Top honors

9/18/2009 - Among this year’s Siebel Scholars are Kellogg students who have excelled in chemistry, music, health care, higher education and recruitment.

Although their backgrounds vary, all the scholars have the same tie — a commitment to academic achievement and leadership.

Kellogg’s Siebel Scholars are Susan Bortz, Jarrod Cady, Jeremiah Quinlan, Jason Robinson and Donald Yeh, all ’10.

The prestigious national award recognizes five exceptional students at each of 16 leading world graduate business, computer science and bioengineering universities. Recipients receive $35,000 for tuition and other educational expenses during their final year of study.

“The award is of course very helpful from a financial perspective, but more importantly it connects me with an amazing group of people that I can collaborate with throughout my lifetime,” Bortz said. “It is a huge honor to have been selected from such an impressive group of students.

These Kellogg students join more than 540 scholars nationwide who have been honored since the award was created in 2000 by Siebel Systems founder Tom Siebel through the Siebel Foundation.

The Siebel Scholar Program seeks to create a community of leaders who will make important social contributions. A selection committee of Kellogg deans selected the scholars based on a pool of students who are in the top 10 percent of each academic department. The deans picked scholars on the basis of academic merit and leadership qualities.

“We congratulate our Siebel scholars, who have earned this award through their outstanding performance within and outside the classroom,” said Jan A. Van Mieghem, senior associate dean of curriculum and teaching. “We’re confident these students will go on to make important contributions, and we are honored to be a part of the Siebel scholars program.”

Each of the Kellogg recipients has demonstrated outstanding commitment in a variety of areas. Along with maintaining exceptional academic performance, the students have balanced their studies with leadership pursuits in other arenas, including education, healthcare and nonprofit work.

The Siebel Scholars and scholar alumni will meet in 2010 to address the topic of climate change with renowned scientists, lawmakers, and experts.

“I am thrilled to be joining such a distinguished and diverse professional and personal network,” Quinlan said. “I find the idea of bringing together insights and perspectives from business, bioengineering and computer science students to help find solutions to the world’s most critical social issues completely new and compelling.”

Read on for more information about Kellogg’s 2010 Siebel Scholars.

Susan Bortz ’10 came to Kellogg with a strong interest in healthcare technology and worked in the R&D group of the cardiac rhythm disease management division at Medtronic Inc. for her summer internship. She has held past positions at ZS Associates, where she provided consulting services to medical device manufacturers, and at Orbitz Worldwide as a senior marketing analyst in the customer analytics group. At Kellogg she has held leadership roles in KWEST and KelloggCares as well as the Net Impact Club and the Inner-City Mentoring Club.

Jarrod Cady ’10 has worked with the Monitor Group, including as head of undergraduate recruiting for North American operations, where he hired over 100 new consultants over a two-year span. For his summer internship, Cady worked at the Walt Disney Company on studio distribution strategy. At Kellogg, his leadership roles have included president of KWEST and positions within the Media & Entertainment Club and Special K!

Jeremiah Quinlan ’10 has worked as the director of outreach and recruitment at Yale University, where he led a team of admissions officers that worked to get more low-income students to apply to college. Quinlan came to Kellogg to gain new knowledge and enhance his experiences in marketing and management. This summer, he had an internship at Kraft Foods in brand management. Quinlan has held leadership roles in the Education Industry Club and the Kellogg Squash Club and also participates in the Kellogg Board Fellows Program.

Jason Robinson ’10 has pursued doctoral and postdoctoral research in physical chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. He also worked in Intel’s technology development division. While studying at Kellogg, he is also working in venture capital at the Illinois Innovation Accelerator Fund. Robinson has been involved in leadership roles at Kellogg in the Private Equity/Venture Capital Club and Kellogg Nano Alliance and was a Career Trek leader.

Donald Yeh ’10 has worked as a consultant at Bain & Company and at the Dallas Symphony. He also has a master’s degree in music performance and has volunteered with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Through the Kellogg Board Fellows program, he is serving on the board of the Music Institute of Chicago and plans to pursue a career in arts administration. Yeh also holds Kellogg leadership positions in the Net Impact Club, the Gay and Lesbian Management Association and the Kellogg Student Association.