Three Graduating Students Receive Dean’s Mission & Impact Award
The students were recognized for their contributions to the Yale SOM and New Haven communities.
Three members of the Class of 2026, all graduates of the full-time MBA program, have been selected as recipients of the Dean’s Mission & Impact Award. Since 2021, Dean Kerwin K. Charles has presented the award annually to students whose contributions to the community embody the school’s mission to educate leaders for business and society.
This year’s honorees “combine sober-minded analysis and full-hearted enthusiasm while aggressively seeking to improve the communities they touch,” Charles wrote in an email to the SOM community.
The 2026 recipients of the Dean’s Mission & Impact Award are:
- Caroline Petro ’26, who led several efforts in the New Haven nonprofit community. Petro co-led the Golub Capital Consulting Fellows, where she oversaw student teams providing consulting services to local impact organizations, and served as president of the Food, Agribusiness, and Beverage Club, which cohosted the Big Connecticut Food Event. “This pitch competition provides New Haven residents with pro bono consulting and workshops while creating an important avenue to bring the New Haven community into Evans Hall,” Charles wrote.
- J.B. Horsley ’26, who served as lead performer, writer, and assistant director of the 2025 Business & Society musical, one of SOM’s annual traditions. “‘The Hiring Games’ demonstrated creativity and enthusiasm for the artistic talents of our community, but perhaps more importantly, highlighted J.B.’s keen understanding of the quirks and values that uniquely define SOM,” Charles wrote.
- Peter Waggonner ’26, who served as this year’s Inclusive Growth Fellowship program assistant. Waggonner, a former fellow, helped student teams work on projects related to economic development in New Haven. “His thoughtful stewardship of this program, as a fellow in his first year and program assistant in his second year, was essential to its continued success,” Charles wrote, adding that Waggonner “used his unique background working in local government to forge new working partnerships with city staffers and strengthen SOM’s relationship with the City of New Haven.”
In recognition of the recipients, the school will make contributions to impactful local organizations of their choice.
Read about the 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025 winners of the Dean’s Mission & Impact Award.
