Students Take on Project with Homeboy Industries

Homeboy Industries “live and breathe their mission” according to Robert L. McKeage Business Leadership Honors Program student Emma Boyle.

Jesuit values seamlessly permeate every aspect of 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 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 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.

Initially looking at the website for Homeboy, the in-person visit and review and additional meetings with Homeboy leaders has broadened the scope of the project. 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 and envisions will involve of members of the Business Leadership Honors Program for the classes of 2023 and 2024.

According to Drs. Stampone and McKeage, the students will now consult with Homeboy on a range of potential opportunities, including community and youth program outreach, grant and donor relation development and possible marketing and expansion of educational programming, as well as identifying growth possibilities for nearly dozen individual enterprises run by Homeboys, such as the tattoo removal service.

The students who visited Homeboy have already been impacted by the organization and the project.

Emma Boyle called the Homeboy Art Academy a “sanctuary for the children.” The students and faculty members were also impressed by the breath of educational programs offered through homeboys, ranging from parenting classes to workforce development courses that incorporated teaching “soft skills,” as well as job training.

“I am really grateful for this opportunity. It will provide real experience consulting with a major company, said Matthew Earley, Perkasie, a senior finance major, member of the McKeage Business Leadership Honors Program and Presidential Scholarship recipient. “I’ve gotten a hands-on look at the process of consulting and a look at the skills that are needed in that field. It was also an eye-opening experience to hear so many tremendous stories of how people turned their lives around that I now have a new perspective in that regard.”

 “The visit to Homeboy has given me a new perspective on my career and the career path I want to take to utilize my skills to help others in any way I can,” said Emma Boyle, an accounting major from Peckville.

Other students participating with this project through the McKeage Business Leadership Honors Program Consulting Theory and Practice course are:

Owen P. Ascher, Garden City, New York, an accounting and finance major;

Thomas J. Csehovics, Fair Lawn, New Jersey, a finance major;

Joshua T. DeMarco, Hillsdale, New Jersey, a business analytics major;

Jillian D. Heier, Mickleton, New Jersey, an accounting major;

Jessica M. Hook, Barto, a marketing major;

Jordyn S. Lieber, Edison, New Jersey, a business administration major;

Francis J. Lynch, Richboro, an electrical engineering major;

Aiden P. Messett, Throop, a finance major;

Kayleigh S. Olszewski, Conshohocken, an accounting and finance double major;

Claudia Pitts ’22, Scranton, who is pursuing a master of accountancy;

Jennifer R. Rossiter, Jenkintown, a finance major;

Thomas A. Yager, Randolph, New Jersey, an accounting major.

The University of Scranton’s McKeage Business Leadership Honors Program, which is one of Scranton’s programs of excellence. Students in this highly-selective program explore the basic theories and concepts of leadership through special seminars and courses in management, ethics, strategy and analysis, in addition to field trips to learn from top executives and projects in leadership, service and mentoring.