How Bentley Students Tackle Big Problems — From Day One
Robots. Well-being. Authenticity. Capitalism. Responsible leadership. Bentley students explore these topics, and more, during their first semester on campus. Falcon Discovery Seminar (FDS) is a required course for first-year students. Classes are taught by peer leaders, faculty and — this year — the university’s president.
Marketing major Cora Soderquist ’26 is in her third year as a peer leader. “My goal is to share my insights and experiences to help first-year students achieve success,” she says. “I teach diverse lessons and activities covering topics such as time management, wellness, resilience, confirmation bias and research skills. I am beyond proud of the growth I see from students throughout the semester. Plus, I learn so much from them, too.”
The Falcon Discovery Seminar delivers on its mission with a three-pronged approach:
Tackle “wicked” problems.
Students take a faculty-led course that explores a complex issue, inspiring critical thinking and creative problem-solving.
Develop academic and life skills.
Students learn tips and tricks from seasoned peer leaders. Everything from academic integrity and study strategies to time management and confidence building. Plus, they learn how to access important campus resources.
Build a community.
Students connect with other first-year students, along with FDS peer leaders and faculty, who will support them through their first semester. They explore student organizations, career paths, majors and minors, and more.
Inspired to Lead
Soderquist, who is from Woburn, Massachusetts, says it was an FDS course during her first year on campus that helped form her identity.
“A class on the connection between storytelling and bias helped me reflect on my past and how I got to Bentley,” says Soderquist, who participates in the university’s Women’s Leadership Program. “It helped me understand how to use my experiences to tell my personal story. It also allowed me to realize my biases or different perspectives I’ve had on the world. Knowing these helped me find different ways to look at situations or experiences.”
Expanding that perspective, she adds, “influenced my choice to look into a Marketing major, with a focus on health care, so I could ultimately use my business skills to help people.”
During FDS, Soderquist also got to connect more deeply with her classmates and peer leader and a faculty mentor. “It was nice to have friendly faces around campus as a first-year student,” Soderquist recalls.
“That is where FDS comes into play,” she continues. “The course provides first-year students with all the resources and support systems to help them create their future. I learned confidence and academic skills when it came to presenting, writing and professionally communicating with others.”
Soderquist’s FDS experience was so impactful that she became a peer leader the following year.
“I wanted to be a mentor and resource to my students to help them find their path at Bentley and kick-start their careers,” Soderquist says. “Becoming an FDS peer leader felt like the perfect way to help others feel as supported and inspired as I did when I first started.
Sparking Confidence and Curiosity
Now in her final year as a peer leader, Soderquist got a bonus: co-teaching with Bentley President E. LaBrent Chrite. Soderquist’s sessions focus on academic and personal skill-building. Chrite’s class examines capitalism in the world economy. But the pair often contribute to each other’s classes. And on Fridays they meet for lunch to reflect on the week and plan upcoming lessons.
Stepping into the classroom, particularly for this course, feels like a natural fit for Chrite. He brings both a passion for teaching and long-standing experience finding ways to reduce poverty through economic development including across Africa, Central Asia and the Middle East.
“I’ve worked in the space of poverty and capitalism for over 30 years, and to introduce students to that and take them on that journey at a business university was appealing,” Chrite says of the opportunity to teach.
His approach struck a chord with Kathleen Wilkish ’29, a student in the class. “It’s great because President Chrite is able to share a lot of personal experience when he talks about the impact of capitalism,” says Wilkish, who grew up in Hollis, New Hampshire. “I found the discussion about the United Nations interesting because it reinforces Bentley’s message of doing good business to help other people. Learning about effective business practices that President Chrite has seen firsthand has helped me understand how I could potentially apply some those in the future.”
Kael Gilbert ’29, who is from Big Sky, Montana, is also taking lessons for the future. “President Chrite emphasizes the importance of taking advantage of resources on campus, like the career center. He also encouraged us to make sure that we’re taking care of ourselves. We all have the opportunity to prosper, and with that, we are expected to fail. But it’s important to take those failures and learn how to move on and succeed moving forward.”
Prompting that kind of critical thinking and empowering students is exactly what the Falcon Discovery Seminar aims to do.
“I’ll know we’ve been successful if students gain the perspective that business is a powerful force for good — or not,” Chrite says. “Business in the real world is multidimensional, and our students will be able to make their own choices in how they pursue it. If graduates can reflect on that as they start their careers, then we have achieved our goal.”