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 Marketing Strategy Unplugged by David Black - - - - - - - - - - - - - -  Online Feedback Form Tell us what you think about Goizueta Magazine |
MBAs with a Mission (cont.) Page 2 With more than 33 percent of its students coming from outside the United States, Goizueta certainly is diverse. But can diversity alone spark enough curiosity to rouse twenty-five Goizueta students and staff out of bed on a Friday morning to make two hundred activity bags for children with cancer? Searcy, who organized the Friday event to kick off Goizueta Gives Weekend, believes it takes more than curiosity. It's about community and teamwork, she says. Meredith Davis '00MBA takes this theory a step further. "I believe that Goizueta attracts the personality type that enjoys giving back, whether it is directly to the school or to the community at large," she says. Community service is nothing new to Davis, who has been an active volunteer since high school, working with Meals on Wheels, building houses with Habitat for Humanity, and tutoring children. Davis' commitment to serve her community continues at Goizueta, where in 1998 she helped to form a group called Goizueta Gives On, which organized the first annual picnic and silent auction event to honor the school's namesake, Roberto C. Goizueta. This year, Davis and others decided to combine this event with an alumni/student golf tournament, and Goizueta Gives Weekend was born. According to Michael Zarrilli '00MBA, who organized the golf tournament for Goizueta Gives Weekend, the drive to contribute is inherent in Goizueta students. "Goizueta attracts students who have always been achievers and who want to get involved in the community," he says. Certainly Zarrilli fits this description. A Little League coach for the past four years, Zarrilli combines his love of sports with a desire to serve his community. "Little League is how people made a mark on me when I was little, so that's how I choose to give back," he says. Sponsored by eTour.com, the golf tournament connects students with alumni in an informal setting. Together with the picnic and silent auction, this year's tournament raised more than $6,000. An additional $1,400 came from a penny race that pitted first- and second-year students against each other in a contest to fill jars with change. All totaled, Goizueta students raised more than $7,500 for the AFLAC Cancer Center-and they did it without being asked. According to Jones, Goizueta preempts the need to mandate community service by selecting students who already have demonstrated a commitment to philanthropy. "It all boils down to the kind of person we recruit to come to Goizueta," he says. "The admissions staff does a great job of looking not only into people's brains, but also into their hearts." Admissions is looking for students who will fit into Goizueta's community as well as its classrooms. The school's mission is clear: "Goizueta Business School teaches students to become leaders who not only create value for their organizations but also improve society." Thus, by choosing students with a strong philanthropic foundation, Goizueta goes half way toward achieving its goals. From this promising beginning, Goizueta's faculty and staff have only to nurture the drive that already exists. "I guess you'd call it a positive peer pressure," says Zarrilli. The school encourages students to effect tangible change and then steps out of the way, he adds. Sometimes, a nudge from a professor is all a student needs, explains Travis Dommert '00MBA. In the spring of 1999, Jeff Rosensweig, associate dean of corporate relations, told Dommert about a program called Junior Achievement that uses volunteers to educate kids ages five to eighteen about free enterprise. Looking for an opportunity to get involved in his community, Dommert took the ball and ran with it. By nurturing the innate drive of students like Dommert, Goizueta ensures that every spring, students graduate with lofty goals. Do they want to make money and take the business world by storm? Sure they do. But they dream this dream within the context of community, says Jones. 
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