Drexel LeBow’s Diana Jones on the B-school’s approach to experiential learning: “It’s not just about applying concepts. It’s about asking better questions, reframing challenges, modeling scenarios, and then communicating your insights clearly to decision-makers”
Experiential learning means different things to different business schools. For some, it means simulations and case studies. At Drexel University’s LeBow College of Business, it means something different: students working directly with major companies — household names like Deloitte, Comcast, and Vanguard — on real-world problems in consulting, analytics, and AI. And doing it, often, before their first job offer.
At the center of LeBow’s approach is the Dornsife Office for Experiential Learning, led by Executive Director Diana Jones and Senior Associate Dean Murugan Anandarajan. The office oversees a wide range of hands-on programs — from summer business camps for middle and high school students to MBA consulting projects with Fortune 500 firms.
The goal is consistent across levels: embed students in real business environments where they can apply what they’re learning in real time. “Our students don’t just do simulations or case studies,” Anandarajan tells Poets&Quants. “They’re solving live problems, with real clients, real deadlines, and real stakes.”
(See more of P&Q‘s coverage of innovation at Drexel LeBow: How A Small MBA Program In A Big East Coast City Is Reimagining B-School For The AI Era and This Big-City B-School Has Overhauled Its MBA 3 Times In The Last 9 Years — Here’s Why It’s Not Stopping.)
CONSULTING WITH PURPOSE
Every LeBow student encounters a signature business consulting project — not a classroom hypothetical, but a structured engagement with an actual company. These partnerships span industries, from big-name firms like PwC and Deloitte to local ventures and alumni-founded startups. The process is rigorous and intentionally designed to mirror the ambiguity and complexity of real business life.
“It’s not just about applying concepts,” Jones tells P&Q. “It’s about asking better questions, reframing challenges, modeling scenarios, and then communicating your insights clearly to decision-makers.”
For students, these engagements are more than résumé fodder. Many lead directly to co-op placements or full-time roles. For corporate partners, they offer a fresh perspective — and often, surprising value.
THE LAURIE PROGRAM: LEADERSHIP, INTEGRATED
If the consulting track gives students a first taste of business reality, the Laurie Program accelerates their evolution as leaders. Open to a small cohort of MBA students each year, the program offers a tightly integrated, year-long journey across strategy, culture, finance, and operations, culminating in a capstone project guided by a unique framework and hands-on mentorship.
“The beauty of it is integration,” says Anandarajan. “In most MBA programs, strategy is taught in one silo, leadership in another. But in the real world, these things are deeply interwoven. The Laurie model reflects that.”
Students don’t just tackle company challenges — they often create their own, bringing in past work experience or identifying an area of impact they care about. Along the way, they’re mentored by senior executives, many of whom are alumni or partners brought in through program benefactor Mike Laurie’s network. Each cohort concludes with presentations to a panel of executives — not a soft landing, but a high-stakes test of critical thinking and executive communication.
“You come in as you,” Jones says. “And ten weeks later, you leave as you-plus-one.”
Drexel LeBow Senior Associate Dean Murugan Anandarajan: “We’re not just building data scientists. We’re building translators — professionals who can speak both the language of business and the language of technology”
AI IS NOT A SILO
In a time when artificial intelligence is reshaping industries faster than universities can update their syllabi, LeBow is leaning into the turbulence. Through the Center for Applied AI and Business Analytics, students are learning how to work at the intersection of technology and strategy — not by mastering the math behind neural nets, but by understanding their implications and applying them in business context.
“We don’t want our students to be parrots,” says Anandarajan. “You can get the definitions from ChatGPT. What companies need are people who can think critically, interpret results, and translate technology into value.”
Capstone projects are deliberately cross-functional. In one example, students helped a pharmaceutical company extract business insights from thousands of research abstracts using AI-generated knowledge graphs. In another, students used real-time data and generative AI to explore decision intelligence in a railroad logistics case. The emphasis is always on interpreting data, not just generating it.
BUILDING THE TRANSLATORS OF TOMORROW
LeBow’s emphasis on “human-AI collaboration” is echoed in its course design. One interdisciplinary class on decision intelligence divides instruction across three experts — one focused on data, another on machine learning, and a third on the human factors driving business impact — all orchestrated by a faculty lead who ties the threads together.
“We’re not just building data scientists,” Anandarajan says. “We’re building translators — professionals who can speak both the language of business and the language of technology.”
When curricula can’t evolve fast enough to meet the moment, LeBow turns to agile alternatives: workshops, special topics courses, and rapid-response co-curricular programming. A course on human-AI augmentation, once a pilot, is now in its third iteration — constantly refined based on student feedback and real-world developments.
“We don’t rest on 15-year-old material,” Anandarajan adds. “We look ahead, we experiment, and we bring research into the classroom to keep it alive.”
LEADERSHIP IN A GLOBAL, UNCERTAIN WORLD
Beyond analytics and AI, LeBow remains deeply invested in human and global dimensions of business. Its international residencies prepare students to navigate cross-cultural dynamics, while leadership development programming emphasizes adaptability, emotional intelligence, and communication — what Jones calls the “human steering” element.
“Anyone can build the ship,” she says. “We want our students to learn how to steer it.”
When asked what course she would add instantly if she could, Jones doesn’t hesitate: “A class entirely focused on human skills — interpersonal communication, cognitive flexibility, empathy. That’s the glue.”
‘DON’T COME HERE FOR THE ANSWERS’
For both Jones and Anandarajan, the value proposition of a LeBow MBA is as much about mindset as content.
“Don’t come here for the answers,” Jones says. “Come here to help shape the future — to work alongside companies that are figuring it out, too. The future of business is being written in real time. We want you in the room.”
“And if you’re looking to change careers,” adds Anandarajan, “we have our pulse on what employers actually need. We build that into everything — from the survey research we conduct annually to the way we design assignments.”
In a moment of accelerating uncertainty — technological, geopolitical, environmental — LeBow sees not risk but opportunity.
“Uncertainty is the best time to lead,” Anandarajan says. “This is when you create the models, not memorize them. And that’s the kind of student we’re training: not just learners, but inventors.”
DON’T MISS HOW A SMALL MBA PROGRAM IN A BIG EAST COAST CITY IS REIMAGINING B-SCHOOL FOR THE AI ERA and THIS BIG-CITY B-SCHOOL HAS OVERHAULED ITS MBA 3 TIMES IN THE LAST 9 YEARS — HERE’S WHY IT’S NOT STOPPING
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