LaunchSBU is redefining business mentorship at Bonaventure
By Tom Missel | Chief Communications Officer
The idea behind LaunchSBU has been forming for decades, long before it had a name or a logo. For Joe Davis, Class of 1979, the seeds for the alumni-student mentoring program in the School of Business were planted in his senior year, when Accounting professors Pat Premo and Brian McAllister helped him secure a winter internship that changed the trajectory of his life. He didn’t have the best grades and money was tight. He had to work his way through school, including managing student workers in Hickey Dining Hall.
What ultimately caught employers’ attention, he said, was not a perfect transcript, but the ability to juggle long hours, a full course load and real responsibility.
“What got me my first job was multitasking — keeping up my grades and working hard on campus,” he said. “That mix, growing up into a young adult here, made the difference.”
Matt Davis, ’87, followed his brother to Bona’s. He also worked in the dining hall as a student manager and both launched careers with Deloitte in New York City at a time when the firm was a regular presence on campus.
“In public accounting, you see a very clear pipeline,” Joe said. “There’s this steady flow of interns and entry-level hires who earn the CPA in a couple of years and move up. We worked closely with the Accounting Department to get as many students as possible internships — or at least mentoring.”
Over time, that pipeline became less reliable. Recruiting patterns shifted. Fewer Bonaventure students seemed to be aiming at New York City unless they were dead set on finance.
Joe and Matt noticed that some students struggled, not in the classroom but with what Joe calls “business sense and street smarts” — understanding how to present themselves, how to talk with professionals, how to show they were “game-ready, not just book-smart.”
At the same time, the brothers saw a generation of alumni who were eager to help but weren’t being asked in ways that fit their lives.
“Historically, we tended to go to alumni with two extremes: write a check, or come spend a week on campus,” Joe said. “We were missing the middle. There are so many Bonnies who can’t take a week off work, but they can hop on a Zoom, host a club visit after work or do a mock interview.”
Matt said their own background — growing up with modest means and working from a young age — made the mission personal.
“You don’t have to be the smartest person in the room,” he said. “You just have to know your job better than anyone else and be willing to work hard. That’s what Bonaventure gave us, and we wanted students to have that same edge earlier — while they’re still here.”
A Pandemic-Era Spark
If the roots of LaunchSBU stretch back 47 years, the spark that lit the current program came during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Suddenly, Zoom made it easy to bring alumni into the classroom,” said Dr. Todd Palmer, associate professor of Management and a 24-year veteran of the School of Business faculty. “We realized we could connect students to alumni in New York or Charlotte or wherever on a Tuesday night without anyone getting on a plane.”
Palmer invited Joe Davis to serve as a Leader in Residence, experimented with a trial “career week,” and quickly discovered a shared vision. Before long, Joe had pulled Matt into the conversations, and the trio began meeting regularly to imagine something more structured than a single event.
“All summer we met weekly for two-hour working sessions,” Palmer said. “Joe and Matt didn’t just say, ‘Let us know how we can help.’ They wanted real jobs — sourcing alumni, shaping content, committing to one in-person week each semester. They love the work.”
Out of those meetings came LaunchSBU, the official name and social media brand for the School of Business’s alumni-powered career and life development engine.
“Todd and I imagined a professional alumni organization as a bold new way to unite our students, faculty and alumni,” said Dr. Matrecia James, dean of the school. “What began as a conversation about helping students build confidence and connections quickly evolved into a transformative model of mentorship. We have been especially fortunate to have Joe and Matt as champions of this vision.”
Palmer and his graduate assistant, Maura Bleech, coordinate the on-campus logistics and student leadership team. Joe and Matt, along with a fast-growing roster of alumni, provide the time, talent and philanthropic support that fuels the program.
“My recent gift is earmarked for professional development,” said Matt, who made a $1 million gift with his wife, Laura, a year ago to the university for Athletics ($600,000), the School of Business ($300,000) and the Bonaventure Fund ($100,000). “That means supporting student and faculty initiatives and the technology we need to scale this work.”
Bleech, a Marketing major now pursuing her MBA, runs LaunchSBU’s social media, helps maintain its spreadsheets and databases and, like the students she serves, is a mentee in the program.
“I always had good grades and stayed active, but I realized I didn’t have many relationships,” Bleech said. “LaunchSBU taught me how to talk with alumni and carry that confidence into interviews. In just six months, I’ve added around 20 meaningful contacts I’m comfortable reaching out to.”
Starting Earlier — and Measuring What Matters
For all its moving parts, LaunchSBU is built on a straightforward premise: Get students in front of alumni early, often and in settings that feel both structured and safe.
The program’s calendar is dotted with events that would have been unthinkable a decade ago. There is Young Alumni Week, featuring a panel in the Students in Money Management (SIMM) room, a BonaNet virtual networking night and a Friday full of small-group career counseling sessions.
For BonaNet, Palmer said, students gather in the Plassmann Hall basement while alumni join from their homes and offices around the country.
“Students spend two 30-minute sessions rotating between breakout rooms while the alumni stay put,” he said. “We theme the rooms, but the conversations are wide-ranging — career paths, what it’s like to move to a new city, how their Bonaventure experience shaped them. It’s structured, but it feels like a conversation, not an interview.”
A core group of about 10 student managers helps run the infrastructure, and LaunchSBU can quickly mobilize 50 or more student facilitators and room monitors when a big event comes to campus. On the alumni side, roughly 130 Bonnies are already formally enrolled, with more joining each month.
Underneath the events is a clear philosophy: start early. Palmer’s mantra is that business students should be “internship-ready” by the end of their sophomore year.
“Many top employers recruit in a short fall window,” he said. “If you start looking in April, you’re often too late. We want freshmen and sophomores already building LinkedIn profiles, engaging with alumni and thinking like professionals, not waiting until senior year.”
To that end, LaunchSBU has set measurable goals: 100 percent of freshmen in targeted classes will have professional-level LinkedIn profiles and activity, and nearly all business freshmen will have had a meaningful conversation with an alum by year’s end.
“We want to be able to show parents and prospective students what outcomes look like — not just anecdotes,” Palmer said. “Alumni like Joe and Matt are pushing us, in a good way, to track that impact.”
For senior Marketing major Ryley Cleveland, LaunchSBU has been both a lifeline and a launchpad.
Cleveland grew up just down the road in Bradford, Pennsylvania, but never planned to attend
St. Bonaventure. She pictured herself at a big southern state school — until a campus visit with her dad changed everything.
“The professors were so approachable,” she said. “They gave me their business cards, they really wanted to talk. That sense of community convinced me this was the right place.”
Once on campus, Cleveland bounced around majors — starting as an undecided liberal arts student and changing three times before finding her home in business.
“Sometimes I look at my LinkedIn and feel like an imposter,” she said. “I changed my major three times and never thought I’d end up in business. It’s been surreal. Bonaventure has completely shaped who I am today.”
When LaunchSBU began to formalize last summer, Cleveland was invited to play a dual role: student mentor and program participant. She joined an initial Zoom meeting with the Davises, Palmer, Dean James and several faculty members, sharing what it meant as a first-generation student to have alumni in her corner.
“My parents and I joked that we were like the ‘three blind mice’ when it came to figuring out college,” Cleveland said. “Having alumni mentors to ask questions, access resources and build a network has been invaluable.”
Since then, she has been one of LaunchSBU’s most visible student ambassadors — speaking at the program’s first big meeting in Swan, helping recruit classmates, posting about Launch on LinkedIn and encouraging friends to step into unfamiliar networking spaces.
Immediate Returns
The payoff has been tangible. Through Matt and Joe, Cleveland connected with alumni and landed internships with Brown and White Ventures, the Laine Business Accelerator in Olean and Process Sports Management. Another LinkedIn post about Launch caught the eye of longtime ESPN communications executive Chris LaPlaca, ’79, who quickly reached out.
“I sent Chris a message late one night, and he replied within an hour,” she said. “We talked for about an hour, and his advice was so insightful. Everyone tells me the same thing — ‘network, network, network.’ As a first-gen student, that networking has opened doors I never thought possible.”
Cleveland said Palmer has been equally important in her growth at SBU.
“Dr. Palmer is one of my biggest mentors,” Cleveland said. “He’s incredibly giving and dedicated to his students. I don’t think the business school would be what it is without him. He deserves recognition for everything he does behind the scenes.”
Ask the Davises why they are investing so heavily in LaunchSBU and they immediately point to Palmer and Dr. Jim Mahar, longtime Finance professor, who share a rare blend of high expectations and humility, Matt said.
“Todd and Jim don’t spoon-feed,” he said. “They give high-level guidance and let students try, fail and learn.”
Matt, who now serves as chief financial and operations officer at Delbarton School in New Jersey, said Palmer’s gift is seeing potential others might miss.
“Todd brings an energy like I’ve never seen,” Matt said. “He recognizes potential — even in underperformers — and pulls it out of them. Students gravitate to him because they know he’s in their corner.”
Palmer is quick to turn that praise back on the Davises.
“They contribute time, talent and philanthropy,” Palmer said. “But more than that, they model what we’re asking our students to do — to be generous with their experience, to tell the truth about what it takes and to show up consistently. They remind students that success is not about being the smartest person in the room. It’s about doing the work and being ready for change.”
Change, in fact, is one of Joe’s favorite themes when he talks with students.
“Everything new looks like a threat — Excel, outsourcing, PCs, AI,” Joe said. “The people who embrace change advance. … We want employers to see that Bonaventure students are game-ready, not just book-smart.”
Opportunity, Unlocked
For students like Tyler Verrill, that message has landed.
A senior from Ithaca, New York, Verrill came to Bonaventure after a high school career he describes as “nothing special” academically. He met Palmer on a campus visit as a high school junior, joined C4 Consulting as a freshman and by his second year was president of the student-led organization that partners with local small businesses and nonprofits.
Along the way, he wrestled through a summer without the kind of internship he wanted, then watched LaunchSBU help open the door he had been searching for. Verrill landed a forensic accounting internship this summer with Floyd Advisory LLC as a result of a connection he made with Bill Shea, ’80, a university trustee whose son William is a partner with the New York City firm.
“When I came in, my GPA wasn’t great,” said Verrill, who will graduate in three years and pursue an Accounting MBA. “Now I have a 3.7, and I realize that’s actually competitive. Bonaventure pushes you academically but also helps you build practical skills. Even if you’re not a straight-A student, you can still succeed if you develop those abilities.”
The Davis brothers’ desire to pay it forward through LaunchSBU is a path Verrill hopes to follow.
“The only thing they’ve ever asked of me, or any student, is to step up and take their place when it’s our turn,” Verrill said. “They never ask for anything in return except that we do well — for ourselves, the school and others. That selflessness says everything about what kind of place Bonaventure is, and it’s the kind of person I want to be.”
For alumni so immersed in tradition and fond recollection of the community they found here as students, Palmer said LaunchSBU is more focused on looking ahead.
“Most of the time with alumni, we sell nostalgia,” he said. “With LaunchSBU, we’re selling the present and the future. Alumni love having real relationships with students. They’ll take them to lunch, jump on a call, open a door. And it goes both ways — working with students makes you feel better about the world. In all my time here, I can’t think of anything more rewarding I’ve done than this initiative.”
The Davises admit they get as much joy out of the program as anyone.
“At times it feels like we’re getting more out of this than the students,” Matt said. “Seeing their confidence click, watching them land, hearing seniors introduce us to their families at graduation — that’s the payoff.”
Ultimately, the greatest beneficiaries of LaunchSBU are Bona’s business students, who now have “unparalleled access to mentorship, community and real-world guidance,” James said.
“It has built a foundation that goes far beyond programming,” she said. “It’s a network of belonging, leadership and opportunity that prepares our students not only for successful careers but also for lives grounded in service, integrity and connection.”
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