Students Take on Project With Homeboy Industries

AT TOP: From left: Rev. Gregory Boyle, S.J., founder of Homeboy Industries; McKeage Business Leadership Honors Program students Emma Boyle and Matthew Earley; Douglas Boyle, D.B.A., professor, and chair of the Accounting Department at Scranton; Tom Vozzo, CEO of Homeboy Industries; and Ashley Stampone ’10, G’11, assistant professor of accounting at Scranton. ABOVE: University students outside the offices of Homeboy Industries in Boyle Heights with a mural that features the organization’s slogan, “Jobs not Jails.”

Jesuit values seamlessly permeate every aspect of Homeboy Industries, the largest gang rehabilitation and re-entry program in the world. Only the Latin phrases like “cura personalis” or “magis,” so familiar with Scranton students, do not appear anywhere at their facilities or in their marketing materials. Members of the University’s Robert L. McKeage Business Leadership Honors Program may help to change that.

The group of elite business students at Scranton have adopted a comprehensive set of projects involving branding, new revenue opportunities, and program replication for Homeboy as part of their Business Leadership Consulting Theory and Practice course taught by Douglas Boyle, D.B.A., professor and chair of the Accounting Department.

Two students along with Dr. Boyle and Ashley Stampone, D.B.A., assistant professor of accounting, visited Homeboy Industries in Los Angeles in September 2022 to begin the project. The students and faculty members met with Homeboy’s founder Rev. Gregory Boyle, S.J., CEO Tom Vozzo and other key leaders at the nonprofit organization.

Robert McKeage, Ph.D., associate professor of management, marketing and entrepreneurship and long-time director of the Business Leadership Honors Program that bears his name, expects the project will take about two years to complete.

ABOVE: From left: Rev. Gregory Boyle, S.J., founder of Homeboy Industries; McKeage Business Leadership Honors Program students Emma Boyle and Matthew Earley; Douglas Boyle, D.B.A., professor, and chair of the Accounting Department at Scranton; Tom Vozzo, CEO of Homeboy Industries; and Ashley Stampone ’10, G’11, assistant professor of accounting at Scranton. INSET: University students outside the offices of Homeboy Industries in Boyle Heights with a mural that features the organization’s slogan, “Jobs not Jails.”