“We don’t survive the junior core—we thrive in it,” says Adam Boswell, a strategy student who focuses on the growth, rather than the stress, of student life. Boswell is encouraging his peers to adopt the same attitude while he serves as president of the Strategy Society in the BYU Marriott School of Business.
Growing up just outside of Chicago, Boswell knew that he wanted to study business because of the examples of his local church leaders, who often showed up to youth activities right after work, still dressed in suits and ties. Dressed in his own suit and tie as a missionary in Guayaquil, Ecuador, he heard about the spiritual experiences his brother had in his secular classes at BYU.
When Boswell returned from his mission, he was going to school at Utah State University while his girlfriend, now wife of two years, was living in Provo, and he found himself wanting to experience BYU’s unique blend of religious and secular education. He decided to submit a transfer application just three days before the deadline—rushing to finish the essays, interviews, and endorsements—and he was later admitted for the fall 2022 semester.
At BYU he was drawn to BYU Marriott’s strategy program when he attended a lecture and heard about a project that strategy students were doing in the airline industry. “These people are doing really impactful work,” Boswell remembers thinking as he observed how capable the students were. Boswell decided to join strategy, hoping to learn how to make an impact of his own.
Boswell, now a senior, is the president of the Strategy Society. He helps run events for prospective students, current students, and alumni and works to bolster the society’s mentorship program. Because of his involvement in the society, Boswell sees value in establishing more connections between strategy students, especially since juniors and seniors don’t generally take classes together. He says that “it’s really rewarding and energizing for me to see other students who are excited to be in the strategy program.”
Boswell encourages both juniors and seniors to get involved in the mentorship program, which provides seniors with direction on how to connect with the juniors they mentor. The mentorship program also equips juniors with channels to find advice about recruiting, internships, full-time jobs, and the strategy junior core. Another goal that Boswell and the Strategy Society presidency are working toward is to encourage a culture of optimism about the rigor of school and the difficulty of the junior core in order to help students thrive.
On top of having an optimistic mindset, Boswell has learned that prioritizing fun enriched his academic experience and helped him thrive as a student. He credits making time for the hobbies that he enjoys doing with his wife—slalom waterskiing and listening to music—for teaching him how to “prioritize what’s important and what’s most important.”
Boswell says the junior core was hard and that he was held up to expectations that were higher than any he’d ever been held up against, but it was helpful for him to remember that the challenges were exactly what he had wanted. He says, “The most rewarding thing for me is to see how the strategy program is helping me reach my potential and preparing me to succeed in the future.”
_____
Written by Elizabeth Walker
