Christina Vitale ’26, ’27MBA is the first to arrive at Callahan House, home to Bryant University President Ross Gittell, Ph.D., for inaugural first meeting of the 2026-2027 Bryant University Senior Advisory Council (BSAC). But in many ways, she’s been preparing for this moment her entire Bryant career.
Over the course of her time at Bryant, Vitale has been president of the Honors Council, a peer tutor, a student ambassador, and a research analyst for the university’s Office of Institutional Effectiveness and Strategy, among many other credential and accolades. She’s also a member of Bryant’s initial class of 3+1 participants, an ambitious and demanding program that allows students to earn both their undergrad and MBA degrees in just four years. When she claims that MBA degree in May, a position at PwC as a tax associate is waiting for her.
From her first day on campus, Vitale’s Bryant career has been driven by leadership, a desire for personal excellence, and a devotion to service. It’s not really a surprise, then, that she’s chosen to conclude that career by contributing to the university at the highest level as one of 37 students selected to help determine the university’s future.
“I’m grateful to be here,” she reflects. “I think everyone on BSAC loves Bryant University and wants to do everything they can to support it.”
BSAC, explained
The Bryant University Senior Advisory Council serves as an important advisory body to Bryant’s cabinet leadership, providing a direct channel for student perspectives on campus life, academics, and strategic initiatives. The student leaders who make up the council were chosen from an exceptional pool of applicants — recognized for their academic excellence, leadership, and dedication to the Bryant community.
Members meet once a month over dinner with the president and other senior administrators to learn more about major campus initiatives and share feedback. At the conclusion of their senior year, one member of the council is selected to serve as Bryant’s Recent Alumni Trustee, representing the voice of recent graduates on the university’s Board of Trustees.
BSAC, says Vitale, is an opportunity for students to have their voices heard. “Everyone comes from such different backgrounds and has such different experiences; they all bring so many important perspectives and ideas to the table,” she notes. “And by bringing everyone together, you can do so much more.”
Representation, agrees her fellow BSAC member Christian Pereira ’27, is vitally important, and also a responsibility. In addition to being a standout Political Science scholar, and one of only eight undergrads selected from hundreds of national applicants to present research at the American Political Science Association’s Emerging Scholars Symposium, Pereira also competes on Bryant’s championship-winning swim and dive team. There’s a strong culture of mentorship on the team, he notes, with the older students helping out the newer additions, so he’s worked with, and learned from, a number of former BSAC members over the years.
Now it’s his turn to step up, he notes.
"It’s a privilege to be on BSAC,” says Pereira. “This is a position I’ve worked hard for.”
Starting the conversation
One by one and in small groups, the BSAC members wind their way up President’s Walk and into Callahan House, where they take their seats in the President’s Dining Room, eight to a table with one spot reserved for a member of the president’s cabinet.
When the group is settled, President Gittell addresses the group and welcomes them to his home. “I wanted to start by congratulating you,” he tells them. “All of you have earned your place in this room, and it is a very competitive room to be a part of.”
Over the next several months, he says, the students and the cabinet will take part in discussions that touch nearly every aspect of university operations, from academics to athletics to student life, and the BSAC members’ input will play a role in future institutional initiatives.
But in order to have these discussions, Gittell says, it’s important that everyone understand each other’s perspectives. “Tonight is a night for all of us to learn about each other,” he says.
And then the conversations begin.
There’s no real plan to the seating arrangement, but each table is populated by a mix of students representing a range of majors from across Bryant’s three colleges — sparking a rich and robust discussion between the students and cabinet members.
At a table in the back, for instance, Edinaldo Tebaldi, Ph.D., P’29, vice president for strategy and partnerships, compliments Aurora Pedwell ’27 on the excellent job she did co-hosting the kickoff event for Bryant’s Momentum in Motion capital campaign. Pedwell, a Digital Marketing and Digital Communications double major, recently completed a summer internship with Boston’s 98.5 The Sports Hub and, in February, spent a week broadcasting from the Super Bowl’s Radio Row as part of her Bryant coursework.
Pedwell, for her part, is characteristically modest and credits the entire team. “Bryant has put me in the right rooms,” she says.
Inge-Lise Ameer, Ed.D., vice president of student affairs and dean of students, is already seeking out information, asking the students about their own experiences on campus. Evan Cournoyer ’27, co-coordinator of Bryant’s Student Ambassador program who has spent time leading campus tours for prospective families, excitedly tells her about the students applying to Bryant’s Class of 2031 and how incredible they are. It’s a cohort with whom he’ll never share the campus, but Cournoyer believes that, through BSAC, he can help make their university experience as fruitful as his own.
At the president’s table, Gittell asks his tablemates about what’s shaped their college careers. Their answers are a mix of greatest hits and upcoming triumphs. Data Science student Ben Schubbe ’27, president of the university Think Tank, which crunches data for the university’s Division I athletics teams, discusses the clothing upcycling business he’s started on campus. Susana Sayegh ’27, ’28MBA, one of the university’s Ellen Wilson Leadership Fellows, is preparing a presentation summing up some of the important work she's done. Health Sciences major Celina Pimentel ’27 shares stories from her trip to South Africa through Bryant’s “Global Health Challenges” course.
Pimentel and her friend Emily Sexton ’27, who also took part in the South Africa experience, were both recommended to BSAC by their professor, Senior Lecturer of Health and Behavioral Sciences Stephanie Mott. To be in this room, surrounded by such an incredible group of peers, is an honor, Pimental says, and a sign of how much they’ve grown as leaders.
As students in Bryant’s newly elevated College of Health and Behavioral Sciences, they’ve seen first-hand how the university has grown and evolved, and they’re excited to be part of what’s next. “We’re closing a chapter of our lives here at Bryant, and this is our chance to help shape its future,” Sexton notes.
While preparing to enter the buffet line, Gittell asks the students a final question: if they're nervous about leaving Bryant in the spring.
Schubbe speaks for the table with a quick shake of his head. “No,” he says. They’ll always be grateful for their time at the university, but they feel prepared, more than ever, for what’s next.
Shared experience
During dessert — which includes apple cider crumble bars, plum cream strips, and espresso caramel panna cotta — the president again addresses the room.
Taking to heart his own dictum to learn about one another, Gittell opens up to the council — about his own college experience at the University of Chicago, his time at Chase Manhattan Bank and the Federal Reserve, and how he discovered his passion as an educator. He’s been president of Bryant for six years, Gittell notes, a tenure that began during the challenging days of the COVID-19 pandemic and has extended through a new era of growth and international recognition for the university.
One of the things he misses from teaching, he adds, is getting to know his students on a personal level. That back and forth, Gittell notes, is one of the things that makes BSAC so special.
“BSAC gives me the opportunity to do something that’s so very important, especially at a place like Bryant University that is so student-centered: to learn from all of you” says Gittell.
“The 37 of you provide an invaluable perspective. And I speak for the entire cabinet when I tell you that perspective is so very important to us,” Gittell states. ”We want to know about your Bryant experience, both what you love about Bryant and where we can improve and get better.”
He then invites the rest of the cabinet to share their stories. One by one they stand and talk about their lives and their careers. They also talk about what they’ve grown to love about Bryant.
Bill Smith, J.D., vice president for athletics and recreation has been at Bryant for nearly 21 years. Two of his children have gone to school here, he notes. That's how much he believes in the university, and in its students. Chris Lehman, MBA, vice president for human resources and chief human resources officer, has only been with the Bryant community for a little more than a year, but he’s already incredibly impressed. “You are all so focused on success, but you’re focused on each other's success as well,” he reflects, noting that this dinner is a prime example.
When the last member of the cabinet has finished speaking, it’s the students’ turn. One by one, they state their name and their major. It’s an announcement and a declaration: They are now officially part of BSAC, and the future of Bryant University.
Making their mark
As the event concludes, as most students file out, Ameerah HuieWhite ’26, ’27MBA, Hardee Patel ’27, and Evan Cournoyer ’27 are the last to linger in Callhan House, buzzing with excitement about the evening.
Patel, a resident assistant, Welcome Week leader, and member of Student Government who came to Bryant from India and proudly proclaims that Bryant was her first and only choice for college, is still slightly stunned. “If you had told me freshman year that I would be here dining with the president and his cabinet, I’m not sure I would have believed it,” she admits.
“It’s about giving back to the Bryant community, because the Bryant community has given so much to me,” reflects HuieWhite. But she’s also committed to giving honest feedback, she says: what went well and what could have gone better, so the school can continue to grow.
As for Cournoyer, he just can’t wait to get started. “These have been the best years of my life,” he says. “And now it’s my chance to leave my mark.
The members of the 2026-2027 Bryant Senior Advisory Council are:
- Grace McKenzie ’26, ’27MBA, a 3+1 graduate student specializing in International Business, from Higganum, CT
- Kaitlyn Hoy, a Finance major from Camillus, NY
- Lily Kimball ’27, a Biology major from Millbury, MA
- Hardee Patel ’27, a Digital Marketing major with a concentration in Team and Project Management, from Ahmedabad, India
- Aurora Pedwell ’27, a Digital Marketing and Digital Communication double major, from Calgary, Alberta
- Christina Vitale ’26, ’27MSA, a 3+1 graduate student studying Accounting, from Park Ridge, NJ
- Megan Beasley ’27, a Biology major, from Harrogate, England
- Emma Desmond ’26, ’27MBA, a 3+1 graduate student specializing in Business Analytics, from Weymouth, NJ
- Ted Donahue ’27, a Human Resource Management and Psychology double major, from Norton, MA
- Monica Garbacz ’26, ’27MBA, a graduate student specializing in Fintech, from Durham, CT
- Ameerah HuieWhite ’26, ’27MBA, a graduate student specializing in General Management, from West Hartford, CT
- Satanvi Kavali ’27, a Finance major from Cranston, RI
- Sean Nelson ’27, a Global Supply Chain Management major from Acton, MA
- Kylie Paul ’27, a Marketing major from Uxbridge, MA
- Bea (Marlee) Peters ’26, ’27MBA, a 3+1 graduate student specializing in International Business, from Uniondale, NY
- Chase Whitman ’27, a Finance and Applied Economics double major, from Shelburne, VT
- Anna Boranian ’27, an International Business major with concentrations in Global Supply Chain Management and Biology, from Huntersville, NC
- Emely Del Rosario ’27, an International Business major concentrating from Finance, from Woonsocket, RI
- Tovianna Reid-Robinson ’27, a Marketing major with a concentration in Applied Analytics, from Providence, RI
- Emma Rodenhiser ’27, ’28MBA, a Team and Project Management major, from Peterborough, NH
- Susanna Sayegh ’27, ’28MBA, a Finance major, from Stoughton, MA
- Nathan Smith ’27, a Data Science major, from Kolkata, India
- Anthony Sullivan ’27 an International Business major with concentrations in Finance and Spanish, from Attleboro, MA
- Gabriela Cos ’26, a Digital Communication major, from Danbury, CT
- Evan Cournoyer ’27, a Digital Marketing major from Franklin, MA
- Nadine Greybek ’27, a Psychology major from Warren, NJ
- Isabella Ngo ’27, a Marketing major, from Shrewsbury, MA
- Celina Pimentel ’27, a Health Sciences major, from North Scituate, RI
- Aaron Prata ’27, ’27MSA, an Accounting major, from Rehoboth, MA
- Emily Sexton ’27, a Health Sciences major, from Lincoln, RI
- Alexis Cote ’27, an Exercise and Movement Sciences major, from Warwick, RI
- Connor Lavoie ’26, ’27MSA, a 3+1 graduate student studying Accounting from Ipswich, MA
- Riley McKinley ’27, a Leadership and Inspiration and Politics and Law double major, from Buxton, ME
- Cole Mellen ’27, a Finance major with a concentration in Applied Analytics, from Rensselaer, NY
- Adrian Nuñez ’27, a Health Sciences major from Ormond Beach, FL
- Christian Pereira ’27, a Politics and Law major from West Kingston, RI
- Benjamin Schubbe ’27, a Data Science major with a concentration in Sports Studies, from Chanhassen, MN