Senior International Business major MJ Paradiso believes in making the most out every moment.

That attitude has kept him pretty busy over the past four years. As a freshman in the honors program, Paradiso was eager to get involved with the student body and seek out opportunities to sharpen his leadership skills. He joined the Student Government Association (SGA) and within a year he was appointed Vice President of Student Affairs for the SGA.

In his sophomore year, Paradiso started NUCALLS (Northeastern University Culture And Language Learning Society) with a friend and fellow student, Mike Duremo. NUCALLS is a free, peer-taught language program that provides students with an outlet to share their knowledge about different languages and culture. Paradiso himself is fluent in German.

"We felt there was a need for more diverse language programs," said Paradiso. "The goal isn’t to become fluent. It’s to meet others with a common interest and to build a foundation for understanding their language and culture."

Today, the student organization serves more than 700 students attending classes in about 20 different languages.

Paradiso also took advantage of Northeastern’s Dialogues of Civilizations program during the summer of his sophomore year, and travelled to China to study the economic, political and social changes of the region.

By his third year at Northeastern, Paradiso was busy researching and applying for his first co-op position. He landed a job doing marketing at GE lighting in Cleveland, OH. He jumped right in and was heavily involved in some in-depth projects, reporting to several different teams, including marketing, promotions, special projects, sales and merchandising.

After finishing his co-op at GE, Paradiso spent his entire fourth year abroad in Germany. He spent the fall semester in Reutlingen, Germany, where he enrolled in an intense language program at the ESP Business School - one of Northeastern’s European partner schools.

During the spring semester, he moved to Frankfurt, Germany to begin his second co-op at P&G working on the Oral-B toothpaste product line. He was also given the opportunity to manage a campaign for Unicef – everything from its design, branding, promotional displays and online content.

"I was exposed to so many areas of the operations and was involved in some in-depth projects. It’s a really unique opportunity to see exactly what corporate life, or adult life is like while still in college,” said Paradiso. “I was able to translate my student leadership skills I acquired from my involvement in SGA and NUCALLS to my co-ops at GE and P&G."

Wasting no time at all, Paradiso traveled directly from Germany straight to Salvador, Brazil for his second Dialogues of Civilization experience. The GPACT Dialogue worked with several under-privileged communities to promote social mobility.

Today, the globe-trotting Paradiso is back in Reutlingen, Germany at the ESP Business School, where he will finish out his senior year and travel back for graduation in May.

"I’ve been looking forward to going back to see all my friends from Italy, Spain, France and everywhere in between. It’s a true global community."

When asked what originally drew him to Northeastern, he says it was the goal-oriented student body.

"I knew I could come here and thrive. I went in with the attitude to make the most of every moment."