Gerrel Olivier ’10 major: Finance and economics occupation: Financial analyst, Morgan Stanley, New York City
As part of his senior thesis at the Carroll School of Management, Gerrel Olivier, a Massachusetts native, worked on a microfinance project—the planning and funding of a small food stall on the Caribbean island of St. Lucia, his mother’s birthplace. His interest in small-scale entrepreneurial development remains strong—in September 2010 he and a childhood friend cofounded Xcel, a nonprofit focused on bringing together young professionals in New York City with the goal of raising funds and awareness for 501(c)3 organizations involved in local and international development projects. Currently a member of the mergers and acquisitions department of Morgan Stanley, Olivier will join the Carlyle Group, a global alternative asset manager, this July for a two-year stint with its private equity team.
Angela Donkor ’12 major: Political science and international studies
For her first eight years, Ghanaian-born Angela Donkor lived with her grandmother while her parents worked in Italy. After her grandmother died in 1995, Donkor joined her parents outside Venice, and then, at age 16, moved with them to the Bronx. (Her first reading of the “I have a dream” speech came in an Italian middle school: “People don’t realize how international Dr. King is,” she says.) As a Boston College student she has reported for
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the Heights, led admissions tours, tutored at the Connors Family Learning Center, worked at the Suffolk House of Corrections in Boston, and joined international service projects in China, Kuwait, Rwanda, South Korea, and Uganda. When she finds herself especially challenged or “in transition,” she stops by Room 305 in Gasson Hall, “where I had my first college class.” It reminds her, she says, “that I can do it.” After graduation she hopes to work as a paralegal at a law firm in New York City before heading to law school in a couple of years.
Jacqueline Grant ’08 major: Biology occupation: Ph.D. candidate in neuroscience at Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California
The pursuit of therapies to counter neurological disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease has been Jacqueline Grant’s focus since her time at Boston College. Upon graduation she returned to her home state of California and immersed herself in doctoral studies at the Stanford University School of Medicine, an undertaking, she says, that “in terms of endurance” has “really tested my strength.” She has also been taking classes at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business; recently worked as an intern at Mission Bay Capital, a venture capital firm that invests in emerging bioscience companies; and is active in Stutors, a Stanford-run tutoring program serving the local community. Based on her dissertation research, Grant recently coauthored a provisional patent application for a therapy to treat multiple sclerosis.
photographs: (clockwise from above) Jeffery Holmes, Lee Pellegrini, Saul Bromberger/Sandra Hoover