Karena Yan

Columbia Business School

“Relationship-driven, goal-oriented, adventurous, fun-loving.”

Hometown: Andover, MA

Fun Fact About Yourself:  I’m a thrill junkie – I’ve been skydiving, hang gliding, ziplining, etc.

Undergraduate School and Major: Washington University in St. Louis, double major in Biology, Global Health, and Environment

Most Recent Employer and Job Title: Modern Health (digital health startup), Operations Manager

What makes New York City such a great place to earn an MBA? The opportunities are endless. On the professional side of things, so many firms have offices here, so it’s super convenient to pop into the office any day of the week and meet with potential employers. On the personal side, you’ll never run out of new places to explore and activities to do with your classmates.

Aside from your classmates and location, what was the key part of Columbia Business School’s MBA curriculum programming that led you to choose this business school and why was it so important to you? The opportunity to do in-semester internships was a huge draw for me. I have a lot of different hypotheses about what I want to do after CBS, and I wanted the opportunity to try out each one through a real-world experience. Being in New York makes it convenient to do that, and many students at CBS do at least one in-semester internship during their time here, so it’s really normalized. I also loved the concept of block week courses, which are intensive half-week or full-week courses you can take before an official semester starts. It’s a great way to learn a subject and get credits in a concentrated, time-efficient way that also frees up space in your schedule once the official semester starts.

What course, club or activity excites you the most at Columbia Business School? I’m most excited about the Chazen Global Study Tours. They’re relatively small group trips (~15-20 people) to countries around the world, oftentimes led by current students from those countries. You get to learn about major industries and companies in that country, as well as do a lot of sightseeing and cultural immersion, so it seems like a really unique way to visit a new place. I also hear that it’s a really bonding experience for the people on the trip, given the smaller size of the group, and people make very close friends during it.

Looking at your recruitment, what was the moment when you realized Columbia Business School was the right program for you? Why? I attended a CBS alumni panel early in the admissions process. I was struck by the camaraderie between the panelists despite being several years post-grad, as well as how much each panelist clearly loved their CBS experience. It told me a lot about the community, as well as the positive experience each alum had – so positive that they still felt a strong connection to CBS and were so willing to share their time and advice with potential new students like me.

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far: Probably attending CBS! I feel like coming here has unlocked so many doors for me, and I have far more flexibility and mobility to choose my next step in my career.

What do you hope to do after graduation? I hope to go into management consulting after graduation.

What advice would you give to help potential applicants gain admission into Columbia Business School’s MBA program? Talk to as many current CBS students as you can. Learn about their unique experiences and think about how they compare to what you want out of your own experience. Try to include those specific examples in your essays and other parts of your application – be as specific as possible (such as naming the exact classes you want to take or clubs you want to participate in) to paint a compelling picture of why you want to attend CBS and what you plan to do once stepping on campus.

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