To be academically successful in college, Matt Rossi ’26 knew he needed a learning environment with small class sizes, which would allow him to form close connections with faculty.
“That's why I ultimately chose Bryant,” says Rossi, a Madison, Connecticut, native whose parents and other members of his extended family also attended the university.
Over the course of the next four years, Rossi did indeed make those connections — which led to a host of opportunities — and formed deep bonds within the Bryant community.
While Rossi still has a handful of days before he walks across the Commencement stage, the Applied Economics major has already secured a position in Pratt & Whitney’s Finance Leadership Development Program. Beginning in July, the three-year rotational program gives Rossi the opportunity to experience different finance roles throughout RTX Corporation’s subdivisions — including Pratt & Whitney, Collins Aerospace, and Raytheon Technologies.
“I specifically chose to do a rotational program because, while you get a lot of experience in the classroom, you may not necessarily know what you want to do,” he says, noting the appeal of trying different positions across a wide range of areas on his way to finding a perfect fit — especially when you have the foundational skills to thrive in a variety of positions.
Opportunities for growth
It was his first year “Microeconomic Principles” and “Macroeconomic Principles” courses that convinced Rossi to become an Applied Economics major. Both were led by Lecture of Economics Allison Kaminaga, Ph.D., who introduced him to the key ideas and theories that underpin the field.
“She drew me into the field of economics,” he says.
From there, Rossi, who also chose to minor in Finance and Information Systems, has been using his interests and the skills he’s developed in the classroom to inform his projects and his education. His love of football, for instance, was the basis for his Honors Program thesis.
Leveraging his finance and economics skills, Rossi, with the assistance of Associate Professor of Economics Laura Beaudin, Ph.D., a sports economics researcher, studied socioeconomic status as a predictor of high school football success.
“I ran several different regressions to figure out if there's a correlation between certain socioeconomic factors and winning percentage overall,” says Rossi, who received Bryant’s 2026 Excellence in Economics Commencement Award, among other accolades.
Rossi, supported by a Bryant Research Grant, also traveled to Northern California to conduct quantitative analysis in the town of Guerneville, which runs along the Russian River. His group of student researchers, under the guidance of faculty mentors, looked at the economic impacts of repeat flooding in that area.
“We got to meet with an emergency department and residents to understand what they're doing to mitigate the flood loss risk and how they’ve been impacted,” says Rossi. The team also learned how communities adapted to this challenge through home elevation, mutual aid, and alternative risk-sharing solutions.
Benefits of balance
But for all of Rossi’s academic success, he also sought to balance his studies with extracurriculars, so that he could excel in the classroom but still develop meaningful relationships with his peers.
Throughout his four years at Bryant, Rossi threw himself into several aspects of campus life, including working as a tutor in the university’s Academic Center for Excellence, participating in the Bryant Economic Student Association, serving as vice president of the Honors Program Council, and playing intramural sports.
His biggest involvement, and proudest accomplishment, he says, was his participation in Sigma Chi’s Derby Days campaign. Ross has been co-running Bryant’s piece of the annual nationwide philanthropic event these past two years, and the group raised $184,000 this year to support cancer research and patient care at the Huntsman Cancer Institute.
With only a week to raise the money, he notes that significant work goes into pulling off such a successful event, including managing logistics and connecting with alumni and sponsors.
“You have to start immediately after the last Derby Days ends,” he says.
Now, having found his own path at Bryant, Rossi has a few pieces of advice for the next class of incoming first-year students as they make their way to campus in a matter of months: find the right balance between academics and social experiences, get out of your comfort zone, and remember to not take life too seriously.
“Everyone is in the same position coming into college,” Rossi shares. “You make mistakes, you move on, and then you'll look back in the position where I am right now and be happy for the experience because it's just such a new and interesting time.”