Originally published in the inaugural edition of Carroll Capital, the print publication of the Carroll School of Management at Boston College. .
Brenden Picioane 鈥23 loves to cook anyway. Why not take the hundred bucks on offer and cook for his favorite professor and closest Boston College friends? The Carroll School鈥檚 Take Home Prof program gives students a stipend to buy groceries and treat a faculty member to dinner.
鈥淭his is a cool opportunity to get to know a professor in a less formal setting,鈥 said Picioane, a business analytics and computer science student, on an early spring evening in the Thomas More Apartments. Picioane invited Thomas Wesner, associate professor of the practice of Business Law and Society. 鈥溓樯占 prides itself on the quality of its professors, and you can tell with 鈥榃ez,鈥欌 said Picioane. 鈥淗is curiosity, his passion鈥攈e brings all that to cultivating the next generation.鈥
On the menu: duck legs, smoked sausage charcuterie, and egg noodles with mushrooms and onion. As Wesner dined with Picioane and his classmates Patrick Cadogan 鈥23 and Ricardo Pereira, MCAS 鈥23, a chorus of compliments on the meal turned to talk of the consumer trends on which Picioane鈥檚 family business rises and falls鈥攈is father is a butcher in Queens. After many summers selling meat in farmers markets, Picioane would soon start work as an associate at Maryville Consulting Group in Boston.
鈥淚鈥檓 excited about post-graduation life,鈥 said Cadogan, a finance student, as the seniors discussed their futures. 鈥淚鈥檓 just building the skeleton of what that鈥檚 going to look like,鈥 he added, but 鈥渢he whole-person education and broader perspective鈥 he gained at Boston College was helping him figure out what companies he didn鈥檛 want to work for. 鈥淭hat moral framework I have now is so important.鈥
鈥淲e were taught to use our advantages to lift others up,鈥 put in Pereira, a graduate of the Carroll School鈥檚 Summer Management Catalyst Program, run by Wesner. 鈥淵our business law class made me decide to major in philosophy for pre-law,鈥 added Pereira, and now he was mulling law school offers. 鈥淵ou just made my day!鈥 Wesner exclaimed, and the two high-fived.
鈥淚鈥檓 so impressed with these students,鈥 Wesner said after the dinner. 鈥淚鈥檝e seen them grow so much in four years. It鈥檚 great to have a chance to hang out with students and see all the progress they鈥檝e made. It brings people together and fosters community鈥攖hat鈥檚 who we are and what we do.鈥