KINGSTON, R.I. – May 9, 2023 – There are many things Emma Grant will carry with her as she walks the stage to collect her diploma during the University of Rhode Island College of Business commencement ceremony on May 21.

There are the sunny days when the Quad was packed as if it were Narragansett Town Beach. There is the sense of Rhody pride that she says will never leave her. There are the quiet times on the third floor of the library, where she could find a nice view and place to concentrate.

But the first thing Grant lists among the things she will remember is the way the University pushed her to be the best she could be. “That came everywhere in my journey through URI,” says the North Smithfield resident who will graduate from the URI College of Business with a bachelor’s degree in supply chain management. “I found it in academics, in clubs, in the way the University engages with students.”

But there is little doubt that at least some of her drive was self-propelled.

“Emma is without question one of the most exceptional students I have met here at URI,” said Brian Walsh, associate teaching professor in supply chain management. “Beginning her freshman year, she demonstrated an uncommon commitment to leverage every possible experience as an opportunity to excel in and out of the classroom.”

On both fronts, Grant’s resume is strong – president of the College’s Supply Chain Management Club; member of the Women in Business Club; URI 101 mentor; senior year excellence awards in supply chain from URI and the College; and three years as an intern for BD (Becton, Dickinson), a global medical technology company.

Like her fellow 2023 graduates, she accomplished it while navigating the new normal of virtual and hybrid classes, masking, social distancing and isolation amid the COVID-19 pandemic, which hit the second semester of her freshman year. 

Despite the pandemic, Grant says, she tried to take advantage of any opportunities to stay involved and engaged, including sewing face masks for URI essential workers as part of a business class project while finishing her freshman year from home.

“I tried to not let COVID impact what I was going to get out of my education,” she said. “I tried to take advantage of every opportunity that I could whether it was virtual or hybrid or in person.”

 “I think URI and the College of Business worked really hard to make sure students still felt engaged during the pandemic,” she added. “There were a lot of career and networking events that still took place virtually.”

During her first year, Grant, who initially considered majoring in global business because she liked to travel, was converted to supply chain management after hearing Walsh talk about the field in one of her first business classes.  

“I realized that was how my brain worked,” she said. “He was talking about supply chain as basically getting a product from point A to point B, and as a good supply chain professional, you have to be thinking three steps, 10 steps, 50 steps ahead. I realized that’s how I approach my everyday life.”

While Grant has taken advantage of much of what the College has to offer, she didn’t get her first chance to travel to professional conferences until this year. As a first-year student, she heard about the conferences and was excited by the chance to add real-world experience, test out what she had learned in the classroom and maybe learn something new, and network with professionals in the field.

But until this year, traveling to in-person conferences was limited because of the pandemic. She made up for it, though, attending three conferences: the Conference of Supply Chain Management Professionals in Nashville; TruckingU, the American Trucking Association’s conference in San Diego; and Harvard’s Intercollegiate Business Convention for women in business, in Boston. 

“All in all, I’ve come away from these experiences as a better student, a better peer, and a better individual and I am extremely grateful to both the COB and the professors who devote their free time to helping students attend these events,” she wrote in an email to interim Business Dean Shaw Chen and others in the College.

Along with her supply chain studies, Grant took the initiative to earn the College’s 12-credit innovation and entrepreneurship undergraduate certificate. Part of her drive was her experience helping to run a business that empowers 10 women entrepreneurs in Guatemala by helping them sell artisan goods, such as beaded keychains and lanyards. The profits have supported causes such as the American Cancer Society while also benefiting the women in Guatemala.

Grant started working with the business as her senior project in high school, traveling to Guatemala for the first time with classmates. She returned to visit the women in April 2022.

“The innovation and entrepreneurship program gave me the opportunity to hone this business and work with these women,” Grant said. “Last spring, I was in an entrepreneurship class that was focused on understanding your business model and how you can grow it, scale it and sustain it. When I went back to Guatemala, I had all these ideas to test.

“Meeting with the women, talking to them, understanding what their goals are, what they needed, I could support them in the United States. It was really great to just sit and talk with them.”

Another part of her URI experience that was rewarding, she says, has been serving as a URI 101 mentor for two years and, this year, as a teaching assistant for the two business underclass mentor sections.

“I started when I was a sophomore instructing first-year students who were remote,” she said. “They had all entered college during the pandemic and I was trying to get them excited about being at URI when most of them were sitting at home with their parents. It was a challenge. As the semester went on, I got to know them a little more and could give them one-on-one advice or recommendations. The next semester, we finally got to meet in person. Seeing the students get involved and really start to feel like URI was their home was so rewarding.”

In May, Grant started a new job with BD as an indirect buyer for its interventional surgery segment in the company’s Warwick office. But this summer, she will take time to play in beach volleyball leagues in North Smithfield and add another destination to her growing list of travel destinations – Iceland.