Be Passionate and Never Settle
Lianna Schuele is a 5th year Galante Engineering Business fellow studying industrial engineering (BS) and engineering management (MS). She has been a part of the Galante program since the spring of 2019 when she was accepted as a fellow. Schuele was drawn to the program because of her affinity for business. Once accepted, she was inspired by the Galante community of like-minded students and was excited to continue learning and growing at Northeastern, most notably by taking advantage of the great events put on by the Galante program every semester. Her favorite memory as a Galante fellow was the very first event she led — an information session co-hosted by IISE. Leading this event and moderating the panel of Galante fellows was her first major role as a fellow; she was excited to bring her passion for the program to the event and inspire others to apply. In the following semester, several students who attended the panel had since applied for and been accepted into the Galante program; an indicator that this was a success!
In addition to being a Galante fellow, Schuele is involved in several other Northeastern organizations. She has held various leadership roles in the Northeastern chapter of Sigma Kappa Sorority, including that of president in 2019. In addition, she spent her first two years of college dedicated to the dance team and has since been a part of the dance company, which she joined in the fall of 2018. In her free time, Schuele loves trying new recipes and experimenting with kitchen gadgets. She also prioritizes health and fitness and enjoys finding new ways to stay active in her daily life.
In her time at Northeastern, Schuele has completed co-ops, one at Wayfair and the other at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC). At Wayfair, she worked as a Product Performance Specialist. In this role, she directed initiatives to reduce incidence rates for products across several categories. This experience helped her develop data analysis and leadership skills. She also had the opportunity to stay on this team, part-time, following her co-op. She took on more responsibilities as an associate and managed the growing hardware category consisting of 18 product classes and 26 major suppliers. This experience set her up for success at her second co-op at BIDMC where took on the role of Management Engineer. There, Lianna worked on several process improvement projects for outpatient clinics across the hospital. This role gave her perspective into how industrial engineering techniques can be applied in healthcare. She also learned how to be adaptable in this role when COVID-19 hit Boston and caused many of her original projects to be placed on hold. From there, pandemic-related work took over as Schuele’s team was responsible for managing the logistics branch of the medical center. She facilitated daily meetings, developed current hospital operations, and built out new visitor screening policies to reflect the constantly changing CDC guidelines.
Following her graduation this upcoming May, Schuele hopes to work in a manufacturing- or operations-related process improvement role. She is looking into rotational programs that will allow her to gain experience in several areas of the business during her early years on the job. She would love to stay in the Boston area and continue exploring the city, but is also open to other locations across the US. Overall, Schuele’s time at Northeastern has taught her to be open-minded to new and unexpected opportunities and she would advise underclassmen to get involved, be passionate, and never settle.
