For Bryant University alumni Liam Fluharty ’23, Meghan Schulze ’22, and Jack Westall ’22, the path to success, and their professional drive, started long before they walked through Bryant’s historic Archway after graduation. All three pursued myriad academic and extracurricular opportunities on campus, from student government to Bryant’s chapter of the Collegiate Entrepreneurs Organization (CEO)to work study — and now it’s paying off.

This engagement fostered team building expertise, entrepreneurial organization abilities, and problem-solving skills, among other leadership talents all of which are propelling them to success in their roles at CSL Consulting, a construction management firm in Providence. As assistant project managers and coordinators, they’re working on large-scale construction developments along the eastern seaboard, including Bryant’s new Business Entrepreneurship Leadership Center (BELC), which will open in August.

“It’s really cool to see the BELC happen now, because I really wanted an entrepreneurship center,” says Schulze, a Marketing and Team and Project Management double major who was involved in CEO for four years and served as the organization’s president for a year. “The connections, resources, networking opportunities and skills that came from being able to lead an organization on campus helped so much in my career now,” Schulze notes.

Fluharty, a Leadership and Innovation Management major, served as president of Bryant’s student government, led a university-wide Derby Days fundraising campaign that collected more than $150,000 for cancer research, and was a Student Affairs fellow. Like Schulze, he believes that these opportunities gave him the unique freedom to explore his own leadership style and gain experience for his professional career.

“Meghan, Jack, and I were all part of different organizations and student leaders in different capacities,” Fluharty says. “But we all found our niche and made the most of those experiences throughout our time at Bryant.”

“We always say that we can teach anybody construction, that's easy, but we can't teach people how to be smart and how to be savvy and how to be good people.”

A Psychology and Team and Project Management major, Westall says that the multiple group projects he worked on each semester provided for a seamless landing in construction management, where he directs meetings between team members and ensures their progress.

CSL Consulting co-founder and principal Ed LeFlore remembers meeting Westall and Schulze at a Bryant job fair during his post-COVID-19 struggle to find employees. He hired them both soon thereafter, and they referred Fluharty a year later, LeFlore says. The trio created a cohort at CSL that stays connected with campus opportunities and refers graduating students for job openings, which is crucial to LeFlore as his business grows. They are outgoing, sharp, well-spoken, trustworthy, and have adapted well to a new industry where they had no prior experience, he says.

His experience with recruiting Bryant graduates has shifted his approach to recruitment, states LeFlore. “We always say that we can teach anybody construction, that's easy, but we can't teach people how to be smart and how to be savvy and how to be good people,” he says, adding that Fluharty, Schulze, and Westall truly define those traits.

“It's really interesting to see the innovative minds coming out of colleges like Bryant, and then seeing how they adapt. … (they’re) challenging the norms, like, ‘Why do you do it this way?’ ‘Can we do it a different way?’ One of the things that I really like is their ability to confront challenges head on. It's not like they sit passively,” LeFlore notes.

“The drive, grit, and communication skills that we got from Bryant … that's why we got hired.” 

Westall, Schulze, and Fluharty believe that mentors like Lecturer of Management Rob Massoud helped foster their collaborative thinking, and they incorporate what they learned from his lessons into their daily work. “What I learned in class really shows itself in the industry,” Westall says. “Team management and running a meeting, and the inside information that he shared, are still important today. That's been really cool to see. The notes that I took in class and the exams are coming back to life after school.”

While Schulze and Westall manage up to four large-scale construction projects apiece across the Northeast and in Florida, Fluharty is working directly on the BELC building, where he depends heavily on his Bryant knowledge and experience to help with questions regarding design or use of spaces. He says that being a Bryant alum made it easier to jump right into the project. It’s about “understanding building names … and knowing, ‘this is a central hub for students,’ and ‘this is how students interact now,’ and trying to bring that community feel to a completely new building,” says Fluharty.

As he, Schulze, and Westall queue up at the beginning of their professional runway, they’re excited for what’s ahead but also look back at the opportunities Bryant presented to ensure they put the resources they had to good use.

“The drive, grit, and communication skills that we got from Bryant … that's why we got hired,” Schulze says. “It has been helpful, especially going into an industry where (we had) no construction or industry experience.”