By Kevin Fagan, Asst. News Editor -

Tuesday evening, Smart Woman Securities hosted a panel entitled “Is Investing the New Shopping?” as a way to soft launch their group that has the goal of educating undergraduate women about investing. The panel, which included members of the Boston College administration, as well as students from the Carroll Graduate School of Management, led a discussion on a broad range of investment and financial topics.

The event began with a discussion on the basics of personal finance and investing. Saving was mentioned as the primary way to have money for investing. Andrea Bevis, MBA/MSF ‘10, said that a good rule of thumb was to save 10 percent of your annual salary and put it into an account that cannot be touched for at least few years. “Get yourself into the habit of putting money away ever month,” said Mary Lou DeLong, vice president and university secretary. “The sooner the better.”

The panel also discussed different investment strategies based on risk tolerance and the need for taking on additional risk to achieve higher returns. In response to the market’s rockiness in the past few years, Mary Ellen Fulton, assoc. dean for finance, research, and administration at the Lynch School of Education, said that it was necessary to watch what is happening currently in the market.

Panelists discussed the importance of utilizing retirement plans where an employer agrees to make a matching contribution up to a certain amount. The existence of plans that allow money to be taken out of each check tax-free allows individuals to pay themselves first. This makes the process of saving for retirement much easier, given the money is quite often not as missed if it were in each check.

At the end of the event, there was a brief discussion of how to get started with investing. Panel members brought up their favorite resources that students could use to start doing their research, including Yahoo! Finance, Investor’s Business Daily, and databases the library subscribes to, including Thompson ONE Banker. The panel emphasized the need to understand a company by reading its profile and knowing its competitors before investing in a company.

A brief education ensued to give attendees an awareness of the lingo needed to begin investing. Earnings per share and price to earnings ratio were described as some of the most important ratios needed to value a company. The panel used the example of J. Crew Company to show where these ratios and other important information appear in Yahoo! Finance.

The event concluded with a discussion of how women influence the stock market. Members of Smart Woman Securities stated that 85 percent of all consumer spending in America is done by women to the tune of $5 trillion. These spending decisions influence which stocks succeed in the market. The event concluded with a raffle of J. Crew gift cards.

By Blair Thill, Gavel Blogger -

The drama on the primetime version of Grey’s Anatomy has been rather abysmal for the past two seasons. Continue Reading

By Michelle Martinez, News Editor -

To jumpstart the upcoming Women’s History Month, the Black Student Forum organized a panel of several female Boston College faculty and administrative officials to discuss their experiences in their academic, personal and professional preparation as women Thursday night.

Carole Hughes, executive director for planning and staff development in the Office of the Vice-President of Student Affairs, spoke of her experiences as a first-generation college student born and raised in Boston. At her all girls’ high school, people constantly spoke of her potential undergraduate pursuits as being limited to nursing or education. Instead, she decided to pursue management studies, which was not her true passion, at the University of Massachusetts-Boston.

“I wasn’t the student I truly could have been, had I pursued something I was actually interested in,” Hughes said. “The challenge was that I chose a field that I wasn’t actually that good in. It was bad academic advising.”

Inés Maturana-Sendoya, director of AHANA student programs, had a slightly different experience, having grown up in Colombia. After graduating high school, she also faced the task of figuring out what she wanted to study. The only career path on which she and her father could agree, however, was modern languages, so she went to the United States in order to pursue this field of study.

“We were a middle-class family in Colombia. There were many times I felt very guilty for putting him through paying for me semester to semester,” Maturana-Sendoya said. “At other times I felt resentful because it wasn’t the career I had wanted to choose.” Several years later, however, Maturana-Sendoya found herself thanking her father for picking something for her that actually worked, and for giving her the opportunity to teach languages in the United States.

Neudy Nuñez, Resident Director for CLXF, was also a first-generation college student. As the oldest of six and daughter of Venezuelan immigrants, she wanted her parents to feel that immigrating and leaving their family behind had a successful end product. “I felt a sense of responsibility was already placed on my shoulders, knowing that I had to make them proud,” Nuñez said.

When the time to select a university came, Nuñez was sure that she wanted to attend a large college, but was also frightened to leave home.

“My mom was very supportive and didn’t want me to fear it, but rather to explore the world, which she hadn’t gotten to do,” Nuñez said. She eventually chose to leave her home state of New York for Florida International University, where she faced the challenges of paying for a costly tuition, as well as being far from home.

“There were two points when I considered transferring back to New York because I missed my family greatly, but this was the best thing my mom ever did, cutting the umbilical cord,” Nuñez said.

Régine Michelle Jean-Charles, Assistant Professor of French and African Diaspora Studies and founder of “A Long Walk Home, Inc.,” spoke of her experiences as a Haitian-American, who, though not a first-generation college student, was part of her family’s first generation born in the U.S. From her days in a prep school in Boston, it seemed definite that she would end up at an Ivy League school.

“I applied to every Ivy outside of Massachusetts, and ended up going to UPenn. I just loved my undergraduate, mainly because I took my whole advising thing very seriously, always knocking at professors’ doors,” Jean-Charles said. “Mentoring has been really important to me. I’ve been blessed by having great mentors at every institution I’ve been at, even here at BC.”

As an activist in her undergraduate years at Penn, Jean-Charles witnessed a heartbreaking incident between males and females that tore at the fibers of the African American community. “We’re always forced to put race before gender,” Jean-Charles said, “but these two things cannot be separated, but must each be respected on its own right.”

All four successful women gave considerable advice on how to balance and manage their personal, academic and professional lives, especially in times when overwhelmed by work or other circumstances.

“Making a plan is a good idea, but you have to be exit plans for yourself in case some whacky thing happens. Definitely make a plan, but keep it fluid so you can cut yourself some slack,” Hughes said. “The most important advice is to pick the best possible partner: someone that when you work full-time and have kids with, will be there with and for you.”

“Listen to your internal voice and your heart,” Maturana-Sendoya said. ”Be in tune with what your heart is telling you, because that is the path that is going to work for you.”

“The older you get, the thought process doesn’t get any easier,” Nuñez said. ”It actually gets blurrier. But you have to give yourself a choice. I had a ten-year plan in which love and children weren’t a part of it, but it happens. You have to be ok with yourself if that plan goes off a bit.”

“College doesn’t prepare you for the reality of life. There’s no one way to do things, and you never know what’s going to happen,” Jean-Charles said. “One of the important things for all of you to take away is there is not one plan. We can’t give you prescriptive narratives on how to make it work.”

By Sue Byun, Assoc. News Editor -

Thursday night the Boston College Hillel Association hosted a Chocolate Seder for a pre-Passover celebration, looking back to history for spiritual nourishment as well as embracing the enjoyable things in life such as sharing good food with friends. Continue Reading

By Christina Koutsourades, Gavel Writer -

This past week Boston College was especially green. Not only was it a week dedicated to the festive green of St. Patrick’s Day, it also happened to be BC’s second annual Green Week. Continue Reading

Video Credits: Photography: Sean Meehan;  Interviews: Justine Burt;  Script Writing: Matthew Gavin;  Editing: Sean Meehan

By Eliza Duggan, Layout Editor -

On Thursday, April 18, Welch Dining Hall was full of students ready to cheer on their favorite contestant in the Mr. BC competition. Continue Reading

By Karen Kovaka, Gavel Writer -

Several weeks ago, the Wall Street Journal ran an article called “Climate Change and Open Science,” which advocated greater transparency on the part of scientific researchers as a means of securing public trust in the wake of climategate. Continue Reading

By Meg Lister, Gavel Writer -

Hi, my name is Meg. I’ll pass on the chicken. Nope, no hamburger. I don’t actually eat meat, thanks. Yeah, that means no fish either. Really, no animal products — I’m a vegetarian. Continue Reading

By a vote of 219 to 212, the House passed the Senate’s health care reform bill Sunday night. All votes in favor of the bill came from Democrats. The House also passed its reconciliation bill, which has modifications to the Senate’s bill. That legislation will go to the Senate for a vote.

By Michael Mullin, Gavel Writer -

In light of the season-ending loss to Virginia in the opening round of the Atlantic Coast Conference men’s basketball tournament, it is almost completely inappropriate to profile a squad that mustered enough ineptitude to defy even the lowest of expectations. Continue Reading