On Friday, November 17, approximately 30 students from Rutgers University joined an equal number of students from FIT’s School of Business and Technology to learn and collaboratively share information on core themes in finance, the beauty industry (fragrance in particular), and sustainability. Lectures and workshops addressed topics such as the time value of money, firm valuation from a financial perspective, a financial model to measure the impact of sustainability, trends in the cosmetics and fragrance industry, and innovations in sustainability.
As part of the Invitational, students visited Business and Technology labs. In the Annette Green Fragrance Foundation Studio — the only fragrance lab on a U.S. college campus — they learned about the science behind fragrances and participated in creating fragrances with Virginia Bonofiglio, associate chair of the department of Cosmetics and Fragrance Marketing. In FIT’s Textile Development and Marketing (TDM) labs, students participated in a workshop focusing on the fragrance finishing of textiles with Ajoy Sarkar, associate professor in TDM, and Min Zhu, assistant professor in TDM. Finally, the students participated in a workshop examining color, color testing, and brand cohesion with associate professor in TDM Sean Cormier.
