Say hello to the newest Master of Business and Science (MBS) degree students! On January 30th, we welcomed new MBS students to the spring 2026 semester at the Rutgers Lifelong Learning Center. This event brought together incoming students, faculty, and staff to kick off the semester and introduced the resources, experiences, and community that define the program. The session focused on helping students clarify their goals, connect with peers, and understand how the MBS degree supports their path from who they are today to who they want to become in the future.
Welcome & Meet the MBS Team
MBS Instructor Kathleen Cashman Walter, who teaches our popular course Principles of Communications and Leadership, opened the orientation by welcoming students and encouraging them to think intentionally about their destination, what roles they hope to pursue, and how the program can help them get there. She introduced the purpose of the MBS degree and invited faculty, advisors, and staff to share how they support students throughout their academic journey.
Students met the broader MBS team, including:
- Abbe Rosenthal – Assistant Director and Executive Coach, and even co-host
- Jay Goldring – Instructor and Life Science Advisor, and event co-host
- Karen Bemis – Assistant Director of Student Experience, Data Analytics & AI Advisor
- Lars Sorenson – Assistant Teaching Professor and Cybersecurity Coordinator
- Brenda Rodriguez – Student Success & Engagement Specialist
- Constance Anders Woolley – Program Coordinator for Admissions and Enrollment
- Julianna Rossano – Senior Editorial & Media Specialist
- Dr. Deborah Silver – Executive Director, Professional Science Master’s Program
Students were also introduced to Navigate 360, a tool for MBS student success. This platform can be used to schedule advising appointments, track academic progress, and more.
Networking from Day One
The MBS experience is all about networking with the right people, hence the first breakout activity focused on community building. Students met classmates in small groups and shared their backgrounds, concentrations, reasons for choosing MBS, and even personal interests outside academics.
The conversations revealed that the students observed strong diversity in backgrounds and cultures. Students also shared a common goal of career growth and employment outcomes. The activity helped them feel more comfortable introducing themselves and forming early connections.
The “I Am” Exercise: Defining Your Story
Next, students joined in an activity to help them improve their networking skills and gain confidence. They took part in an exercise in which they had 30 seconds to describe themselves, with each sentence beginning with “I am.”
This activity draws from personal branding and design-thinking practices and has long been used to help students articulate their strengths with clarity and confidence. The idea is simple: before defining what you want to become, you must first understand who you are. Practising this can help students craft concise, authentic introductions they could use in networking and professional settings.
The exercise reinforced one of the core messages: the MBS degree program helps students move from “I am” to “I want to become” by providing the tools to get there.
Learning from our Alumni
Several alumni joined the session to share their experiences and advice:
- Shefali Singh – Engineering Management, May ’25
- Sreelekha Chintaluri – Biotechnology & Genomics, January ’26
- Varsha Kripalani – Applied Food Science & Technology, May ’25. Kripalani also serves as an MBS Advisor for the Externship Exchange Program.
- Pranav Vempati – Engineering Management, May ’25
They encouraged students to network actively, stay open to learning, and take advantage of the program's opportunities.
What the MBS Degree Program Offers
The orientation also highlighted a range of academic and professional development opportunities available through the program, including:
- Science-focused core courses and electives
- Business skills in marketing, finance, accounting, and communication
- A personalized support network of academic advisors, executive coaches, and alumni mentorship
- Events—including social events, industry panels, professional workshops, and more (including Designing Your Life (DYL) workshops)
- Externships with corporate partners, offering hands-on work experience
- Internships that can be found on the MBS Canvas site and through Rutgers Handshake (so make sure to activate your account!)
- Our “Capstone” course, where students build ventures around patented technologies
Together, these experiences highlight the MBS formula that learning extends beyond the classroom.
A taste of DYL
In the final activity, Rosenthal led an activity where students selected a target role and reviewed job descriptions to assess the skills they already possessed and those they still needed to develop. Breaking these into technical, interpersonal, and transferable categories helped students better understand how to plan their next steps.
The exercise was a taste of Designing Your Life (DYL), which had an important takeaway: recognizing what you don’t yet know makes it easier to focus on what you need to learn, and MBS provides the resources to help you get there. For a more detailed dive into DYL, attend our upcoming DYL workshop hosted by Executive Coach Abbe Rosenthal for a deeper exploration of these strategies.
Professor Cashman Walter closed the session by encouraging students to reflect on whether they felt they were in the right place and what actions would move them from “I think I’m in the right place” to “I know I’m in the right place.” With advising, coaching, externships, and a strong community of peers and mentors, students left the orientation prepared to begin their MBS journey.
The night ended with a simple question: “R U ready?”
To all new MBS students, welcome! And to all MBS students, welcome back for a new and exciting semester! We have a host of exciting events coming up. For a full list, visit our events page. Follow us on X (Twitter), LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram to stay up-to-date with MBS news.