Alumni Profiles

Michelle Peluso, W’93, distinctly remembers the first question she was asked during her three days of interviews in June for a White House Fellowship: In light of Judge Rehnquist’s decision on judicial independence, how do you think that should relate to the Indian nation state?

She’s not quite sure how she answered it, but clearly the session — which also included questions on literature, the arts, history and current events — went well. In late June Peluso was chosen as one of 17 White House Fellows, a program that, according to its official description, “provides gifted and highly motivated young Americans first-hand experience in the process of governing the nation and a sense of personal involvement in the leadership of society.”

Peluso, selected out of a field of approximately 1,000 applicants, is working directly with the U.S. Department of Labor, which recently received a billion dollar grant to study the issue of youth unemployment in inner cities.

“I’m interested over the long term in bringing my business skills to the non-profit world,” says Peluso, whose goal is to run a non-profit government organization like UNICEF or the Children’s Defense Fund. “This fellowship will provide the opportunity to see how business, government and the community intersect.”

While at Wharton, Peluso was chosen as a Thouron Scholar, a prestigious fellowship that enabled her to spend two years at Pembroke College, Oxford, where she earned a degree in philosophy, politics and economics. During the intervening summer she worked as a financial analyst for Citibank in Senegal.

In 1995 she joined Boston Consulting Group’s New York office. A senior case leader assigned to health care and consumer goods companies, Peluso spent part of her time looking at recent changes in the healthcare field and then analyzing business opportunities for pharmaceuticals and healthcare companies over the coming decade. She also ran the New York office’s community involvement initiative, coordinating both pro bono work and volunteer activities with community groups.

The Fellowship, she says, “is a great chance to reflect on what I have done and think hard about what I want to do, and how to get there from here.”