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From leading the Student Government Association as executive president to completing a rigorous management program at Harvard Business School, Marc Rinosa ’17 lives by the mission �鶹������ý prides itself on—Opportunitas.

Pace has taught me that Opportunitas—opportunity for all—means to never discount yourself,” Rinosa says. “Know that you are worth it and you can really achieve anything you set your mind to. It doesn’t matter where you are from or who you are—what matters is what you bring to the table and believing in what you've brought.”

When the business economics major arrived on the bustling �鶹������ý City Campus in 2013, he said he was immediately drawn to the contagious energy of students exploring their passions—in Rinosa’s case, his commitment to landing a career in management consulting.

After doing research on how he could best prepare himself for achieving his dream job, Rinosa realized many management consulting companies did not recruit at Pace, but rather at Ivy League and other prestigious universities.

“At the time, I was hurt and I couldn't believe it, but I thought instead of complaining about it, I'm going to do something about it,” he says. “I want to not only be one of the first undergraduates to work at a consulting firm from Pace, but I also want to bring students with me and increase the reputation of recruits not necessarily coming from Ivy League or so called ‘elite’ schools.”

He took it upon himself to start on the path toward consulting by getting involved on campus and being directly responsible for representing student interests and solving campus issues. He joined the NYC Campus Student Government Association (SGA) during his sophomore year, quickly climbing the ranks from an adviser on the Budget Allocations Committee (BAC), to the student body president of the Dyson College of the Arts and Sciences, to his current position of executive president of SGA.

As executive president, he sits on several larger University committees with faculty and members of the Board of Trustees including the �鶹������ý City Cabinet that discusses the state of the NYC Campus; the Presidential Search Committee that is searching for the next University president, and the �鶹������ý City Master Plan Committee overseeing the future of on-campus improvements.

In addition to student government, Rinosa is active in the LGBTQA and Social Justice Center and Career Services, trying to establish recruitment channels for underrepresented minorities and groups on campus.

“I've had the great privilege of being one of the first students to attend many diversity conferences in places like Chicago and �鶹������ý,” Rinosa says. “They connect you with recruiters that are specifically looking for a way to cast a net on a diverse pool of applicants. My goal is to increase visibility and accessibility to help as many students as possible achieve their dreams just as I have.”

At his internship at NERA Economic Consulting over the summer, Rinosa says he was surrounded by students who attended universities such as Yale, Swarthmore, and Barnard, and he was just as successful as they were.

“I realized at NERA that it doesn’t really matter what school you went to—what matters is how motivated you are,” he says. “I'm challenging that convention that you have to come from a conventional background—that you have to be a certain race, gender, or sexual orientation. I'm trying to redefine that you don't have to be from a cookie-cutter background, because an organization performs better when its members are diverse.”

Rinosa credits a large part of his self-confidence to his participation in the Summer Venture in Management Program that he attended at Harvard Business School. In what he calls a “life-changing” experience, he worked on 14 case discussions and learned from a professor who taught LL Cool J and Channing Tatum, and personally knows Beyoncé. He says one of the biggest highlights of his experience was when another professor surprised the class with an executive from Nickelodeon—the subject of one cases he had read the night before.

“No one raises their hand at Harvard Business School—they cold call you in class,” Rinosa says. “I was extremely anxious the night before and nervous during the first class, but by the end of the week I was eager to participate and continue the conversation. It was a crash course on confidence and taught me that my opinion mattered most when I actually believed it myself.”

While maintaining his recruitment strategies and extracurricular activities, Rinosa says he is applying to and interviewing with consulting firms located across the country, from his hometown of Houston, Texas, to San Francisco, and other destinations in between.

While maintaining his recruitment strategies and extracurricular activities, Rinosa says he is interviewing with consulting firms located across the country from his hometown of Houston, Texas and beyond, and he has already received his first offer.

“My objective is to leave Pace knowing that I have accomplished everything I’ve wanted to, closed all the loops with people I’ve met, and left a legacy with students in the same vision of Opportunitas and this year’s Convocation theme of Get Grit—that you have to stay persistent and determined to get through any obstacle to achieve your goals and dreams.”