Naperville native Trisha Prabhu has received the Knight-Hennessy Scholarship to pursue a Master of Business Administration at Stanford Graduate Business School, as announced by Prabhu in a LinkedIn post on Thursday.
Knight-Hennessy Scholars
The prestigious scholarship provides up to three years of financial support for winners to study at any of Stanford’s seven schools, according to the Knight-Hennessy Scholars website. Scholars also join the King Global Leadership Program, where they will participate in workshops, lectures, and projects to build leadership skills.
It is the largest fully endowed, university-wide scholarship in the world. Prabhu is one of 87 recipients in this year’s cohort, Stanford reports.
MBA and law degree in the works for Prabhu
Prabhu will pause her studies at Yale Law School in the 2027-2028 school year to work on a Master of Business Administration at Stanford. Following the completion of her degree in Palo Alto, she will return to New Haven for a final semester to finish her law degree.
“I’m so excited to be adding on one more degree and one more year of education!” Prabhu said on LinkedIn. “In 2028, I’ll officially have both a JD and an MBA in the books!”
History of entrepreneurship
Prabhu got her entrepreneurial start at age 13 with the invention of ReThink, an app designed to stop cyberbullying.
The app identifies harmful language and gives users a chance to pause and “rethink” if they want to continue posting or sending the message.
She continued developing the app through high school, earning her national recognition and leading to visits to Google and the White House. The app’s success led to the creation of a non-profit branch, ReThink Citizens.
Prabhu also authored a book titled “Re-Think the Internet: How to Make the Digital World a Lot Less Sucky.”
‘Return to entrepreneurial roots’
In her post, Prabhu said she was excited to “return to entrepreneurial roots” and shared her newest business idea to explore in graduate school.
“What would it look like to develop a digital business model that isn’t ‘you give me data, I give you ads’? Already, at the advent of the AI age, we’re seeing tech companies pull out the same, extractive business playbook. But imagine if we could develop a business model that makes…compassion, care, and inclusivity profitable,” Prabhu said.
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