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It is a busy time for news at ���ҹ�����.

This morning we’re announcing our speakers for Commencement 2023. Telfar Clemens ’08, the Lubin grad and world-recognized fashion designer who’s as well known for his commitment to access and inclusion as he is for his must-have bags, will address all of our graduates and their guests at the main ceremony. At the Haub Law ceremony, Sen. Elizabeth Warren will be the featured speaker, and she’ll be joined by her husband, Harvard Law Prof. Bruce H. Mann. And at the ceremony for the Seidenberg School and the College of Health Professions, Trustee Ivan Seidenberg will speak to mark the 40th anniversary of his namesake school of computer science and information systems. It’s an impressive lineup that speaks to the breadth and ambition of ���ҹ����� and our Class of 2023 graduates—and it’s just a small part of what I know will be a truly extraordinary day of celebration at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center on Monday, May 15.

But that’s just our latest news. Yesterday afternoon, . Dr. Franco has been serving as interim provost since last summer, and he is doing an extraordinary job. A faculty member since 1987, he is a full professor in the Psychology and Mental Health Counseling Department on the Pleasantville Campus with a deep well of respect across the University. I am excited to continue working with him, as I know so many of us are.

There’s a lot of other news in this edition of ���ҹ����� Now, from the highly prestigious National Science Foundation grant recently won by Seidenberg Prof. Zhan Zhang to an intercontinental experiential education success story to the little-known story of a tiny ���ҹ����� library that makes a big impact.

And don’t forget all of the news in my , delivered just a few weeks ago: Our big plans to renovate the east side of One ���ҹ����� Plaza, the nearly complete 15 Beekman Street, and academic innovations and investments like the ���ҹ����� Entrepreneurship Studio, the expansion and upgrade of CHP’s simulation labs in Pleasantville, Seidenberg’s forthcoming Cyber Range on that campus, where cybersecurity students will be able to practice defending against the latest threats.

There’s a lot going on, and there’s more to come.

Let’s go get it.

On Monday, May 15, the Class of 2023 will celebrate with a creative genius and fashion entrepreneur, an intrepid US Senator, a renowned legal scholar, a former CEO of the largest telcom company in the US, and a nonprofit leader dedicated to justice and equality.

The moment we’ve all been waiting for is finally here. We’re proud to announce that this year’s Honorary Degree Recipients, speakers, and honorees, who come to us with a diverse range of accomplishments and experiences and continue to push boundaries in their respective fields.

Telfar Clemens ‘08

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Liberian-American Fashion Designer
Honorary Degree Recipient and Speaker at the Main Ceremony

Telfar Clemens was born in 1985 to Liberian parents in Queens; his father had earned an MBA at ���ҹ����� a few years earlier. When Clemens arrived at ���ҹ����� in the fall of 2003, he had already begun deconstructing garments and inventing his own creations. While he focused on his schoolwork in the Lubin School of Business, he also dove into the downtown worlds of music, culture, and fashion. In the classic model of countless ���ҹ����� generations before him, he hustled: He got up early to go to his classes, he spent his afternoons working on his collection, and he DJ’ed at night to earn money. In 2005, while still a student, he founded his label, producing accessible, unisex items built on the principles of fluidity and inclusivity.

Just a few years later, he graduated from ���ҹ����� with a degree in business management. He established himself as an insider’s designer, worn by people who worked in the industry if not quite breaking through to the wider culture. Then, in 2017, he won the coveted CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund Award, and its prize of $400,000. He invested that money in production of the Telfar Shopping Bag—now lovingly known as “the Bushwick Birkin” for its status as an accessible icon.

The Telfar brand’s tagline is “Not for you, for everyone.” Even as the bags have become higher and higher profile—Oprah named them one of her favorite things; Beyonce has been spotted carrying one, and so has AOC—their price tops out at $257. As the label has grown and expanded, it has stayed true to its roots.

Senator Elizabeth Warren, JD

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US Senator from Massachusetts
Honorary Degree Recipient and Speaker at the Haub Law Ceremony

Elizabeth Warren, a fearless consumer advocate who has made her life's work the fight for middle class families, was elected to the United States Senate on November 6, 2012, by the people of Massachusetts. She is widely credited for the original thinking, political courage, and relentless persistence that led to the creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. President Obama asked her to set up the new agency to hold Wall Street banks and other financial institutions accountable, and to protect consumers from financial tricks and traps often hidden in mortgages, credit cards, and other financial products.

In the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, Sen. Warren served as Chair of the Congressional Oversight Panel for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). Her independent and tireless efforts to protect taxpayers, to hold Wall Street accountable, and to ensure tough oversight of both the Bush and Obama Administrations won praise from both sides of the aisle. Senator Warren was a law professor for more than 30 years, including nearly 20 years as the Leo Gottlieb Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. The graduating class at Harvard twice recognized her with the Sacks-Freund Award for excellence in teaching. She taught courses on commercial law, contracts, and bankruptcy and wrote more than a hundred articles and ten books, including three national best-sellers, A Fighting Chance, The Two-Income Trap, and All Your Worth.

National Law Journal named her one of the Most Influential Lawyers of the Decade, TIME Magazine has named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world four times, and she has been honored by the Massachusetts Women's Bar Association with the Lelia J. Robinson Award.

Bruce H. Mann, PhD

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Legal Scholar and Professor of Law at Harvard Law School
Honorary Degree Recipient at the Haub Law Ceremony

Professor Bruce Hartling Mann is an American legal scholar and legal historian who has been teaching at Harvard Law School since 2006, where he is the Carl F. Schipper, Jr. Professor of Law. He teaches courses in American Legal History and Property. His research focuses on the relationship among legal, social, and economic change in the American Revolutionary era. Mann holds five teaching awards—one at Washington University and four at Penn, this includes the university-wide Christian R. and Mary F. Lindback Foundation Award for Distinguished Teaching.

He is the author of Neighbors and Strangers: Law and Community in Early Connecticut (2001). He has co-edited a volume of essays entitled The Many Legalities of Early America and wrote a variety of articles and essays in various history journals and law reviews. His most recent book, Republic of Debtors: Bankruptcy in the Age of American Independence (2009) received the SHEAR Book Prize from the Society for Historians of the Early American Republic, Littleton-Griswold Prize from the American Historical Association, and the J. Willard Hurst Prize from the Law and Society Association.

He is currently a Fellow of the Massachusetts Historical Society, he is an elected Member of the American Antiquarian Society, and from 2011–2013, served as the President of the American Society for Legal History. Mann is married to Elizabeth Warren, the senior United States senator from Massachusetts and a former law professor. Warren proposed to Mann after she observed one of his Property classes.

Aldrin Enis

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President, One Hundred Black Men
Opportunitas in Action Award Winner and Speaker at the Lubin Ceremony

Aldrin Enis was elected the 11th president of the founding chapter of One Hundred Black Men (OHBM) at the end of 2020. With this being a pivotal year nationwide due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Enis was faced with challenges unique to any other president of OHBM. With many different aspects of community driven service to address in 2020 and 2021, he continued to hold the Junior One Hundred Legacy program and their partnership with ���ҹ����� in high priority. He approved the continuation of the program and partnership in 2021. Enis participated virtually in the Orientations and other sessions to stay engaged with the BIPOC male high school student participants. He never forgets to speak to ���ҹ�����’s longstanding partnership with OHBM and the importance of seeking opportunity and post-secondary education.

In providing programming as part of this partnership, ���ҹ����� has a key opportunity to show all the ���ҹ����� Community has to offer to its students from different areas of the University. Enis’ priorities as president include scaling up OHBM’s youth and adolescent programs while heightening awareness around mental health for these age groups. He has encouraged the OHBM staff working on the Junior One Hundred Legacy program to further engage with ���ҹ����� and to take an intentional approach in planning the program’s content. The 2023 program was approved to be held in-person for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ivan G. Seidenberg '81

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Retired Chairman and CEO of Verizon
Speaker at the Seidenberg Ceremony

Ivan Seidenberg’s telecommunications career began more than 50 years ago when he joined New York Telephone as a cable splicer and linesman. Several decades and mergers later, he led its successor company, Verizon, to become the largest telecommunications company in the United States by building a nationwide wireless network, deploying high-speed fiber broadband direct to homes, and expanding its global Internet backbone network around the world. Seidenberg retired as Verizon’s chairman and CEO in 2011. Over the course of his accomplished career, Seidenberg was and continues to be involved in many business development, advisory, and philanthropic efforts.

In 2007, ���ҹ����� dedicated the Ivan G. Seidenberg School of Computer Science and Information Systems in recognition of his gift of $15 million to the University. In 2007, President George W. Bush named Seidenberg to the National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee.

From 2009 to 2011, Seidenberg chaired the Business Roundtable, an association of the CEOs of the largest US corporations, and he currently he serves on the boards of trustees of ���ҹ����� and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital and on the board of directors of BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager. He is also an advisory partner for Perella Weinberg Partners, an investment bank. In 2000, he addressed the ���ҹ����� Commencement ceremony and was awarded an honorary doctor of humane letters degree, honoris causa.

Stay tuned to the Commencement website for important information about deadlines (application to graduate, ticket ordering, and caps and gowns), the full schedule of events for May 15, and more. Can’t wait to see you on the big day!

Senator Elizabeth Warren, Harvard Professor Bruce H. Mann to Receive Honorary Degrees; Trustee Ivan G. Seidenberg ’81 to Speak

For the second year, ���ҹ����� will hold a combined ceremony for graduates of its three campuses at USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Queens

���ҹ����� alumnus , a celebrated fashion designer and founder of the label Telfar, will address ���ҹ�����’s Commencement 2023 and receive an honorary doctorate. will address the Elisabeth Haub School of Law graduating class. In addition, Sen. Warren and Harvard Law Professor and legal historian Bruce H. Mann will both receive honorary degrees. Trustee and alumnus Ivan G. Seidenberg ’81, retired chairman and CEO of Verizon Communications, will address graduates of ���ҹ�����’s Seidenberg School of Computer Science and Information Systems to mark the school’s 40th anniversary.

The university’s commencement will be held on May 15, 2023, at the in Queens. This year’s commencement marks the second consecutive year that ���ҹ����� will hold a combined ceremony for graduates of its campuses in New York City and Pleasantville, N.Y., and its Elisabeth Haub School of Law in White Plains, N.Y. The university will honor the entire Class of 2023 at its main ceremony, highlighted by Clemens’ remarks, and graduating students will cross the stage at their individual school and college ceremonies.

At Commencement each year, ���ҹ����� also honors community members who exemplify the ���ҹ����� motto of Opportunitas. This year’s Opportunitas in Action winner is Aldrin Enis, president of One Hundred Black Men of New York, a community service organization and longtime ���ҹ����� partner that helps to create educational and career opportunities for Black youth in New York City.

“This remarkable group of honorees speaks to the many accomplishments and wide-ranging interests
of the Class of 2023 and the ���ҹ����� community,” said ���ҹ����� President Marvin Krislov. “I’m pleased that we will once again be celebrating all of our graduates together in one in-person celebration, and I’m even happier that we’ll have such an impressive group of role models to help us mark this momentous occasion.”

Clemens will receive a Doctor of Humane Letters degree, honoris causa, at the 12:15 p.m. main ceremony, and he will address the graduates and their guests. Clemens is a wildly successful entrepreneur. He spent his time at ���ҹ����� deconstructing garments and inventing his own creations; he later established himself as a fashion force to be reckoned with. In 2017, he won the coveted CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund Award and its $400,000 prize. He invested that money in production of the —now lovingly known as “the Bushwick Birkin” for its status as an accessible icon.

Sen. Warren will address graduates of the Elisabeth Haub School of Law in their morning ceremony. Warren, a consumer advocate who has made her life’s work the fight for middle class families, was elected by voters in Massachusetts to the U.S. Senate on November 6, 2012. A former candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, she is recognized as one of the nation's top experts on bankruptcy, and the Boston Globe has called her “the plainspoken voice of people getting crushed by so many predatory lenders and under regulated banks.”

Sen. Warren and her husband, Harvard Law Professor and legal historian Bruce H. Mann, will also receive Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, the highest honor conferred by the Law School -- recognizing their lifelong contributions to public service and the legal profession -- at the law school ceremony. Mann is an American legal scholar who has taught at Harvard Law School, where he is the Carl F. Schipper Jr. Professor of Law, since 2006, teaching American Legal History and Property. His research focuses on the relationship among legal, social, and economic change in the American Revolutionary era.

Ivan G. Seidenberg ’81 will address the joint afternoon ceremony for the Seidenberg School of Computer Science and Information Systems and the College of Health Professions. Seidenberg earned a master’s degree in business administration and marketing at ���ҹ�����. His telecommunications career began more than 50 years ago when he joined New York Telephone; he retired as chairman and CEO of its successor company, Verizon Communications. He is a tireless advocate for both diversity and academic excellence, and ���ҹ����� awarded him an honorary doctorate in 2000. The Seidenberg School of Computer Science and Information Systems was named in his honor in 2006 after he donated what was then the largest gift ever received by ���ҹ�����.

About ���ҹ�����

Since 1906, ���ҹ����� has been transforming the lives of its diverse students—academically, professionally, and socioeconomically. With campuses in New York City and Westchester County, ���ҹ����� offers bachelor, master, and doctoral degree programs to 13,600 students in its College of Health Professions, Dyson College of Arts and Sciences, Elisabeth Haub School of Law, Lubin School of Business, School of Education, and Seidenberg School of Computer Science and Information Systems.

The ���ҹ����� Men’s Basketball Team earned an at-large berth to the NCAA Championship for the second-straight year.

The Madness of March returns to ���ҹ����� once again: For the first time in school history the ���ҹ����� Men's Basketball team earns back-to-back NCAA championship berths as the Setters heard their name called in Sunday night's Selection Show on NCAA.com. ���ҹ����� received the No. 5 seed in the East Region and will face No. 4 seed and fellow Northeast-10 Conference foe University of New Haven.

The first-round games will be played on Saturday, March 11 at Saint Anselm, the No. 1 seed in the East Region. Game time between the ���ҹ����� and New Haven is set for 7:30 p.m. Fans can watch the game live.

The Setters (20-10) and Chargers (20-8) met once this season with New Haven besting ���ҹ����� by just six points, 56-50, on January 21 in New Haven, Conn. New Haven was runner-up in the NE10 Championship.

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Head coach Matt Healing and the Setters have had another tremendous season, earning 20-plus wins for the second consecutive year. Healing's squads have boasted winning records in the last four seasons. The last time ���ҹ����� recorded back-to-back 20-win seasons was 1989-1992.

���ҹ����� ranked second in the NE10 in field goal percentage defense (40.4) which ranked 18th nationally. In scoring defense, the Setters ranked 26th nationally (65.5), third in the NE10. The Blue and Gold finished seventh in the NE10 with an 11-9 record. In the conference championships, the Setters defeated No. 10 seed Adelphi, 72-51; but lost on the road at No. 2 seed Saint Anselm, 78-70.

The ���ҹ����� men's basketball program has appeared in the NCAA championship just five times prior: 1992, 1999, 2002, 2007 and 2022.

Last season, the Setters earned the fifth seed in the East Regional and defeated fourth-seeded Dominican 77-64. It was the first NCAA win since 2002.

With a win on Saturday, ���ҹ����� will advance to the NCAA Regional Semifinals which is slated for 7:30 p.m. on Sunday, March 12. A win in the semifinals will send the Setters to the regional championship, set for 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday, March 14.

Click here for all the .

About ���ҹ����� Athletics

is a member of NCAA Division II, competing within the Northeast-10 Conference (NE10). ���ҹ����� Athletics sponsors 15 intercollegiate sports, along with cheer and dance teams and a Pep Band. Known as the Setters, ���ҹ�����’s official mascot is known as T-Bone. In 2021-22, ���ҹ����� student-athletes posted a cumulative grade point average of 3.33. Additionally, a total of 562 Setters were selected to the NE10’s Academic Honor Roll with 69 student-athletes earning Academic Excellence with 4.0 semester GPAs. Twenty two student-athletes earned NE10 President’s Award for Academic Excellence, recognizing graduating student-athletes who have attained Magna Cum Laude at their institution, have participated in at least two seasons of NE10 competition and are current student-athletes at the time of graduation.

One of New York City’s smallest libraries can be found right here at ���ҹ�����.

Clocking in at 97.92 square feet, ���ҹ�����’s Zine library at 161 William Street is a reminder of how even the smallest things can have a big impact.

Instructional Services Librarian at Birnbaum Library Susan Thomas and Associate Professor Kelley Kreitz co-founded the library, and they both recently spoke passionately of the power of zines at a workshop sponsored by the Faculty Center. The workshop, Teaching and Learning with Zines Across the Disciplines, opened with a presentation by co-director Professor Derek Stroup in which he explained the unique elements at play when working with zines, accompanied by photos of some of the libraries’ eclectic offerings.

Stroup’s introduction reveals an eclectic variety of pieces. At ���ҹ�����’s Zine library, you can find acclaimed historical zines from the 1970s next to zines created by students. Full-color magazines with huge budgets sit on the shelf next to flimsy, photocopied zines originally given out for free on the subway. This kind of variety presented on equal ground can spark conversations about where good art comes from, and who creates it. With a lower barrier to entry than traditional publishing, authors with smaller (or virtually no) budgets can share their perspective and create their own unique work using zines.

We are on the outside, we are in the underneath of publication.

—Derek Stroup

“We are on the outside, we are in the underneath of publication,” Stroup said. Many of these zines are unique and cannot be found for elsewhere—not even on Amazon.

But ���ҹ�����’s Zine Library isn’t just an interesting curiosity. This particular workshop was sponsored by the Faculty Center, so much of the time was dedicated to exploring how faculty can best utilize the library. Many faculty, including Professor Steve Bookman, have brought their classes to the library, included zines in course materials, and even assigned zines as projects. According to him, students are big fans. “The multi-media aspect the students love because they don’t see it as an essay. It is an essay, but it’s more fun and creative for them,” said Bookman. “They have to be able to put something into fewer words which is something they are going to take into the real world.”

"We work together to provide this exciting, unique resource for the students."

—Susan Thomas

“Students play an important role, too,” says Thomas. “They select zines and related publications for the collection; donate their own zines; intern on a collaboration between the Zine Library and the ���ҹ����� Art Gallery and the Chinatown Art Brigade exhibition; and volunteer in the Zine Library as student catalogers.” Their contributions are made possible by the collaboration between ���ҹ����� librarians and faculty, who work together to explore how zines and zine pedagogy can be utilized in the classroom. According to Thomas, "We work together to provide this exciting, unique resource for the students."

With a wide variety of topics—from sexuality and gender to racial justice; visual arts to history; skateboarding, nutrition, punk music, and more—zines can be utilized as primary texts across many disciplines to explore course content. Faculty trying to reinvent how their own material is taught and learned can that explain how to create their own zines or find zine lesson plans. And for faculty who don’t feel the course materials are represented in the library, the library wants to hear from you. Early collaborator to the library and zine-enthusiast Associate Professor Kelley Kreitz, PhD, recommended during the workshop, “We can use faculty needs to direct where the collection goes to some degree.”

It puts the idea of publishing and authorship within reach.

—Derek Stroup

For students who have big ideas but limited resources, zines create opportunity. “A student can’t create a book on economic change in Manhattan in a semester. But here’s something within reach, they can probably create an eight-page zine,” Stroup explained. “It puts the idea of publishing and authorship within reach.” Whether a zine is created for a school project or for extracurricular interests and passions, zines can empower students to become published authors and get real-world experience expressing their ideas and research.

Whether you want to use the zines as primary texts, task students with creating their zines for research projects, or use resources to create zines of your own, ���ҹ�����’s Zine Library is ready to support ���ҹ����� Community members in the ever-forward push for innovating the way students learn.

Access and browse the online. To plan a visit or learn more, visit .

���ҹ�����’s Lubin School of Business, in collaboration with AnD Ventures, recently launched the ���ҹ����� Entrepreneurship Studio (PES) with the mission to support ���ҹ����� students, faculty, staff and alumni in taking their compelling business ideas or ventures from concept to company.

PES will position the University as a leading institution for cultivating entrepreneurship and innovation in the tri-state area.

“For more than a century, ���ҹ����� and the Lubin School have been at the forefront of business education,” said ���ҹ����� President Marvin Krislov. “Today, the ���ҹ����� Entrepreneurship Studio is a unique and cutting-edge opportunity for ambitious and innovative ���ҹ����� students to gain access to some of the best minds in business and tech. I couldn’t be happier that three student-led projects are already well on their way to success.”

AnD Ventures, an Israeli venture capital firm, has collaborated with ���ҹ����� on this exciting endeavor to teach the "how" and to support the "what" of providing students, faculty, and alumni with a complete blueprint for establishing successful businesses.

Presently, three startups have been selected from a pool of twenty-three to undergo PES’ “Studio Process,” which entails passing a due diligence review with AnD Ventures’ investment team and key experts from a variety of sectors. During the due diligence process the PES team identifies the main challenges for each company and develops a tailor-made roadmap for accelerating its growth. Each startup has its own process and key performance indicators for the purpose of raising funds and developing a strategy for international expansion.

“With equal amounts of fascination and pride, I am excited that PES is serving as a launchpad and support infrastructure for business ideas and ventures created by members of our community,” said Lawrence G. Singleton, dean of the Lubin School of Business. “Fostering and cultivating an entrepreneurial spirit in our students is one of Lubin’s strengths. ���ҹ�����’s contribution to the entrepreneurial ecosystem positions the university to nurture the growth of businesses providing solutions to a variety of challenges consumers are experiencing today.”

The onboarded startups are:

1. Cloudonix: Launched by Eric Klein ’90, ’97, co-founder and COO, and Nir Simionovich, Cloudonix revolutionizes enterprise communications with a software defined communications platform. Companies can streamline their operations and enhance customer service by integrating voice and data for a comprehensive service experience. To date, Cloudonix has generated nearly $4 million in revenue and the company’s customer base includes leading corporations around the world.
2. Gamr: Gamr has produced the leading app for eSports players and is building a one-stop platform for gamers. The company, which has a significant number of achievements under its belt, has been nominated as one of the Top 100 eSports Startups to Watch in the world. Gamr’s founders are Seyi Fakoya ’23, Eniola Edun, and Kunmi Adenipebi. Their platform facilitates hosting and participating in online competitions and allows players from all over Africa to participate in large-scale tournaments. Gamr offers a unique product in the African market and PES will assist them with raising funds and scaling.
3. : A young and ambitious company founded by Andrew Wong ’26, Invest-ed wishes to change the way Gen Z invests their money. With short videos and simple instructions, customers learn how to invest in different stock markets. The Invest-ed app will launch soon with special access being extended to ���ҹ����� students.

These three startups are already in the marketplace providing goods and services and delivering results. PES is providing guidance and resources so that these successful ventures may build even more momentum.

With an aptly-fitting name reflective of the ambition, drive, and grit embodied by members of the community, ���ҹ����� “Go-Getters” with compelling business ideas or startups are encouraged to . PES is the university’s motto of Opportunitas at work!

About ���ҹ�����

���ҹ����� has a proud history of preparing its diverse student body for a lifetime of professional success because of its unique programs that combine immersive academics and real-world experiences. ���ҹ����� is ranked the #1 private, four-year college in the nation for upward economic mobility by Harvard University’s Opportunity Insights, evidence of the transformative education the University provides.

About the Lubin School of Business at ���ҹ�����

Globally recognized and prestigiously accredited, the Lubin School of Business integrates New York City’s business world into the experienced-based education of its students at ���ҹ�����’s suburban and downtown campuses, implemented by one of the region’s largest co-op programs, team-based learning, and customized career guidance. Its programs are designed to launch success-oriented graduates toward upwardly mobile careers.

About the Entrepreneurship Studio at ���ҹ�����

Located at ���ҹ�����, the ���ҹ����� Entrepreneurship Studio (PES) elevates promising entrepreneurs with the assistance of international leaders and professionals. PES supports new startups, from ideation to funding—from conception to operation, with the mission to teach the "how" and to support the "what"—providing students, faculty, and alumni with a complete blueprint for establishing successful businesses.

About AnD Ventures

AnD Ventures is an Israeli venture capital firm that invests in pioneering early-stage startups and builds them into companies that make a difference. The team consists of founders, sophisticated investors, corporates, and VCs. Together, they work in concert with experts from Fortune 500 companies, serial entrepreneurs, innovators, and experts across a vast array of industries and experiences.

Chinmay Bonde ’23 already had a wealth of marketing knowledge before he left India to pursue an MS degree in marketing analytics as a ���ҹ����� graduate student. But before he arrived in New York City, he gained experience that shifted the way he thought about how companies did business and emphasized the importance of building his own skills.

While still in India, Chinmay worked for California-based IT company Cloudalyze. During the pandemic, Chinmay’s company asked that employees donate one percent of their work hours toward voluntary work for nonprofits. “Organizations that donated their expertise to nonprofits could earn the Impact Partner certification, which is the highest tier of the Salesforce platform in the nonprofit industry,” he explained.

His experience in system development, graphic design, and customer success came together as he worked with nonprofits across different industries—from healthcare, education, energy, and beyond. Throughout his pro bono work, he felt there were three major takeaways. “First, my organization received a high achievement tier within Salesforce, which is huge because everyone uses Salesforces,” he explains. “Second, it was a bonus for me on a personal level by enhancing my skillset, and it’s great to have the experience on my resume. And the third thing is that the nonprofits were able to save a lot of money and time they would have had to invest in a paid consulting firm if we hadn’t stepped in.”

I found really amazing professors at ���ҹ����� with such great experience.

Chinmay estimated the pro bono work he did saved nearly $100,000 for nonprofits during a difficult financial time. “Many were so impressed and so happy with the work done, they were ready to pay us back and enroll in full-time support,” Chinmay says. His company even created new cost-effective support plans specifically aimed at nonprofits as a result of their work together. To sum it up, “Everybody wins.”

Now, Chinmay is further expanding his skill toolbox at ���ҹ����� as a graduate student. When he was choosing schools in the US, he focused his research on faculty, looking for professors who had industry experience that resonated with the work he wanted to do. “I found really amazing professors at ���ҹ����� with such great experience,” he says. “I’m on my last semester and my marketing knowledge and skills have really been enhanced to a level it wouldn’t have otherwise, especially because of those amazing professors.”

I have become the boss of my own life just by living over here, and ���ҹ����� is the reason I have been able to achieve all of that.

Chinmay prides himself on his market research, and he noticed something especially interesting about ���ҹ�����. “I looked at nearly sixty colleges before I made my decisions and had a few offer letters.” According to him, “���ҹ����� seemed to be the only college program with a STEM-designated MS in social media and mobile marketing which is a huge thing in today’s time. Especially for international students who want to come to America.” Even though he didn’t enroll in that program, it was one more thing that impressed him about his future school.

As an international student, moving to New York City was a daunting prospect but has proved to be one of the most beneficial aspects of his time at ���ҹ�����. “It’s such a vast, overwhelming, fast-paced city,” he admits. “But I made the best decision of my life. I’ve become the person that I am today because I came to New York City and ���ҹ�����. Not just from just a career and knowledge perspective—I think it’s entirely changed me as a human being.”

From nonprofit work in India to the classroom in New York City, Chinmay’s journey emphasizes how education comes in all forms, whether it’s on-the-job, in school, or through new experiences. “I have become the boss of my own life just by living over here, and ���ҹ����� is the reason I have been able to achieve all of that,” he says. “It’s changed my life in such a short amount of time.”

Does an individual’s willingness to take risks when it comes to general life decisions impact whether they decide to have children?

This is the question that Dyson economics student Hanyu Li ’23 has set out to answer. While much academic research has studied the relationship between general risk tolerance and financial decisions, there is significantly less around risk tolerance and fertility decisions; in other words, whether a person’s overall appetite for risk affects if they decide to have children.

“This particular question is not heavily researched— people tend to study the impact of income on fertility or risk preferences on financial decisions but not risk preferences on fertility,” says Hanyu.

Collaborating with her faculty mentor, Dyson Assistant Professor of Economics Mary Kaltenberg, PhD, the duo first began to tackle this question while Hanyu was enrolled in Kaltenberg’s Economics 585: Applied Econometrics, a master’s level econometric course. Hanyu, despite being an undergraduate, excelled in the course and wished to continue her research, which she was able to do through the Office of the Provost’s Undergraduate Student-Faculty Research Award

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At the outset, Hanyu and Kaltenberg stressed it was important that their work examines having children within an economics framework, as opposed to analyzing through a biological or sociological lens.

“In the field of economics and fertility, having children is thought of utility maximizing behavior, like good consumption,” says Hanyu. “Utility maximizing behavior just means that you try to attain the highest level of satisfaction from your economic decisions—like buying things, or even having children. In our research, we modeled children as a financial instrument.”

From this framework, Hanyu hypothesized that having children could be more preferred amongst risk-averse individuals; reasoning that children (exhausted parents might argue this) contribute to overall utility, and act as a bulwark against other, constantly fluctuating forms of utility like vacations or fancy cookware.

“In that way, we can think of children as an insurance mechanism,” she notes. “When you have uncertainty in consumption, there will be fluctuation in your utility. Children can act as an insurance to hedge against that.”

With Kaltenberg signed on as the Principal Investigator, Hanyu began her analysis, which currently involves a literature review as well as analyzing data sets, including a very helpful data set from a German institute. Kaltenberg noted that often it can be difficult for undergraduate students to obtain strong data and was impressed with Li’s drive in seeking out and attaining this particular data set.

“Hanyu found a German individual-level panel data. What that means is that you’re able to follow people over time, and it has a lot of information about individuals that is usually hard to get access to,” said Kaltenberg. “What’s unique about the data set is that it’s really trying to understand you, your person, your level of risk. It asks a series of questions that tries to associate your level of risk tolerance in different domains. It could be that the two are still very correlated.”

Although Hanyu is still working through the data—using several advanced, graduate-level techniques to analyze and synthesize the information—she’s been able to formulate preliminary results; determining that her original hypothesis has been supported, in that married individuals who are more risk-averse would be more likely to have children.

It is really nice to have such an opportunity, especially as an undergraduate, to be exposed to a professional research environment.

“We have found that our results are consistent with the hypothesis that risk aversion will increase the probability of having children—no matter how women evaluate things, the marginal effect is about -6.5%,” says Hanyu. “A one-point increase in the scale of risk tolerance, would decrease the probability of having children by 6.5%.”

To further hone the research, Hanyu had an opportunity to present her work at the Eastern Economic Association Conference, gaining valuable insight and feedback from economists.

“EEA was the first conference that I presented at,” said Hanyu. “It is really nice to have such an opportunity, especially as an undergraduate, to be exposed to a professional research environment. I got invaluable feedback concerning model specification and how my research question could be applied to countries with different economic conditions and abortion laws.”

Hanyu and Kaltenberg are excited to continue their work—hoping to have it published in a master’s level journal, contributing to the academic literature, and thinking through possible policy recommendations. They both credit the Provost’s Undergraduate Student-Faculty Research program for helping provide the time and resources necessary to conduct quality research.

“What’s been nice is that it’s been a continuation from the master’s course—having that continuity allowed her to delve deeper into the theory and research itself so that it can become publishable,” says Kaltenberg. “It’s been really great to work with Hanyu—with her particularly, because she takes a lot of initiative.”

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Janice Winch

Management and Management Science Department

We sat down for an interview with Professor Janice Winch, PhD of the Management and Management Science Department to discuss her 29-year career at ���ҹ�����. We learned about her passion for management science, the unique way she ended up at the Lubin School of Business, and why she feels it's important to be an advisor to on-campus student organizations.

Why Management Science?

Management Science, overlapping with business analytics, involves using analytical tools to make better decisions. In every industry, there is a huge demand for graduates who can transform data into insights then to decisions. I enjoy giving students tools to make themselves marketable in the job market and valuable in their organizations.

In every industry, there is a huge demand for graduates who can transform data into insights then to decisions. I enjoy giving students tools to make themselves marketable in the job market and valuable in their organizations.

Why the Lubin School of Business and ���ҹ�����?

I became interested in teaching at ���ҹ����� because I was impressed by a group of Lubin management science students who happened to attend a seminar at Rutgers University, where I was pursuing my PhD at the time. They were only undergraduate students but were so articulate and professional. After all those years, Lubin students continue to impress me with their drive and work ethic.

What are your research interests/areas?

My research area is in predictive analytics and optimization with applications in logistics and supply chain management. Since teaching is my passion, I am also interested in pedagogical research.

Why is it important to advance research in these areas?

Using data and decision models help organizations save money, make operations more efficient, and improve their bottom line.

What do students learn in your classroom?

They learn to use popular analytical tools such as Excel, R, and Python. They participate in data analysis competitions and work on projects that allow them to build predictive models and simulation models with real-world data. Examples include pricing of Airbnb, estimating customer lifetime value, pricing options, project scheduling, and investment decisions.

In addition, Professor Vishal Lala, PhD and I run the 20-hour Lubin Analytics Boot Camp where students become familiar with in-demand technologies such as Google Analytics, Tableau, Python, and R.

Discuss your professional path and its impact on how you teach and what you teach.

My PhD program included a lot of theory and difficult math, but not much application. In my teaching, I emphasize the hands-on practical skills, not just the theories and concepts. Based on many books I read about effective learning, I build in a lot of practice and active learning.

You also serve as the faculty advisor for INFORMS. Why is it important to you to support and advise this student organization?

INFORMS gives students who are studying or interested in analytics exposure to workshops and professionals in the field. With students running workshops on R, Python, and Tableau, student leaders can reinforce their knowledge. Students typically are pulled in multiple directions with their classes, part-time jobs, and internships. As the experienced adult in the room, it is important for me to help them direct their efforts in the most efficient way. I feel I am contributing to the student development outside of the classes I teach. I also enjoy interacting with the students on a more personal level.

What are some challenges you had to overcome to get to where you are today?

I was extremely quiet and shy as a child. When I first started teaching, I compensated for my shyness by overpreparing and planning everything I was going to say, but I always enjoyed being in front of the class, even in those early years. My challenges in the last 10 years or so were learning a variety of newer analytical tools that did not exist when I was a student. It was a huge time investment.

Of which triumph are you most proud?

I am proud of my ���ҹ����� Kenan Award for Teaching Excellence. I am also proud of our BBA in Business Analytics program that I revamped multiple times to respond to shifting market trends.

What is the single most important lesson you'd like to impart to your students?

Think of the challenges you face as an opportunity to learn and grow. Regardless of the outcome, you will be a wiser and smarter person, but be judicious about choosing challenges to take on—there is only so much time in the day, and you need your sleep.

What does #LubinLife mean to you?

It means opportunities for Lubin students to develop inside the classroom and out—preparing them to be well-positioned for their full-time job or graduate program.

Courses Professor Winch Teaches:

• MGT 226: Business Analytics
• MGT 251: Introduction to Programming for Data Science
• MGT 350: Operations and Supply Chain Management
• MGT 353: Predictive Analytics
• MGT 356: Simulation and Risk Analysis
• MBA 810: Business Analytics and Statistics
• MBA 812: Managing Operations and Projects

Get in touch with Dr. Winch