Bella Roussanov

New York University, Stern School of Business

“Bulgarian American sports enthusiast looking to help others and make a positive impact.”

Hometown: Plymouth, Minnesota

Fun Fact About Yourself: One of my life goals is to visit every US National Park and so far I’ve been to 20!

Undergraduate School and Major: Harvard University, History and Literature

Most Recent Employer and Job Title: Program Manager, Guide Volunteer Program at Resolution Project

What excites you the most about living in New York City and how do you see it enhancing your learning experience? I’ve lived in New York City for five years and I’ve never been bored for a single second of it. New York is exciting precisely because there is no way to narrow its appeal down to one thing: it has everything. As a New Yorker, I’m able to connect with people from all over the world on a daily basis; on a Saturday afternoon, I’m able to pick between running out to my bodega and exploring a neighborhood boroughs away from me. As a student, the variety of life and opportunity in New York will greatly enhance my learning experience. Stern’s location in New York means I’ll be able to connect with countless professionals in my target industry of management consulting and immerse myself in projects I’m passionate about through programs like the Board Fellows Program.

Aside from your classmates, what was the key part of NYU Stern’s MBA programming that led you to choose this business school and why was it so important to you? I chose Stern for many reasons, but chief among them was Stern’s focus on EQ. I was looking for a small class size and a cohort of classmates who cared about collaborating and helping each other succeed, not competing. In my opinion, business is about collaboration and community, and only in this kind of environment could I learn how to lead successful teams. With every person I spoke to and every event I attended at Stern, it became clear that EQ permeates Stern’s culture to create a supportive, team-oriented environment. As a result, Stern was the obvious choice.

What course, club or activity excites you the most at NYU Stern? Professionally, I’m excited to explore clubs like the Social Impact and Sustainability Association and programs like the Board Fellows Program. However, I’m perhaps most excited to take advantage of Stern’s international opportunities like the Doing Business in… (DBi) courses. I am passionate about international development and hope to work in the global space, so I hope to expand my international experience while in my MBA.

What does EQ (Emotional Intelligence) mean to you and when have you seen its value in your career? For me, EQ is about empathy and making an effort to understand where others are coming from. Disagreements will always happen, but they are made easier when all parties are able to step into one another’s shoes and take into consideration the many reasons why they may hold different views. As a non-profit professional, this has been invaluable to me. In all of my workplaces, people have been deeply passionate about the work they do and therefore have often held strong opinions on the way it should be done. It has been a huge asset to be able to sit down one-on-one with members of other teams and work to understand their perspectives before coming back to my team and suggesting a compromise.

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far: In my most recent role as a volunteer program manager at Resolution Project, I scoped, developed, and launched a volunteer management system that would integrate volunteer-facing resources with Salesforce and automate a good deal of my team’s work. In four months, I worked with our vendor team to understand their tools, define requirements, build custom features, and roll the system out to our global volunteer community. The new system was hugely successful; it reduced manual data entry by 75%. Now, the team is able to reallocate their time to engagement and recruitment strategies.

What is your unique quality that will enable you to make a big contribution to the Class of 2026? I am a relationship builder, a quality that has allowed me to build robust communities everywhere I’ve gone, both at work and outside of it. As a member of the Class of 2026, I hope to make a big contribution by forming connections with all of my classmates and working to uplift and encourage them to succeed. In turn, I believe they’ll uplift and encourage me.

What advice would you give to help potential applicants gain admission into NYU Stern’s MBA program? Be yourself! It might sound cliché, but I found Stern’s admissions process to be the most enjoyable of any school I applied because it allowed me to show who I was as a unique individual. By leaning into the things that make you special, you can show why you’d be an asset to Stern’s MBA class.

DON’T MISS: MEET NYU STERN’S MBA CLASS OF 2026