Undergraduate Blog / Defining Your Babson

Finding my Home at Babson

As I sit here writing my first post for the Babson College blog, I take a moment to reflect on the unexpected and unpredictable path I took to get to this moment. Although I am a native of Wellesley and have lived near Babson my entire life, I had only set foot on campus once or twice before freshman orientation in the fall and did not seriously consider Babson until relatively late in my college search.

In high school, I was the classic example of someone who took a few years to “figure it out,” coasting a bit freshman and sophomore year and not taking full advantage of the opportunities my school had to offer. As the dreaded “college process” started to build a head of steam, however, I began to take academics more seriously and became more involved in extracurricular activities, notably becoming a student manager for the Wellesley High varsity baseball and basketball teams.

As I began visiting and applying to colleges before and during my senior year, I was very unsure about what I was looking for in potential schools and what future careers I may be interested in. I originally thought I wanted an urban liberal arts school, but after visiting several in the Boston area I knew I preferred a smaller suburban campus atmosphere. Even after I came to this realization it took some convincing from my parents for me to even consider Babson, as I felt it was too close to home and was unsure its exclusive business focus was right for me.

After much discussion and convincing, I finally visited Babson with my parents on a chilly, rainy autumn day. Even in the ridiculous New England weather, I was able to appreciate the lush greenness of the freshman quad against the inviting brick and beautiful Park Manor dorms and see myself living there one day. I was ready to commit to the school right then. There was just one slight problem: I had literally zero business experience whatsoever.

Although Wellesley High had numerous business courses and I had a relationship with the teacher who taught them, I never took any of them. For many years I thought I wanted to be a sports writer for the Boston Globe and cover my childhood team, the Red Sox. I took media and film classes and covered sports for the high school newspaper. It was only after taking a summer journalism class before my senior year that I realized sports writing is only a small part of journalism and that I was not interested in a traditional journalism career.

So it was that when I applied to Babson I was decidedly not the prototypical Babson student who lives and breathes Entrepreneurial Thought & Action® 24/7. I had not started my own business in high school or even taken economics or traditional calculus, but I applied anyway, unsure of my future but hoping to be given a chance.

In my Babson supplement letter, I wrote about being the commissioner of a fantasy football league and “creating economic and social value” for my friends, which I’ll admit definitely sounds like a stretch. I guess the admissions officer who read it was a fantasy football fan because here I am a year later, writing for the Babson blog, enrolled in a great school, and discovering a passion for business I previously didn’t know I had.