Bentley University News

Jeffrey Harrelson has a couple pieces of advice for people debating an MBA. First, understand why you want an MBA: Are you pivoting your career, looking to gain additional skills? “Don’t do it just because other people are doing it.” Second — and most challenging for Harrelson — figure out what kind of program you want: Are willing and able to commit to a full-time program, which often means leaving the stability of a full-time job? “There’s no silver bullet for the decision,” he says. “It’s very personal.”

President Larson, along with guest experts, joined Bloomberg Radio’s Carol Massar and Cory Johnson to talk about how universities are approaching on-campus education to give students the most formative experience.

Doug Petersen (MSIT ‘17) arrived at Bentley University as a transfer student.

Though he joined his classmates as a junior, he immediately became involved on campus and the Waltham community. He spent his years playing for Bentley Rugby, working for the Bentley Service-Learning and Civic Engagement Center (BSLCE), and interning in the accounting department of a local business.

The Outstanding Scholarly Contribution awards recognize scholarly accomplishments by Bentley faculty each year. Nominated by members of the Bentley community and overseen by the Teaching and Scholarly Activities Committee, the awards are designed to encourage high quality scholarly work within the Bentley community, including a monetary award for each honoree. Up to two honorees from the Arts and Sciences departments and two honorees from the Business Departments are selected for the awards, which cover accomplishments from the past three years. 

Cynthia Maletz had two reasons for pursuing the Bentley MBA: Her career and her daughter. The two may seem separate, but for Maletz, they’re very much connected.

“I not only want to tell my very young daughter about powerful, capable and smart women in the workplace, I want to provide a direct role model and example for her,” Maletz says.

Daniel Stasin MSMA ’16 chose Bentley’s Master of Science in Marketing Analytics “because of how it was packaged as a program.”

The newly appointed Ambassador of Bahrain and Bentley University alumnus Shaikh Abdullah bin Rashid Al Khalifa ’01, MBA ’03 visited Bentley on one of his first official visits outside Washington, D.C.

How does an English major end up as a business technology analyst? For Shelby Cannon (MBA and MSIT ’15), it’s been a winding but logical journey.

She completed her BA in English Language and Literature/Letters in 2011, when the economy was still scrambling to recover from the 2008 Great Recession. It was difficult to find a job at the time, and she ended up accepting an offer from a prior internship.

Kesey Sar (MSF ‘16) first became interested in finance in 2013.

At the time, she was working at Brown Brothers Harriman as a Fund Accountant. She began working there right after completing her undergraduate degree in Mathematics and Economics, but soon became interested in a slightly different field.

Marco Milea (MBA and MSIT ’17) has been using technology to solve social problems for years.

Upon completing his undergraduate degree in business administration (BBA), he joined City Year and then the Peace Corps, where he used his business acumen to make a more impactful difference in the community he was serving.

“When I helped set-up a computer lab in a Nicaraguan school and saw how it made available information and resources the students wouldn't have had the opportunity to access before,” Milea explains, “I knew I wanted to focus my career in Information Technology.”