Bentley University News

Clarissa Sawyer, lecturer in Natural and Applied Sciences, shares strategies for boosting your ability to recover from setbacks — whether minor or pandemic size.  

Give Yourself a Timeout 

Lately we’re spending so many hours online and consuming social media, we aren’t spending enough time with our own minds and emotions. The world’s great wisdom traditions teach how important it is to become aware of one’s inner experience. So, stop and press the pause button.

Return on Investment 

At the edge of the vast Huron National Forest on Michigan’s Lower Peninsula lies the town of Mio, home to fewer than 2,000 people and a solitary traffic light on its lone main street, the M-33. Laura Jackson Young ’10 grew up there, in a house of educators: Dad Jay taught at Mio AuSable Middle School, mom Sheri in the local preschool.   

But it took some inspiration further from home for the alumna to imagine an academic career for herself.   

These days, even routine tasks like grocery shopping can feel like a test of strength. What of life’s more pivotal experiences? Here, we catch up with Falcons whose 2020 included starting college, landing a first job, pivoting a career, leading a company and more. 

In a year like no other, the Dr. Earl L. Avery MLK Leadership Award went for the first time to a cause, not an individual.

Joining the annual MLK Jr. Day celebration in January, organizers of Black at Bentley — Lakeya Graves ’11, Edith Joachimpillai ’12 and Stephanie Hartford ’12 — accepted on behalf of the movement. 

Working from home is now business as usual for some 62% of employed Americans, according to Gallup Inc.

About two-thirds of those polled say they want to continue that arrangement when COVID-19 restrictions are lifted. Here, Bentley Lecturer in Management Susan Vroman and Alan Hubbard ’83, MBA ’92 of the nonprofit National Telecommuting Institute discuss the impact of these unplanned at-home work arrangements — now and in the future. 

Bentley University will celebrate the Class of 2021 with an in-person Commencement ceremony at Boston’s Fenway Park on Saturday, May 1, 2021. Bentley will also host a second ceremony at Fenway on the same day to honor its Class of 2020 graduates, whose Commencement was held virtually last year due to the pandemic.