Trevor Marrero
One morning in late July, a group of seventh and eighth graders enrolled in Exeter Summer’s Access Exeter program gathered on the third floor of Phelps Science Center to engage in a lively discussion — about ice cream. Their teacher, Trevor Marrero ’12, listened closely as the students discussed how middle school buddies Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield started their eponymous brand from a storefront in Burlington, Vermont.
“They had a different view on how to make ice cream by combining things and making it chunkier,” one student offered. “They wanted to conduct an experiment to see if it was possible that business could be a tool for improving quality of life for people instead of doing it for money,” another added.
With its public commitment to socially progressive values, including the use of Fair Trade Certified ingredients, Ben & Jerry’s was an ideal case study for Marrero’s course, Entrepreneurship: Moral Money Making.
Marrero, a newly minted graduate of the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, returned to Exeter for the summer before starting his new position at Analysis Group, an economic consulting and strategy firm in Boston. An alumnus of the Access program, he jumped at the chance to spend five weeks back on campus. “I love coming back,” he says. “It’s very nostalgic, and there are a lot of powerful memories here.”
Marrero has maintained strong connections with the Academy as an alumni interviewer, organizer of young alumni events in Boston and co-chair of his 10th reunion, among other roles. In the fall, Marrero began serving as an appointed director of the General Alumni Association.
Recalling how he relied on the advice and wisdom of dormmates and friends during his first years at Exeter, Marrero says he always had the desire to “pay it forward” when it comes to learning. While in business school, he worked as a teaching assistant for an introductory undergraduate accounting class, and he was expecting to have to break down the concepts even more for middle schoolers. Instead, the students exceeded his expectations. “They want to be more technical,” he says, “and they want to learn about financial analysis and accounting concepts, which is my area of expertise.”
Marrero split the five-week course into four modules: ideation, building out a team, scaling the business and finding a way to give back. To accommodate different learning styles and to keep the class fresh, he used a variety of media, including articles, podcasts and YouTube videos. He also invited several Exonian entrepreneurs to make online presentations about their businesses.
Though Marrero knows the life-changing experience Harkness can be, he strived to make the coursework as much fun as it was challenging. It was a summer class, after all. “We’re not supposed to be crushing them with homework,” he says. “It’s more of an experience for them — a taste of Exeter’s flavor.”
— Sarah Pruitt ’95
Editor’s Note: This article first appeared in the fall 2022 issue of The Exeter Bulletin.
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