The Annual 2018 DifferenceMaker® Celebration was held Wednesday, October 10 in Moloney Hall, University Crossing. The purpose of this event was to celebrate and support the success that our UMass Lowell alumni and students have experienced in our DifferenceMaker program. The event introduced alumni who have served as mentors and judges, as well as showcased the work of our student DifferenceMaker teams. The ultimate goal of the evening is to showcase our students and engage more alumni in supporting their efforts both as mentors and as donors. The highlight of the evening was keynote speaker Ron Insana, Senior Analyst and Commentator for CNBC.
After the 140+ attendees enjoyed dinner and networking, Steven Tello, Vice Provost of Innovation & Workforce Development introduced the DifferenceMaker program, related activites and successful teams. Dr. Tello emphasized how grateful he was for all of the amazing people who have made DifferenceMaker what it is today, especially the sponsors, judges and mentors. A big thank you to Ed Gallagher and Comcast for sponsoring Ron Insana.
Chancellor Moloney then took the stage to kick-off the event with RiverHawk pride! Then, a panel of DifferenceMaker students, judges, and mentors discussed their projects and what kind of impact they’ve made, as well as the process they went through in moving their ideas along. DifferenceMaker Program Director Holly Butler moderated this panel. She was joined by Craig Kelly, engineer on the DifferenceMaker team eNable Lowell, Roma Aurora of Project Starfish, Danielle Thibodeau of Operation 250, Gary Ainsworth, Principal Consultant of Arc Completa, Inc, and Richard Juknavorian, Vice President of Product Startegy & Business Development at Casenet.
Holly Butler leads the discussion panel
After the panel commenced, Holly introduced guest speaker, Ron Insana. Ron insisted that Dean Kamen, inventor of the Segway, say a few words before him. Dean was passionate in spreading his message that people should choose a career path that they will want to stick with and not worry about their “exit strategy” from their job.
Ron Insana watches on as Dean Kamen addresses the audience
When Ron took over, he captivated the audience with stories of how he got his unusual start on television. He then spoke on how highly he thinks of UML, and the type of students the school produces. After his speech, he fielded questions from the audience on a variety of topics, from finance to politics.
The event was a huge success, and we’d like to thank all of the students, alumni, faculty, and guests who attended for making it so enjoyable!