Three UMSL graduates were honored as part of the St. Louis Business Journal’s 40 Under 40 Class of 2024. From left: Stephanie Korpal, Jessica Cross and Maggie Rapplean. (Photos by Dilip Vishwanat/St. Louis Business Journal)

The University of Missouri–St. Louis was front and center at the St. Louis Business Journal’s 40 Under 40 Class of 2024 celebration event on Tuesday afternoon in the Khorassan Ballroom at The Royal Sonesta Chase Park Plaza.

Not only was UMSL a presenting sponsor – Shu Schiller, dean of the College of Business Administration, gave a welcome and was on stage to hand out awards – but three UMSL graduates were among the honorees: Maggie Rapplean, Jessica Cross and Stephanie Korpal.

“Just as each of you leads and shapes the region, the University of Missouri–St. Louis is so committed to uplifting St. Louis,” Schiller told the honorees and their guests at the start of the event. “We have the largest alumni network of any university in the region, with one of every six local college graduates holding an UMSL degree, and of those, 35,000 are UMSL Business alumni. And I know some of you are in the room today.”

Shu Schiller, dean of UMSL’s College of Business Administration, helped welcome honorees and their guests at the start of the luncheon.

Here is a closer look at the three UMSL alums who were honored.

Maggie Rapplean, BSBA 2015, MBA 2024

40 Under 40 intro bio: “Maggie was promoted to partner at Moneta in January and officially launched the Rapplean Team. Maggie’s team is already on track for a 14% increase in assets this year. She’s a board member for Girls on the Run, where she helped privately raise $3,000 this summer, climbing the summits of two 14,000-foot mountains, Mount Massive and Mount Albert.”

Rapplean was featured in an UMSL Daily story this summer, chronicling her relentless push toward partnership at Moneta while still growing her family. Her son, Roman, was born in June 2023, and she made partner that December and finished her MBA this May.

So it was appropriate that her walk-up song during the event – each honoree got to choose their song – was “Beautiful Things” by Benson Boone.

“I’ve got a lot of beautiful things, right?” Rapplean said after the event. “I don’t want to lose the things that I’ve got. I’ve worked hard. I feel like I’m at a good point in my career and in my life, with my family and work and education. I’ve worked really hard for 10 years, and it just feels good to be recognized.”

Rapplean’s BSBA from UMSL helped her land a job at Wells Fargo Advisors, so UMSL was a natural choice when she decided to pursue her MBA.

“I wanted to have a full scope,” Rapplean said this spring. “I’ve always focused on finance. I’m really good with numbers, but I wanted a broader scope of business. The MBA really got me out of my comfort zone in a lot of areas. The leadership, entrepreneurship and management courses, I really needed to be functional for where I’m at today. The marketing class with Professor Tessa Garcia-Collart was great and gave me new skills I needed to market my practice effectively.”

Being part of the 40 Under 40 program was rewarding.

“It’s an amazing, dynamic group of people across all industries, a lot of smart people, people I naturally like and bond with,” she said. “That’s been fun.”

Jessica Cross, BSBA 2009

40 Under 40 intro bio: “Under Jessica’s leadership, MBE & WBE Certified, a commercial construction firm, has grown to a seven-figure corporation. Her team helped renovate Central Visual and Performing Arts High School in just one month after the tragic 2022 school shooting. Jessica volunteers with the National Association of Women in Construction and Missouri Women in Trades, and she supports Incarnate Word Academy and Immanuel Lutheran School in Olivette.”

Cross credits her time at UMSL with nurturing her love of exploring business opportunities.

“That marketing class helped give me the love for all business, everything business-related,” she said. “I started really paying attention to ads and marketing, really noticing stuff. That’s how I got into construction, with my love for all business.

“What’s so exciting is one of my contracts is an UMSL contract. I did a lot of the painting at UMSL, in the business school. It was cool, the way everything comes full circle.”

Making the 40 Under 40 list has been a goal for Cross – whose walk-up song was “Centuries” by Fall Out Boy – for a few years now, but even though she’s achieved her goal, she is anything but complacent in her career.

“I’m a serial entrepreneur, so my latest venture has been construction, but I want to build a logistics company,” she said. “Building capital for that company is my next step. But while I’m in the trades, I want to bring more women into the trades. That’s my goal, and that’s what I’ve been doing.”

Stephanie Korpal, MEd 2011

40 Under 40 intro bio: “Stephanie is both a licensed professional counselor and an entrepreneur. She founded her counseling practice, Marble Wellness, in 2018 after serving as an assistant director at Epworth Children and Family Services. Initially a solo practitioner, Stephanie started expanding in 2020 and the practice is now home to a team of 14. Marble Wellness specializes in internal mental health, child and teen therapy, couples counseling, men’s mental health, grief and loss and counseling for chronic illness.”

After finishing her undergraduate degree at the University of Dayton in 2008, Korpal came back to St. Louis to pursue her master’s in counseling at UMSL. After graduation, she worked for six years at Epworth and then started Marble Wellness in 2018.

“UMSL laid the whole groundwork for being a strong therapist,” she said. “They have an incredibly strong counseling program, one of the best in the area and in the region. It gave me the skills that were the foundation of my career trajectory.”

Her walk-up song at the luncheon, Queen’s “Don’t Stop Me Now,” was perfect for her go-go-go entrepreneurial spirit.

“I did some crowdsourcing for some suggestions,” she said with a laugh. “I actually did a playlist for a conference I held earlier this fall, and so I was just going through some of the songs on there. Those were for peers of mine who are group practice owners. That one seemed the most fitting, and maybe the most cross-generationally appealing. Rihanna’s ‘Work’ was a high second contender.

“It’s been so cool to be part of the energy and the connections that come from being part of the community, getting to introduce yourself and getting to meet all these really cool people.”