Lucy Boone ’08

With the brightly colored walls, laid back demeanor of the receptionist who chomps on bubble gum, and the high energy of the youthful staff, one could easily mistake the Groupon Headquarters on Chicago’s eastside as a college campus rather than a fast-growing Internet start-up that made an initial public offering in November. It was that special college-like environment, in fact, that attracted Lucy Boone ’08 to join the Groupon team as an accounts support specialist. Realizing that an office environment can be as important as the work itself, Boone was attracted to Groupon because, in a way, it reminded her of her time on the Hilltop. “I realized that every year I was at Cornell, I got happier and happier,” she remarks. After spending four years living on campus, she says the experience a residential campus provides is beyond measure as a result of the lifelong friendships she developed.

“If I could offer advice to current students, I would suggest they make friends with everyone! One never knows when a friendship will be important,” she says, adding that the networking with everyone led her to her role at Groupon in 2010.

Boone and long-time boyfriend Jamie Ferguson ’07, who met after a King Chapel choir performance in 2005, plan to wed in an outdoor ceremony on the Michigan shore this spring. Ferguson is the grandson of Suzanne Ludeking Jones ’46.