Three Babson College Alumni Named MBAs to Watch
Three Babson graduate students from the Class of 2023 made Poets & Quants’ coveted list of MBA Students to Watch for the Class of 2023.
Melissa Belec MBA’23, Santucee Bell MBA’23, and Abhishek (Abby) Dudhankar MBA’23 all made the exclusive annual list. They were included as part of 135 students chosen from business schools across the country. Poets & Quants described Belec, Bell, Dudhankar, and the other MBA Students to Watch as unforgettable figures on campus who went beyond the status quo and left lasting impressions on faculty, administrators, and their fellow students.
Belec, who lived in the Bay Area before grad school and joined a startup there that grew from 30 to 200 employees, plans to work in climate tech. At Babson, Belec was elected co-president of the Graduate Tech Club, served as VP of marketing for the golf club, and was the founder of the unofficial cycling club. She also was a recipient of the Sorenson Scholarship Award for Meritorious Achievement. In her Poets & Quants profile, she wrote: “Babson’s reputation for entrepreneurship drew me to the program. Looking back, I am not sure I would have pursued an MBA at any other school. Growing up, I started garage sales, a can-collection business, a personal training business, and most recently a charity event. I knew that entrepreneurship was in my blood, and I felt that Babson was the best place to explore its potential.”
Bell served as co-president of Babson’s Black Graduate Club, was a scholar at the Butler Institute for Free Enterprise Through Entrepreneurship, was elected to be a Community Development Representative and Section Representative for her Two-Year MBA Program, volunteered for DEI recruitment for the graduate programs, and is a full merit scholarship recipient of the Babson Diversity Leadership Fellowship. She also was the graduate recipient of the 2023 Martin Luther King Jr. Leadership Award. Bell worked at Babson’s Frank & Eileen™ Center for Women’s Entrepreneurial Leadership as a project coordinator for DEI full time during the summer of 2022. In her role, she helped strategic planning of inclusive and innovative research and programming, which she continued part time while finishing her master’s degree. Her goal is to revitalize Black Wall Street, where Black business thrived and cultivated financially free Black communities. In her Poets & Quants profile, she wrote: “Babson’s curriculum is like no other. It is the only business school where everything is grounded in Entrepreneurial Thought & Action (ETA). My ultimate goal in life is to get to the point where everything that I do is entrepreneurial in nature. I’m 100% sure that I picked the right school to help get me there.”
Dudhankar, who completed Babson’s rigorous one-year MBA program, held a leadership role in the Business Analytics Club and is a recipient of the prestigious Presidential Scholar and Olin Scholar awards. He took part in a four-month consulting program for one of Massachusetts’ top insurance companies, maintained top grades in his classes despite a monthlong leave triggered by a family emergency, and he’s currently juggling offers from several well-known companies for a role in strategy and insights. In his Poets & Quants profile, he wrote: “I was drawn to Babson’s robust entrepreneurial focus, which aligned with my personal and professional goals. Pursuing an education at Babson would enable me to cultivate an entrepreneurial mindset. I was impressed by the supportive community at Babson. I was struck by the openness and accessibility of current students, alumni, and the graduate services team, who were all eager to assist me in making the right decision for my future. I also wanted flexibility in the program, and Babson’s MBA was the right fit.”
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