Gabelli School gathers student leaders at Jesuit Business Student Alliance conference

Undergraduate | Apr 20, 2017 | Casey Shenloogian

Typical weekend plans for college students might involve going to the movies, trying out a new restaurant, or studying for an exam.

Last month, 18 undergraduate business students from nine Jesuit schools across the country did things a little differently, spending a weekend at Fordham University for the second annual Jesuit Business Student Alliance Conference.

Continuing the tradition established last year by St. Joseph’s University, the Gabelli School of Business held this year’s conference, which provided a forum for student leaders to explore the impact of Jesuit values on business education.

Before the conference, students from schools including St. Louis University, Creighton University, and Loyola University Maryland formed teams and worked together online to prepare a presentation for the conference’s case study competition.

Students presented their cases to faculty and alumni judges, including Julita Haber, clinical assistant professor of management systems, and Ahir Gopaldas, assistant professor of marketing. The subject? Maggi Noodles. The winner? Team Magis, made up of students from Boston College, Scranton, Saint Louis University, Fairfield, and Georgetown.

JBSA isn’t only about the competition. No trip to Manhattan would be complete without seeing the campus Fordham calls home, so the group enjoyed a visit to the EY Foundry for networking, the Broadway show Kinky Boots, a tour of the city including Little Italy, the World Trade Center, and the United Nations, and a “snack crawl” on the way back to Lincoln Center.

Over the course of the weekend, students also shared their university’s “best practices,” and Father James Martin, SJ, spoke about his personal and professional journey.

Daniel Stroie, BS ’17, the student co-director of this year’s JBSA conference, said “the most rewarding part was to see the students getting along so well at the end of the conference.” Despite different backgrounds, attendees found that there was a sense of community that extends to all Jesuit schools.

“That feeling of collegiality was exactly what I wanted our participants to experience this year,” Stroie said.

Check out the gallery below for more highlights from the weekend.