Third Week of Classes Edition

Before you read on

Full-Time MBA students: the Graduate Electives Fair is today, 11:30 AM to 1:00 PM in Knight Auditorium, with faculty and staff from the academic divisions, concentrations, and intensity tracks, and light snacks.

Full details on all four are just below, followed by the day-by-day calendar with ten more events this week.

Please RSVP on Engage. We depend on accurate counts to plan events well.

If a link will not open or a registration will not go through, reply to this email or write to gradstudentcouncil@babson.edu.

Friday and Saturday, September 25–26 · Back to Babson

Back to Babson 2026

Wellesley campus · Reunion, Homecoming, and Family Weekend · Current graduate students welcome

Back to Babson brings alumni, students, parents, faculty and staff, and friends together under the tent for Reunion, Homecoming, and Family Weekend. Current graduate students have their own registration type, and children of all ages are welcome, with children 12 and under free for all activities. Here is what we would put on your weekend:

Friday, 4:00 to 6:00 PM · The Babson Network Effect in Knight Auditorium, with panels and networking across six industries. More in the next highlight.

Friday, 7:00 to 11:00 PM · Drinks & DJ at Roger's Pub to kick off the weekend. Cash bar, and no registration required.

Saturday, 9:00 AM · Cruickshank 5K for Service. The run and walk starts and finishes at Webster Lot by the LGRAC South Lawn, and proceeds go to the Cruickshank Fund for undergraduate and graduate student-led service and volunteer initiatives. Early registration is $15 for Babson students, and Campus Life is still taking volunteers up until the race.

Saturday, 12:00 to 4:00 PM · The Tent on the Upper Athletic Fields, with music, food, beer, lawn games, face painting, and a visit from Roger, Grace, and Hero, the campus resource dogs. The Babson Street Marketplace runs alongside it, with businesses founded and owned by Babson alumni and students.

Saturday afternoon · Homecoming games. Field Hockey vs. Mount Holyoke at 12:00 on MacDowell Field, Men's Soccer vs. Springfield at 1:00 on Hartwell-Rogers Field, and Volleyball vs. Smith at 2:00 in Staake Gymnasium.

Questions about the weekend go to Advancement Events at advancementevents@babson.edu.

Friday, September 25 · Part of Back to Babson

The Babson Network Effect

4:00 to 6:00 PM · Knight Auditorium · Open to Babson students, alumni, parents, faculty, and staff

The Babson Network Effect, formerly Networking by Industry, is the Blank School's interactive showcase of the power and reach of the Babson community. Expert-led panels and targeted networking run across six industries: financial services (including VC/PE and investment banking), consumer brands (including food and beverage, retail, and fashion), healthcare, technology, real estate, and accounting and consulting.

Because it is part of Back to Babson weekend, it is open to alumni, parents, faculty and staff, and friends of Babson as well as students, which makes it a good afternoon to hear career paths and industry perspectives from people already working in the field you are aiming for.

Please register so the Blank School can plan the room.

Friday, September 25 · A GSC event · New date

GSC Social Series: Notch Brewery Mixer

5:00 to 10:00 PM · Notch Brewery, 525 Western Ave, Brighton · Open to all graduate students and alumni

Our Notch Brewery mixer has moved to this Friday, September 25, from 5:00 to 10:00 PM. It is part of the GSC Social Series, which runs through the year as a regular, low-key invitation to spend time with grad students from every program, off campus.

It also makes a good start to Back to Babson weekend: head to Brighton after the Network Effect on Friday, then come back to campus for the 5K and The Tent on Saturday. Five hours is an open window, so come at five, come at eight, or stop by between other plans.

If you registered for the original date, Engage has sent you a note with the new one. If you have not registered yet, please do, so we can gauge interest for future Social Series events.

September 21 to 27 · Campaign week

GSC Fall Elections 2026

Campaigning through Sunday · Voting opens Monday, September 28 · Results October 1

This week is your chance to get to know the classmates who want to represent you. Thirteen seats are open this fall, and how you vote depends on who steps up.

Eight program seats, where only students in that program vote: One-Year MBA, First-Year Two-Year MBA, Blended Miami MBA, Part-Time MBA / MSAEL / CAM, MSBA, MSF, MSEL, and DBA. Five seats open to every program, where the whole graduate student body votes: VP of Inclusive Excellence, Co-VP of GSC Events, VP of Alumni Relations, VP of Communications, and VP of Technology.

Before you vote, read what each seat actually involves. Every position has its responsibilities written out on Engage, along with how the council fits together.

For club leaders this week

Graduate Student Leader Event Training is required for each club's president and at least one other officer, and you only need to attend one session: in person on Thursday, September 24, 3:30 to 5:30 PM in the Design Zone, with dinner, or virtually on Friday, September 25, 12:00 to 1:30 PM. The Finance Training for each club's president and finance officer follows on Friday, October 2, 12:00 to 2:00 PM, online.

Clubs that do not meet the attendance requirement cannot submit a budget request this semester. Registration links are in the September 17 email from Graduate Student Life and Leadership.

For our Babson Miami community

Nothing Miami-specific on the calendar this week, but mark Thursday, October 8 for Meet Your Mentors & Pizza Social Night, 6:00 to 8:00 PM, the first time both the M'27 and M'28 cohorts will be in the same room. And when voting opens Monday, VP of Blended Miami MBA Students is the program seat that Miami students vote on.

From the Cutler Center · Friday, October 2

Ready to learn how ideas get funded? Show Her the Money: Venture Capital 101 is a one-day introduction to venture capital as a career, a funding path, and an investment path, brought to life through storytelling that makes the subject accessible.

9:30 AM to 4:30 PM · Blank Center, 1 Lunder Way. Hosted by the frank&eileen Institute for Women and Allies, the Blank School, and the Cutler Center. Registration is required, and seats are limited to 50.

Register on Cvent →

From Alumni Engagement & Annual Giving · sign up by October 7

If your club will need funding for this year's plans, sign up for Make Your Mark by Wednesday, October 7. Student groups that join compete for up to $5,000 in challenge funds on October 14 and 15, during Babson's annual Days of Giving, and there is a second window to run your own crowdfunding campaign in February 2027. The form lets you sign up for one or both.

Before you ask anyone for money: all fundraising must be approved by AEAG before you ask anyone externally for donations, and Babson-related gifts should never be collected through a personal account. Questions go to Shannon Paleologos, Director of Affinity Programs, at spaleologos@babson.edu.

Sign up your club →

06 · Build Babson Better

Raise the idea you want the council to work on

Whether or not your name is on the ballot, our GSC Student Voice Dashboard is where you can raise what you want changed: post anonymously, upvote what other students have already raised, and follow how we resolve it. It is also a useful place to look this week if you want to ask candidates about the issues students are already talking about.

Share your idea →

If you are stuck on something, or you would simply like to talk it through with someone, reply to this email or write to gradstudentcouncil@babson.edu.

08 · One more thing

A little Boston trivia. Saturday's Babson 5K covers a little over three miles, and Boston is home to a much longer race that passes through our own town. In what year was the first Boston Marathon run?

1897. The first race was run on April 19, 1897, inspired by the marathon at the first modern Olympic Games in Athens the year before, and it is the oldest annual marathon in the world. It also runs right through our town. Wellesley covers about four miles of the course, from just before mile 12 at the Wellesley College entrance on Route 135 to the edge of mile 16 at the Newton line, and the halfway point falls in Wellesley Square.