By Nicholas LoBrutto ‘25 , Christian LoBrutto ‘25 , Christian Betsy ‘25 , and Ryan Daves ‘25
RAMSEY, NJ – On Thursday, January 4, 2024, the BioTech XYZ Club at Don Bosco Prep hosted a unique and exciting pinning ceremony for its 1st ever cohort consisting of Junior and Senior students. The club was introduced to Don Bosco Prep in February, 2023 by graduates of Cornell’s SC Johnson College of Business – Rosario LoBrutto PhD, MBA, MS and Steven Zychowski MBA, MS – and is associated with BioTech XYZ at Cornell’s High School Outreach Program. With
only 25 members, who have a strong passion for Business and Science, the Club is highly selective and is the first club in Don Bosco Prep history to have an application process and to be associated with an Ivy-League college.
The pinning ceremony consisted of several parts. First, opening remarks were given by the Club’s Moderator, Mr. John Esposito, the Business Pathway Chair at DBP, and the founder of BioTech XYZ at Cornell’s High School Outreach Program, Rosario LoBrutto. Mr. LoBrutto shared the history behind the program – how, in fact, he had started it while in graduate school He also explained how it was a great idea, since in the high school landscape, the program is very unique, and the opportunity for high school students to get the experience of learning business, science and presentation skills at an extremely high level is very impactful.
Then, the student leadership team provided additional remarks as Co-Presidents Thomas MacDougall ‘25 and Matthew Robertelli ‘24 both shared their own valuable experiences from being involved with the Club and how it has immensely helped prepare them for college studies, and more importantly, the real world.
The most anticipated and exciting part of the ceremony took place next: the team competition. Since the start of the Club, members have been split into 5 teams of 5 and have been given monthly case studies to solve and then present. After a month of preparation, all 5 teams delivered 2-minute presentations at the ceremony, displaying their knowledge on the case’s topic of having to strategically place bids for a BioTech company, as the best bid to the “Board of Directors” would essentially win you the competition. There was a big, unexpected twist to the competition though. The team, Biosyn, won initially, but when the teams were surprisingly given 10-minutes to discuss with each other and adjust their bids in real-time, Biotech Я Us came out victorious by a very slight margin, winning them the competition as well.
The final part of the ceremony was the actual pinning of the members, announced by Mr. John Esposito. Before calling members up to receive their pins though, Mr. Esposito called on Nicholas LoBrutto, the Club’s VP of Strategy, to speak about his contribution to the club in his role of designing the pins. He spoke about how important elements, such as branding, came into play and how he was able to make the Biotech Club pin unique from all the other pins students have by using a background of shiny silver, instead of gold. To conclude the event, the mix of Juniors and Senior Club members walked up and received their well-earned pins as a sign of appreciation for their strong commitment to the Club and to officially become its 1st ever cohort.
If you are interested in joining the BioTech XYZ Club at Don Bosco Prep, the application process begins in early February, and is open to only Sophomore and Junior students.