Tag: Holy Cross

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Ask Alumni Anything

Holy Cross alumni thriving as entrepreneurs and business leaders respond to real student questions about how to find success and satisfaction in the business world. Read student questions posed to alumni through Slack, HC Startup’s online message board, to learn what it takes to navigate the business world and find success as a modern entrepreneur.

Want to be a part of the community? Have answers to student questions? Join the conversation and meet us on Slack!

 

>> Q: Kit Mullen ’21, international studies major, asks “Lots of times people are torn between doing what they love and doing what will guarantee them successful in the eyes of others. As entrepreneurs how did you make the choice to leave the more normal, reliable lifestyle of working for a company for the riskier task of starting your own company?”
A: Rob Petrosino ’10, Director of Social Commerce Marketing at Peak Activity, answers “Sometimes it comes down to a gut call but job satisfaction and fulfillment typically out weighs a “normal” life.”


>> Q:  Gavin McNamera ’21, political science major, asks “Early in your college experience, how did you find direction on where you wanted to take your career in business or entrepreneurship?”
A: Dan Barrett ’13 at Madaket Health, replies “Good question… the classic response is “follow what you enjoy doing”.  It’s classic for a reason though: it’s true. Reflect on the classes that appeal to you, the assignments that appeal to you, the “aha” moments and the deep curiosities as you encounter new ideas in the classroom. Pursue those things. Entrepreneurship is hard.  Working is hard. If you’re not doing something that fundamentally aligns with your interests you will burn out in a snap.  Entrepreneurship is not flashy, it’s a grind. It usually involves grinding into a headwind, uphill. But it’s also a race. And if you hate the field you’re in or find it a total bore, it will be next to impossible to race against the people who happen to enjoy doing it.”


>> Q: Max Krause ’21, economics major, asks “How do you make sure your idea is a good idea before you go and invest your time and money into realizing it?”
A: Rob Petrosino ’10, Director of Social Commerce Marketing at Peak Activity, answers “If your idea solves a problem you are most likely on the right track. How you execute is more than half the battle however.”
A: Stacy Chin ’12, Co-founder & CEO at HydroGlyde Coatings, responds “ Listen to the market and you will see if they agree to your solution.”

Thanks for reading! Cassie

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

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The Great Balancing Act

Cara Gontarz Hume ’03
Senior HR Leader, General Electric Finance
Major: Political Science

It seems as though achieving a healthy work-life balance in today’s society is unattainable. Finding harmony between a demanding work schedule and a role as a mother, or juggling classwork, a social life and sleep as a student is exhausting. As highly motivated women with many goals, it is easy to feel overwhelmed.

Meet Cara Gontarz Hume, one of our fellow female Crusaders, who has created a balance between her career and family that works for her. Hume is the Senior Human Resources Leader for General Electric Finance and has three children all under the age of five-years-old. With an executive career and three young kids, she asks herself a question that many struggle with, “Can I still work and be a great mom?” For Hume, the answer is yes. She has managed to be present as a mother while simultaneously progressing her career. She remembers going on maternity leave for the first time and how worrisome it was balancing her career with the vision of what it means to be a mom. However, when she sat down with her manager and explained her situation, he gave her the life changing advice of, “just leave early.” In that moment, Hume discovered that the keys to balancing her home life with her work life were setting priorities and not keeping her two lives separate from each other.

Hume recalls the once defined line between work and personal life: “I was taught, you keep work at work and home at home.” However, throughout her career, she has seen a change in this attitude to which she attributes much of her success. She explains that she brings her full self to work not hiding that she is a working mother with three young kids. She explains, “I will be there and deliver but I do carve out time for kids. I do not use them as an excuse or a limiting factor, just part of who I am.”

As a student at Holy Cross, she was able to develop her time management skills. Like many students on the Hill, she managed a schedule of rigorous courses, a competitive athletic schedule and a variety of other campus activities. The ingrained concept of Cura Personalis, or “care of the whole person,” is a mentality promoted at Holy Cross that has contributed to much of her success. Hume says she draws upon these ideas of caring for the mind, body, and soul as a foundation of her whole-self resulting in a better self.

Multiple priorities are hard to balance and this difficulty will never go away. Hume emphasizes the importance of setting parameters around prioritizing personal time. She says, “If you don’t set a framework for personal time you will burn out. And no one will set it for you.” Everyone has their own tips and tricks on how to balance commitments, but what has worked for Hume is making a habit of taking personal time. She advises, “Make an actual plan. Mark it on your calendar and block it off.” Mark off family dinner or gym time. Put drinks with friends in your calendar and stick with the designated schedule. Having personal time marked into the calendar will make it part of your routine, making it harder to let your personal time go by the way side. Additionally, she warns, “Don’t bite off more than you can chew and avoid the extremes.” Hume also recommends constantly turning inward for personal assessments. Nobody’s fulfillment plan will be the same so it is important to check in with yourself to make sure you are happy with the way life is going.

With the school year starting up soon and new projects beginning at work, try using Hume’s trick and mark your calendar with consistent “me time” to care for yourself. Happy balancing!

Continue reading “The Great Balancing Act”

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New Entrepreneurship and Innovation Program at Holy Cross

Have an idea for a business? Interested in working with cool ideas?
Get involved with entrepreneurship and innovation this fall!

 

“The extracurricular entrepreneurial opportunities offered outside of the classroom such as the Ignite Incubator, the Fullbridge Program, the Shark Tank Competition, visits to start-ups, and networking events have all furthered my desire to pursue a career in business.”

– Paul Wiley ’20, chemistry major
2017 Shark Tank Competition Winner


>> Join the new Holy Cross student run Ignite Incubator! The Entrepreneurship and Innovation Program is excited to launch the College’s new student run incubator. The Ignite Incubator enables students from all class years to learn what it takes to bring a business to market through hands on experience. Students can either:

  • have their idea or business incubated in the program
  • work on other students business ideas

The incubator is now accepting applications for both business ideas and for associate positions on the management team.
Apply NOW! Deadline: September 10, 2018

>> Fall Course: Entrepreneurship 101
Tue. & Thu. from 12:30-1:45pm
Prof. Ja-Naé Duane

Entrepreneurship begins with a vision.  This course focuses on the foundations of entrepreneurship and is appropriate for students from any major.  It is designed to introduce students to the entrepreneurial process so that they may begin to shape their own entrepreneurial vision. Course objectives include an introduction to the challenges of entrepreneurship, an understanding of the ethical environment in which entrepreneurs operate, the skills to think critically and work toward the ability to evaluate opportunities in the business. This is a course that includes project-based entrepreneurial activities where students work to test and validate ideas.

Who should take this course?

  • Students who have a business idea
  • Students who want to work on existing business idea
  • Students who want to explore the field of entrepreneurship and innovation

Space is limited. Seats available for second, third and fourth year students.

>> Have questions? Reach out to Ja-Naé Duane, Entrepreneur-in-Residence, for more program details!

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Join the WIB Network!

The annual fall Women in Business Conference comes but once a year, but the student committee would argue differently. With conference planning that takes a full year, and various student events each semester, the student committee has a new goal: Create a network of women in business.

Kate Beckerman ’20 decided after the 2017 conference to create the Women in Business newsletter, Purple Pulse, with the first edition sent out mid-April 2018. She explains “I saw how special of a community we had at the conference and I wanted to have a way to keep us connected and inspired throughout the year.” She went on to say the name “Purple Pulse” was inspired by the phrase “Bleed Purple” which speaks to how passionate  students and alumnae are about HC. “Pulse” refers to our strong network and the burst of empowerment we receive at each conference. Beckerman hopes this newsletter will help to strengthen this amazing community year round.

>> Join the Community! Register for the next installment of the Purple Pulse newsletter to see student and alumnae highlights, conference announcements, upcoming events, career tips and year-round inspiration!

 

2018 Women in Business Student Committee


Meet your 2018 Women in Business Student Committee! 

Top Left to Bottom Right: Nalani Ramos Ruiz ’21, Kate Beckerman ’20, Casey Carty ’18, Rosangel Cruz Cabrera ’18, Grace Ingram ’21, Clare O’Leary ’19, Sarah Anderson ’20, Margaret Anderson ’21

Not Pictured: & Mary McGregor ’19 and Delaney Wells ’20

 

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Internships Opening New Doors

For Bryan Dextradeur ’17, a biology major, two internships shifted his idea for what to do after leaving Mount St. James. “I planned on pursuing medical school after graduation, as it seemed to be the mainstream route for students majoring in the sciences.”

But when Dextradeur was in search of medical-focused internships, a business position at Fallon Health caught his eye instead, and he completed an internship there the summer before his junior year. The summer before his senior year, he took a role as a research and business intern for NYU Langone Medical Center.

“Before my internships, I was under the false impression that a career in medicine was the only meaningful way to make an impact in the health care sector. My internships showed me first-hand that a great deal of the innovative work in healthcare is on the business side.”

Read more below.

https://news.holycross.edu/blog/2018/07/11/down-any-possible-road-internships-open-the-door-wide-for-post-grad-success/

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CEO Symposium Highlights

87% of Holy Cross alumni work in business roles, yet none of them majored in business.  Hear about  “The Value and Relevancy of a Jesuit Education in the 21st Century” as discussed by:

Douglas M. Baker Jr. ’81, CEO & chairman of the board, Ecolab Inc.
AnnMaura Connolly ’86, CSO & EVP, City Year and president, Voices for National Service
Brian P. Kelley ’83, vice chairman, Keurig Green Mountain, Inc.
Mary Agnes “Maggie” Wilderotter ’77, former CEO & executive chairman, Frontier Communications

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGz46ajZ1Sg#action=share

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2018 Sales Club Competition – Event Review

The 2018 annual Sales Club competition (photos here) was held in Smith Labs on April 12th where contestants pitched a new item to the Holy Cross bookstore. Eight groups from all four class years entered the competition and were given five minutes to pitch their idea to a panel of judges.

The judges, Anthony Ruoti ‘12, Clayton Krueger ‘17 and Linda Paquette, Merchandise Specialist at the HC Bookstore, rated each group based on three factors:

  1. the viability of their idea,
  2. how well they pitched it
  3. what their sales/marketing strategy looked like

After listening to the pitches, the judges stepped outside to deliberate while the contestants awaited the final decision. After 15 long minutes they returned with their decisions…

3rd Place: $100 – Clare Connolly ’18 and Kim Hickey ’18 took home the third place prize for their ultimate gift basket. This prepackaged gift basket is a low cost way to incentivise consumers to purchase more than they normally would.

2nd Place: $150 – Gabe Castagna ’18 was awarded second place for pitching the Tile, a bluetooth device tracker that makes it easy to find anything from your keys and wallet to a teddy bear. Gabe demonstrated the strong need for this item on campus and pitched an effective sales and marketing strategy.

1st Place: $250 – Matthew Whalen ’18 and Johnny Rourke ’18 took home the first place prize with their energetic pitch for Holy Cross hawaiian shirts. From top to bottom, Matt and Johnny’s pitch captivated the judges and had them saying, “I need one of those Hawaiians!”

Thank you to our judges, and the other student teams who presented:

  • Kevin Finnegan ’20 & Matthew Wilcox ’20
  • Donny Ganim ’20
  • Mackenzie Breen ’21 & Hope Goodman ’21
  • Graham Struthers ’21
  • Andrew Williamson ’21  & Owen O’Connell ’21

Want photos? Check out the Facebook album. Recap written by Ben Lodge’18, co-chair of the sales club.

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NEW WORKSHOP ALERT: Business, Hospitality and Entrepreneurship

What do the Hilton, Carnival Cruise Line and Wolfgang Puck all have in common? They are all successful hospitality empires!

Join this alumni-led workshop on April 14th to learn how you can make it big in the land of giants. Learn what it is, how to get in and the various career options from entrepreneurship to marketing and finance.

Saturday, April 14
10am-1pm in Stein 216
>> REGISTER HERE

Meet the hospitality expert, Mary  D’Argenis-Fernandez ’93 and read a bit about her story here.

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“Redefining Black Masculinity” Awarded Top Shark Tank Prize

The Ciocca Office of Entrepreneurial Studies held the Shark Tank Competition on February 22, 2018.

Intensity was in the air last night as Holy Cross held its annual Shark Tank competition in Hogan Suite A. This year the competition was fierce among nine teams pitching for seed money (about $1,000) with just three minutes to pitch, or venture money (over $10,000) with five minutes to pitch.  After each presentation the judges had time to ask a few questions before heading to a private room to deliberate.  While waiting, the audience got the chance to vote for a new category, the People’s Choice Award. The contestants waited anxiously as the room filled with fellow Holy Cross students and alum. Around 8pm the judges returned with three oversized checks in hand… Check out photos from the event HERE.
Winners:

$5,000: Dillon Carmichael ‘18 pitched Redefining Black Masculinity, a platform for those actively redefining black masculine identity. Dillon said “the event is intimidating and inspiring. To see different people come with such great ideas and motivations makes you want to improve and keep on doing better. Hearing some people go before me almost disuaded me from giving my pitch, but once those jitters settled, it served as additional fuel for my fire. It’s competitive, but a healthy competitive because it comes from a place of genuine passion. Winning still comes as a surprise, but I am beyond grateful that I did and had the opportunity to share my idea with everyone at the event.”

$5,000: Riley Benner ‘20 launched a bespoke men’s fashion line produced by refugees for his company Phoenix Haberdashery. Riley commented “Holy Cross’ Annual Shark Tank was a really unique experience. It’s not often that you get the opportunity to share a night with other aspiring entrepreneurs and get to see the wide range of projects that they’re working on. We have a great community of support here on the Hill, especially from Ja-Nae and Professor Chu and many faculty members, but I think the most rewarding support that we can receive is from our peers who are all just trying to make their dream ideas into reality. Winning the competition was an honor, and it’s a reminder for me to keep working towards fulfilling the mission of Phoenix Haberdashery, because the judges clearly believed in that mission. It’s a wonderful affirmation of the hard work that my team and I have been putting in for the past 6 months, and we’re excited to use the money we received to further that mission.”

$2,500: Brad Ross ‘18 wants to improve goal accuracy for soccer players with his idea Scopum.  Brad commented “The Shark Tank event is a really fun and exciting way to engage the entrepreneurial side in all of us. The prospect of pitching in front of judges with incredible backgrounds and experience while competing for real cash prizes allowed us to think as true entrepreneurs. This coincides with the exciting new entrepreneurship program at Holy Cross that provides us as students a platform to truly find our entrepreneurial spirit and bring it out the right way. Thinking about not only specific projects or ideas, but also the market opportunities, business plans, and go-to-market strategies that are necessary to consider in the real world.”

$1,140: Christina Nee ‘19 is interested in upcycling food waste to make delicious treats with her company named Top Banana. Christina wants to say “Thank you to everyone involved last night! I’m so excited to be able to pursue a business that will help combat food waste!”

$100: Hawar Haddadi ‘19 and Michael Lyons ‘19 won the People’s Choice Award for their idea, The Device Doctors. This company is a door-to-door phone repair service for campuses, starting with the College of the Holy Cross. Hawar commented  “The event really brought to light the competitive nature of the entrepreneurial world. Everyone really came with their A-game and it was clear that everyone was extremely passionate about their idea. It was great to see such a high level of competition and excitement from Holy Cross students. I had a blast presenting and we received some really awesome feedback on how we should advance with our business!”

Thank you to our runners-up:

  • Anthony Saltarelli ‘18 presented his mobile app, The Networking Assistant, a tool to help students organize their network.
  • Nick Lacasse ‘18 pitched Table Split, a mobile app to divide checks amongst a table of friends at restaurants.
  • Nate Chung ‘18 launched a mobile app named EchoMe that enables users to live broadcast music and listen together in real-time, regardless of geographic location.
  • Michael Lowther ’18 pitched Undercover Difference Makers, an online platform to highlight those making a difference in the world.

Special thanks to our judges:

  • Stacy Chin ’12, CEO & Co-founder, HydroGlyde Coatings
  • Prof. Daniel Klinghard, Director, J.D. Power Center, Holy Cross
  • Tyler Scionti ’15, Product Expert, Hubspot

Thank you to Ja-Nae Duane, EIR, and Ben Lodge ’18 for making this event a true success.  Looking forward to next year and hearing about all the incredible ideas the next group of Holy Cross students have!

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Annual SHARK TANK Competition

Group photo at the 2017 Shark Tank competition. From Left to Right: Bryan Sparkes ’04, Dylan Oliveira ’17, Ed McLaughlin ’78, Mary Kate Vanecko ’17, Paul Wiley ’20 and April Lukasik P16.

Have you seen the show Shark Tank? Did you know we had our own version of it here at Holy Cross? YES! It’s run by the Entrepreneur-in-Residence, Ja-Nae Duane, where current students will pitch their ideas to a panel of alumni judges for real money. Don’t want to compete? Come watch the show!

The annual competition will be held on Thursday, February 22 from 6-8pm in Hogan Suite A …followed by an alumni networking event! Stay tuned to see who the alumni judges will be.

>> Want to compete? Join us for a prep session held on:
Monday, February 5 and Monday, February 12 at 6PM in Stein 216. *Must attend one prep session to compete.

MORE INFO: Meet with Ja-Nae via Google Hangout or stop by the new co-working space in Stein 129C.

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UPDATE: Interested in who will be on the judging panel this year?  Come to the event to meet them and mingle during the networking hour with a number of alumni entrepreneurs!

Stacy Chin ’12, CEO & Co-founder, HydroGlyde Coatings
Prof. Daniel Klinghard, Director, J.D. Power Center for Liberal Arts & the World, Holy Cross
Tyler Scionti ’15, Product Expert, Hubspot

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