Jawanza “Joe” Gross ’94, P’12
Volunteer Spotlight
By Eliott Grover
The message is always the same. Whenever Jawanza “Joe” Gross ’94, P’12 speaks with Trinity students about their careers, he emphasizes a crucial point. “You’re going to be successful,” he tells them. “You’re going to be successful because you’ve been given all the tools to be successful.”
Gross is referring to the skills the students have acquired through their liberal arts education, and his conviction is rooted in his own experience. “Trinity College has been one of the key building blocks in my life’s journey,” he says. “It’s where I learned to think critically and communicate clearly. My ability to do that is also because of what’s unlocked at a small institution where you get a chance to lead and interact with professors and administrators.”
As the chief operating officer at BNY Mellon Investment Management, Gross is tasked with synthesizing vast amounts of information and keeping a 700-person team on the same page. “Ninety percent of what I do is reliant on my liberal arts education,” he says.
At Trinity, Gross rowed on the crew team and participated in student government. He majored in economics, but he took advantage of the entire course catalog. “I took a lot of classes, whether it was econ or sociology or English, to help me understand people,” he says. “And understand myself.”
Since graduating, Gross has dedicated countless hours to helping students understand their own prospects. He has personally mentored a dozen or so individual Bantams, describing his mentorship style as one of tough love. “I tell them what they need to hear, not what they want to hear,” he says. “You do it with empathy and compassion, but you’ve got to make sure you push them and test their mettle. Success is about grit.
“When you mentor people, you’re making an investment,” Gross continues. “You’re taking your own time and emotional energy, and you’re putting it into someone you think has a lot of potential. The reward is that if they’re successful, they can help other alums, or help themselves, or their families. A large part of why I do it is because so much was invested in me over the years.”
Severn Sandt, Trinity’s senior assistant director of strategic partnerships and outreach, says that Gross challenges students. “He pokes at them verbally to sort of see what they’ve got and what they’re willing to put out there because he knows the world can be tough.”
Sandt has partnered with Gross through Trinity’s Career and Life Design Center to help advise students considering a future in finance. She calls him a shining example of alumni advocacy. Gross has hosted events, has spoken on panels, and has recruited students for positions at his company. He has a passion for helping all Trinity students and a special interest in lending a hand to those from groups that have been historically underrepresented in finance. “There may be people who, just by listening to Joe speak, their worlds open up,” Sandt says.
In addition to his work with students, Gross’s volunteer efforts on behalf of the College include several leadership roles. Now president of the Trinity College Alumni Association (TCAA), he previously served as executive vice president of the Black Alumni Organization and as a member of the College’s Board of Fellows.
“My current focus is really on helping to develop a long-term strategic plan and making sure the TCAA is aligned with the College and the Board of Trustees in terms of how we help the institution continue to be successful,” Gross says. “Whether that’s things we can do to support the administration or how we can serve the students and ultimately the alumni, I’m very results oriented.”
When it comes to his volunteer work, the cumulative effect of the results has inspired Gross to devote so much time and energy to his alma mater.
“The only way I can think to honor those who’ve helped me is to do the same thing and build that legacy,” he says. “My hope . . . is that the work I’m doing today will help generations to come, and they won’t even know it. They don’t need to know it.”
