Carroll School “Renaissance man” makes a prestigious annual list of M.B.A. graduates
At the end of each academic year, Poets & Quants honors the “Best & Brightest” new M.B.A. graduates, celebrating “leaders who rally; the mentors who champion; the visionaries who awaken; and the volunteers who shoulder the heaviest burdens.” So it’s no surprise that this year’s national honor roll includes Dewin Hernandez, M.B.A./M.S.W. ’21.
Hernandez, the Diane H. Weiss M.B.A. ’85 Memorial Fellow, has a long and varied list of achievements: executive director of the Boston College Graduate Student Association, lead singer in a professional band, and a future senior consultant with Deloitte’s Government & Public Services division. But, he told Poets & Quants, his “proudest achievement has been utilizing my community organizing skills to enact meaningful social change on the Boston College campus.”
That social change has included work with the Carroll School’s Graduate Management Association (GMA) to advance social, racial, and economic justice within the organization, including updates to their constitution and the creation of a new GMA position: vice president of diversity, equity, and inclusion. Hernandez also co-founded the Future Leaders Advocacy & Advisory Group (FLAAG), a graduate student group that works to support social and racial justice initiatives at the Carroll School. In addition, this past year Hernandez co-facilitated the Carroll School’s yearlong Inclusive Leadership Forum Series with noted diversity expert and author Carol Fulp.
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Hernandez’s focus on social justice is part of what brought him to Boston College and the dual-degree M.B.A./M.S.W. program. “I appreciated the social impact component of a Jesuit education and the interdisciplinary approach,” he told P&Q. He credited the Carroll School’s interdisciplinary viewpoint and data analytics curriculum for helping him “hone my analytical skills to tell more impactful and compelling stories,” leaving him with “a renewed perspective on using data to disrupt systemic inequities.”
“Dewin epitomizes what it means to be a Renaissance man,” Associate Dean of Graduate Programs Marilyn Eckelman told P&Q. In addition to his graduate studies in social work and management, Hernandez also has an undergraduate degree from Berklee College of Music. In the past, he has combined music and social change while working as a music instructor at the Lawrence Community Works youth center, where he was a member himself in his teens. He cited his engagement with the organization as a defining moment, noting, “My entire life, I have been compelled to serve my community and make a difference.”
Looking to the future, Hernandez will be able to keep a hand in public service post-graduation as a senior consultant within the government division at Deloitte. As “a social entrepreneur at heart,” his long-term goals include launching a “non-profit providing holistic behavioral health care services in underserved communities.”
This year’s Poets & Quants' “Best & Brightest” includes 100 graduates from 63 schools. Hernandez isn’t the first Carroll School graduate to make the list: Previous winners have included Sairah Mahmud, M.B.A. ’18, and Katie Philippi, M.B.A. ’17. A companion website, Poets & Quants for Undergrads, also publishes an annual “Best & Brightest” featuring undergraduate business majors. Last year’s edition included twin sisters Allison and Amy Ferreira ’20.
—Rachel Bird, Carroll School News