"Business Schools Embracing Do-Gooders" (MSNBC article)

[OneGrassRoot]

(This really gives me a lot of hope about the younger generation. :))

The popular image of a modern-day business school student as a sharp-suited spreadsheet wizard increasingly is being turned on its head. For reasons ranging from the economy to a change in attitudes, many students today are pursuing business school degrees with a view toward working with non-profits, or launching socially responsible businesses.

Myles Lutheran is an example. Until recently he was the archetypal business school student. He had shaped his program at Northeastern University’s College of Business Administration in Boston in anticipation of a career in financial services. After graduation he expected to go to work on Wall Street. He was, he says, a “profit-driven student.”

But Lutheran’s outlook changed last spring when he took courses in Northeastern’s Social Enterprise Institute. He became heavily involved in the program, both in the classroom and as a team leader on three international field study programs where he used his business skills to help farmers and workers in South Africa, the Dominican Republic and Belize.

On graduation, instead of going to work for a bank he took a position as marketing manager for Moms and Jobs, a social venture headquartered in Boston that works to help impoverished single mothers find sustainable employment.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40589291/ns/business/

[LibDemAlways]

1. My daughter was recently accepted into the

Music Industry program at Northeastern, no doubt in part because her admission essay focused on her involvement with a music-based nonprofit. In the essay she expressed her desire to continue to find ways to combine music and philanthropy in her future career.

Yes, the idea of community service is spreading, and many universities are encouraging students to seek out ways to get involved. It's all good.

[OneGrassRoot]

2. Wonderful!

My daughter is applying to colleges now (theatre), writing her essays, and I'm going to pass along this tidbit.

Best wishes to your daughter!

Thanks. :hi:

[freethought]

3. I hope this the start of some sort of trend

My sister has a PHD in economics from one of the Ivy League universities. For a while she was employed by Harvard Business School, not as faculty but as support for the faculty. She also mingled with the students and formed strong opinions on them.

She had some strong but unflattering opinions on the make up of the student body at HBS. Some were there not by choice, rather they were enrolled because they were being groomed to take over family businesses. These were often the students who much rather be somewhere else and they were not accepted strictly on merit. Some, she said were very smart, hard-working student who have busted serious ass to get accepted into the school. However, she would often refer to most of these students as "vampires". She would often say that these people were frightening because of their ultra-competitive nature and ambitions. It was not enough just to win at this or that but their seemed to be a desire to crush and destroy anyone or anything that put obstacles in their career path. "These people would put their parents in third rate nursing homes if it meant they could get the right promotion. These people are scary!", she said to me more than once.

I hope this is the start of a better trend but I am not going to hold my breath.

[onpatrol98]

4. Scary!!!

[MedicalAdmin]

5. The genetic tree needs to be pruned.

I for one would applaud any effort to remove the recessive genetic slime pool that is the Bushies from life on earth. I too have dealt with trust fund kids and they will rape, murder, ruin, harass, blackmail and otherwise be as despicable to everyone they can for the simple reason that they seem to enjoy hurting others. It's beyond sociopathic and its beyond phychopathic. It is an aberation that cries out for removal, root, stem, and leaf.

I agree with your sister. I would not shed a single tear if any of these self entitled animals were to be killed. One does not feel bad when a rabid dog is put down.

[freethought]

6. Just the other night

We were watching an episode of "True Blood". She loves the show, I think it's just OK. But when the subject of vampires came up she said "You mean MBA students right?" I replied, "Those Harvard students really left and impression on you didn't they?"

She never described them as psychopaths or sociopaths but I am sure she thinks along those lines.

An MBA does not entitle anyone to anything. I would have greater regard for someone who acquired a master's in physics, engineering, or med school degree. MBAs these days are a dime a dozen, and it's only usually the ones from the elite business schools that do really well. I think people would be right to question what it is that these business school students are actually learning. After everything that has gone down in the last 2-3 years any reasonable person would have to think "What were they thinking? Were they thinking at all?"

[MedicalAdmin]

7. What were they thinking?

Money and how to steal it of course. They were also figuring out how to kill and get away with it.