Originally published in Carroll Capital, the print publication of the Carroll School of Management at Boston College. Read the June 2025 issue here.
On the first Friday of the fall semester, the green lawns of Boston College’s Chestnut Hill campus are dotted with white tents and folding tables. From one corner of the quad, a speaker blasts a recording of a student a cappella group’s latest performance, while a laptop on a different table plays a video of a dance team at last year’s Showdown dance competition. Members of the ultimate frisbee club team throw neon discs across the lawn as other representatives of the more than 300 student organizations hand out candy and flyers to interested underclassmen. At one table, Thomas Galvin ’25 is holding up a handwritten poster that reads “Are you a freshman in CSOM?"
As the vice president of the Fulton Leadership Society (FLS), this is Galvin’s chance to recruit a new class of first-year students for the organization. During last September’s involvement fair, Galvin and his fellow club members talked to more than 200 students expressing interest in FLS, which offers members opportunities to strengthen their personal and professional development and gain leadership experience.
Thomas Galvin '25
Following the fair, an intense process begins. Out of the 160 applicants the club received in Fall 2024, around half moved on to the first round of interviews with a few group members. Another 50 percent were cut before the second round of interviews. By the end of September, 27 first-year students received personal phone calls from FLS seniors officially welcoming them into the organization.
This arduous system is not unique to FLS: Many of the management-oriented student clubs on campus require members to submit applications and participate in interviews for membership or special mentorship programs, often within the first weeks of the semester. “There is a pressure to join as many clubs as you can,” says Galvin, who has also been a member of the Finance Academy, Accounting Academy, and the Boston College Venture Capital and Private Equity Association. “Making cuts is the hardest part of the process for us—we know how stressful it is as a freshman. It can feel like your life is over if you get rejected."
The whole thrust of student clubs has been shifting in recent years. As recruiting timelines for summer internships get more aggressive and job searches become even more competitive, there is a growing feeling among management students everywhere, not just at Boston College, that clubs are simply a tool to build one’s resume. At the same time, some students are also channeling an older idea of clubs—that they’re simply interesting and fun, and may offer students a chance to stretch themselves and broaden their perspective. That makes sense both personally and professionally, according to advice given to students at the Carroll School of Management.
Career advisors say that a list of exclusive and competitive clubs on the resume isn’t specifically what employers are looking for. They’re looking for leadership, accountability, and ambition—skills that can be nurtured in any club at Boston College, sometimes especially those that are off the beaten path. “On-campus involvement is one of the most impactful components of a student’s formation during their time on the Heights,” says Amy Donegan, assistant dean for undergraduate career advising, noting the influence that activities have on the undergraduate experience. It’s up to students to seek that meaning within any group they get involved with.
Toni Martin '27
When Toni Martin ’27 arrived on campus, many of her first encounters with fellow first-years were questions about which clubs she planned to apply for. After moving across the country from California, she wanted to find a supportive community, but the competitive environment surrounding these clubs made her hesitant. “Having those conversations with people that I didn’t really know made it seem like they were only interested in getting into these exclusive groups and not connecting with the people around them,” she says.
Donegan explains that when underclassmen see their older peers scoring their dream jobs or succeeding in their careers, they often feel the need to follow the exact path. “A lot of pressure exists within the Carroll School bubble,” she says. “It’s really hard to get away from the gravitational pull of feeling like there’s a right and a wrong way to do things.”
Many clubs offer general membership as an option for students who just want to attend club-wide events like panels or informational sessions, but these meetings can sometimes bring out enough students to fill a lecture hall, making it hard for those seeking friendship or community to find their footing. “When I attended those meetings, I found they were just too big for me to really engage and make personal connections,” says Martin. Instead, she joined the a cappella group Black Experience in America Through Song, or BC BEATS, and became part of a tight-knit group that shares her love of performing.
At a rehearsal in April, the 12 BEATS members are sitting in a circle, discussing everything from their upcoming exams to what fruit each person would be. As they move to the front of the room, now standing in a tight circle, Martin leads vocal warm-ups and everyone jokes and giggles between their do re mis. “The best part about being in a creative or cultural group is that people feel like they can be themselves,” she says. “I feel more deeply connected to my peers as a person [rather] than whatever they’re doing professionally."
Martin leads BC BEATS members through vocal warmups at a rehearsal in April.
While making friends and belting R&B songs, she has also been able to flex her management muscles by overseeing the BEATS budget as the group’s treasurer. “I see my financial knowledge as a way to enable my organization to do the things we want to do,” says Martin, who is studying information systems and entrepreneurship. She adds that being on the club’s executive board has also strengthened her leadership and communications skills.
She’s not the only one trying to blend her co-curricular activities with both her management education and other passions. Sophia Kaiser ’26, an accounting and information systems student, is the current treasurer for BC On Tap, a student-run performing arts group dedicated to teaching and showcasing modern and traditional styles of tap dancing. Kaiser joined On Tap to continue participating in an activity she has been doing her whole life, but her time on the team has also become a way to reflect and to manage outside pressures. “Tapping is something that lets me let out everything that happened during theday,” she says. “It’s kind of like a meditation."
Kaiser is also involved in management clubs like Women in Business, Women in STEM, and Accounting Academy, but she explains that outside of classes, BC On Tap is her main priority. On top of rehearsing with the group 10 hours each week, Kaiser says she can spend hours “working behind the scenes” on her treasurer responsibilities, which include making an annual budget, buying costumes and equipment, and consulting with other members of the team’s executive board on the best ways to utilize their funds. “Before taking on the role, I didn’t have any experience actually putting my accounting and business knowledge to use outside of the classroom,” she adds.
Sophia Kaiser '26
In any student organization, there are opportunities to strengthen management and leadership skills. “Leadership is where you have impact. It’s not what your title is or how many applications you filled out to get there,” says Donegan, adding that it can sometimes be easier for students to take initiative in clubs that are not as densely populated. “Impact is impact. It doesn’t matter whether the setting is an investment association, a religious group, or a cooking club.”
Management clubs are a valuable resource for students at the Carroll School and offer them unique opportunities to connect with professionals and build upon the skills they learn in the classroom. But for students with other interests, passions, or even the desire to try something new, clubs that don’t fall into a desired career path can be just as effective at capturing the attention of a potential employer.
As the founder of Boston College’s perfume and cologne club, Eau de Boston, Elisa Cha ’27 has found herself talking fragrance during interviews for summer internships at top accounting firms. One hiring manager even floated the idea of Cha leading a fragrance-themed, team-bonding workshop, should she come on board. Kaiser too has found herself breaking from the script during interviews. “Even when I would mention my other clubs, the interviewers always ended up asking me about On Tap,” she says, adding that the discussions paid off—she accepted a summer auditing internship with PwC. “It was nice to be able to talk about something besides business. I think it makes you more of an interesting person to interview."
This comes as no surprise to career counselors. “The people who are viewing you as a candidate are not a monolith,” says Donegan, pointing out that clubs can also provide meaningful experiences for students to share when they are asked behavioral-based questions, like how they navigate delegating tasks or manage their extracurricular responsibilities amid heavy course loads.
Kaiser practicing for an upcoming BC On Tap performance.
Clubs also facilitate environments to explore new things with relatively low stakes, like for Owen Amir-Arjomand ’28, who joined one of BC’s Latin dance teams without any prior experience. He had played basketball throughout high school, but when he was deciding whether to join the club basketball team or the dance team, he opted for the group that would offer him new experiences. “When I met with the Latin dance team at the involvement fair, they seemed like such a great group that I thought, ‘Why not take a risk and try something new?” he says. “I’m not great [at dancing], but the fun thing about the team is that there’s not a lot of pressure to be amazing right away. It’s a great place to learn."
Other students use clubs to explore different career options. “When I first came to college I had no idea what I wanted to do, but attending clubs’ panels and information sessions helped me figure out what path I wanted to follow,” says Galvin, who eventually decided to pursue concentrations in finance and accounting for CPAs. “Talking to upperclassmen and alumni exposed me to different possible routes that I didn’t know existed before I joined the clubs.” One of these upperclassmen mentors from FLS even led Galvin to his full-time job on KPMG’s Financial Due Diligence team.
None of this means that students should steer away from the highly competitive, career-focused clubs, if that’s what excites them.
Emma Mooney ’28 isn’t currently a part of any non-management clubs, and that’s just fine with her. “I’ve found a good community and it doesn’t feel stressful,” she says. She was part of her high school’s business club, so she already had an idea of the management clubs she wanted to join when she arrived on the Heights. She quickly signed up for Women in Business and applied for an analyst position in the BC Investment Club. On a whim, she also applied for the Start@SheaFreshman Innovation Program, a yearlong commitment through the Edmund H. Shea Jr. Center for Entrepreneurship that facilitates workshops, mentorship, and hands-on experiences for those interested in the discipline. Later that year, she took home first place at the center’s Elevator Pitch and Strakosch Venture competitions with an idea she developed within the first months of the program.
Galvin with members of the Fulton Leadership Society.
“Entrepreneurship was always something that I was interested in, but joining the Freshman Innovation Program made me realize how much I loved it,” she says. “It’s had a huge impact on how I’m spending my time and how I want to approach my future.”
Likewise, Galvin understands that any club can be a “fun” one if you’re passionate about what you’re doing. “To me, Fulton Leadership Society is not a resume booster. It’s actually meaningful,” he says, adding that he was motivated to take on a leadership role and give back to the FLS community during his senior year since it had such a profound impact on him early in his college experience. “Once I found what I wanted to do, I wanted to help the freshmen in the same way that upperclassmen helped me.”
And some students take their own routes to career-centric activities. Amir-Arjomand joined the below-the-radar Business Analytics Academy (BAA) during the first weeks of his freshman year. He was hesitant to devote his time to the rigorous application processes of clubs that many of his peers were gravitating toward, and realized he might be able to make more of an impact in a group that was smaller or less well-known.
“I noticed a gap between the amount of students studying business analytics and the amount of opportunities available for them outside the classroom,” says Amir-Arjomand, referring to alumni speakers and opportunities to gain hands-on industry experience, which the BAA lacked in comparison to clubs geared toward finance or investment banking students. “As I started to get more involved, I realized that there was a big opportunity for me to rise to the occasion and try to provide more resources for this club.” Amir-Arjomand shared his ideas for making the club more accessible for students studying other management concentrations, and by the second semester of his freshman year, he was selected as one of BAA’s co-presidents.
“Leadership is where you have impact. It's not what your title is or how many applications you filled out to get there. ”
The future is top of mind for many Carroll School students as they navigate their time on campus, but their advisors are also quick to remind them that college is an important time of personal growth, regardless of what they pursue after graduation. Student formation is a cornerstone of the Boston College experience, and co-curricular programs are a big part of that puzzle. “When you look back at your time at BC, the way that you choose to spend your time outside of the classroom is going to have so much impact in terms of how you feel about this place,” says Donegan. “It’s smart to take advantage of these opportunities, and use your engagement as a way to expand your network and your learning.”
For Cha, the most rewarding aspect of Eau de Boston has been to share her passion with other students, in part by leading perfume-making workshops on campus. “My favorite part has been seeing how happy people are when they make their own fragrance,” she says. “I really like providing other students with an experience that might not be accessible to them anywhere else.” The boost that the club adds to her resume, along with the conversations that it prompts during interviews with employers, is just an added bonus.
