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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 Goizueta's gift for giving by Brook Raflo No professor makes community service a prerequisite for passing. No administrator organizes a school-wide charity event. Yet more than 75 percent of Goizueta students participated in some sort of philanthropic activity this past year, says Kembrel Jones '00MBA, assistant dean and director of Goizueta's MBA program. Students organized weekly tutoring sessions with elementary school kids, they counseled teens on career planning, they taught high school courses on free enterprise, and this spring they raised thousands of dollars during Goizueta Gives Weekend for the AFLAC Cancer Center of Children's Healthcare of Atlanta. Alumni, students, and faculty say that, while the spirit of philanthropy grows from a love of learning, it cannot be taught. "We don't want philanthropy to become a forced, institutionalized thing, so we don't write it down," says Jones. "That makes it more precious." Why is philanthropy such a recurrent theme at Goizueta? How do students find time? What inspires them? Some students believe it's Goizueta's diversity that sparks this spirit of philanthropy. "The students at Goizueta come from such incredibly diverse backgrounds and experiences," says Krista Stein '01MBA. "That creates a curiosity that raises interest in what goes on in the community at large." Stein's curiosity led her to the Net Impact program, Goizueta's chapter of a national organization focused on corporate responsibility. In other regions, Net Impact involves only an annual case competition challenging teams from different schools to create socially responsible business plans for real-life companies. At Goizueta, however, students took Net Impact from the theoretical to the practical, by adding a volunteer component. At least once per semester, Net Impact students organize volunteer days in the community. This past spring, twelve students spent a Friday morning counseling Decatur High School teens on college and career planning, and thirty students spent an afternoon at Georgia Mutual Assistance with refugee children from Bosnia, Somalia, and other war-torn countries. Impressed by the enthusiasm of Goizueta students, Georgia Mutual Assistance invited the group to help design recreational activities. Outside the umbrella of Net Impact, many students have created separate volunteer opportunities for their classmates. John Ujda '01MBA joined Allison Searcy '00MBA to coordinate and recruit volunteers for an ongoing Saturday tutoring program at Whitefoord Elementary School. Facilitated by Hands On Atlanta, the Discovery program matches tutors with children, one on one, in a fun, encouraging environment. "Many of these kids simply don't get the individual attention they want or need, so having an adult devoted to helping them for two whole hours is a really positive experience," says Ujda. During the 1999-2000 academic year, Goizueta students contributed sixty volunteer mornings to the Whitefoord tutoring program. To publicize the program, Ujda set up a website (http://www.geocities.com/ Athens/Sparta/5519/tutoring/GBS_Tutoring.html). When asked why so many Goizueta students are willing to give up their Saturday mornings to help these kids, Ujda answers, "I think it's in part due to the type of people who are accepted into Goizueta's program. They are a diverse, well-rounded group whose interests extend beyond themselves."
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