Sophia Amoruso will come to Boston College on April 9 as part of the BC Women’s Summit: Own It. She will give the keynote speech at the summit, which aims to bring female leaders to campus in an effort to provide empowerment and foster leadership in BC students. Amoruso gained fame during her time as CEO of NastyGal, an online clothing realtor, and for her 2014 New York Times bestselling memoir #GIRLBOSS.
Amoruso provides a perspective that can often go unseen at BC. Her story is filled with difficulty and poverty, including a period of homelessness, until she eventually managed to achieve business success that culminated in her time as CEO of NastyGal. Entrepreneurship is of key importance to Amuruso’s success and is a theme of her memoir, in which she provides business advice. Having Amoruso speak at BC provides support for another effort at BC, by the Shea Center for Entrepreneurship. As BC increases its efforts to encourage students to pursue their own startups and ventures, a clearly difficult and risky road, the presence of role models like Amoruso on campus goes a long way toward legitimizing these efforts. She provides a hopeful perspective and serves as an encouraging example to BC students hoping to find entrepreneurial success.
She also serves as a reminder of the privilege BC students have in being able to earn a college diploma. As someone who can share the opposite view, Amoroso should remind BC students of the opportunity they have been given and the many people who have not received the same. To many students living on a campus surrounded by other BC students, this perspective can sometimes be lost, and it is important and valuable to ensure that it is remembered.
Amoruso provides these multiple perspectives and students should take the time to attend her speech and support the efforts of the Own It summit.
The Women’s Center, the Office of Student Involvement, and all those who work to put on the Own It summit deserve commendation for bringing Amoruso to campus. Her memoir and success in the business world have made her a significant figure who is sure to bring attention not only to the keynote speech specifically, but to the Own It summit and Women’s Center as a whole.
With her delivering the speech, a good step has been taken to spread the message of this year’s summit: pushing students to pursue their dreams and achieve their goals.
Featured Image by Julia Hopkins / Heights Editor
