The first cohort of the Colgate-Tuck January Business Bridge wasted no time getting down to business at the start of the new year as they took on three weeks of intensive business and finance training before the first day of classes. The program brings together the resources of Dartmouth College’s Tuck School of Business, Colgate Career Services, and Colgate’s Office of Entrepreneurship and Innovation to give Colgate students an opportunity to learn the business skills needed for future success.
The program allows Colgate sophomores and juniors interested in exploring business careers to connect their liberal arts experience with intensive business school training. The bridge program featured a comprehensive curriculum taught by Tuck MBA faculty. Each student was assigned to a team to deliver an in-person capstone case-study presentation on January 17, receiving direct feedback from a panel of Colgate alumni — some of whom are also Tuck Business School graduates.
Becca Moll ’27, whose group presented a financial analysis of Shopify, Inc., says the program allowed her to explore accounting and strategy, making her feel more confident going into future job and internship applications. One of the other significant benefits of the program for Moll was being able to learn from her peers.
“We all came from very different backgrounds and majors, so everyone brought something different to the table,” Moll says. “I also enjoyed getting to meet people in the cohort who I probably never would have met otherwise, and I feel like I was able to make many new friends and have more familiar faces around campus. I would absolutely recommend this program to other Colgate students in the future.”
Economics major Andrew Partigianoni ’27 says participating in the program gave him a chance to take additional business courses, as well as grow closer to the other students in the program through their work together.
“The highlight of the program, for me, was applying the topics we learned in class and collaborating with my fellow classmates to present our final project,” Partigianoni says, who was part of the group presentation about the current and future financial prospects of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. “The program provided us with access to an exceptional panel of judges who not only offered valuable feedback but also took the time to engage with current students.”
Alumni played vital roles in the program’s success. Students presented in groups to a panel of eight Colgate graduates who served as guest investors: Pat Apelian ’76; Chris Caputo ’87; Teresa Delgado ’88, Danielle Fox ’91, Yvonne Gyimah ’01, Jeff Oberg ’76, Clarissa Shah ’10, and Tushin Shah ’10. In addition to presentations about Palo Alto Networks and Shopify, Colgate students also presented on Delta Air Lines, YETI Holdings, and First Solar, Inc.
Meanwhile, Giovanni ’94 and Maree Cutaia, who have endowed the First@Colgate directorship and funded Colgate’s Graduate School Access Fund, provided significant resources necessary for aided students to participate in the program.
Director of Entrepreneurship and Innovation Carolyn Strobel-Larsen praised the hard work of the participants, noting the students arriving every morning by 9 a.m. to start their first class and then working late into the evening on their group projects.
“Seeing it all come together during their presentations on the last day was very rewarding,” Strobel-Larsen says. “There are a lot of parallels between the real-world skills that students develop in this program and those they build in our office’s entrepreneurship programs.”
