Fourth Week of Classes Edition

Before you read on

Looking further ahead: the Graduate Fall Career Fair is Thursday, October 15, 3:00 to 5:00 PM, and pre-registration is required.

Full details on all three are just below, followed by the day-by-day calendar with twelve 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.

Thursday, October 1 · A GSC event · New

GSC Weekly Coffee Social

1:00 to 4:00 PM · Graduate Student Lounge, Olin Hall · Open to all graduate students · Drop in any time

On Thursday afternoon, the Graduate Student Lounge and Olin Cafe become a coffee bar. Reid Xu MSBA '26, founder of Dream of Coffee, a university coffee community of more than 5,000 members at the University of Maryland, brews free specialty coffee to order in front of you, with real espresso and pour-over equipment and fresh-roasted, ethically sourced beans.

On the menu this week: an Aerocano, which is an iced espresso and cold brew hybrid; a pour-over brewed on a Chemex with a Brewista kettle; and a café latte pulled on a Ninja Luxe Café Mini, with latte art included. Drinks come in small tasting pours so you can try more than one, subject to availability.

The coffee is the hook, and the conversation is the point. Drop in any time between 1:00 and 4:00, grab a cup, pull up a chair, and meet graduate students from programs you would not otherwise cross paths with.

Closes Wednesday, September 30 at 12:00 PM · Voting is open

GSC Fall Elections 2026

Voting closes Wednesday at 12:00 PM EDT · One ballot per student · Results Thursday, October 1

Voting is open until 12:00 PM (noon) EDT on Wednesday, September 30, and the ballot is on Engage. Current Babson graduate students who will be students during the 2026–27 academic year are eligible to vote once, so take your time with it. Once voting closes, the results are announced on Thursday, October 1.

How the ballot works. There are five general election positions that every graduate student votes on, and program-specific VP roles that only students enrolled in those programs vote on. Your program seat is where your cohort chooses its own representative, and the general election positions are where the whole graduate student body decides together.

Questions about the process go to Akshay Karumuri, Chief of Operations, at akarumuri1@babson.edu.

Friday, October 2 · During Boston AI Week

As AI Transforms the Workplace, What Remains Uniquely Human and What Doesn't?

4:30 to 6:00 PM · Babson Boston, 12th floor · Q&A, networking reception, and book signing

Tom Davenport, Faculty Director of the Metropoulos Institute, and Paul Cheek, Senior Advisor at the Blank School, sit down for a conversation on how AI is reshaping business. Both see AI fundamentally reshaping organizations, and they bring distinct perspectives on what comes next, from AI-enabled customer relationships to enterprises where traditional work may look radically different.

Hosted by the C. Dean Metropoulos Institute for Technology and Entrepreneurship and moderated by its Executive Director, Stefan Esposito, the program includes audience Q&A, a networking reception, and a book signing, and attendees receive complimentary copies of Davenport's The New Science of Customer Relationships and Cheek's No One Works Here while supplies last.

If you are thinking about where AI fits in your own career, this is a good evening to hear two distinct perspectives on what changes for organizations, and for the people in them.

Please register in advance so the Metropoulos Institute can plan the reception.

For club leaders this week

Graduate Student Leader Finance Training is this Friday, October 2, 12:00 to 2:00 PM, online, and it is required for each club's president and finance officer. There is only one session, so if you have not registered on Engage and accepted the Outlook invite yet, please do it today.

Clubs that do not meet the attendance requirement cannot submit a budget request this semester. The WebEx and registration links are in the September 17 email from Graduate Student Life and Leadership, and the club budget template Akshay shared on September 24 is the one every club will use going forward, so it is worth opening before Friday.

From the Cutler Center · Friday, October 2

Show Her the Money: Venture Capital 101 is open to anyone interested in learning about venture capital, regardless of gender. The one-day program introduces venture capital as a career, a funding path, and an investment path, and brings those ideas to life through an award-winning film, a panel discussion, and a workshop.

9:30 AM to 4:30 PM · Babson Wellesley campus. Hosted by the Frank & Eileen™ Center for Women's Entrepreneurial Leadership with the Blank School and the Cutler Center. Space is limited, and there is a $20 fee that is refunded when you complete the full-day program.

Reserve your spot on Cvent →

For our Babson Miami community

Nothing Miami-specific on the calendar this week, but next week brings four for you: Meet Your Mentors & Pizza Social Night on Thursday, October 8, 6:00 to 8:00 PM, the first time both the M'27 and M'28 cohorts will be in the same room; the Women's MBA Luncheon on Friday, October 9, 12:30 to 1:30 PM, with Prof. Tina Opie, Carla Curiel, and special speaker Angelica Fuentes; The Convergence of Finance and AI, a Lunch & Learn for Blended Learning MBA students with Dr. Rainford Knight, on Saturday, October 10, 12:30 to 1:30 PM; and a Lunch & Learn with Mitch Modell, former CEO of Modell's Sporting Goods, on Sunday, October 11, 12:30 to 1:30 PM. And the ballot is on Engage for you like everyone else, so please vote before Wednesday at noon.

From Nucleate Boston · applications close October 20

If you are interested in biotech entrepreneurship, healthcare innovation, or venture capital, the Nucleate Activator is taking applications until Tuesday, October 20. It is an equity-free venture creation program that bridges academic research and commercial strategy, and over six months MBA students team up with PhDs, postdocs, and scientific founders to validate technology, build commercialization plans and financial models, and pitch directly to venture capital firms.

No hard science or technical background is required. Nucleate pairs technical founders with MBA students who bring strategy, market analysis, and leadership to early-stage teams, and the program includes one-on-one mentorship from biotech founders, IP attorneys, and venture capitalists, ending in a showcase pitch to life science investors. Questions go to Jake Rossetto, our Chief of Academic Affairs, at jrossetto1@babson.edu.

Apply on the Nucleate Gateway →

06 · Build Babson Better

Raise what you want the council to work on this year

Whoever you vote for this week, our GSC Student Voice Dashboard is where you can raise what you want changed: post an idea anonymously, upvote what other students have already raised, and follow how we resolve it. It is also a good place to see what your classmates care about before you cast your ballot.

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. With voting open this week, here is an election word that was born in Boston. Which Massachusetts governor gave his name to the word gerrymander?

Elbridge Gerry. As governor, Gerry signed a bill that redrew Massachusetts's districts, even though he personally disapproved of the practice, and one of the contorted districts in the Boston area was said to resemble a salamander. The Boston Gazette first printed the word, then written “Gerry-mander,” on March 26, 1812. One more twist: Gerry's own name is pronounced with a hard G, as in get, but the soft-G pronunciation of the word has become the usual one. Gerry went on to serve as Vice President under James Madison.