Meet Rochester Simon’s MBA Class Of 2026

AN INTERVIEW WITH REBEKAH LEWIN

P&Q: What have been the two most important developments in your MBA program over the past year? What type of impact will they have on current and future MBAs?

Lewin: “We’ve integrated generative AI extensively into the MBA academic experience at Simon. In addition to adding new elective courses that focus on generative AI, we’ve added generative AI training for all of our MBA students to ensure that they know how to use this technology effectively. The technology has been integrated meaningfully into many of our core MBA courses as well as electives. We are confident that this effort will ensure that Simon MBA students will graduate with not only strong skills in using generative AI for personal effectiveness, but also will have a strong understanding of how to effectively deploy generative AI into their organizations.

We have added a new global immersion course focused on Brazil—these experiences include in-country travel, learning, and cultural experiences. This course helps broaden the global outlook of our students and provides an opportunity for them to expand their cultural competence and understand how business is done in Latin America. This is our first immersion in Latin America, which joins existing immersion opportunities in Asia, Africa, and Europe.”

P&Q: Every January, P&Q publishes a “10 Business Schools to Watch” feature that highlights how schools are raising the bar and enhancing the student experience through innovation or expansion in programming or resources. What is one innovation that sets your school apart from your peer programs and makes you a business school to watch? Why is it so groundbreaking?

Lewin: “In Summer 2023, we embarked on a bold goal to make Simon a leader in applying AI to business education, just like we did for STEM. Our focus is on becoming experts in teaching with AI and teaching our students to manage and create value with AI. We executed a swift change to incorporate AI in a meaningful way across the curriculum, our programs, and our operations.

Our approach started with dean’s level buy-in and a faculty-led taskforce. During the 2023-24 academic year, we offered generative AI workshops and training for faculty, staff, and all students (regardless of degree program or background). Simultaneously, we held a series of listening sessions with alumni and corporate stakeholders to understand the needs, pain points, and opportunities that companies have in the generative AI space. Ultimately, this led to curriculum revisions in more than 25 classes, developing several new elective classes, updating and relaunching a program (Online MS in Business Analytics & Applied AI), launching a brand-new degree program (MS in AI in Business) and launching several certificate and short course offerings. We also launched a virtual TA pilot program that uses generative AI to provide additional learning support for our students.

While many schools have introduced one or more AI course(s), Simon Business School’s approach to generative AI is groundbreaking. We have introduced generative AI content across all of our MBA and MS programs and integrated this content across all of our academic disciplines. This acknowledges that generative AI skills and tools and important and transformative in the business sector—irrespective of industry or functional role. We aim to transform and enhance the way our students learn and to prepare them to have a significant impact in their future companies.”

P&Q: What types of programs do you offer to sharpen your students’ soft skills? What areas do you emphasize and how do you instill these skills in your students?

Lewin: “Professional skill building starts during Orientation. Students complete a Clifton Strengths Assessment to confirm the key areas where they add value and contributions to teams and organizations. During Orientation, there are a variety of team building and leadership sessions that are hands-on and interactive. We also have a required communications course for all students that helps to enhance interpersonal and professional communication skills. There are also required breadth elective classes that students take in areas such as Negotiations, Leadership, Business Ethics, or Organizational Behavior.”

P&Q: What types of programming—through classroom instruction, extracurriculars, and treks—does your school offer to expose students to country-specific and global business practices? What have students told you were the most educational and fun aspects of these activities?

Lewin: “Simon offers several academic courses for credit—these international immersions have pre- and post-trip learning/coursework, along with an 8-10 day in-country trip. Locations vary from year-to-year, including Singapore, South Africa, Brazil, and Switzerland. Students have told us these immersions are transformational experiences that have shaped their lives and further cemented life-long friendships with their classmates and professors.

We also have a variety of co-curricular programming that celebrates the diversity of our student body, including educational sessions and celebratory gatherings for Diwali and Lunar New Year.”

P&Q: What are the most exciting new courses that your school is offering to MBAs this school year? What makes them so unique and valuable?

Lewin: “Our AI and Business (GBA478) course covers the application of generative AI technologies to a wide variety of business uses. What makes this course so valuable and unique is that it provides hands-on experience to students to design, build, and deploy generative AI for a variety of business cases. Additionally, this course leverages generative AI to enable students without a technical background (many of our MBA students) to gain most of this expertise. Finally, the course helps students ask and interrogate broader societal issues regarding AI, including the ethical and philosophical questions related to the technology.”

P&Q: What types of support does your career center and alumni provide to MBA students? How have these services and relationship made your graduates more competitive in the marketplace?

Lewin: “Our Benet Career Management Center begins supporting students during onboarding—before students arrive in Rochester for their MBA program. These comprehensive career services include online webinars; a career education curriculum during the first few weeks on campus; partnership with our professional clubs for virtual/in-person networking and educational training, including several career treks to different cities in the US that support the internship/job search process; 1:1 coaching from staff; peer coaching; and on-campus alumni networking and coffee chats. These resources provide structure and support that position Simon students competitively in the job market.”

P&Q: Your pricing program is considered world-class. What types of programming do you offer in this area? What makes pricing at Simon different than what you might get at a different MBA program?

Lewin: “Simon offers a pricing specialization within our MBA program for students focused on gaining skills and pursuing a career in pricing. We offer a breadth of classes in the pricing space including Intro to Pricing, B2B Pricing, Pricing Analytics, and Advanced Pricing, to name a few.  Our Simon Marketing Association student club supports students interested in a career in pricing through co-curricular programming, training, and networking events. In addition, our faculty, staff, and students attend the Professional Pricing Society (PPS) annual conferences to collaborate and network with industry leaders in this space.”

5 FAVORITE STUDENT ACTIVITIES

Here is what first-years and alumni have shared as the best traditions at the Simon School:

1) Simon Vision Consulting: “I am particularly excited about Simon Vision Consulting because it offers a unique opportunity to engage directly with real-world business challenges while collaborating with diverse teams. The chance to apply theoretical knowledge from my coursework to actual consulting projects enhances my learning experience and allows me to contribute meaningfully to local businesses. This hands-on experience will sharpen my analytical and problem-solving skills.”
Karen Melkomyan (’26)

2) PIECES: “[This program] will allow me to combine what I learn in the classroom and my love for education. Simon partners with local schools and volunteers in this program to teach 5th and 6th graders financial literacy. As a former 5th-grade teacher, I’ve always wanted to teach these concepts to students in my class, but I could not accomplish this due to competing priorities and limited resources. I am excited to have an opportunity to teach students financial literacy and give back to the Rochester community.”
Lan-Huong Nguyen (’26)

3) Simon Secret Santa Annual Gift-Wrapping Party: “Through the Simon Volunteers Club and Ainslie Office of Student Engagement, the Simon community has been raising money to support families and children for over 15 years.

The end of each fundraising cycle (a record-breaking amount of $18.7k was raised in 2022) culminates in our annual Fall Ball event. Here, students, staff, and faculty pick up wish lists so they can shop for the children and families, and we all gather at school in December to wrap the gifts. We have hot chocolate, coffee, and a Christmas playlist going on and it is just so special to see the entire Simon community come together to put smiles on faces for families during the Christmas holiday. This tradition reminds me of how passionate Simon is about the Rochester community and motivates me to get involved in any capacity.”
Tomilola Olotu (’23)

4) Fall Ball: “Fall Ball wasn’t just my favorite event; it embodied the spirit of our business school. We combined competitive and fun spirit with social responsibility—the event proceeds and silent auction raises money for Simon Volunteers’ annual Secret Santa program—all while indulging in our inner child at the Museum of Play. Also witnessing the joy on the faces of the adults playing like children is always special.”
Anvesh Jagini (’24)

5) Day of Service: “We end our MBA orientation with a day of service, consisting of learning about Rochester’s diverse socioeconomic history then spending the afternoon volunteering with Habitat for Humanity. Like many cities in the United States, Rochester has a deep history that Simon does not shy away from teaching us from the start. Our day of service during orientation ties in with a lesson about the local community and giving back. We then spend the afternoon building several houses and bonding as a team—a life-changing experience.”
Missy Keesler (’24)

Click on the links below to access profiles of 12 members of the MBA Class of 2024.

MBA Student	Hometown	Undergraduate Alma Mater	Last Employer
Aayush Agam Shrivastava	Vadodara, India	Narendra Modi Medical College	The Passion Project
Karla Camarillo	Mexico City, Mexico	Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM)	Procter & Gamble
Tess Eustace	Horseheads, NY	West Virginia University	U.S. Army
David Garrett	Atlanta, GA	University of South Carolina	Walker School
Kennedy Graves	Chicago, IL	Cornell University	BMO Commercial Bank North America
Chavah Greene	Aiken, SC	Clemson University	Accenture
Anna Lisa Gromann	Baden-Württemberg, Germany	Hochschule Furtwangen University	Aesculap AG
Colin Lease	Fairbanks, AK	University of Vermont	Spirit of Alaska Federal Credit Union
Karen Melkomyan	Yerevan, Armenia	American University of Armenia	Inowise Systems
Lan-Huong Nguyen	Chicago, IL	Connecticut College	PAIR Houston
Folake Obasanya	McKinney, TX	Baylor University	Leader’s Edge Consulting Firm
Samiya Yesmin	Dhaka, Bangladesh	BRAC University	Telenor Group (Grameenphone Ltd.)

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