From Acceptance to Leadership: The Personal Journey of Babson’s SGA President
Jolie Wyatt ’26 understands the math of time management.
Take the 24 hours that make up a day, subtract the eight hours spent sleeping, and that leaves you with 16 hours. That’s the time to get things done, if you can take advantage of it.
“I personally feel people don’t utilize their day as well as they should. Sixteen hours is a lot,” Wyatt says. “I am the biggest person for time management. Everyone has to be aware of their bandwidth.”
Not one for standing still, Wyatt keeps busy. She is the founder of a litany of varied ventures: a seller of vintage clothing, a career advising service focused on resumes and LinkedIn profiles, a footwear company offering custom-made shoes. She also ran a cosmetics startup for a few years.
“I have multiple ventures because I believe in exploring every opportunity that sparks my passion,” she says. “As long as I have passion, I will always have time.”
On top of all this roll-up-your-sleeves entrepreneurship, she is the president of the Student Government Association (SGA), which serves as the voice of the Babson student body. That’s a big job. “I want SGA to be seen,” she says, “as a group of students working toward creating a better Babson and creating a better student well-being.”
With her ventures and her SGA post, Wyatt may be an entrepreneurial leader on campus, but she wasn’t always so driven. Before Babson, before she became SGA president and an entrepreneur with multiple startups, before she became a ruthless master of time management, Wyatt was a teen unsure of herself and facing personal challenges.
This is a look at how she came to the College, found her place, and flourished.
Accepting One’s Self
Fittingly, the SGA office sits in the heart of campus, on the ground floor of the Reynolds Campus Center, its windows offering a view of College Drive and the students coming and going there. Stored inside the office are festive items used for SGA events, including a spinning wheel for awarding prizes and helium tanks for filling balloons. “Balloons make events 10 times better,” Wyatt says.
Under Wyatt’s leadership, SGA is working on a number of initiatives aimed at impacting campus life, such as offering a shuttle service to Boston and building connections between students and alumni. Taking on such a high-profile role as the SGA presidency wasn’t necessarily a natural fit for Wyatt. She’s introspective by nature, and she isn’t keen on public speaking. “I am a bit introverted,” she says. “I often prefer if someone would say hi to me first.”
Wyatt believes that her introverted personality stems largely from the fact that, at the age of 9, she was diagnosed with hidradenitis suppurativa, a chronic inflammatory skin condition. To hide her skin growing up, she wore long-sleeve shirts and jackets, even though she lived in the heat of Florida. “I felt like an outcast from everyone else,” she says.
In time, Wyatt learned to accept herself for who she is, with help from the Babson community. “When I came to Babson, I knew this was a safe environment. Everyone here is very supportive. They want to uplift people,” Wyatt says. “I am very grateful for the Babson community, allowing me to be more authentic and love myself and giving me the drive and passion to do that for someone else.”
In her work with SGA and her ventures, Wyatt does just that, helping others to shine.
Inspiring the Best in Others
Wyatt runs several startups. She is the president and founder of Wyatt LinkedIn, which assists clients with sprucing up their resumes and LinkedIn profiles. “I want them to present the best version of themselves,” she says.
She is also the co-founder and vice president of marketing for Urgent Revolution, a vintage clothing business, and the CEO and founder of If the Shoe Fits, which is exploring ways to offer custom-made shoes in difficult-to-find sizes. “The shoe needs to fit you, not the other way around,” she says.
As for SGA, Wyatt served a year as the organization’s VP of communications before deciding to push herself and run for president, even though the position is a very public one. “I am a person who likes to be challenged,” says Wyatt, who also serves as a Women’s Leadership Scholar with the Frank & Eileen™ Center for Women’s Entrepreneurial Leadership. “I felt a drive in myself to take the risk, dive in, and see how much impact we can create on Babson’s campus.”
Beyond leading SGA’s campus initiatives, Wyatt wants to make a difference as president with her words. At the fall orientation for first-year students, for instance, she gave a speech urging the newest Beavers to take advantage of what Babson has to offer. “Make sure to try new things,” she had said. “Follow your passions.”
Wyatt admits that she has long been uneasy with public speaking, but she believes that inspiring others is part of her job. Just as she has overcome challenges and pursued opportunities, she wants to encourage others to do the same. “In my position as president, I feel like I can pull the best out of people,” she says. “Little words of wisdom can bring the fire out of you.”
Posted in Community, Entrepreneurial Leadership
