International Business Degree Proves Valuable in Increasingly Global Marketplace

Experiences, Support Pave Path to Professional Success

Draper attributes a lot of his success to what he learned as a Skyhawk. 

“At every college, you get back what you put into it,” Draper says. “But at Stonehill, you get back 10 times what you put in. Between faculty relationships, study abroad, internships, job opportunities … I would never have gotten where I did without Stonehill.”

Getting places was equally important to international business major John Gallagher ’19, particularly if it included international experiences.

Gallagher, who has extended family in Europe and the Middle East, didn’t know exactly what he wanted to do — he just knew he wanted to see the world. 

That goal would lead Gallagher to study abroad in Cuba and Lebanon. By the time he graduated, he was a double minor in Spanish and Arabic. He knew his language skills were a major asset, and he knew he loved the cross-cultural experiences he’d had, but he still wasn’t sure what he wanted to do. 

One night he was watching the news with his mother. David “Big Papi” Ortiz, legendary Red Sox slugger, had been shot. Gallagher’s mother turned to him and asked, “Who is that guy translating for Big Papi? Why don’t you do that, John?”

He ended up calling his boss at the New England Revolution, who was impressed with his fluency in Spanish and offered him a job. He then leveraged that experience to earn a spot as a fan support volunteer at the FIFA Arab Cup in Doha, Qatar. By 2023, he had been hired by the FIFA World Cup Boston Host Committee to work on the upcoming 2026 World Cup, to be hosted here in the United States, with games at Gillette Stadium— only 15 miles from where his journey began at Stonehill. 

Thinking back on his time in Easton, Gallagher jokes that he “may have driven the Office of International Programs a little nuts.” But he always felt supported, no matter how far-flung his dreams were. 

“I showed up at the office telling them, ‘I’m going to move to Dubai’ — and nobody laughed at me or told me I was crazy. I had five professors rallying around me, pushing me, helping me make it happen. A lot of other schools don’t give their students anywhere near that level of support,” he recalls.

Mentoring Provides Confidence to Explore New Opportunities

At the heart of Stonehill’s mentoring culture are people like Professor Jenn Swanson, the chair of the Global Business, Operations & Strategy Department. This year, Swanson was given the Award for Excellence in Advising & Mentoring, a recognition of her exceptional dedication to student success and mentorship.

Countless Stonehill students have benefited from Swanson’s mentorship, but she is quick to deflect the spotlight to the program itself, which is perfectly designed to maximize students’ potential, particularly through study abroad.

“Studying abroad is life-changing,” Swanson says. “They grow so much. It’s such an enriching experience.”

For over a decade, Swanson has been teaching classes — once called Learning Communities, now called travel courses — that take students abroad and immerse them in the culture and economy of another country.

Theresa Ruszczyk Labrie ’16 came to Stonehill because of the program’s emphasis on study abroad, which is a requirement for international business majors.

“The study abroad requirement was a signal to me that this school makes those real-world experiences really central to their program,” Labrie says, who double-majored in Spanish and is now a senior recruiter at Planet Professional (formerly WinterWyman), where she has worked for nine years, since first arriving as an intern.

During her time at the College, she studied abroad in Argentina, took a travel course to Costa Rica, and went abroad a third time, this time to Cuba.

“I first went to Stonehill because of the college’s focus on service and giving back to the community,” Labrie says. “The relationships I formed at Stonehill, and the emphasis on learning about other cultures and connecting with the community you’re working in, those things really helped me be successful.”

Those relationships and opportunities continue to inspire students to pursue their professional dreams with a global perspective. Grace Caso ’25, who plays on Stonehill’s NCAA Division I soccer team and is spending this summer interning at John Hancock, sums it up with a piece of advice for incoming IB students.

“The IB program at Stonehill has so many opportunities and connections, it can really be what you make it,” Caso says, who studied abroad in Granada, Spain. “If you’re excited about other cultures, and excited to utilize the resources and the professors, you’re going to make a great path for yourself.”