Facilitating entrepreneurship
Second annual summit involves more than 300 students
Wheaton’s 2nd annual entrepreneurship summit celebrated the power of entrepreneurial thinking for success in any endeavor.
The event, “Harnessing the Power of Collaborative Partnerships and Leveraging Entrepreneurial Mindset and Skills for Purposeful Careers,” drew more than 300 students representing a wide range of fields and majors to network and hear insights from more than 20 experts representing a range of industries, including arts, music, film, and sports, healthcare and engineering; accounting, finance, sustainability, financial technology, and computer science; and law, education and business development.
“This is an exciting event because it bridges all the academic disciplines in the liberal arts and sciences,” said President Michaele Whelan in her opening remarks. “No matter what you study or what you hope to do, you’re in the right place … Entrepreneurship reflects a way of thinking, a mindset of transforming problems into opportunities.”
Segun Idowu, chief of economic opportunity and inclusion for the City of Boston, served as keynote speaker, and spoke about the summit’s theme of harnessing the power of collaborative partnerships.
“You can’t do this by yourself,” said Idowu. “It’s important to talk with and learn from others. Treat people with respect and kindness and seek to understand who people are … it is our job as entrepreneurs to think about what people need and find out how to help deliver that.”
Ellie Paris-Miranda, the Diana Davis Spencer Endowed Assistant Professor of Entrepreneurship, championed the summit’s interdisciplinary nature and cross-disciplinary collaboration.
“The Entrepreneurship Summit is a vibrant and interdisciplinary initiative designed to foster student entrepreneurship, nurture an entrepreneurial mindset, encourage collaboration, facilitate networking, and support continuous growth and development for student’s success,” said Paris-Miranda, the founder of the summit as well as the director of Entrepreneurship and Co-working Space.
“Because it is a campus-wide initiative with sessions for students from many of the college’s major fields of study, it also offers us a valuable opportunity to collaborate with faculty beyond our department, including Arts, Nursing, Biology, Computer Science, and beyond,” said Paris-Miranda. “I feel truly fortunate to work under such inspiring and inclusive leaders and be part of a community that encourages and supports meaningful initiatives like this.”
The summit was sponsored by the Neurology Center of New England, located in Foxboro, Mass. The event featured speakers and partners from Harvard Medical School and Mass General Brigham, Brockton Public Schools, Mass Fintech, the Department of Hematology-Oncology at Brown University, Goldman Sachs, and Anawan Studios. Other partners included the Better Business Bureau, Southeastern Massachusetts Visitors Bureau, Raphael & Raphael, LLP; Massasoit Community College, Merry Go Arounds, Woodard and Curran, Kornegay Kapital Group, Partridge Snow & Hahn, LLP and Wheaton alumna Lauren Henderson ’09 and her band.
The event began with a live performance of Cape Verdean music. A native of the islands off Africa’s west coast, Paris-Miranda was proud to have her country represented by vocalist Ruby Erickson, a Ph.D. candidate at Brown University in the Department of Music and guitarist Carlos Morena, a distinguished musician, producer, and composer from Cape Verde, performed three lively songs.
Cape Verde native Cassandra Silva Cardoso ’25 introduced the duo. “I love my Cape Verdean heritage and it’s a pleasure to share my culture with the Wheaton community,” she said.
For Cardoso and a dozen other students who assisted Professor Paris-Miranda in organizing the summit, the work leading up to the event offered a full set of learning experiences.
Students helped coordinate and administer the event, develop questions, invited a speaker from their network, and introduced speakers and panelists, and also helped moderate the sessions. Faculty who contributed to the initiative were Stephanie Burlington-Daniels, Sara Donaldson, C.C. Chapman, Colette Dieujuste, Martin Gagné, Kelly Goff, Fatima Jebari, Jessica Kuszaj, Kellie Mackisey, Robert Morris, Kristina Piasecki, Tammi Red and Brandon Witter.
“It is essential to empower students,” said Paris-Miranda. “I gave them defined roles and made sure they felt welcomed and supported, and an important part of this.”
Loic Ebelle ’27, majoring in business management and psychology, served as student program coordinator, and Leah Keating ’27, a business and management major, was the summit’s lead student ambassador.
“Loic and Leah are two outstanding students who consistently demonstrate a remarkable work ethic, always going above and beyond to support the summit,” said Paris-Miranda. “They were involved with all different aspects to prepare for this event and we could not be more proud and grateful for their dedication to its success.”
Both students learned the importance of collaboration, planning and adaptability. “Helping organize an event of this scale taught me how to manage logistics, coordinate with diverse stakeholders, and remain composed under pressure,” Ebelle said.
Keating added, “We were constantly adapting to make improvements or re-adjust after unexpected challenges and we were always honest and respectful in communicating with each other. Through Dr. Ellie’s example, I learned the importance of supportive and compassionate leadership, which I strive to embody in my professional journey.”
Students lauded their experiences. “Assisting Dr. Ellie allowed me to gain valuable mentorship and build connections with professionals in the field,” said Charli McLemore ’28, a double major in marketing and design, who moderated a session. “I heard how cross-industry collaboration and learning from others’ successes can drive innovation and growth.”
Gabriel Albernaz ’26, a bioinformatics major, created and asked questions at a session. “Learning how professionals in the fields of bioscience, healthcare, and environmental engineering have integrated both entrepreneurship and advanced tools in the field of AI was extremely valuable to comprehend how both of these topics play important parts in their fields,” he said.
“I am so thankful to all our panelists, speakers, students, faculty, partners and sponsors,” said Paris-Miranda. “And to [Business and Economics Department Chair] Leanna Lawter for her leadership and for creating a space and allowing the pursuit of big ideas. Looking ahead, we continue to develop partnerships and explore more to create pipelines of opportunities and experiences for our students.”