best professionals in finance in the country, in one of the most active private equity funds in Brazil…This started with earning scholarships for academic excellence and pursuing a top engineering program in Brazil to working at some of the most competitive banks in Latin America. Ultimately, I became a senior associate in private equity, where I’ve led billion-dollar transactions in Brazil.”

Melo’s classmate, Jasper Ryan, also took big risks and overcame the odds. He left a “stable job” to co-found an aerospace firm, which recently developed products that made Australia the 11th country capable of Hall Effect Propulsion needed for next generation satellites. For Ryan, business school is the place to learn how to capitalize on these opportunities.

“The space industry is nascent but growing at an incredible speed – there are roughly 8,000 satellites in orbit today and 30,000-60,000 expected in the next decade, with entirely new services. Space is not isolated as an individual sector, but is actually a capability enabler and disrupter to most other industries. I’m interested in exploring with my classmates how it might disrupt and enable opportunities in each of our industries.”

Next Page: Personal Lives and Long-Term Goals

Page 3: Profiles of 29 MBA candidates from the Class of 2026, including Harvard Business School, Wharton School, INSEAD, Northwestern Kellogg, and more.