Every semester, the centers across the Carroll School host countless events for Boston College community members to listen to, learn from, and engage with industry experts on timely topics. Recent events explored the important role of women when it comes to shaping American democracy, seeing the opportunities in a challenging real estate landscape, the bright future of student entrepreneurship, and more. Here is a taste of these happenings.
Democracy in Action
The timing of this fall鈥檚 Clough Colloquium felt particularly fortuitous. Not only was the event falling just five weeks before the presidential election, but it also coincided with President Jimmy Carter鈥檚 100th birthday. Naturally, there was no shortage of topical material for the evening鈥檚 speaker, acclaimed political historian and Boston College history professor Heather Cox Richardson, to mine. And there was no better place to do it than the twice-annual colloquium. Hosted by the Winston Center for Leadership and Ethics, the series invites leaders from across fields to share the big lessons of their personal and professional journeys.
As Gregory Kalscheur, S.J., dean of the Morrissey College of Arts and Sciences, welcomed the packed Heights room, he identified himself as one of more than a million daily readers of Richardson鈥檚 which puts current events into larger historical context. Richardson is currently on leave from her role as professor of history at Boston College, and was quick to thank the University as she reached the podium. 鈥淚 want to make it very clear that I could not do what I do without the support of Boston College,鈥 she said. 鈥淭hey have had my back when anything has come up, which happens on a very frequent basis.鈥 That includes, of course, the publishing of her New York Times bestselling book and her recent win of the Authors Guild award for literary criticism.
Kalscheur added that in Democracy Awakening, Richardson quotes Carter鈥檚 farewell address. 鈥淧resident Carter reminded us that the national interest is not always the sum of all our single or special interests,鈥 he said. 鈥淲e are all Americans together, and we must not forget that the common good is our common interest and our individual responsibility.鈥
These ideas of common good and community power, particularly in the face of misogyny, loomed large in Richardson鈥檚 speech. 鈥淚f there鈥檚 one thing that strikes me about this moment,鈥 she said of the current political climate, 鈥渋t is both the truly extraordinary misogyny of this moment and the extraordinary efforts of American women to take up a place in American society and turn back that misogyny.鈥
Richardson sees women as the makers of the modern American state and therefore believes they are also essential in shaping what the future of American society and politics can look like. To illustrate this idea, her speech wound its way from the enduring legacy of Frances Perkins, Secretary of Labor under FDR and an architect of the New Deal and Social Security, to Vice President Kamala Harris, both political figures that have emphasized the importance of women in society as a fundamental part of democracy.
鈥淸Kamala Harris] did not talk about [possibly] being the first woman to be elected president. She did not talk about identities,鈥 Richardson said of Harris鈥檚 recent speech at the Democratic National Convention. 鈥淪he talked about community, and often female based community.鈥
“ 鈥淚f there鈥檚 one thing that strikes me about this moment, it is both the truly extraordinary misogyny of this moment and the extraordinary efforts of American women to take up a place in American society and turn back that misogyny.鈥”
Throughout her talk, she also peppered in familiar touchpoints of American culture, including cowboy motifs, Little House on the Prairie, and why it became a tradition to gift watches upon someone鈥檚 retirement (hint: It has to do with train conductors).
During the Q&A portion of the event, Richardson leaned into student questions. 鈥滘蝌街辈 has the best students,鈥 she remarked, before answering what she referred to as 鈥渁 brilliant question" from a young man about the real legacy of the women of the American West in politics in a moment where the Democratic party has nominated a presidential candidate from west of the Mississippi River for the very first time.
With a presidential election just weeks away, it was unsurprising that multiple attendees asked for her thoughts on the possible outcomes, but Richardson shied away from making predictions. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 know how it鈥檚 going to play out,鈥 she said, playfully adding that 鈥測ou guys would all rather I could see the future than the past.鈥
Elsewhere at the Winston Center, recent events also included an installment of the Ethics and Lunch series with Phil Coupe, MCAS 鈥90, P '27, co-founder for solar company ReVision Energy; the Women in Leadership Forum featuring Zoe Bogan, founder and CEO of the ZB Agency; and the annual Jane Jacobs lecture with Ed Augustus, secretary of the Massachusetts Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities, which was presented with the Joseph E. Corcoran Center for Real Estate and Urban Action.
Seeing (and Seizing) the Opportunities
Community was also a key topic of discussion at , CEO and chairman of Suffolk Construction, as part of the Corcoran鈥檚 Center new Real Estate Colloquium series.
鈥淲ith a career spanning more than four decades, John Fish is not just a builder of structures but a builder of communities,鈥 Neil McCullagh, executive director of the center, noted in his introduction. Beyond running a business with more than $6 billion in annual revenue, Fish is a prolific philanthropist and the board chair of both the Boston College Board of Trustees and the Brigham and Women鈥檚 Hospital Board of Trustees.
Fish kicked off his talk with a big question: Why would anybody want to get involved with real estate today? Citing skyrocketing interest rates, low vacancy rates, and high construction costs, Fish called the current real estate landscape a 鈥溾榗hallenging mess,鈥 but encouraged students to look for the opportunities.
When asked by a student why they should risk getting into a market that experiences such lows, Fish clarified what those opportunities can look like. 鈥淸It鈥檚] the opportunity to grow things and transform communities. You make an indelible impact on people's lives at the end of the day,鈥 he said, adding, 鈥渋f you do it right you can make a lot of money, but that doesn鈥檛 mean everything.鈥
Engaging with the students in attendance, he also made sure to highlight their essential skills as a part of the technological generation. 鈥淭o me, younger individuals, like the people in this room, have much more of an understanding of technology and what technology can do than the older generation,鈥 Fish said. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 why I think real estate is a young person's game. Technology will change the way we look at the business. History can be rewritten and it will be rewritten by your generation.鈥
The Real Estate Colloquium is designed to provide students with first-hand insights from representatives across the real estate industry. Other speakers this semester have included Richard Roberts, principal of RedStone Equity Partners; Sheila Dillon, chief of housing for the city of Boston; and Michael Corcoran听'86, P '15, '20, president of Corcoran Jennison Companies and son of the Corcoran Center鈥檚 namesake, Joseph E. Corcoran 鈥59, H 鈥09, P 鈥85, 鈥86, 鈥87, 鈥98.
Getting Down to Business
On an early fall Saturday morning, students, alumni, and business leaders gathered at 245 Beacon Street for the annual Solstice Conference. Hosted by the Edmund H. Shea Center for Entrepreneurship鈥s student executive board Start@Shea, the annual entrepreneurship conference returned for its third year compressed into a single, action-packed day.听
This year鈥檚 agenda promised attendees鈥攚hich included students from 14 local universities鈥攅ngaging and topical speeches, panel discussions, and interactive workshops, all with the intent to inspire and empower the next generation of business leaders.
Stafford Sheehan, MCAS 鈥11, cofounder and chief technology officer of Air Company, kicked off the festivities. Air Company鈥檚 mission is to convert carbon dioxide into valuable products such as aviation and rocket fuels, hand sanitizer, fragrance oil, and even vodka. In his keynote presentation, Sheehan reflected on making the decision to leave academia to pursue his entrepreneurial goals.
He received his Ph.D. in physical chemistry from Yale University, but in the end, 鈥淚 decided to take this path of running businesses rather than an academic path.鈥 That鈥檚 because he saw the value of taking innovation out of the lab and into the real world. Now, he鈥檚 hopeful that Air Company can make a real impact on CO2 emissions. 鈥淯ltimately, we could address 10 percent of global CO2 emissions,鈥 Sheehan said. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 really our, I would say, North Star.鈥
As Sheehan explained how Air Company works, William Munz 鈥25 sat in the audience appreciating how technical the conversation got. 鈥淚 basically learned a chemistry lesson,鈥 Munz said. 鈥淗e used [his] knowledge from school since he was a chemistry [and math] major.听Education is an asset.鈥
The conference also featured a panel discussion on the food and beverage sector, featuring听Matthew Fonte 鈥94 from ColdSnap, Tom First from Culture Pop, and former Athletic Brewing brand strategist Robert Innis. First, who cofounded Nantucket Nectars before launching probiotic soda company Culture Pop, started his entrepreneurial journey right after he graduated college when he started selling his own homemade juices from a boat in Nantucket.
While it seemed like an on-the-fly adventure, the labor and resources required to operate his business were overwhelming. 鈥淭he barriers to entry for business are way lower than in the past,鈥 he said, referencing how advancements in technology have made entrepreneurship more viable and encouraging students to go after what interests them.
Later on, attendees were able to select from a few different workshops, all offering practical advice on the ins-and-outs of starting a company. Emily Kaiser MCAS '14, a Carroll School adjunct professor, facilitated the "Steering Your Startup Through the Legal Jungle" workshop. She encouraged students to understand the legal complexities of their businesses, including around branding, intellectual property, and sharing trade secrets, adding that people within companies need to play by the same rulebook if they want to be successful.
The mergers and acquisitions panel discussion featured industry leaders Cory Munchbach听MCAS 鈥09, CEO of BlueConic, and Tom Coburn 鈥13, CEO and cofounder of Jebbit. The pair shared their insights after BlueConic, a Dutch company focused on helping marketers understand their customers through data-driven insights, acquired Jebbit, a data-capture and experience-creation software for marketers, earlier this year.
鈥淲e considered developing a theme for the speakers, but given the diversity of our network, we opted to bring in the best speakers available and organize the day around them,鈥 said Charles Coughlin 鈥26, a Start@Shea outreach co-chair and one of the event鈥檚 organizers. 鈥淥ur overarching goal was to unite and engage aspiring entrepreneurs in the Boston area. We brought in speakers who could inspire this kind of unity and crafted our Ideathon [session] prompt to ask, 鈥榃hat could make Boston the best place ever for aspiring entrepreneurs?鈥"
The Ideathon competition has become a standout Solstice event, where students engage students in hands-on idea generation around a unique prompt and put all the advice from industry experts into practice. This year鈥檚 event came with a twist: Randomly selected student attendees judged the competition. After all, who better to evaluate their peers鈥 proposals on how to make Boston a better environment for young entrepreneurs?
Emma Mooney 鈥28, who was attending Solstice for the first time, praised the event鈥檚 organization and the dynamic lineup of speakers. 鈥淭hese events make the idea of starting a business seem so cool,鈥 she said, adding that Solstice inspired her to think about what her own future business idea might be.
鈥淗earing from attendees who told me how much they enjoyed the event made all the hard work worthwhile,鈥 said Coughlin. 鈥淚f we managed to positively impact even one person鈥檚 startup journey, I consider it a success.鈥