This is Summer Business Program: Part 1

With the unveiling of our new SBP project, we’ve asked one of our SBP students to guest blog about their experience.  Frank wanted to introduce himself, so I’ve left him to it.  Enjoy!

Hi everyone. My name is Frank DeLeo. I am a psychology major and environmental studies concentrator in the class of 2014. The reason I am participating in the Summer Business Program (SBP) this year is because of my profound interest in the field that was sparked by the Executive Leadership Workshop (ELW).

ELW proved to me that my liberal arts education could be applied successfully in the business world. Like many students going into college, I had the mindset that I had to be an economics or accounting major to even consider an occupation or internship in business. However, that is simply not the case. This is a serious misconception that is deterring students from the field. Gaining a background in business, despite being a social science major, can only benefit me, and those of all majors in the long run.

After ELW ended, I felt myself yearning for a more in depth experience. As psychology major, I enjoy understanding how people think and the reasoning behind their actions; therefore, I fell in love with marketing and advertising. ELW touched on both of these topics, but not as in depth as I would have wanted due to time constraints. To gain a better understanding of the many facets of business, not just marketing and advertising, I was driven to sign up for SBP. Now two months after the application process, I am back on campus living in Carlin for the next two weeks.

Two weeks into the SBP, it is safe to say that the program is everything I thought it was going to be…and more.  I am learning about everything I signed up for: starting a business, finance, marketing, sales, etc. Thus far, both Friday sessions have left a lasting impression on me.

Last Friday (June 1) was the session on entrepreneurial strategies with Jerry Snee ’75, president and CEO of Neuronrobotics. The primary take home message from the session was that the consulting vertebrate adds up to create the culture of a company. The various vertebrate (vision, mission, roles, goals, decisions, and rewards) can be slightly off and still produce a successful company; however, if one or more of the vertebrate are misaligned the company cannot function effectively. Prior to the session, the class took the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. The self awareness that arose from deciphering the results was incredibly valuable. I discovered that I am an ENTJ, and that I have to deal with particular people in certain ways to tailor to their personality type. Who would have thought that talking with an introvert is drastically different than an extrovert.

This past Friday (June 8 ) was the session on advertising with Brian Sheehan ’83. This was the most fun I have had in a session thus far. Between watching ads, learning how to create a marketing campaign, and conducting SWOT and OGSM analyses, every aspect of the session was exactly the in depth advertising experience I was looking for. Not only did it satisfy my business craving, but the information directly pertained to our group project.

The group project couldn’t have been a better fit for my business interests: creating a marketing campaign for a company. This is exactly the opportunity I need to show how my education can aid me in the business world. My group consists of four rising juniors and one rising sophomore. The five of us come from varying academic backgrounds. Not one of us is an econ or accounting major. We are the only team to have no one from either of those majors in the group. This has not deterred our work ethic in the slightest.

On Thursday, we went over to Home Depot to really dive headfirst into the project. We talked with customers, associates, managers, etc to learn everything we can about the customers. The customers are our number one focus. Speaking with them has provided pertinent information on likes and dislikes to current types of renovation and installation options. For the sake of the team, I am not going to get into any details about our strategy for the project. I will say that we are learning a lot and are diligent in doing our research. In addition, we have the guidance and support of our competitive and intelligent executive, Al Correia ’78. He gets us inspired at every meeting. Our fourth meeting is on Sunday and we have plenty of new info to share.

Thanks, Frank!  Looking forward to the next installment.

As always, don’t forget to “Like” us on FACEBOOK and look for our WIBSBP and ELW groups on LinkedIN!

Kaithlyn

Kaithlyn Kayer
Associate Director, Entrepreneurial Studies

David Chu
Director, Entrepreneurial Studies & Pre-business Advisor

The “New” Summer Business Program: Students become Consultants

This year, the  Summer Business Program has a new look!  Based on feedback from students and executives, we’ve decided to raise the stakes.  This summer, unlike programs in the past, our students are functioning as actual consulting teams.

Summer Business Program is a 4-week immersion into business practices.  The program consists of day-long workshops that fall under 4 modules: understanding business, business skills, leadership, and entrepreneurship. These workshops are taught by Holy Cross alumni who currently work in the business world and are teaching from real life experiences.

In addition to the workshops, SBP students are partaking in a competition.  In the past, 6 teams of 4 students were lead by an alum executive who provided them with a project.  This project was a hypothetical (but intensive) approach to creating a business plan or solving a particular business problem.

Due to the hardwork and success of the last few programs, we have had to devise a way to make the competition more challenging.  We gathered feedback from past executives and presenters and found a clear theme: the students are doing real world quality work.  So, we decided to give them a real world project.

Our office (the Ciocca Office of Entrepreneuiral Studies) presented an offer to the members of the Holy Cross Entrepreneurs Group in the Boston area: Give us a project and we’ll give you 6 competing consulting teams to provide a solution/service/plan – for free!

Needless to say, we had more than one interested company, but after serious deliberation, we have partnered with Mats, Inc. to help create a marketing plan and pitch for a new venture they are introducing.  In turn, Mats, Inc. will use the winning team’s plan to launch this project and our students will have gained real consulting experience.

The teams will still have an executive to act as mentor and advisor.  Also, a team from Mats, Inc will be holding status meetings to check on progress.  But, make no mistake, the students are running the show.  The teams are competing for a cash prize, bragging rights, and the chance to add successful marketing consultant to their resumes!

We hope this is the first of many real life ventures the Summer Business Program attempts.  Good luck to all and may the best team win!

As always, don’t forget to “Like” us on FACEBOOK and look for our WIBSBP and ELW groups on LinkedIN!

Kaithlyn

Kaithlyn Kayer
Associate Director, Entrepreneurial Studies

David Chu
Director, Entrepreneurial Studies & Pre-business Advisor

A student entrepreneur

Harry Chiu ’12, co-chair of The Agency, is part of an award winning start-up company! Check it out:

CollegeGolfPass was started last year with the intention to increase the rate of college golfers. Over the past few years, there has been a 20% drop in college golfers. Golf has never been an inexpensive sport, but in the current economy students are finding it hard to spend the extra cash.   For most kids under the age of 18, courses have made rates very generous, to keep youth interested. Unfortunately, they’ve all decided that once a student is 18, they’re considered an adult and should pay the normal rate, often making golf inaccessible to college students.

From this, my partners Mike Belkin (Amherst College ’11) and Kris Hart (Bryant ’08) realized a huge niche in the market that no one has really tapped into within the golf industry. About a month after starting up this company, Kris Hart reached out to me, since I was the founder of the club golf team here at HC. We were able to work a deal out in which I purchased 38 passes for my members.

This pass, which costs $40 per year, allows college students (grad and undergrad) to go to certain golf courses that CGP has partnered with and play at a discounted rate between 20-67%. This means that once a student plays twice, they’ve already covered the annual cost of their pass. Additionally, we are partnering with golf club companies to work in discounted rates on purchasing balls and clubs. Not only that, but certain PGA tournaments will also allow CGP members to purchase discounted tickets to certain events.

When the company started out, there were only 15 golf courses (all in MA) partnered with the program. Now it has over 70 courses in all of New England. We will continue to expand down south to Florida and then from there expand nationally with the hopes of eventually reaching California.

Just recently, CGP entered the Bryant Alumni New Venture Competition. April 20, 2012 was the finals in which six start-ups pitched their business to a panel of venture capitalists. CGP came out the winner with a check of $10,000 thanks to Bryant alumni. Not only that, but it generated outside interested from investors.

My role in this company is to market the CGP pass to various colleges. I work with colleges to develop club teams and work to expand the CGP from within. Additionally, I aid the schools in hosting tournaments that will help CGP reach out to even more colleges. My goal is to create a strong network amongst CGP colleges and universities so that they can better work together to play more golf.

For more information, please check out collegegolfpass.com

Thanks, Harry! Best of luck!

As always, don’t forget to “Like” us on FACEBOOK and look for our WIBSBP and ELW groups on LinkedIN!

Kaithlyn

Kaithlyn Kayer
Associate Director, Entrepreneurial Studies

David Chu
Director, Entrepreneurial Studies & Pre-business Advisor

End of Semester PreBiz Event!

On Monday evening, we are wrapping up a busy Pre-Business semester with one final event.

The Road to Employment
Monday, April 16 7-8PM
Stein 223
Featuring a panel of seniors who will discuss their pre-business experience and how it has helped their job search.

This is a great opportunity to come and meet other pre-business students and hear more about the opportunities available to you.

The panel consists of representatives from The Agency, Women in Business, Executive Leadership Workshop, Financial Portfolio and The COES Student Board.

I almost forgot to mention FREE PIZZA!!

Keep an eye out for upcoming Summer Business Program posts.  We’ve pushed back the application deadline to Friday, April 20!!

As always, don’t forget to “Like” us on FACEBOOK and look for our WIBSBP and ELW groups on LinkedIN!

Kaithlyn

Kaithlyn Kayer
Associate Director, Entrepreneurial Studies

David Chu
Director, Entrepreneurial Studies & Pre-business Advisor

JOBS! JOBS! JOBS!

It’s that time of year.  Seniors are either celebrating their job offers or are hard at working on applications and interview prep.

If you are among the first group, Prebusiness wants to hear from you!  Tell us where you’ll be in the fall and what you’ll be doing.  We will add your name to our database of alum and keep you in mind for future events!

If you are still looking,  don’t worry!  Keep up the good work, visit Career planning, and come to our events.  We are offering several speakers and panels  this semester that may help your job search.  Check out our website for more information.

As always, don’t forget to “Like” us on FACEBOOK and look for our WIB, SBP and ELW groups on LinkedIN!

Kaithlyn

Kaithlyn Kayer
Associate Director, Entrepreneurial Studies

David Chu
Director, Entrepreneurial Studies & Pre-business Advisor

Welcome Back & Upcoming Events!

It’s a new year, a new semester and a new blog post!  We hope you all had a nice long winter break.  We’ve got a great spring schedule planned and are looking forward to seeing lots of new faces at our events.  Make sure to check the COES & Prebusiness calendar regularly so you don’t miss out.

Here is a quick look at the 2 speakers we are co-sponsoring with Career Planning next week.

Leadership Careers After Holy Cross:

Hear from Crusaders turned Corporate Executives

Fred Eppinger ’81

President & CEO of The Hanover Insurance Group

Dick Lavey ‘89

Senior Vice President, Chief Marketing and Distribution Officer

Tuesday, January 31 • 6:00-7:30pm • Hogan Jenks Suite A

Fred Eppinger returns to Holy Cross to speak about The Hanover’s Future Leaders Program, his leadership journey, and the insurance industry.

Space is limited so please RSVP in Crusader Connections by Monday, January 30th. After you log-in, click on the “Workshops/Events” tab. Attire is business casual.

For more information on Fred Eppinger and The Hanover Insurance group, please click on the following links:

Leader’s Edge Magazine “The Wizard of Worcester”

Fred Eppinger Profile – Holy Cross Magazine

“Think Public Relations is About Schmoozing and Spinning?”

Eric Starkman

President and founder of STARKMAN, a New York based public relations agency.

Thursday, Feb. 2 6:30 p.m. Hogan  Suites B & C

Check out this great article about the event!

As always, don’t forget to “Like” us on FACEBOOK and look for our WIB, SBP and ELW groups on LinkedIN!

Kaithlyn

Kaithlyn Kayer
Associate Director, Entrepreneurial Studies

David Chu
Director, Entrepreneurial Studies & Pre-business Advisor

Executive Leadership Workshop update

After 3 very busy weeks, I finished my last ELW interview!  We have a great group of applicants and a great line-up of alumni coming back to campus in March.  Watch your email, acceptance letters will be mailed on Friday!

For those of you that are “ELW Alum” feel free to email prebusiness@holycross.edu with your favorite memories or success stories from ELW, we’d love to hear from you!

As always, don’t forget to “Like” us on FACEBOOK and look for our WIB, SBP and ELW groups on LinkedIN!

Kaithlyn

Kaithlyn Kayer
Associate Director, Entrepreneurial Studies

David Chu
Director, Entrepreneurial Studies & Pre-business Advisor

Women in Business 2011

On Saturday, October 22, we hosted the sixth annual Women in Business conference here on campus.  With over 150 alumnae and students in attendance, the conference was a huge hit!  The Prebusiness office wants to thank the student organizers  Juliana Biolsi ’12, Kristen Buonassisi ’12, Lauren McCarthy ’12, Christie Cannone ’14, Haley O’Brien ’13, Stephanie Pajak ’13, and Lauren Esposito ’14, for their hard-work and dedication to this event.

If you weren’t able to attend, Juliana and Kristen wrote a great recap for the Holy Cross website:

Women in Business Conference Continues to Inspire Students, Alumnae

Save the date for next year’s conference: October 20, 2012!

As always, don’t forget to “Like” us on FACEBOOK and look for our WIB, SBP and ELW groups on LinkedIN!

Kaithlyn

Kaithlyn Kayer
Associate Director, Entrepreneurial Studies

David Chu
Director, Entrepreneurial Studies & Pre-business Advisor

Spring Break Plans? Why Not ELW?

Considering the unexpected and, in my opinion, unwelcome snow-storm over the weekend, it’s not entirely surprising that I’m thinking about Spring already.  While I can definitely see the appeal of heading to warmer climates, I urge you to consider sticking around campus and participating in the Executive Leadership Workshop.  This is our longest-running and most popular program.  It’s a one-week immersion into the world of business: how to start a business, creating a business plan, valuation, growing a business, international business, and more.  It’s a crazy week of non-stop, hands-on learning.

Oh, did I mention it’s a competition?  Teams of 5 will compete against each other, developing a business plan for a new product or business that they will present to a panel of  mock venture capitalists.  The winning team gets a cash prize and a year of bragging rights.

Applications are due Friday, November 11th – so get started ASAP!

ELW is totally FREE!  All meals are included! This is a competitive program, only 40 seats available.  Visit our webpage, stop by the Prebusiness office, or ask someone who has participated for more info.  It’s worth it.

You can always go to Costa Rica next year.

As always, don’t forget to “Like” us on FACEBOOK and look for our WIB, SBP and ELW groups on LinkedIN!

Kaithlyn

Kaithlyn Kayer
Associate Director, Entrepreneurial Studies

David Chu
Director, Entrepreneurial Studies & Pre-business Advisor

Finance Boot Camp – The Beginning

The COES & Prebusiness office has been hard at work all summer and this past month preparing the first ever FINANCE BOOT CAMP.  This highly competitive program is stirring up interest all over campus.  Here’s a quick overview:

  • 4-day immersion in the framework and careers of Wall Street.
  • Interview prep simulating the fast paced, intense environment of a Super Day.
  • Networking opportunity with HC alum working on Wall Street.

We have interviewed 78 extremely qualified candidates for 30 coveted spots.

This program, like all other COES programs, brings successful alumni back to campus to help better prepare HC students for jobs in business, specifically finance in this case.  It’s bound to be an intense and exhausting week and we’ll be blogging each day, so watch for updates.

As always, don’t forget to “Like” us on FACEBOOK and look for our WIB, SBP and ELW groups on LinkedIN!

Kaithlyn

Kaithlyn Kayer
Associate Director, Entrepreneurial Studies

David Chu
Director, Entrepreneurial Studies & Pre-business Advisor