New graduates are heading into a surging job market—the National Association of Colleges and Employers is reporting that employers plan to hire 31.6 percent more graduates from the class of 2022 than were hired from the class of 2021—and business school graduates continue to be in especially high demand. But it's not just skills that Carroll School of Management graduates are carrying into the workforce; they’re bringing their values and perspectives along as well.
It’s an essential part of the Carroll School’s mission that beyond business principles, students are also encouraged to develop their critical thinking skills and foster ethical leadership values. For these six brand new Carroll School graduates, those lessons are top of mind as they spread their wings and begin the next chapter.
Bozhena Kulchyckyj
On top of her numerous academic and co-curricular responsibilities, Bozhena Kulchyckyj has spent plenty of time this semester reading the news. That’s because headlines about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine hit particularly close to home—her mother is a Ukrainian immigrant and many family members, including Kulchyckyj’s maternal grandparents, are still living there. “My perspective on everything has completely shifted,” she says, adding that the difficult things she has been dealing with have changed her priorities. When she got a job offer earlier this year, it just didn’t feel right. Instead, she’ll be heading to Poland after graduation to assist with Ukrainian refugee efforts through the Borderlands Foundation.
Kulchyckyj, who completed Information Systems and Marketing concentrations, and a Studio Art major, remembers the first time she got excited about business while growing up in Maryland. As part of her 5th grade class, students were tasked with virtually selling corn in an online simulator. Realizing she had sold the most, she felt a rush of satisfaction. From there, she ran with her budding business instincts, from teaching herself enough coding to design her own Tumblr blog, to participating in youth business programs at the University of Maryland, MIT, and Wharton.
“Everything I have worked for the past four years will be there when I come back. But right now, I know having this experience will be something that I talk about for the rest of my life.”
“Everything I have worked for the past four years will be there when I come back. But right now, I know having this experience will be something that I talk about for the rest of my life.”
Not one to shy away from a busy schedule, Kulchyckyj did a little bit of everything during her time at Boston College. She was a Start@Shea student executive board co-chair for the Edmund H. Shea Jr. Center for Entrepreneurship and a regular participant in business case competitions, like the international Collegiate Ethics Case Competition where she and teammate Bijoy Shah ‘22 placed second. She also participated in Kairos retreats, joined a dance team, and planned fundraisers for causes like Black Lives Matter, and more recently, Ukrainian refugees, all while working part-time.
Off campus, she was constantly seeking new opportunities to put her skills to the test, interning for venture capital firms True Ventures and General Catalyst, as well as conducting user experience research for MIT’s Center for Brains, Minds and Machines. She also led web and app design efforts for the startup Fisherman, co-founded by Carroll School alum Ameet Kallarackal ‘18.
Whatever she does after her time in Poland, Kulchyckyj wants to make sure it’s as meaningful as her choice to go to Poland. "I saw my life going towards venture capital—and I still think it will,” she says. “Everything I have worked for the past four years will be there when I come back. But right now, I know having this experience will be something that I talk about for the rest of my life.”
Nick Guerriero
With a family full of medical professionals, going to business school might have felt like the path less traveled, but Nick Guerriero quickly became passionate about sharing his Boston College and Carroll School of Management experience with others. The Massachusetts native is a familiar face for prospective students, doing panels and campus tours, and serving as an Eagle for a Day host. He also participated in Freshman League all four years, evolving from mentee to group captain.
At the Carroll School, Guerriero spent his early semesters exploring the concentrations before finding accounting. “I’ve always been a math person and it felt like a puzzle to me,” he says. In addition to accounting, he also picked up a Business Analytics concentration and an Applied Psychology minor, as a way to appeal to both the quantitative and qualitative sides of his brain. That foundation in psychology was especially helpful when it came to topics like strategic management, where the subject matter is “more focused on human behavior,” he adds.
"It's rewarding to look for a job that aligns with your values. That way you can really enjoy what you do."
Part of his enthusiasm for Boston College revolves around the sheer amount of resources available to students, including the vast network of alumni happy to offer guidance. After graduation, Guerriero will stay in Boston and join accounting organization KPMG full time as a deal advisory and strategy associate. He interned with the group last summer and met KPMG deal advisory partner Janessa Howarth ‘03, MSA ‘04, a fellow Carroll School alum whose path, Guerriero felt, mirrored some of his own goals. “It was really inspiring to see,” he says, noting that it made him feel that what he wanted, including work/life balance, was possible.
Guerriero has also been very involved with Camp Kesem, a summer camp and community for children with parents impacted by cancer. When he began his work with KPMG, Guerriero met with his manager and was encouraged to take time off each summer to go work with Camp Kesem. “They want you to have that experience and then come to work fulfilled, refreshed and ready to bring that perspective to your role,” he says. That was a good sign to Guerriero, who was seeking a workplace that shared his service ideals because of the ethical perspectives introduced to him in Carroll School courses like Portico. It’s rewarding “to look for a job that aligns with your values,” he says. “That way you can really enjoy what you do.”
Meeraf Alemayehu
Meeraf Alemayehu wasn’t sure that she wanted to move away from the West Coast, but she applied to Boston College at the urging of her cousin, who had already graduated from the Carroll School. When her acceptance letter arrived, she knew it was too good of an opportunity to pass up. She had also gotten into the Thea Bowman AHANA and Intercultural Center’s Options Through Education program—she arrived on campus seven weeks early and spent her time socializing with fellow students, earning her first few college credits, and getting to know the area.
Growing up in Seattle, Alemayehu had participated in the Young Executives of Color program at the University of Washington, a crash course in what a business school could offer. A visual learner, she was also intrigued by how people can be lured in by different kinds of communication—a natural fit for her Marketing and Information Systems concentrations. She furthered that visual fascination by taking studio art classes her senior year and leaning into a newfound interest in film photography. “Stepping outside of Fulton [Hall] has allowed me to see that business is so broad,” she says. “You can apply just about anything you learn outside of it.”
She’ll bring those skills to her new consulting role in the People Advisory Services department of professional services network EY, where she has also interned for the past three years. Alemayehu is looking forward to the opportunity to assist with some of the big-picture workplace issues she sees popping up across industries. “People aren’t just working machines,” she says. “An empathetic workplace is beneficial for everyone.”
“Stepping outside of Fulton [Hall] has allowed me to see that business is so broad. You can apply just about anything you learn outside of it.”
That empathetic element is a big reason she decided to join the EY team full-time. When she lost her father between junior and senior year of college, she was just weeks away from starting her third summer internship with EY. The team jumped into action, offering time off and emotional support. “That made me feel good, like this company actually cares,” she says. “That’s what I value and will continue to value in my career.”
That sense of community is also something she found as part of the African Student Organization, which she has been involved with for the past four years—this school year, she served as a senior liaison. “I was able to mentor freshmen and show them the value of this community,” she says.
Another community she’s grateful for is the one she forged working in the Carroll School undergraduate office. She gives credit to her fellow student workers, as well as deans Amy LaCombe and Erica Graf, for motivating her. “Being a Black woman in Fulton, it has taken me a long time to understand that my diversity is an asset. I do belong in these classrooms,” she says. “My voice does matter.”
Jennifer Heath
Charting a course forward had never been difficult for Jennifer Heath until she made the trip from New Jersey to the Boston College campus for admitted students day. She wasn’t convinced it was the school for her, but, she says, “it was a warm, sunny day and Gasson was shining,” and as she learned more about what the school had to offer, she was won over.
One of the things that ultimately drew her in was learning more about the PULSE program and the way it blended community service, and lessons on social injustice and theology.
Inspired by her grandmother’s community service efforts, Heath joined PULSE during her sophomore year and interned with the South Bay House of Correction, helping incarcerated people with life skills like financial literacy twice a week. During this time, she gained understanding on complex social topics like intersectionality and systemic racism. “These are huge moments in my personal development,” she says, adding that the classes she took as part of her Managing for Social Impact and the Public Good minor also contributed. “This showed me that I wanted to work with communities.”
“Boston College was a great place to put myself out there. There’s always going to be a group of people who are also interested in what you’re doing and that’s really special.”
When it came time to consider internships, the Marketing major felt torn between the nonprofit world and the corporate business world. Her solution? Spend time in both before making a decision. First, she worked with Youth INC, a network of youth-centric nonprofits. While she was there, she saw how corporate partnerships worked.
“One thing that really stuck out to me was the resources that the corporate side had and the responsibility that can come with those,” Heath says. She took that know-how to her next internship with investment management company Blackstone and will expand upon it when she joins Blackstone’s Global Public Affairs team as an analyst. There, she will be trading her marketing lessons for the writing skills honed in her core classes, working on communications strategy for the firm. She also hopes to work on the company’s environmental, social, and governance (ESG) efforts.
As she looks back on the past four years, Heath highlights the “extremely supportive” environment she found on campus, like with her involvement with the club field hockey team. After not making the team as a freshman, she was encouraged by the players to try again—she did, joining the team sophomore year. “Boston College was a great place to put myself out there,” she says. “There’s always going to be a group of people who are also interested in what you’re doing and that’s really special.”
Tyler Soares
Tyler Soares took the Goldilocks approach to finding the subjects that suited him. Before selecting two concentrations—Finance and Accounting for Finance and Consulting—he tried out both Economics and Business Analytics, but didn’t feel the topics clicking for him. "I never thought I would be an Accounting major, but I love it,” he shares, adding that he liked feeling challenged by subject matter that he wanted to understand.
It’s a mindset that will serve him well as he becomes a corporate finance and restructuring consultant at FTI Consulting in Dallas, Texas. “You can’t really provide someone with a solution without knowing the underlying reasons for a problem,” Soares says. “Accounting speaks to most of that and finance can help you solve it.”
Soares was raised in Massachusetts, but spent his high school years in Brazil, where his father is from. “I went to Brazil when the country was in the midst of a financial crisis,” he says. “Many people didn’t know where the next paycheck was coming from or if their company would exist tomorrow.” The experience left an impact on him that will continue to motivate him as he works with companies facing bankruptcy.
"Love, care, and respect—those are things I want to see in my ideal workplace."
His time in Brazil also inspired him to help found Boston College’s Brazilian Club, a space for Brazilian immigrants and those with Brazilian heritage to come together and share their culture. “It’s a country with a beautiful and troubled history,” he says. “You see that reflection in its people.”
While he was not raised Catholic, Soares appreciated Boston College’s perspective that everyone has something to learn from the teachings of the Jesuits, including values he plans to carry with him after graduation. “Love, care, and respect—those are things that I want to see in my ideal workplace too,” he says, adding that as companies continue to grow and need to fill their ranks, younger workers “have major sway as a generation,” to help foster those kinds of workplaces.
He feels bittersweet about leaving Boston College, but is excited for the challenges that await him in Dallas. He has already gotten a taste of the mentality that once you’re an Eagle, you’re always an Eagle. On his first day as an intern in the FTI office, a new colleague and fellow Boston College alum drove all the way from Houston to greet him, Soares says. “It was so important to him to show that an Eagle had landed.”
Resham Jariwala
Resham Jariwala hadn’t even heard of Boston College before her senior year of high school in New Jersey, but when she discovered that her neighbor had attended the school, her interest was piqued. After touring campus twice, she said yes to Boston College and to the Carroll School. Her interest in business had been sparked in her AP Economics class, where she saw just how much the business world influences what goes on in society and how it can be used to “make great change,” Jariwala says.
As she leaves college, she feels especially cognizant of the power big corporations can wield. After graduation she’ll be joining Goldman Sachs in its global markets division as an operations analyst, an ideal blend between her Operations Management and Business Analytics concentrations. “Goldman Sachs [has] a big reputation and a lot of power in the industry,” she acknowledges. “They have resources and connections—how are they balancing their work with ways that they can give back?” She felt drawn to the plethora of resources Goldman Sachs offers to employees looking to develop new business ideas, as well as service-oriented initiatives like Community TeamWorks, which she hopes to take advantage of as a way to both give back and get to know her new colleagues.
“You can make an impact wherever you are. If you raise your hand in meetings, ask questions, and be curious, you might not change the world, but you can be a catalyst for change.”
The impulse to make change intensified as she began her minor in Managing for Social Impact and the Public Good and flourished throughout her time at Boston College. As a final project in her Design Thinking and Strategy class, professor Kristie Dickinson tasked the group to identify something, big or small, that they would like to see improved. Jariwala set her sights on the lack of access to menstrual products across college campuses.
As she started doing research on available options, she discovered SOS, a smart vending machine startup focused on health and wellness. She connected with the company co-founder, who in turn offered Jariwala an internship to help solve the very problem her initial project was centered around. She’s continuing to discuss the project with Boston College leaders and hopes that there will still be opportunities to help bring about this change even once she has left campus. “You can make an impact wherever you are,” she says. “If you raise your hand in meetings, ask questions, and be curious, you might not change the world, but you can be a catalyst for change.”
