aip – Ciocca Center for Business, Ethics, and Society Blog

February 27, 2020

Katherine Kalill ’21 Interns at the Ciocca Center

My name is Katherine Kalill ’21. I’m a current junior at Holy Cross, majoring in Political Science with an Africana Studies concentration and working towards a Certificate in Entrepreneurship through the Ciocca Center.

I recently returned to campus after working under the programming team at CBS Sports in New York City. Living in the city also allowed me to explore the various new market opportunities available. As a result, I am interested in learning more about the future of entrepreneurship and what it takes to turn an idea into a prosperous business. In addition, I would love to research what people have found to be the most successful way to pitch ideas and what separates successful ideas from the rest in the increasingly competitive global world of business. I hope to explore potential strategies of growth and conclude principles that hold true across industries.

Through the Academic Internship Program this semester, I am taking a seminar called “Boards and CEOs: Governing America’s Businesses” with Professor Dan Ricciardi and interning at the Ciocca Center. In my time here, my focus is to identify alumni who embody the spirit of entrepreneurship through their business endeavors and identify how their liberal arts education has complimented their success.

Stay tuned to see Katherine’s progress this semester!

September 1, 2019

Ciocca Center Intern: Leif Johnson ’21

Each semester the Ciocca Center hires a new intern to complement the Academic Internship Program through the JD Power Center on campus. Partnering again with Prof. Dan Ricciardi’s course offering, Leif Johnson ’21 is currently enrolled in “Managing Business in Society” and is interviewing alumni to show how a Jesuit liberal arts degree is an excellent foundation for a career in business. Check out his fall alumni interviews:

STUDENTS: Interested in the internship? View the description and consider applying next semester.

ALUMNI: Interested in being interviewed? Reach out to business@holycross.edu

June 14, 2019

Ciocca Center Searches for Next Intern

Dan Ricciardi ’06 working with student interns.

The Ciocca Center is looking for a Marketing Communications intern for the fall 2019 semester to highlight successful business alumni and bring awareness to the Center’s focus on “major in anything and succeed in business.” Working with the Associate Director of Student Engagement, the intern will connect directly with alumni throughout the semester.

“This semester, I learned about first-hand experiences that the readings examined through my discussions with Holy Cross alums and their c-suite positions. For my internship, I worked in the Ciocca Center where I researched, interviewed, and wrote blog posts about HC alums and their involvement as CEOs and board members. ” starts Sarah Anderson ’20. “I particularly enjoyed being able to apply the knowledge of our class discussions to the questions and conversations that I had while learning from our strong Holy Cross network about their journeys in the workplace.”

Sarah Anderson ’20 worked as the Ciocca Center’s first intern through the Academic Internship Program here on campus for the spring 2019 semester. Read about her experience working with alumni on a previous blog post.

“I am grateful for the opportunity to have made connections and interview a wide variety of alums. I learned from their stories and connected how their experiences as CEOs and board members relate back to our class readings. My internship experience in the Ciocca Center was well integrated and complementary to our seminar discussions.” adds Anderson.

Interested in the opportunity? Read the complete job description here and reach out to business@holycross.edu to apply. Thanks for reading!

Cassie Gevry, Associate Director of Student Engagement
Ciocca Center for Business, Ethics, and Society

May 6, 2019

Ciocca Center Offers Alumni-led Tutorial

Classroom

This spring semester the Ciocca Center offered a new course through the Academic Internship Program. Professor David Chu, Director of the Certificate Programs and Prebusiness Advisor at Holy Cross, partnered with Katharine Quigley ’13, Digital Marketing Manager at Centage, to teach an Introduction to Online Marketing tutorial.

Complementing the Ciocca Center’s mission to connect the liberal arts to the job market, this new tutorial covered introductory marketing content through various readings and in-depth discussions with a focus on the Google Ads Platform. The five students then applied this to the design, implementation and assessment of an actual online marketing campaign for a non-profit, West Seattle Junction.

“A strong liberal arts education prepared me for an ever-changing digital marketing landscape.” starts Katharine. “It was rewarding to help current Holy Cross students learn new digital marketing concepts and vocabulary, and then see them pair those tools with their existing critical thinking and leadership skills to make a real impact on a nonprofit client.”

Thank you to Katharine for reaching out and offering to work with students on this technical topic. She worked with Professor Chu to identify readings, design a syllabus and spent every Wednesday night on campus working with students interested in a career in marketing communications.

Who were the lucky students involved? 18 students applied for this opportunity and only five were selected: Joe Egan ’19, Tim Haemmerle ’19, Olivia Lozy ’20, Lilly Puccia ’19 and Madeline Thero ’19.

UPDATE: Each of the students involved won a “Top Marketer Certificate” from Google! The award is based on successful completion of the Google Ad Grants Online Marketing Challenge, passing the Google Ads Fundamentals Assessment, and a positive client experience survey rating from their nonprofit. Congratulations on the excellent work!

Ciocca Center Intern Interviews Bob Guillocheau ’82

Bob Guillocheau ’82
Chairman & CEO of Ascensus

“We are very much a mission based company, values driven, and a lot of that came from my learnings at Holy Cross. The ‘men and women for others’ very much resonated with me and it’s something I bring with me everyday when I go to work.”

On March 22, 2019, Ciocca Center Student Intern Sarah Anderson ’20 interviewed Bob Guillocheau ’82 to learn about his journey from HC into the financial services industry. Bob was an economics and accounting major and currently serves as the Chairman & CEO of Ascensus.

Who/What inspired you to enter the business world? I graduated Holy Cross with an economics accounting degree and, typically if you have a accounting degree, you get recruited by what was back then the big eight accounting firms. There have been mergers and today it is the big four accounting firms. The world has changed a lot from 1982 when I graduated, but getting recruited is what got me into financial services and the business world. I took an accounting class in high school, taught by a woman by the name of Mrs. Ellis. She made it really fun and interesting and she was a businesswoman who explained to us how the world works and how accounting and finance plays into any aspect of company. Continue reading “Ciocca Center Intern Interviews Bob Guillocheau ’82”