Babson’s New HELV Is Now Open for Business
On the patio of the Herring Family Entrepreneurial Leadership Village (HELV), JT Rai ’26 sat in the shade last Thursday afternoon.
The semester was new, the late summer weather was glorious, and, for Rai, this was a moment to unwind. With his classes done for the week and his schoolwork finished for now, he was taking time to fill out internship applications before grabbing an early dinner. Tonight, he had tennis club practice to attend, and after that, a party.
In short, life was good on the porch, in this new space on Babson’s campus. The HELV may have only fully opened this semester, but Rai is already a regular. He enjoys coming here. “I like the new space. I’ve been here a dozen times already,” he said. “The weather is perfect out here.”
With HELV’s eagerly awaited opening, Babson now has a new defining feature of campus, a focal point for students to live, gather, and learn about entrepreneurial leadership. As Rai enjoyed the afternoon on the HELV’s patio, Babson held an open house to celebrate the landmark addition to the campus. College leaders spoke of what the HELV will mean for students, for faculty, and for Babson’s leadership in entrepreneurship education, while pointing to further additions to the facility in coming years.
“We have enhanced the delivery system for entrepreneurship education. It now sets a whole new standard,” Babson President Stephen Spinelli Jr. MBA’92, PhD, told the gathered faculty, staff, students, and alumni at the open house. “We have changed the game.”
An Anchor of Student Life
At the open house, College leaders thanked the many people who have invested in the teaching of entrepreneurial leadership at Babson. They singled out Arthur M Blank ’63, H’98; the supporters who invested in the HELV’s innovative classroom spaces; and Bruce Herring ’87, P’19, Tricia Herring P’19, and the entire Herring family, whose name graces the HELV.
“Thank you for helping us to fulfill our aspirations at Babson,” said Edward Chiu, Babson’s Governor Craig R. Benson Endowed Senior Vice President for Advancement.
Bruce Herring attended the open house, and he watched students as they came and went, from the HELV’s Village Coffee House and from the Foundations of Management and Entrepreneurship (FME) classes in the building. A signature course at Babson, FME now takes place entirely in the HELV. “To see students in this building is energizing,” said Herring, a member of the Babson Board of Trustees.
Speaking at the open house, Caitlin Capozzi called the HELV, with its mix of learning and living spaces, a new anchor for student life at Babson. Home to 282 students, it is the largest residence hall on campus.
“The HELV provides a new and unique aspect to the student experience—a dynamic place where students can live, learn, socialize, experiment, and network across our community,” said Capozzi, vice president for learner success and dean of campus life. “Located in an area of our campus that students often felt was too far from everything, it is now central to their daily lives.”
A New Learning Environment
As open house attendees celebrated the HELV, Yasuhiro Yamakawa and Megan Gorges wrapped up teaching an FME course in one of the building’s classrooms. After students filed out, the pair stayed to talk and review how the class went. An associate professor of entrepreneurship, Yamakawa is teaching FME for the 15th time, while Gorges, an adjunct lecturer in management, is in her first year of teaching the experiential course.
They both praised the tech and design of the spacious, new classroom, how it has plenty of screens and whiteboards, how the tables and chairs can be moved to allow collaboration, how it looks out upon a relaxing scene of grass and trees. “I think the level of excitement and engagement seems to be increasing because of the new facility and its design,” Yamakawa said.
For both students and professors alike, the HELV offers a new type of learning environment. “They now get to work together in an environment that has been specially geared toward teaching the entrepreneurial leaders of tomorrow,” Donna Stoddard, dean of faculty, told attendees at the open house. “And, I am very excited to see what they will achieve in this new space.”
Looking to the future, Spinelli said the College plans to continue building on to the HELV in coming years, with additional classrooms, student living spaces, and a dining area. “We are only in phase one of this,” he said.
READ MORE: Explore What the HELV Means for Babson and Entrepreneurship Education
- HELV Dedication: A Different Kind of Entrepreneur
- A First Look at the Herring Family Entrepreneurial Leadership Village
- HELV’s Cutting-Edge Classrooms Usher in a New Era of Education
- From Chopsticks to Robots: Discover the Surprises of Babson’s HELV
- Investing in the Power of Education at the HELV
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