For many in the University community, Tuesday, Sept. 8 was a pivotal date. Since the University’s announcement on Aug. 4 that in-person classes would begin in some capacity on that day, students, faculty and staff alike have been waiting with bated breath to begin a semester of classes unlike any in recent memory. With one week of in-person class now complete, students, including third-year Batten student Sydney Cherry, reflect on their first time in a classroom in six months.

Brendan Boler is Faculty Director of Integrated Career Education at the UVA Career Center and Assistant Professor of Public Policy at the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy. Boler specializes in management consulting, high-performance coaching, and talent assessment and selection. He has extensive experience within the fields of management consulting and banking, having worked at Accenture, Goldman Sachs, and Morgan Stanley. 

Bevin Etienne is assistant professor of commerce and public policy at the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy at the University of Virginia. Etienne has extensive teaching and course development experience in the areas of sustainability, entrepreneurship, energy, and engineering design. He emphasizes the importance of capacity building in promoting sustainability and social entrepreneurship in developing countries as well as the role of open source in innovation and entrepreneurship.