A Conversation with Minerva Student Tommaso

Meet Tommaso, a student in the Class of 2019.

Quick Facts

Name
Tommaso Boschetti

Hometown
Vicenza, Italy

Class
2019

Major
Business

Conversation

Describe the place you are from and your experience growing up there.
I grew up in Vicenza, Italy, a medium-sized town nestled between the Po Valley and the Dolomite Mountains. I had a rather uneventful upbringing until I moved to Canada to finish high school and was bitten by the travel bug. My experience overseas didn’t necessarily open my eyes or deepen my world perspective. It taught me, however, how to be comfortable with being uncomfortable. “Things are getting worse than expected. I gotta deal with it,” I started telling myself. This mantra has been a lifesaver.

Why did you choose to attend Minerva?
I was repulsed by the idea of spending my school days stuck sitting on a chair listening to a professor lecture. I had always wanted to study outside of Italy for my university experience. Minerva seemed the perfect fit!

Tell us about a memorable experience you have had in one of your Business classes.
One of my favorite Business classes is called Strategic Brand Leadership. The course focuses on providing us with the tools and fundamental concepts that inform how firms construct, develop, and grow successful brands. One of the course units discusses the psychological implications that underlie how brands propagate, which I found extremely interesting and perspective-shifting. It allowed me to look at growth strategies from a different viewpoint, teaching me how marketers can and should capitalize on consumer psychology to acquire and retain customers.

What is it like experiencing a new country each semester?
Constantly moving from one city to another and having to start from scratch every four months can be exhausting. What’s special about Minerva is that I get to do this with a group of 150 like-minded and supportive individuals who are always ready to cheer me up even when I can’t get myself out of bed because of jet lag. Another unique feature of traveling to a new country every four months as part of a community is that, as the semester unfolds, we construct collective memories of that location — ones that generate anecdotes, inside jokes, struggles, and topics of unanimous agreement and disagreement that only those of us who have been there understand.

What was your favorite thing to do in Hyderabad?
Hyderabad is by far one of the most interesting cities in which I have ever lived. It’s chaotic and disorganized, yet harmonious and coordinated. The food is amazing, and the people are overwhelmingly welcoming. Last weekend, a group of us visited Golconda, a citadel and fort completed in the 1600s, which used to be the capital of the medieval sultanate of the Qutb Shahi dynasty. The site was spectacular, but the highlights of my day were the many selfies we were asked to take with locals until one of them offered to take us around the fort, explaining its history and cultural relevance.

Tell us about an impactful internship you have had while at Minerva.
Last summer, I interned at Berlin-based, food-tech startup Your Superfoods. I was responsible for influencer marketing and finance controlling, and managed a monthly advertising budget. I developed and implemented over 30 influencer marketing campaigns on Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook, effectively acquiring new customers and strengthening the brand’s competitive position. I also created a brand new, automated KPI tracking system, which allowed the whole marketing team to monitor the performance of their campaigns much more efficiently. Through this opportunity, I was able to improve my understanding of consumer goods marketing, demonstrate my ability to manage large budgets, bring my own ideas to life, and exceed my, as well as my manager’s, expectations.

How do you think attending Minerva has changed you so far?
Attending Minerva has helped me become more accepting of people with perspectives different from my own, allowed me to get out of my comfort zone, and taught me how to say “yes” more often. The underlying assumption is that saying “yes” more often to things we have never done or experienced before opens up new and exciting opportunities for growth. Last fall in Berlin, for example, I spontaneously agreed to attend a postmodernist art exhibition. I was skeptical at first; not only was I put off by the seemingly-pretentious title of the exhibition (“Magic Beans”) but I was expecting to be disappointed by cheap wine and poor quality cheese. To my surprise, I enjoyed the exhibition and was able to meet some interesting individuals who later became my friends. Nonetheless, I was unimpressed by the wine and there was no cheese.

What do you aspire to do once you graduate?
From a career perspective, I am passionate about food innovation, sustainability, and supply chain transparency. Research has shown that corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives lead to favorable views of the organization by consumers, enhance consumer loyalty, and ultimately increase sales. Despite this evidence, however, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) often underestimate the impact that environmental sustainability can have on their top and bottom lines. After I graduate, I hope to be working with SMEs in the food industry, aiding the development and execution of CSR initiatives that can help them reduce their environmental footprint, build an eco-friendly brand reputation, and, ultimately, boost top- and bottom-line growth.

What would you tell a student who is considering applying to Minerva?
My top three tips for prospective students are: be confident, be real, and be you. Just kidding, Minerva is not a self-empowerment bootcamp. In all honesty, the only thing I’d tell a student considering applying to Minerva is that it is not for everyone. But if they’re like me, then it will feel like home as soon as they land in San Francisco for their first year.