Local businesswoman Shannon Passero is the latest recipient of Brock University’s Beta Gamma Sigma Chapter Honouree award.

Passero, owner of The Post Office, a specialty boutique store in Thorold, was honoured at a ceremony in October where she was accompanied by 71 Goodman students who were also inducted into the international academic honours society.

Undergraduate students in the top 10 per cent of their class and graduate students in the top 20 per cent of their class are invited to join the society. Brock University is one of a handful of Canadian universities to have a Beta Gamma Sigma Chapter.

Conversations with Goodman host Susan LeBlanc talks to Passero in this podcast about some of Passero’s successes in business, including The Post Office’s growth which involved the revitalization of two of Thorold’s historic buildings.

Most recently, The Post Office transformation received the Ecclesiastical Insurance Cornerstone Award for Building Heritage from the National Trust for Canada.

“We were recognized by the National Trust of Canada in the re-adaptive use of Canadian heritage into a productive business that gives back to the community,” said Passero.

“We’re very proud to be partners in the community and in business and also of what it has done for Thorold.”

Passero is also the founder of the Shannon Passero Women’s Business Grant Program which supports female entrepreneurs in helping them develop their businesses.

Passero has several ties to Brock and is currently collaborating with the Goodman School of Business on Service-Learning projects that will see business students working with her company on their class projects as a form of experiential education.

At the Beta Gamma Sigma induction ceremony, Passero shared some lessons she has learned in business with students.

“Strive to be better, honest, inclusive, open-minded, kind, and to persevere – and most of all, be passionate,” she said.

“I want to challenge you to be responsible for effecting change. Whether it’s small, something you do today, or something you do in a large way, I feel that there is no progress without change. The roads remain travelled and goals continue to be unobtained if you have no change.”

This podcast is the latest in the Conversations with Goodman series which is produced by the Goodman Marketing, Communications and Alumni Relations team and features guests from the Goodman community.