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Immersed in the high-touch, mentor-driven environment of ���ϲ�����, Macey Rodrigues-Cowl ’25 discovered how curiosity, grit and a dash of boldness can turbo-charge a business degree.

The marketing and project-management double major from Merrimac, Massachusetts, leaves campus with a sales position at industrial-supply giant Grainger, management experience on the university’s only student-built EcoVillage tiny home and a worldview first reshaped thousands of miles from campus.

“Every professor here cheers you on like family,” Rodrigues-Cowl said. “That energy convinced me I could try anything even things that scared me.”

College was always non-negotiable in her family. Her grandfather, an immigrant electrician who founded the Portuguese American Foundation for Higher Education, worked extra shifts so Macey’s mother could become the first in the family to earn a degree.

So, when Macey’s mother discovered ���ϲ����� during the height of pandemic-era virtual fairs, she insisted her daughter apply, sight unseen. Acceptance arrived, scholarship in hand, and the deposit was in the mail before Rodrigues-Cowl ever set foot on campus.

“We finally toured a few weeks later,” she laughed. “But Mom and I both felt the fit long before the visit.”

During junior Winter Term, Rodrigues-Cowl traveled from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City, moving from factory floors to market stalls to the War Remnants Museum. Watching microchips assembled by hand, tasting fruit vendors refused to let her pay for and listening to Agent Orange survivors reframed her idea of privilege and corporate responsibility.

“Vietnam taught me that fast-growing markets reward companies that lead with empathy, not extraction,” she said.

When her internship collapsed two weeks before the deadline, Rodrigues-Cowl took over as project manager on one of ���ϲ�����’s EcoVillage houses, the only unit of six built entirely by students. She and her crew milled more than 2,000 reclaimed-wood tiles, taught themselves to grout a full bathroom via midnight YouTube sessions and shepherded inspections ahead of professional contractor teams.

“Project management stops being theory when you’re hand-grouting a shower in 103 ° weather,” she said.

Sales wasn’t on her radar until Professor Chris Nelson, director of the Chandler Family Professional Sales Center, and Grainger campus recruiter Grant Edwards urged her to enter the company’s two-round role-play challenge. Juggling five courses and two jobs, she bested a field that began with 80 students.

“I knew I could hold a clear, value-focused conversation with anyone,” she said. “Bringing that clarity to a panel of judges felt like the next logical step.”

Grant Edwards stayed in touch, providing interview prep and an inside look at Grainger’s culture before extending a Field Sales Account Representative offer in Charlotte.

“Employees talk about staying a decade or more,” she said. “That loyalty told me it was a culture worth joining.”

Classroom mentors rounded out the journey. Professor Rick Hackworth filled Rodrigues-Cowl’s “toolbox” with practical frameworks and, more importantly, consistent reminders to be bold and confident in class and beyond, while Professor Rob Elbitar moved an exam off her 21st birthday and modelled empathetic leadership.

“They teach from life, not just textbooks then celebrate when the wins come,” she noted.

Lease signed and toolbox packed; Rodrigues-Cowl is eager to test her skills in the Queen City.

“I’ve squeezed every drop out of college,” she said. “Now I’m ready to chase new quotas, new friendships and new skylines.”

Her advice to first years fits on a Post-it: “Get uncomfortable; growth lives there.” The slightly mold-speckled acorn she received at Convocation will travel south with her, “proof,” she said, “of how far the roots have spread.”