BOP Summer Program The eight-week summer session for entering undergraduates in the Dr. Cornell A. Bell Business Opportunity Program allows students to take introductory courses that prepare them for academic work in their freshman year. (Photo provided)

Future investments

Dennis ManDennis Man (BSM’15), who grew up in Germany and Argentina before making Virginia his home, says one of the best decisions he’s ever made was to enroll at Purdue through BOP.

“The Business Opportunity Program and Darren Henry are the reason I chose to attend Purdue,” Man says. “BOP provides world-class networking and academic preparation for students, which at the time was exactly what I needed to be successful as a college student.

"Darren spent a significant amount of one-on-one time with me to figure out exactly what I wanted to do, and then helped me leverage the BOP network to get there.”

Man, who currently is a private equity investment associate at Commonfund Capital, continues to reap benefits from the program.

“BOP has helped me bring an analytical approach to help solve problems in the workplace,” he says. “Many of the Ivy League students who recruited into management consulting in my starting class were lacking the business skills that Krannert and BOP taught me. It allowed me to hit the ground running.”BOP Alumni

Today, Man is an active member of the same alumni network that supported him at Purdue and early in his career.

“I continue to give back to BOP by mentoring current students, particularly those interested in private equity or management consulting,” he says. “BOP gave me a highly marketable beginning to my college career and has been a tremendous help in my professional and personal life. It’s an opportunity no one should pass up.”

Immediate impact

Jennifer MartinezAs a young Latina from a small suburb in Indiana and the first in her family to attend college, Jennifer Martinez (BSM’17) initially found herself drawn to West Coast schools. Then one of her early mentors suggested that her interests in business and engineering might be a better fit for Purdue.

She visited campus and met Darren Henry, Krannert’s director of diversity initiatives and the Dr. Cornell A. Bell Business Opportunity Program (BOP).

“He told me about the legacy of BOP, the amazing alumni it had produced, the summer program and the scholarship. After giving it some thought, I decided to accept,” Martinez says. “BOP is honestly what brought me through the door.”

She felt the impact of the summer program almost immediately. “Earning 11 credit hours as a ‘pre-freshman’ before starting the fall semester really put me ahead of my peers,” she says. “It helped me flesh out my inexperience, jet-fuel my progression as a student and put me on a path to success.”

She is particularly proud of her efforts to help foster and maintain an environment of diversity and inclusion. In addition to her work with BOP, Martinez was president of the Purdue chapter of Ascend, a national organization dedicated to enabling its members, business partners and the community to leverage the leadership and global business potential of Pan-Asians.

Although she’s only a year into her professional career as a management consulting analyst at Accenture, Martinez is optimistic about her future and eager to share her success with others.

“I always recommend Purdue, the Krannert School and BOP to motivated, rising leaders,” she says. “It’s a great place to be.”

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