Deborah Jones-Cerretani ’84 Makes a Planned Gift to Support the Babson Women’s Athletics Program

Looking back, Deborah (Deb) Jones-Cerretani ’84 followed a less traditional path to Babson. “I didn’t want to go to just any school, and I loved working,” she recalls. “So I worked my way into the Filene’s training program, which in my day was a great place to go if you wanted a career in retail.”

It was there that she began working for the first of two women she credits for her Babson journey, Ellen Kaimowitz Isbitz MBA’76. “She told me she was going to work us hard but also told me, ‘If you do a great job for me, I’ll bring you right along with me.’ ” She became an important mentor and, true to her word, helped Deb achieve promotions and new opportunities. However, Deb eventually realized she could go only so far without a four-year degree and knew she wanted the Babson training that had made Ellen such an effective leader. “Because of Ellen’s influence, I decided that I only wanted to go to Babson, and I’d figure out how to get there.”

Deb knew she was a relatively unconventional candidate and had to complete a series of requirements before she was accepted. That was when she crossed paths with the second woman who was pivotal for her college experience, Beth Heidenreich Gregg, who was on the admissions committee. Deb learned in her first year that Beth had advocated on her behalf because she had done so much to prove herself. “That meant everything to me. It was easy to wonder what happened and how I actually pulled this off! I’m thankful to them for giving me the chance.”

Once she started college, Babson was an ideal fit. “I was so ready because I loved the retail business. So I loved going to school more than I ever had.” As she moved on through her career in the following decades, she retained a strong sense of gratitude for Babson—and for the two women who helped her get here.

Meanwhile, giving back to the school that impacted her life was also a longtime value in her own family. She still remembers a favorite childhood story about her great grandfather, who got in trouble for spending too much time hunting while he was a student at Dartmouth. Eventually, the administration gave him the choice between hunting less and leaving, and he decided to leave.

“He had a little business on the side, making shoes, and he did really well—it became Bostonian Shoes, a big company,” she recalls. “And he ended up giving a lot of money to Dartmouth at the end of his life. I always loved it, that he still appreciated what they said, even if he didn’t listen to them.”

Deb and her husband, Craig Cerretani, have now established their own legacy: a planned gift to the Babson Women’s Athletics program. For Deb, this serves as a personally meaningful way of expressing her appreciation to the women who made a difference in her life while also creating opportunities for future Babson students that she did not have time for during her own college years. “I’ve always loved to play sports, although I never had a chance to play at Babson because I was married and commuting an hour. So I want to give to somebody who might have been like me but maybe went a little sooner and didn’t have my situation. It feels like coming full circle for me.”