2022 Best & Brightest Business Major: Lana Butorovic, Lehigh University

Lana Butorovic

Lehigh University College of Business

“A crossover between Hermione Granger and Luna Lovegood – driven, hard-working, adventurous, and creative.”

Fun fact about yourself: I have traveled to 3 continents within 48 hours.

Hometown: Podgorica, Montenegro

High School: Carlsbad International School

Major: Finance and Business Information Systems

Minor: N/A

Favorite Business Course: Advanced Investments – Data Analytics

Extracurricular Activities, Community Work and Leadership Roles During College: (Include school awards and honors)

  • Dean’s List: Fall 2018, Spring 2019, Fall 2019, Fall 2020, Spring 2021, Fall 2021 (awarded to all students whose cumulative semester GPA is 3.75 or above)
  • Philadelphia Philanthropic Society for Information Management (PHSIM) Scholarship
  • The Nelson Leighton Bond Memorial Prize
  • Beta Gamma Sigma member
  • Member of the Sophomore, Junior, and Senior Dean’s Advisory Councils
  • Lehigh Trustees’ Scholarship Recipient (top 1% of the applicant pool)
  • Mentor Fellow of the TRAC program, the nation’s most prestigious undergraduate academic writing program
  • United Nations Youth Representative for the American Association of University Women
  • United Nations Financial Researcher
  • United Nations Climate Change Summit 2019 volunteer
  • Lehigh University Ecological Representative
  • Consulting Project Manager (TAMID group at Lehigh University)
  • Lehigh University Diplomat – international student admissions assistant

Where have you interned during your college career?

EY – New York City – Technology Consulting Intern

YKCenter (United Nations) – Remote (based out of Tel Aviv, Israel) – Consulting Intern

EY – Podgorica, Montenegro – Audit Intern

Where will you be working after graduation? EY (New York City office) – Technology Consultant

Who is your favorite business professor? It would definitely be Dr. James Brennan. He is unparalleled when it comes to teaching his students both business concepts through the lens of psychology and giving us practical life advice. As someone who has taken several classes with Dr. Brennan, I can confidently say that I have rarely encountered a college professor who exhibits more empathy towards his students. I will greatly miss his lectures.

What is the biggest lesson you gained from studying business? Continuous learning and active listening are essential to successfully run a business. Coming up with a smart concept/product is always a plus, but only customer-centered businesses succeed in the long run. This can only be achieved if leaders are constantly striving to be better at what they do by connecting with their customers and putting them first.

What advice would you give to a student looking to major in a business-related field? Go beyond the classroom to maximize your potential. Applying theory in the classroom is essential, but staying up to date with current events and business trends is best done by staying curious outside of class!

What has surprised you most about majoring in business? We covered quite a few ethics-related scandals in several classes in the time that I have been a business major. It is still shocking to me to hear how many high-up business executives made, what seems to me, extremely unethical choices while conducting business. The lack of understanding of the importance of morality in the workplace is something that I still cannot fully understand and I hope that learning a lot about it will help my peers and I do a better job than our predecessors.

Looking back over your experience, what is the one thing you’d do differently in business school and why? I wish I had networked more with alumni outside of my area of focus (consulting). Even though you have to efficiently use your time when it comes to networking, branching out can help you discover new career paths that you might be interested in. Given how focused business schools are on building relationships, it would have been great to have more contacts in other industries in case I end up wanting to branch out later on in my career.

What business executive do you admire most? This would definitely be Stacey Cunningham, the 67th president of the NYSE. Stacey is only the second woman to hold that title and the first to hold full leadership of the NYSE. She graduated from Lehigh and majored in engineering which I always found fascinating seeing how far she got in the finance world. It is a testament to how diligent she must have worked to get to where she is today. I think she is a shining example of how far women can go despite all the obstacles we face in a male-dominated industry.

Which academic, extracurricular or personal achievement are you most proud of? I am most proud of having been able to attend Lehigh University. When I was in high school, I knew I would need a scholarship to be able to attend college in the US, which had been a life-long dream of mine. When I found out about Lehigh, I immediately fell in love with it and made it my goal to be a holder of a Lehigh degree within 4-5 years. This will thankfully come to fruition in May 2022 after putting two years of continuous effort into perfecting my college application in high school, and then doing my best to maintain my scholarship in college. It has been a true honor to be a Lehigh student and I will remember my time here with immense pride.

Which classmate do you most admire? I admire my classmate Miona Lucic the most as she is one of the most hard-working and dedicated students I know. She is someone who maintains a great work-life balance despite pursuing a very challenging graduate program. Whether it’s spending long hours working outside of class, networking on the weekends, or helping her friends out in her free time, she is a true testament of how far you can go if you keep believing in yourself and put effort into schoolwork and your career outside of college. Miona is known to be a confidant amongst her peers as she is incredibly empathetic and caring – something everyone our age should strive to be recognized as. I am lucky to have her by my side and hope to work alongside her after our time at Lehigh.

Who would you most want to thank for your success? While not trying to sound too cliché, I would most like to thank my grandmother for my success. She has been instilling a passion for learning and being curious in me since I was very young and has encouraged me to never give up on my ambitions. When I decided to live abroad, she motivated me to keep moving forward and setting goals for myself no matter how hard living abroad can be. Having dedicated her life to self-growth, she is the best role-model I could have asked for and I wish to be like her one day. I would not have had the courage to pursue my dreams had she not believed in me first.

What are the top two items on your professional bucket list? The first one would be to become a true expert in a specific area of fintech – most likely Data Science. I want to be the person who coworkers think of first whenever they have a question about a specific topic. The second one would be to make enough to be able to take care of my immediate family and enjoy my free time with them while traveling and exploring the world.

What are your hobbies? I have become really interested in fitness (particularly strength training) during the COVID-19 pandemic, so I currently try to go to the gym 6 times a week. I’m also an avid cook and experiment with three to four new recipes per week. Being incredibly passionate about music, you can find me playing my electric guitar on the weekends while planning my next trip abroad.

What made Lana such an invaluable addition to the Class of 2022?

“Lana has a passion for technology. She is one of the most talented and motivated students I have had in my 11+ years of teaching career. As a double major in Finance and Business Information Systems, Lana is versed in cutting-edge data analytics tools such as SQL, R, and Python. I have been very much impressed by her ability to provide insights on complex real-world problems using her data analytics skills. Lana also demonstrated outstanding leadership and problem-solving skills which were recognized by the awards and scholarships that she received from Lehigh University and the Society for Information Management. She has been very actively engaged in diverse activities including the TRAC program and the UN Youth Representative Program. Lana’s aspiration is to become a technology consultant and break into the fintech world after graduation. I have no doubt that she will become a future leader in the technology world.”

David Zhang
Associate Professor
Decision and Technology Analytics
Lehigh University College of Business

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