The ABCs of Art, Business and Community with LeBow Student Commencement Speaker Ari Cabrera

For Ari Cabrera ’26, her time at Drexel was both about finding community and building new ones.

A Philadelphia native and the child of immigrants from the Dominican Republic, Cabrera was drawn to LeBow as a resource for developing financial literacy and business savvy. “I saw going to business school as doing something to support myself, my family and my community,” she says. “I’m really thankful for Drexel for teaching me those things so I can help others.”

In addition to her strong roots in her hometown, LeBow BRIDGE (Building Relationships in Diverse Group Experience) provided a strong foundation; she says she “fell in love” with the organization and has relied on for it support throughout her student career: “BRIDGE is literally my second home, and I don’t think I would have been able to get that experience in any other club, particularly being around older students starting in my first year.”

At that time, Cabrera says she was determine to end up working in investment banking or another area of finance with the potential for a high salary. Maintaining her connection to art, a passion throughout her early life, led her to a different path.

“Midway through my sophomore year, I started posting my art online,” she says. “I just did it for fun and to have an outlet, and a lot of my friends said I had a good personality to be online.”

She built an online following as she grew her skills as an artist, boosted by having a post go viral and landing thousands of new followers in just one day.

“Now, across my platforms, I have over 300,000 followers and that’s really how I’ve sustained myself through college,” she says.

Continuing on her path as an artist and content creator is now her plan for post-graduation employment.

“My parents are business owners, and so the entrepreneurial spirit has really been engrained in me,” she says. “I want to pursue this thing, even if I might fail.”

Hometown: Philadelphia
Major(s): Co-majoring in finance and business analytics, with a minor in MIS
Co-ops: Susquehanna International Group, compliance and equity analyst; Vanguard, internal auditor and data analyst; Sephora, data analyst
Clubs and organizations: LeBow BRIDGE (Build Relationships in Diverse Group Experiences) executive board, social media manager, fundraising chair, co-chair; Black Student Union; Latinos for a United Campus; counselor for various summer programs: NAIOP, Building BRIDGEs, THRIVE
Post-graduation plans: Artist and content creator @yungpicari

Drexel LeBow: What are some highlights from your time at Drexel and at LeBow?
AC: The first thing that comes to mind, honestly, is final exams: studying alongside your friends, just being up late together until after the library closes. We would be drinking coffee at, like, 2 a.m. and I know we must have looked like maniacs, but that’s how you learn who your friends really are. If you think about it, Drexel has a different timeline than everyone else in school, so, like, when my friends are on vacation, we’re in finals, so having that experience together really built a sense of camaraderie.

Second, I think about LeBow BRIDGE and the BRIDGE Room on the third floor of LeBow Hall. It’s like a second home to me: I go there to laugh, to cry, to talk… I go there when I’m between classes. It’s a place where first-year students and upperclassmen meet. I’ve been part of BRIDGE since my first year, and since then, I always tell younger students, if you want to be successful as a LeBow student, be in this area and be a part of this crowd. These are people that are always going to be there to help you. Obviously students should use the resources that Drexel provides, but being able to go to someone who’s been in your shoes is invaluable. The BRIDGE room has some of the best of Drexel’s resources all in one: career advice, studying, tutoring, academic guidance.

DL: What’s an important lesson that you took away from an academic course?
AC: Never think that you know everything, and don’t be afraid to feel like you don’t know something. In a lot of my classes, I’ve noticed I’m one of the very few people that always asks questions. There’s been countless times where I’ve raised my hand and asked a question, and five or more people come to me afterward and say, “Thank you for asking that question, because I didn’t know.”

I think there’s a stigma around asking questions in college — maybe you were the valedictorian at your school, and now you’re around all these other valedictorians, and you still want to feel smart. But don’t waste your academic career because you’re afraid to say that you don’t understand something. You’re here for a reason, and it isn’t because you already know everything — you’re here to learn.

DL: Who are some of the faculty or staff who have helped and supported you?
AC: First, I want to acknowledge [Henderson Real Estate Institute Executive Director] Carter Murdoch; the courses I took with him were excellent, and they were really the exception to the “nobody wants to ask questions” phenomenon. His teaching style really led to his courses being very interactive, with lots of students asking questions.

Beyond the advisors and everyone who’s involved in BRIDGE — Vanessa Herrera, Dashiyah Green, Brian Ellis — I have to thank and acknowledge two people: [Director of Undergraduate Student Services] Jackie McCurdy. She’s been my mentor as a Liberty Scholar, and she’s always such a pleasure to talk to. She’s amazing and has been so helpful to me over the years.

And then, I want to give the biggest shout-out to Bernetta McCall-Millonde in the Center for Inclusive Education and Scholarship. She heads the Liberty Scholars program, and she is so supportive, so caring and concerned with what’s going on with everyone. She is such a hardworking, amazing woman, especially with everything that has changed involving DEI at Drexel and elsewhere. I’ve been amazed by her resilience and by how she’s always there for the students and the people that need her. I’ve gone to her, cried with her, told her everything… she brings that motherly caring and has helped me so much. If you’re feeling overwhelmed, you just have to walk in her office, and she’ll make time to talk with you.

DL: What accomplishment from your time as a student are you most proud of and why?
AC: Apart from being selected as commencement speaker, I’d say I’m most proud of having my first gallery show of my artwork at Vox Populi, which required a lot of hard work and sacrifice.

Within Drexel, I’d say being involved in Thrive, an early move-in program for Black and brown students run by the Center for Inclusive Education and Scholarship. I came in as a Thrive student, and later became a counselor. The program and how it’s run has changed, but I was one of the few Thrivers who became a counselor, and the only one who served as a counselor for three years. That program, along with a few other summer programs I’ve worked with, have been a way for me to pay it forward and introduce new students to life at Drexel and in my hometown.

DL: What are you planning to share with your fellow graduates?
AC: I think my speech is going to speak to a lot of people who feel like everything in their lives is rushed. I want to provide a different perspective and hopefully help them move into this next part of their lives with a sense of permission, a sense of calmness and peace, but also a sense of motivation: your new chapter is about to begin, and it might feel like a lot of pressure, but remember: you don’t have an assignment due, and in fact, you can make your own assignment! You can build up the life that you want now, and it’s really up to you. I hope that I can influence people to feel like they have that type of autonomy.