NextGen Family Entrepreneurial Leadership Program

A remarkably large proportion of Babson's student body is affiliated with a family business.  If this includes yourself, and you are considering holding a management/executive role within your family firm upon graduation – or are weighing whether entering is the right choice – we encourage you to learn more about our flagship leadership program, NextGen FEL.  It doesn’t matter if your family business has 9 employees, 900 or 9,000 – this program explores your self-interests and family relationship/dynamics (which have the greatest impact on your ability to work entrepreneurially together) – irrespective of business size.

Developed from the fields of Neuroscience, Psychology, and Family Therapy, the FEL program will give you the skills you need to:

1. Understand yourself – and how you want to leverage your family’s entrepreneurial legacy to chart your own path
2. Build stronger relationships with your family so that you can achieve your goals

Over the course of the year, you will learn and practice leadership skills critical to building more effective relationships with your family and forging your own path in family entrepreneurship.

How It Works:

• Applications are handled via Canvas.  Details:

  1. To request a link to start your Canvas application process:   Click Here
  2. Shortly after completing the above, you will be sent a separate email via Canvas with an invitation to start the “NextGen FEL Student Application Process”, where all instructions to apply for the fall program are located.
  3. This co-curricular (non-credit bearing) program commences approximately the first week in October ’25 and runs 1-2x per month through April ’26 (approximately nine sessions over the full academic year). There will be a blend of in-person and virtual cohorts (convenient for those located away from Babson’s main campus).
  • Meetings are 90-120 minutes in length, and we do our best to hold them when you do not have regularly scheduled classes.
  • Given the Registrar’s course calendar for fall ’25, we’re projecting our NextGen FEL undergrad meetings will be offered on one or two weeknights in the early evening (when most for-credit classes are not held); graduate sessions will continue to run on Saturdays from 10a-Noon.
  1. All undergraduate and graduate students who will be enrolled at Babson for the full period between October ’25-April ’26 are eligible to apply; program costs are subsidized by BIFE for actively enrolled students.
  2. This is a selective process, where students will be placed into groups based upon a proper match between program fit and space availability.

What our students say:

"I would consider FEL one of the best experiences at Babson. Because we all came from similar backgrounds, the shared experiences were relatable and helped me empathize with and learn from my peers. There were some great insights I was able to take away and apply to my situation. FEL taught me empathy, discipline, commitment and a chance to tell my story and be vulnerable in a safe environment built with trust."

"I think that sharing experiences in a small group and hearing from peers with similar problems or experiences was one of the most enriching experiences I had in Babson. A lot of learning and very fun too!" 

”FEL provided me with priceless emotional support and helped me to form very practical approaches to my challenges."

”FEL really impacted me personally. It helped me have a better vision of what I want to do after Babson."

“[NextGen] provided me with priceless emotional support and helped me to form very practical approaches to my challenges." 

”An amazing experience to learn from peers.”