During the past week and a half, Professor Marcus Goncalves expanded the school’s horizons by venturing to Brazil with his graduate International Operation Management class. Students and instructor departed Massachusetts on May 12th and returned on the 22nd after spending 10 days in the city of Victoria on Brazil’s coast.

The students viewed the scenery, businesses, and infrastructure around Victoria, but they also had to attend class as if they went to school in Brazil. The class met every morning in their hotel, the Praia Do Sol.

The class was led by a paid instructor from Brazil’s Salesian College. It provided insights into the many areas of Brazilian international business operations, as well as into change and innovation management.

Students received a real life perspective as well, visiting a chocolate factory, one of the biggest exporters out of Victoria Harbor. The class also spent time at Vale, [pronounced valley], which produces iron, aluminum, and copper and operates out of five different ports.

Goncalves, , the International Business Chair at Nichols, says that the visit to Vale provided a valuable perspective on learning how businesses are run in Brazil, and how a valuable product can be so important to a country. “They are the second biggest iron company in the world,” he explains. “When you see the ships in the harbor, they are ten times the size of a football field.”

Goncalves adds that Brazil is a very important country in the world right now as it maintains the 6th largest economy, and is projected to have the fifth largest in 2015. Not only is the country’s economy stable, but Brazil also belongs to the “BRIC” nations. (Brazil, Russia, India, China), the economies of which have all grown substantially in the past decade.

Besides bringing his students to Brazil to study successful and established companies, Goncalves says that there are other reasons that his native country is a great destination for the MBA class.

“This is such a unique opportunity that my students have,” he points out. “They do not even get to go on field trips when at Nichols, so this gives them a unique opportunity to gain a great perspective,”

Prior to the awarding of degrees—which included 82 Masters of Business Administration and 10 Masters of Organizational Leadership—renowned Boston Globe sports columnist Dan Shaughnessy addressed the audience.

The graduates also heard from President Susan West Engelkemeyer, who presented their individual diplomas, as well as senior valedictorian Stephen Carella and senior class president Andrew Gresenz.

Engelkemeyer, in her first Nichols commencement as president, told the students, “Even though I have only known you for a short time, I relish the opportunity to celebrate with you. The best is yet to come.”

Shaughnessy was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters. He was introduced by Thomas Hall ’69, the vice chairman of the Nichols Board of Trustees and a Nichols classmate of Shaughnessy’s older brother William, also from the Class of ’69.

“Many of us grew up with the Saturday afternoon television staple Wide World of Sports, which promised to show viewers ‘the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat,’” Hall noted. “Using your imagination and prose, you have fulfilled that promise, and much more.”

In an address that mixed humor with a more serious look at the road ahead, Shaughnessy told the graduates, “You don’t need me to tell you that it’s a brutal job market out there. I can tell you not to be too easily discouraged.”

Shaughnessy, who in his 23 years as a Globe columnist has been recognized nine times by the Associated Press Sports Editors as one of the top 10 sports columnists in the country, pointed out that his career did not start out auspiciously.

As an undergraduate at Holy Cross, he explained to laughs from the audience, he contributed to the school’s alumni magazine only to be told by the editor, “I can’t understand why someone who cannot write would want to be a newspaper reporter.”

“It’s not going to be easy, but it’s going to be an adventure,” Shaughnessy continued. “Follow your heart.”

In his speech, valedictorian Carella admitted, “I used to be afraid of change, afraid of making mistakes, afraid of losing, and even afraid of succeeding,” adding that “the Nichols community is the ideal setting to overcome self-doubt. I have never been around so many people willing to face the challenges around them. That’s why I am proud to be a member of this class.”

Shortly after the ceremony, Carella, the captain of the Nichols men’s tennis team, and four fellow seniors reappeared on the courts about 100 yards away, leading the squad to the Commonwealth Coast Conference title in a 5-1 victory over Roger Williams.

More than two dozen of the graduating seniors also received individual awards for their academic accomplishments, including Caroline Monroe, for best overall achievement; Kevin Richardson, for character and citizenship; and Joseph Fusco III, for the most significant improvement by a student at Nichols.

Kathleen Ells won the Award for Academic Excellence in the Nichols graduate program.

Using everything from poster board to multimedia presentations, Nichols students shared some of their proudest work from the past year. The 15 exhibits ranged from personal writing and service projects to creative presentations—much of it produced for class—as the authors stood by, explaining their approaches and answering any questions.

“I saw that there was a need to recognize student achievement in academics outside of grades,” said ARC Director Marissa Loon, who introduced the showcase last year. “We do a lot to recognize student leaders and student athletes. I saw an opening to say to students, ‘We care about this things you’re doing academically.’ Students have amazing things to say, but people don’t know about it because it goes on in the classroom.”

While some of the exhibits included neatly displayed literary analyses, poems, and short stories, others used laptops and video screens.

Senior Anne Geiwitz drew a stream of visitors to her exhibit exposing loopholes—in the name of scientific study—used to circumvent worldwide bans on whaling. With a PowerPoint presentation as well as videos on a nearby laptop, Geiwitz highlighted the problem, as well as the efforts of anti-whaling groups to disrupt the practice, often by setting off nearby fireworks to steer whales away from potential captors.

“There’s not only human genocide in the world. There’s also animal genocide,” Geiwitz explained to her listeners. “This is something that needs to be addressed.”

“The idea is to showcase what our students are doing and to give them a public forum. It’s nice seeing them engage people they might not otherwise engage and to see them speak knowledgably about something like a PowerPoint or a video,” Loon observed, adding that the participants may eventually employ those presentational skills in the workplace.

Freshman Lindi Bedore shared a collage of pictures from the Nichols College Alternative Spring Break, for which she and a group of fellow students went to New Orleans to help rebuild houses still in disrepair from Hurricane Katrina years ago.

At another booth, senior Jonathan Cawley ran and re-ran a video of his performance in a recent modern dance class. “I usually do hip-hop, but this is a more slow, flowing type of modern dance,” he noted, pointing to himself onscreen. “I chose this one because it was out of my element.”

“It’s a major weight off my shoulders,” Baia said. “Target is still a growing company, and I want to grow with them.”

For their internships, all three students were placed in different stores throughout New England: Baia, in Danvers, MA; Boucher, in Hadley, MA; and Proulx, in Smithfield, RI. They performed day-to-day tasks acting as managers within the store. Upon completion of their internships, each worked on a project to make improvements in their specific store. They presented their results to their district store team leaders, district team leaders, and to Target’s campus recruiter, Brittney Case ’09.

As his project, Baia focused on location accuracy in his store’s freezer and coolers, while Boucher chose “Driving Profitable Sales in Electronics,” and Proulx took on team member training. Each made a significant impact in their respective stores. Their success played a role in being asked to join the Target team.

Proulx says that joining that team was simple as she enjoys the fact that in settings such as Target, it’s rare that any team member will do the same task every day. “Every day brings a new task and a new interaction,” she notes.

Boucher loves the room for growth at Target. She states, “Retail management may not always be glamorous, but you can grow.”

All three seniors credit their Nichols education to their success with Target. Boucher commented on her confidence in public speaking, thanks to classes such as Effective Speaking and the Professional Development Seminar, which allowed her to confidently network with other team members and company leaders.

Proulx said that she was able to incorporate lessons from her management classes and use them in real life situations. Baia said his experience with mock interviews paid off as he was conducting first and second round interviews for new team members during his internship experience.

All three have similar advice for fellow Bison hoping to take part in the internship program: learn as much as you can, have an open mind, and take advantage of the experience it provides.

Senior Ed Baia did the research for this article.

On April 1st, Professor Christina Weiss took her Popular Music class to the Hanover Theatre in Worcester for a concert headlined by Peter Yarrow, formerly of Peter, Paul & Mary.

Besides his musical themes, Yarrow touched upon the issue of bullying, something that happened quite often to him as a child, he said. Now almost sixty years later, the same issues continue for other children. Yarrow’s main focus has been to raise awareness of bullying to put it to an end.

With that focus in mind, Yarrow was inspired to write “Don’t Laugh At Me”, which he performed with warmth and conviction. He also is achieving greater public awareness of bullying through his organization Operation Respect, which he founded in 1999.

As the concert progressed, Yarrow also sang his famous “Colonoscopy Song”, “Puff the Magic Dragon”, “Blowin’ in the Wind” and “Leavin’ on a Jet Plane”.

Weiss notes that the class trip was inspired by Peter, Paul and & Mary’s world-renowned song about Puff. “The song was written to tell the story of a little boy (Johnny Paper) and his most favorite toy, a stuffed dragon (Puff) and the magic that was in their relationship. But as Johnny grew up, the magic disappeared,” she explains. “Haven’t we all had a toy in our lives that was pure magic?”

As the show was coming to an end, Yarrow asked anybody brave enough in the crowd to come up and join him in singing his final songs. A group of Nichols students were among the volunteers.

“When I woke up this morning, I never would have guessed that I would have been on stage and got to meet a man who has influenced not only the music world but the entire world with his music and the things he did,” says freshman Beethoven Phadael.

“I enjoyed how Peter Yarrow was able to connect with the adults as he did and get them to go up on stage and feel like children again, as we are all children and never truly grow up,” adds senior Michael Sannicandro.

Even at age 73, Peter Yarrow can still bring a crowd of people together to share in the love of music. All in all, the music that these students were graced with was from some of the hardest times in the United States and dealt with some of the same issues we are struggling with today.

“The main reason for going to this concert was to validate to my students that music is a lot more than what you hear. It truly can be magic,” Weiss says.

The concert began with a performance by Boston girl Lori Diamond and New Yorker Fred Abatelli. The duo interacted with the crowd, and sang about love, family, and not letting people get to you. Up next was Mustard’s Retreat, a combination of David Tamulevich and Michael Hough, two creative performers who see the fun in music. Together they sang about “The Michigan Mosquitoes” and adventures from back home.

In what’s become an annual rite of spring, Kuppenheimer—known affectionately as “Kuppy”—highlighted the special connection between Nichols professors and students that dates back more than five decades to his own relationship with teachers at the College.

“I’d like to think that I became a part of their lives and that they reveled in my success as an individual and a business person,” he remarked. “I believe that there’s a special bond between the faculty and students that defines those students’ careers as professionals. And they remember it.”

Nichols President Susan West Engelkemeyer, who hosted the event, returned the compliment. “He’s one of the trustees who cares passionately about academics and the faculty here,” she said of Kuppenheimer, who also received as gifts the recently published books by Nichols History Professor Thomas Smith (Showdown: JFK and the Integration of the Washington Redskins) and English Professor Emeritus Karen Sasha Tipper (Lady Jane Wilde’s Letters to Oscar Wilde).

The three Nichols undergraduates who are the beneficiaries of the four-year Robert B. Kuppenheimer Endowed Scholarship—reserved for students from the midwestern United States—were also saluted. They include Michael Davis ’12, from Newport, Michigan; Zachary Kohn ’13, from Delafield, Wisconsin; and Joseph Sposit ’15, from North Royalton, Ohio.

After dinner, special guest Allan Cohen, the Edward A. Madden Distinguished Professor of Global Leadership at Babson College and the co-author of Managing for Excellence: The Guide to Developing High Performance in Contemporary Organizations, addressed the gathering, noting that a strong focus on quality and high standards are keys to successful colleges.

“How do your programs collectively connect to what you’re trying to accomplish,” Cohen challenged the audience. “I think it’s great to get your best students together and ask them to think about their experience here. Ask them, ‘What’s helped you best to get to where you want go with your life? What’s gotten in the way?’”

Cohen also emphasized that improving performance—as with any business or enterprise—begins at the earliest stages, including the freshman year when it comes to colleges. “We’ve got to ratchet up what we ask freshmen to do. Let’s push them harder,” he urged. “Immerse them in experiences that shake them to the core.”

Dewey Bozella had his first professional fight at the age of 52 against Larry Hopkins, who was half Bozella’s age. Bozella took it to Hopkins, beating him through the later rounds of the fight and winning by unanimous decision. He learned to fight—and says he was saved—in “The Death House,” the nickname for the room where prison electrocutions once took place at Sing Sing prison before it was converted into a boxing gym. Bozella, who had been convicted of murder, took his shot in the ring and became Sing Sing’s light heavyweight champion.

Boxing was Dewey’s thing. It gave him focus, discipline and a release from the tough side of prison life. Bozella spoke to a room full of students in Daniels Auditorium on March 28th. He shared his inspirational story of false imprisonment that made him fight 32 years for his freedom. Last year Bozella received the 2011 Arthur Ashe Award for Courage at The ESPY Awards on ESPN.

“I could have never had gone through what Dewey did. I don’t think anyone could have,” said Nichols College student Andrew Pfeffer after the event. “Imagine the amount of strength and determination one would need to even survive prison, not to mention the fight for his freedom.”

Bozella was prosecuted for the murder of a 92-year-old woman in 1977, although there was no evidence that would point to him. He was surprised he was convicted.

“I broke down and cried right there in the courtroom,” Bozella told the silent crowed of Nichols students. He also said that he acted like an “animal” the first year he was in prison. He then stopped smoking and gave up whatever other “bad things” he had stocked in his cell, including alcohol.

A Fight for Freedom

As he recreated the man he was before prison, Bozella began to write letters to anyone and everyone so he would be heard. While trying to start over, he joined the prison boxing club, where he began to find balance, discipline, focus, and sanity. It also made his time in prison go a little faster.

“I knew there was two ways I was going to get out of prison, either dead in a box on the outside or coming out how I am today,” he said.

Bozella wrote for years to the Innocence Project to get that organization to look into his case. The legal firm Wilmer Hale decided to take his case and tracked down the police officer who had arrested Dewey. The police officer had Dewey’s case file, in which one woman had admitted to the police that her father, and not Bozella, had committed the murder. After the new evidence came to light, Dewey Bozella became a free man.

After his first professional fight last year, Bozella said he was offered more fights. He responded that that would be his first and only professional fight. He plans instead to start the Dewey Bozella Foundation, which will fund a gym that he will run out of his hometown.

“His story was very inspirational,” said Nichols College student Eric Belix. “I want to do better in the future and learn from my mistakes and have no regrets because life is just too short.”

The words of wisdom Bozella wanted everyone in the audience to remember were, “Never let fear determine who you are,” for which he got a standing ovation.

The panelists—Jessica Burke Vassall ’03, Jesse Plouffe ’03, Meaghan Larkin ’07, Eric Foster ’08, Chris Santoro ’08, and Will McClaran ’08—all noted that they were propelled by high-profile internships while at Nichols and the “stick-to-it” approach that’s required in the sports world.

McClaran and Santoro both interned with the New York Knicks basketball team at Madison Square Garden, a location where more than 40 Nichols Sport Management majors have found internships over the past decade with either the Knicks or the Rangers hockey team.

“I landed a job afterwards with the Miami Heat in inside ticket sales,” Santoro continued, adding by way of advice, “You have to do what you can to get your name out there. Ask yourself what will make you stand out. You’ll be competing with thousands of people for jobs in this industry.”

“Don’t be afraid to relocate,” urged McClaran, who was hired as a communications associate working with the media for the NBA’s New Orleans Hornets. “Moving down to New Orleans was a very big car ride for me. You might not be willing to move thousands of miles across the county, but someone else will.”

“I would do a million internships if I could. Take as many as you can get,” added Larkin, who did just that as an undergraduate—ranging from the Worcester Sharks hockey team and the DCU Center, Worcester’s main sports arena, to the Pawtucket Red Sox and the Boston Red Sox (where she helped plan owner John Henry’s wedding).

An Array of Career Options

Larkin went on to her current position as Catering Sales Manager at Aramark, which provides food services at Fenway park and major league stadiums and arenas around the country. She and other members of the panel pointed to their present jobs as evidence that there is more than team-based employment available in the sports world.

“There are skills you can transfer to other industries,” McClaran emphasized, including his own marketing/communication work for an orthopedic medical group specializing in sports medicine.

Plouffe and Vassal, meanwhile, have established themselves at Boston-based New Balance, he as a footwear developer responsible for new models and she as a marketing manager working with the company’s online advertising and creative services.

The panelists also took questions from the audience and met afterwards with groups of students at round tables in the back of the hall. Vassall—who interned at Sports Illustrated magazine while an undergraduate—reminded the students clustered at her table about a tried-and-true approach in almost all professional fields: “Networking is the best thing you can do,” she emphasized. “I still stay in touch with my boss from Sports Illustrated.”

“Given that Sport Management is our largest major and that Dan Shaughnessy is so well respected in the field of sports, we’re fortunate to have him speak to our community,” commented Nichols President Susan West Engelkemeyer, who will be leading her first commencement exercises at the school.

In his 23 years as a Globe columnist, Shaughnessy has covered events and issues in sports from around the world, and he has been voted one of America's top ten sports columnists by the Associated Press Sports Editors nine times. He has been named Massachusetts Sportswriter of the Year ten times.

Shaughnessy has written eleven books, including The Curse of the Bambino and Senior Year. He is currently working on a book with former Boston Red Sox manager, Terry Francona.

Shaughnessy has personal ties to Nichols through his brother, William J. Shaughnessy, who graduated from the college in 1969 and played varsity baseball and basketball.

Shaughnessy also makes regular radio and television appearances on The SportsHub, 98.5 FM; WHDH SportsXtra; Comcast and NESN. He is a columnist for Sports Illustrated.com.

Dan Shaughnessy was born in Groton, Massachusetts, graduated from Holy Cross, and worked at the Baltimore Evening Sun and the Washington Star from 1977-81. He joined the Boston Globe in 1981 and has been a sports columnist since 1989. He is on the New England regional board of UNICEF. He is married to Dr. Marilou Shaughnessy and lives in Newton, Massachusetts.

Nichols commencement speakers in recent years have included United States Senator Scott Brown in 2010 and Keith Anderson ’81, chairman and chief investment officer at Anderson Global Macro, in 2011. This year’s ceremonies will begin at 10:30 am.

While Walsh spent that afternoon working the hospitality side of the business, tending to visitors in the Patriots’ Hall of Fame trophy room at Foxboro Stadium and to the occupants of corporate suites, she has since settled into her primary job as an intern in the marketing department. Several times a week, she makes the one-hour commute to Foxboro, Massachusetts, while finishing her classes at Nichols on other days.

“Part of my job description is to come up with proposals to present to companies,” Walsh says of the internship. That includes working with advertisers such as Dunkin’ Donuts and Nike to make sure their brands are clearly displayed in strategic locations around Foxboro Stadium. Walsh is also engaged in corporate ticket sales and developing corporate sponsorship proposals.

The work dovetails well with the Sales Management course Walsh is currently taking at Nichols in particular and her Marketing degree in general. “That’s the best part about marketing,” she says. “I can get into event planning, sales, or public relations. I can go so many directions in a company.”

Walsh’s most intriguing work involves prepping owner Robert Kraft and other Patriots executives with information on the VIPs who attend home games. “That includes a picture, the person’s position in (his or her) organization, a quick blurb about who he or she is,” Walsh explains, as well as a seat location, “in case Mr. Kraft wants to know.”

Walsh comes to her internship with some solid experience, having interned during her junior year for the Worcester Sharks, the city’s minor league entry in the American Hockey League. But she’s seen a big difference in the way business in conducted at the major league level. “In the minor leagues,” she explains, “there was one person in charge of the department. The Patriots have six to eight people dividing the same job.”

Over the past decade, Nichols has developed a robust history of student internships with big-league teams. “We’ve had student interns in Boston for the Red Sox, Bruins, and Celtics as well as all the students who go to New York to work with the Knicks and Rangers,” says Colleen Colles, the department chair of the Sport Management program.

“When we talk to potential employers in the sports industry nowadays,” Colles adds, “it’s expected that new hires will have experience. It gives us an advantage and a competitive edge over students in other programs.”

Even though Walsh came to her internship through a different major than Sport Management, she says, “It’s not a coincidence. I’m very interested in sports, so I’ve directed myself into that field. I’m a fan as much as an employee.” In particular, she admits, she’s a fan of the Patriots and aspires to a future with them after she graduates in May.