Nathaniel Rhoads graduated with honors from Moravian College in 2019. He majored in economic theory and policy, minored in mathematics, and served as a reporter for The Comenian. He received his Ph.D. in Business and Economics from Lehigh University in August 2025. Rhoads resides in Hyde Park, MA, and serves as a Lecturer at Boston University’s Questrom School of Business in the Department of Markets, Public Policy, and Law.
My dad got his MBA from Moravian in 1996. His high praise for the business and economics faculty partially inspired me to attend Moravian for my undergraduate degree. He also advised me that if the opportunity arose, I had to “take one of Santo’s classes,” referring to Dr. Santo D. Marabella.
Given that Dr. Marabella taught management courses and I was majoring in economic theory and policy, I thought that opportunity wouldn’t come. In Fall 2018, though, I registered for one of his courses: Doing Good at Work – a course that focused on different ethical and moral dilemmas we may encounter in the workplace and how we can “do good” and live with our work.
The first reason I call Doing Good at Work the class that made a difference is a piece of advice Dr. Marabella gave us that everyone should heed: business, like life, is full of compromises, and you can’t avoid them. Dr. Marabella told us that if we must make a compromise, think of ourselves as jelly donuts. While there are some “donut crumbs,” or values we may be comfortable compromising, everyone should have some “jelly,” i.e., some core values that you always follow and can’t compromise. It may seem like an odd way to describe making compromises, but I still remember it after all these years and use it in my decision-making.
I could also highlight the great discussions we had each week or how Dr. Marabella excelled at ensuring everyone was heard and respected. I was most impacted, though, by the course’s final project, where we developed and presented a personal model for “doing good” that we could use after graduation. My model focused on developing and finding passion in your work that you could use as a form of self-care. Preparing the presentation was difficult because, for the first time, I would need to discuss my struggles with stress and loneliness with people who weren’t my roommates or staff at Moravian’s Counseling Center. I feared either silence or indifference from the other students. However, after I ended my presentation, both Dr. Marabella and my classmates provided encouraging and supportive feedback. I am proud to say that I still use this personal model in my everyday life, and I will never forget the support I received from my classmates and Dr. Marabella.
