Vanderbilt University Owen Graduate School of Management

Meet Soon Jeon, MBA '27.

Soon came to Owen from South Korea's Defense Acquisition Program Administration, where he spent his career at the intersection of policy, technology, and national security.

At Owen, he's deepened his leadership practice through the Leadership Development Program and found community in classmates whose experiences stretch across industries and cultures.

A silver medalist at the Seoul Rowing Association Chairman's Cup and devoted dad exploring Nashville one museum at a time, Soon is the kind of leader who makes everyone around him better.

Learn about his story at the link in bio.

Meet Shannon Young, MBA '27.

Before Owen, Shannon spent her career in the Marine Corps, most recently mentoring the next generation as Executive Officer of Recruiting Station Nashville, where she navigated the largest military recruiting crisis since the start of the all-volunteer force in 1973.

Now, she's channeling that same spirit of service as President of the Strategy and Consulting Club, helping classmates navigate the consulting recruiting process. It's work she knows well: this summer, she's interning at BCG.

A Philadelphia Eagles fan, Naval Academy cheerleader, and Nashville restaurant enthusiast, Shannon is exactly the kind of person who makes the Vanderbilt Business community special.

Learn about her story at the link in bio.

Watching our Accelerator Summer Business Immersion students grow each week was one of the highlights of summer.

For the final week of the program, students partnered with Vanderbilt Athletics on a live consulting project, bringing real creativity and real recommendations to campus leaders. Our Week 3 winners:

🥇 First Place: Team C / Hays Lindsey, Luca Gendzier-Imperiali, Maura Cameron Jackson, Neeva Patel, and Oliver Broek (MBA Coach: Jon Bergamo)
🥈 Second Place: Team H / Avalon Gross, Bella Cantorna, Charlie Ayers, Cooper Glendon, Jayden Jevnick, and Kenneth Prado (MBA Coach: Frances Brown)
🥉 Third Place: Team E / Alyssa Jo Herman, Aldo Michel-Vergara, Jack Roberts, Julia Schaer, Liam Drehkoff, and Sloane Wallace (MBA Coach: Utsav Kejriwal)

Week 3 MVPs: Michael Dobbs, Thad Wilkin, Maura Cameron Jackson, Emiliano Chahin, Alyssa Jo Herman, Abigail Wiener, Susan Lee, and Bella Cantorna 🌟

Congratulations to all who made this experience possible!

Week 2 of the Accelerator Summer Business Immersion ✅ Student teams took on a real-world business challenge brought by Red Bull.

🥇 First Place: Team H / Charlie Ayers, Bella Cantorna, Cooper Glendon, Avalon Gross, Jayden Jevnick, and Kenneth Prado (MBA Coach: Frances Brown)
🥈 Second Place: Team A / Tysen Coyle, Emma Datch, Michael Dobbs, Lauren White, and Joel Wickert (MBA Coach: Jon Bergamo)
🥉 Third Place: Team D / Emiliano Chahin, Rome Gordon, Ryan Neilson, Sindur Patel, Charlie Schweppe, and Yeokyung (Lizzy) Yoo (MBA Coach: Utsav Kejriwal)

Week 2 MVPs: Campbell Baumgartner, Tysen Coyle, Walker Forrester, Rome Gordon, Jayden Jevnick, Jake Mitchell, Neeva Patel, and Jack Roberts

Summer at Owen: A little quieter, but just as wonderful as ever.

As we head into the final stretch of our fiscal year, there's no better time to invest in what makes Owen special. Give before June 30 (link in bio)💛

A Vanderbilt student team built a venture in just six days and pitched it at New York Tech Week.

David Balin, Thomas Paige, Sam McFarland, and Thomas Hung presented SpectrumIQ, a live trading platform for radio spectrum, to more than 200 venture capitalists, founders, and family offices at the Refectory at Vanderbilt University–New York City.

They built it in six days at the inaugural Spring 2026 Dry Dock, a new program from the Vanderbilt Center for Entrepreneurship. They won. Then they took it to New York.

Congratulations! The best is still ahead.

The Vanderbilt Center for Entrepreneurship just launched something new: The Dry Dock.

Here's how it works. High-profile companies, including Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, NASA, IBM, Xtremis.AI, and EPB, submit real challenges they are already motivated to solve. Student teams from across Vanderbilt are assembled, and they then have six days to build enterprise-ready, scalable ventures, using quantum software, drones, robotics, and machine learning.

The Vanderbilt University ecosystem has already produced over 20 unicorns. The Dry Dock, led by director Baxter Webb and made possible by sponsors Lorimer Ventures and Cooley, is designed to launch the next one.

The winning teams have taken their ventures to New York Tech Week to pitch on a national stage. And with future sessions on the horizon, the Spring 2026 cohort is just the first class through the door.

A huge thank you to the Owen alumni who joined us last night for our Accelerator Summer Business Immersion panels.

Accelerator is a three-week intensive that brings together high-achieving undergrads and recent graduates from across the country for a deep dive into business. We're currently in the thick of it, and having alumni in the room to share their journeys was hugely valuable.

Consulting Panel
Moderator: Jon Bergamo
Panelists: Emily Johnson, Abigail Profancik, and Allison Love Webb

Finance Panel
Moderator: Utsav Kejriwal
Panelists: Megan Bizub, Logan Gravelle, and Lauren Wilson

Marketing Panel
Moderator: Zeke Arteaga
Panelists: Emma Helferich, Ian McCarthy, and Andrea Valladares

Week 1 of the Accelerator Summer Business Immersion is in the books!

Over the course of the week, student teams worked through a real business challenge brought by Tractor Supply, pitching their solutions to a panel of judges.

🥇 First Place + Research Belt: Team E / Liam Drehkoff, Alyssa Jo Herman, Aldo Michel-Vergara, Jack Roberts, Julia Schaer, and Sloane Wallace (MBA Coach: Utsav Kejriwal)
🥈 Second Place: Team D / Emiliano Chahin, Rome Gordon, Ryan Neilson, Sindur Patel, Charlie Schweppe, and Yeokyung (Lizzy) Yoo (MBA Coach: Utsav Kejriwal)
🥉 Third Place: Team A / Tysen Coyle, Emma Datch, Michael Dobbs, Lauren White, and Joel Wickert (MBA Coach: Jon Bergamo)

Week 1 MVPs: Charlie Ayers, Oliver Broek, D. Brock Newcom, Hadley Faulstich, Holden Hanenberger, Alyssa Jo Herman, Fiona Toole, Lauren White, and Yeokyung (Lizzy) Yoo