Genna Weinstein, Class of 2008

Hometown: Concord, Massachusetts  
Undergraduate degree: BA in History from Columbia University
Prior work experience: Five years of work experience.  One as a paralegal at a small plaintiff-side law firm; two years at the Council on Foreign Relations.  In my final two years before business school, I started a new public high school in New York City, focusing on operations, partnerships, marketing and recruitment, grants and funding, and long-term strategic planning.
Current specialization(s): Operations 
Club affiliation(s): Social Enterprise Association (Vice President for Marketing),  Management Consulting Association, Stern Women In Business
Career interest: Social Enterprise (broadly speaking, using business and business rigor for social good), Consulting, Operations, Management
Summer internship: McKinsey & Co.
Full-time position after graduation: Research Consultant for Higher Education Practice at The Advisory Board Company
NYC neighborhood: Upper West Side

This is my last blog! And I’m writing this on the morning of Stern’s convocation. Technically, we already graduated yesterday at NYU’s Commencement, where my friend Mel Ochoa gave the student keynote address. I love graduations!

Here are just a few of my reflections on this bittersweet graduation day:

• From the look of my Facebook page, I know that I have surrounded myself with a talented, ambitious group of friends and future colleagues.
• From my newly minted specialization in Social Impact and Innovation, I know that Stern recognizes this as an important, growing field.
• From my reaction to picking up the Wall Street Journal the other day, I know that my professors have guided me well and developed a fascination with and appreciation for the private sector and capital markets. I actually enjoy reading this stuff now!
• From my A- in Corporate Finance (yes, a history major who hadn’t taken a math class beyond Calculus got an A- in Corporate Finance, and yes, I’m bragging about it), I know that I can unlever betas and calculate free cash flow to equity with the best of them.

Most important, I’ve fulfilled my goal to thrive in both my business-school world and my educator-social sector world.  Of course, I don’t always blend well: when I’m around my business school friends, they call me a crazy liberal and when I’m around my lefty lawyer and educator friends, they call me a crazy capitalist. But it was this exact blend that I was seeking when I started at Stern – to look at the social sector with rigor and analytical thinking, and to engage business leaders and managers in social sector conversations. 

As should be the case at the end of any educational endeavor, I am much clearer about what I do not know, and I am overwhelmed by the options and possibilities. My brain has stretched, and my network and goals have broadened in ways I never expected. It was a well-spent two years.

Thank you for reading the blog! Good luck to all of you!!

Corporate Finance, Professional Responsibility, Data Mining and Advanced Strategy Analysis are taking over my life for the next week! (I finished my Managing the Growing Company paper already, thank goodness.) We’re revving up for “Post-Term,” though! I keep calling it “Senior Week” as a throwback to college. 

My friend Mel, President of the Social Enterprise Association (SEA), is giving the student address at NYU’s Commencement (that’s the entire university, not just Stern – quite the big deal).

AND…

drum roll…

wait for it…

I can now officially specialize in “Social Innovation and Impact,” a new specialization just approved at Stern! This news caps off a great two years of SEA involvement for me. I was involved in the early discussions about this new specialization, and my friends Tom and Rebecca on the SEA Academic Affairs Committee made it happen along with their Committee members and huge support from Dean Corfman and a number of professors. In case you’re wondering, the classes that fit the specialization for me include: Energy & The Environment; Social Enterprise Development; Social Venture Fund Practicum and Managing the Growing Company. In Managing  the Growing Company, for example, we learn how firms like Patagonia, LL Bean and Gordon Biersch have incorporated community involvement and social responsibility into their growth strategies.

More next week when my Corporate Finance project is over! 

With two weeks of classes left, homework and projects have started to pile up. Unfortunately, they are competing with the social calendar, which keeps filling with “the last [fill in the blank] of the year!” 

We traveled to New Orleans last weekend – I rate the experience a 10 and the highlight of my Stern career.

First, the people. We represented five student clubs, four major industries and six specializations. Plus, we all love to eat – very important in New Orleans (I highly recommend Jacques Imo’s!). We had a blast eating and drinking our way through the city. If you’re there, check out the farmer’s market on Saturday mornings. We spent a good two hours traipsing and snacking from stand to stand.

Second, and the most important realization, came from our two professional experiences on the trip. On Friday afternoon, we presented a mini-consulting project to the teachers and the principal at a new charter school. We researched teacher retention and recruitment and also shared some of our time management techniques with the new teachers. (I extol the virtues of Gantt charts any chance I get!) 

Then, we toured the lower 9^th ward with Professor Robinson, one of Stern’s professors in social enterprise. It was an eye-opening experience to see the destruction and desolation in the area. But as the damage of the neighborhood sunk in, I also began to think of how businesses and economic development could influence the rebuilding, and I was processing the scene with some of the frameworks I had learned in school. It’s a little cheesy, I know. I’ve been MBA-brainwashed. In all seriousness, I felt that I could balance my “emotional” reaction to the devastated neighborhood with a more structured, objective perspective. That was why I came to business school in the first place, so I was pleased to know that the two years have paid off!

Now it’s back to corporate finance and the last Beer Blast of the year…

We just finished another Damodaran Corporate Finance quiz! Yikes, those little numbers pack a punch. Now that it’s over, I can go back to regularly scheduled programming…

The New Orleans trip is fast approaching. I’m going with fellow blogger Naseem and six other MBA2s who have social enterprise and consulting experience. We arrive on Thursday night and head to a new charter school on Friday for a mini-consulting project. I’m working with three others on a program with the teachers on negotiations (since a bunch of us have taken that class at school), and the other half of the group is working with the principal on teacher recruitment and retention best practices. Mel Ochoa, our fearless leader, has also arranged for us to visit the Pink Project, Café Reconcile and Share Our Strength (we’re seeing the farmer’s market) on Saturday. I took control of the social coordination – we’re headed to Emeril’s new spot on Saturday night for dinner!

In all seriousness, I am so excited for this trip. I think it is going to be one of the highlights of my two years at Stern. First, it’s a terrific group of people – funny, motivated and strategic thinkers who see the connection between business and social good. Second, I have wanted to go to New Orleans since Katrina just to gain a sense for the progress and movement and understand the gravity of the situation. Third, New Orleans is a hotbed for educational experiments, and if they succeed, they could provide blueprints for the rest of the country. Finally, I’m just happy to spend a day in a school again! As much as I love Stern, I need to return to the real world every once in a while to gain some perspective and remember why I wanted this degree in the first place. 

It’s important to note that this trip is completely student-driven. Mel is a Reynolds Fellow for Social Entrepreneurship, and he met the principal of this charter school when she was a Reynolds Fellow at Harvard. Mel collected this group together because we all have a connection to education and/or consulting, which will be valuable for this charter school. 

Other than that, it’s just wrapping up and revving up for the end of the school year! 

In a word: CHILE!

First, over 400 people attended the Think Social, Drink Local party – a raging success. My fellow blogger and friend Naseem showed off her eco-fashion in the talent show. We were able to promote local socially responsible businesses and sampled organic vodka and snacks like chocolate and dried fruits. Delicious. Then, a smaller crew (26 of us) traveled to Chile for spring break to explore the international side of social enterprise (as well as wineries, mountains, beaches and bars). But on the social enterprise front, we visited…

• NESsT, an organization that fosters development in emerging market countries by supporting social enterprises. First, we heard from executive director Nicole Etchart about the guidelines for sponsorship and the selection process for these social enterprises. Then we split into two groups and visited some of the organizations themselves. I packaged alfajores cookies at Coanil, an organization that supports developmentally disabled individuals. Coanil sells the alfajores (a delectable dessert with thick dulce de leche sandwiched in between two wafer cookies and covered in chocolate), and the profit offsets some of the organization’s costs. 
• Fondo Esperanza (FE), a nonprofit microfinance institution that follows the village banking model, where FE gives a loan to a local small bank that then disburses the capital to smaller groups of individuals from the local community. FE is part of a larger services organization, so FE works side by side with social workers and educators to ensure that the loan is only one part of a comprehensive package of social services.
• VE Global, a young volunteer organization started by a recent college grad that acts as a conduit for volunteers in Chile. VE Global selects volunteers from an application pool and places them in orphanages and community centers in the greater Santiago area. We volunteered for the day at one of their sites, building a stage for performances, clearing out the playground and spending some quality time with the kids at the community center. 
• Emiliana Vineyard, a winery that follows organic and biodynamic practices, where we gorged ourselves on a delicious Chilean meal in the sun overlooking the vineyards. We met the alpacas that fertilize and graze the land and learned about the challenges of producing organic wines. Then we tasted four wines – the team at Emiliana was quite generous – and we all napped on the way back to the hotel! 

We also visited another more traditional winery to learn about the global export business, and we were introduced to Chile’s budding microbrewery market in a tour of the Kross Brewery. Everyone loved the food, wine and pisco sours, as well as some strong sun. We all need a vacation from a vacation at this point. And with six weeks left of school, we’ll be gunning it to the finish line…

Alright, the Social Enterprise Association is on fire – no other way to put it. Let’s recap what has happened and will happen over the span of 6 weeks.

• We’re going to Chile for a global perspective on social enterprise in our first ever spring break trek.
• We’re hosting the third annual Think Social Drink Local party and expect over 300 local drinkers and social thinkers, with sponsors like Edun, Purus Vodka, Brooklyn Brewery and Peak Brewery.
• We’re launching the first ever eco-fashion show in partnership with the Luxury & Retail Club.
• Speaker series have exploded, with our partnership with the Leading Sustainable Enterprises classes – Dan Esty, a corporate environmental strategist, Raymond Kopp, a climate policy expert, and more on the schedule.
• Panelists galore, at the Global Business Conference, Stern Women In Business Conference and Media and Entertainment Conference.
• The Office of Career Development has joined with the MBA Nonprofit Connection to offer job postings in the area of social enterprise, and there are already over 25 internships and full-time jobs listed.

And…

Funding for two summer internships in social enterprise for MBA1 students! Thanks to SEA fundraising, the Market, Ethics and Law Department, and New York Initiatives, we can now support students who want to pursue internships in this sector.

There will be another BIG announcement coming soon, but it isn’t public yet so you’ll just have to keep following my blog until the news is released…

In less fun news, my Corporate Finance project (which I am battling out with my seven other team members) is gaining speed, and I learned how to use the Bloomberg terminal last week.  That was… informative. I’m also growing comfortable with Weka, the program we use for my Data Mining class. I love mining for data. Doesn’t that just sound sophisticated? I’m mining for data! 

And with that, I’m off to the Brooklyn Museum of Art for a little cultural excursion…     

I enjoyed a lovely three day weekend. Of course, my days disappeared with my corporate finance project, paper for Managing Growing Companies and research with the social enterprise office. But no complaints! It’s good to have the free time.

Night classes started this week. Data Mining was as intimidating as I feared, but I’m set to do battle, and I’ve lined up my MBA2 support network as backup. On Wednesday, I attended Energy & The Environment, where I took about 5 pages of notes. Wow. The professor, Vijay Vaitheeswaran writes for the Economist and is a terrific lecturer. The class is fairly large at 50 people, but he encourages (actually, requires) participation. I left the class a bit more rattled than I came into it. His connections between energy and geopolitics, poverty and the environment are jarring but also quite obvious when I thought about it. His arguments are based in economics, and we’ll be speaking about the “coming revolution” in the energy sector, specifically in terms of new business models and enterprises that can help defray the world’s dependence on oil.  

In career-related news, a lot of MBA1s have heard back from their consulting interviews. The students who were pursuing traditional consulting (as I did last summer) fared excellently! Sternies received offers from offices around the country and the world – Moscow, Dubai, cities in Latin America and all over the U.S. as well. It’s good to see that the casing practice paid off for so many of them. Stern’s reputation in consulting seems to be on the rise, which is great news. 

The semester is picking up again! Still time for fun, though. This afternoon, fellow blogger Naseem and I are venturing across the river to Park Slope for the Social Enterprise Association (SEA) happy hour. An SEA crew visited the Park Slope Food Coop to understand the model of this alternative business, and they are hanging out at a bar in the neighborhood. I love Brooklyn! 

And we just found out that NYU's commencement will be in Yankee Stadium this spring. I think my Red Sox loving father will be disappointed, but I'm excited.

On Monday night, I met up with some of my fellow Chile Trekkers at a local bar to discuss plans for the trip. Newest development: we'll cheer on the Chilean team at a soccer game! Truthfully, I'm a little nervous about the Chilean soccer fans, but I'll have my fellow trekkers to protect me. We're also meeting with NESsT (www.nesst.org), Fondo Esperanza (a microfinance institution) and the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean. Alumni Affairs has introduced us to an alum in Santiago, and we'll meet up with a small group of former Sternies as well. The volunteer day looks set to go, as does my personal favorite, the visits to the wineries!

Latest Think Social Drink Local news: Advanced ticket buyers will receive purple and green M&Ms - half say "Drink Local" and half say "Think Social" on them. Awww. We're so creative with our buzz marketing.

Finally, Jacqueline Novogratz from the Acumen Fund is coming to NYU for the Reynolds Program Speaker Series! Just another bit of social enterprise related news that was just announced. 

I’m en route to a Superbowl party to watch my Patriots cream the New York Giants. (I hope I don’t jinx it.) 

Classes kicked off last week. I opted to raise the bar on my semester by picking up Data Mining. Hopefully this will not prove to be disastrous. This is my last semester, so I might as well milk it for all it’s worth. Obviously, data analysis and metrics are critical in the social enterprise arena, and especially in education, as some of you already know. So, this will be good for me. Um… right.

I’m borderline obsessed with the election this Tuesday. Business school tends to be insulated, and my peers haven’t been discussing politics too much. That might be a good thing – we have quite a range of political opinions on campus. Nevertheless, I’ve been annoying everyone I know by picking their brains about the candidates.

I think Corporate Finance will be my most fun class this semester. I decided to take it as a second year since I am not pursuing a career in finance. Now I can really enjoy the class and have fun with my MBA2 friends who are in the same boat. There is a whole posse of us who sit together, and I’ve teamed up with 7 (yes, 7) of my friends to do the mega-project for the course. Professor Damodaran lives up to his reputation as an engaging, structured and authoritative teacher. I’m sure I’ll be sweating it out when the quizzes and exams come around, but for now I’m enjoying the show!

Winter break alone makes business school worthwhile. While I missed out on some of the more glamorous excursions that my classmates enjoyed, I kept busy. 

• I assisted the Berkley Center for Entrepreneurial Studies with a research project on high net-worth donors and philanthropy. 
• Plans for Chile consumed a lot of my break, because we’ve finally begun planning the itinerary and contacting the social enterprises and nonprofits.
• I visited Florida (my grandmother), Massachusetts (my parents) and Washington DC (friends and future colleagues) in my quest to master the eastern seaboard.
• Election fever! I’ve got it. 
• Lost! I found it. (I know, lame…) Having missed out on this gem of popular culture for the last three years, I caught up with about 40 hours of television in two weeks.
• I’ve updated the SEA website on all of the events happening this semester – there are so many! Microfinance forum, election debate on immigration, a private tour of the Park Slope Food Coop to learn about sustainable and local food sourcing and supply chains, a Reynolds speaker event with Jed Emerson, founder of REDF and two conference panels – one with the Global Business Conference and one with the Stern Women in Business Conference. And of course – our hallmark, marquee, highlight, best-party-of-the-year, Think Social Drink Local at the Center for Architecture Foundation. And it’s better than ever this year, because we’re partnering with the Luxury & Retail Club on a green fashion show! 

Once school starts up again, I’ll be focusing on Chile, this research project and my teaching assistant position for the Social Venture Fund Practicum. I’ll also be squeezing every last minute of enjoyment out of my time in New York, since I’m moving to Washington, DC in June. This is a little traumatic for me, since I’ve lived in NYC for almost 10 years when you count college. But with an election on the horizon and my interests in social enterprise and education, DC should prove exciting as well. If any of you admitted students are leaving apartments in Washington, DC let me know. We can trade!

Finally, for those of you who may have missed it, my fellow SEA officers and MBA Admissions held an online Social Enterprise Chat.

This will be short, because it’s finals week and I really should be studying…

SEA celebrated the end of the year with a happy hour on Friday night. It’s always fun to hang out with this crew. They are my closest network at Stern but since we are all in different friend-circles, we don’t hang out as a group too often. I enjoyed catching up and sharing stories from the semester. And, I sat on an informal panel last week for MBA1s, where we discussed the internship search and how to blend social enterprise with a summer internship. We also talked about how to take a traditional summer internship and then transition into social enterprise after business school. These informal panels are an addition to the SEA calendar. As long as the responses are positive, we will keep planning them!

Winter break this year is so long. I’m secretly a little embarrassed and whenever I talk with my non-MBA friends, I have to make myself sound very busy! Of course, most of the MBA2s are taking advantage of the “Doing Business In” courses, traveling to Hong Kong, Argentina, China and Australia. A bunch of other students are taking long vacations on their own. My friend Liz is going to Patagonia on a hiking expedition. I would be jealous, but I’m too excited for the SEA trek to Chile in March. I’ll be staying local, traveling to see friends and colleagues, and I’m sure the break will fly by much faster than I expected…  

Sadly, my Stern life has degenerated into one big mess of group papers and exam studying. Let’s round them up. You should get a picture of the bad and the ugly along with the good!

• Supply Chain Management: scrambling to complete two more case summaries; 10 page paper due in a week and a half, final take home exam due Friday, Dec. 21 (but we won’t get it until Thursday, Dec. 20!)
• Competitive Strategy in the Marketplace: I can handle this. Four page paper due Tuesday.
• Real Estate Operations: Ten page paper due Wednesday; exam the following Wednesday.
• Service Operations: Big paper (I don’t even know the length – just big) due next Tuesday. 
• Decision Models: All done. Presentation was last week. And I am most pleased to report that my group won the best project award! We created a model for holiday shopping. If you had one day to buy presents around New York City and needed to hit five out of fifteen possible stores, our model would tell you the order in which you should visit each store based on a home location you provide and how long it would take to complete the shopping trip, taking into account travel time and service times. Professor Juran bought us each a mug that said “Decision Modeler of the Year.” My mother would be so proud.

So really, when you look at it that way, it doesn’t seem so bad.  Especially figuring that I don’t actually have classes during the day anymore, I just have my night classes. But when you stick on holiday craziness and last minute meetings and deposits for the Chile trek and the rest… No, really, I can’t complain. It’s not as bad as it was earlier this semester.

See, even when it’s ugly, business school is still totally manageable!

But sadly, the final period does not make for interesting blogs. So I’m going to sign off now and hope to have an exciting report next time.

It’s official!  The first ever Social Enterprise Trek to Chile is kicking off with 25 participants from the full-time and part-time programs. We even have a few spouses who are joining us for the ride. Now the real planning can begin. 

SEA also welcomed Susan Arnot Heaney from Avon this past Wednesday for our Speaker Series. Ms. Heaney is the VP for Corporate Responsibility, and she spoke to a crowd of around 40. We co-sponsored this one with our friends from LuxRet (Luxury and Retail) and GMA (Graduate Marketing Association).

I received my schedule for next semester! I’m especially excited for Energy and the Environment with Economist writer Vijay Vaitheeswaran. I’m also taking Management Communication, Professional Responsibility, Corporate Finance, Managing Growing Companies and Advanced Strategic Analysis.  Corporate Finance is taught by one of Stern’s most famous professors – Professor Damodaran.  I’m looking forward to finally being included in the cool crowd who has taken his course.  (And by the cool crowd, I mean all of my classmates.)

I spent 8.5 hours this week mock-interviewing the MBA1s in preparation for the first round interviews in January. It is a relief to be on the other side of that table now. I actually think that the casing interviews are fun, but they can be nerve-wracking. Usually these mock interview sessions run by the Office of Career Development kick-start the MBA1 preparation, but I’ve been pleased at the level of preparation that many students have already reached. I’m sure this is due in large part to my fellow blogger Naseem’s efforts as the casing VP for the Management Consulting Association.

And kudos to my friends Tim and Chris who run Stern’s Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Association (SPHA) and pulled off a great conference with keynote speaker Bob Easton from Easton Associates. There was also a panel on funding models for healthcare that I especially enjoyed, since business school has hindered my ability to stay on top of the presidential candidates and their healthcare plans. Like SEA, SPHA is an active club that packs a powerful punch even though they are smaller than other clubs. Here’s the website for the conference so you can learn more about it: http://people.stern.nyu.edu/spha/conference.html.

About 75% of my week was devoted to my presentation for Competitive Strategy in the Marketplace. I had been warned about the workload for this class... but seeing is believing. Thankfully, I loved my group, which is important when you spend 40 hours with these people in a four week time period. We analyzed a case about Xerox from 1999, examining the company’s decision to bring a new technology to market. One of us looked at competitors, one prepared a complicated financial model, one quantified the overall market for the product, one assessed the implications on the value chain in the industry and one analyzed the impact on Xerox’s corporate strategy.  We paced ourselves well, but we still ended up preparing until 2 a.m. every night last week and changing slides 15 minutes before the presentation. It paid off, though. We did really well, and I am completely relieved.  Now we're celebrating over dinner at Otto.

I'm also excited that we have an entire week off for Thanksgiving! Ahh, academic schedules are great. I’m currently in Massachusetts, marveling at trees and eating lots of home-cooked meals. 

SEA has 11 people registered for our trek to Chile. I check the registration page obsessively. It's a great group of students - I can't wait to get down there in March.

And SEA's next Speaker Series is confirmed! On November 28, we're hosting Avon's VP for Corporate Responsibility to discuss cause marketing and the ROI on Avon's initiatives such as the Walk for Breast Cancer and the Avon Foundation. Check out the link on the SEA website.

We also have our first contribution to our Summer Internship Fund. Establishing a fund for students who want to intern in the nonprofit or social enterprise sector is one of SEA’s initiatives this year.  We’re on our way, but we have a long way to go. Stay tuned!

I keep thinking that the schedule will slow down!  It doesn’t! 

More big SEA happenings:

• Our first member meeting was a hit. Check out the SEA website for some photos – our president dressed up as Zorro (SEA shows true Halloween spirit). GlobeFunder founder and CEO Brian Mullally spoke to members of SEA and EEX (Entrepreneur’s Exchange) about his new venture, the challenges of raising seed money and the niche he hopes to fill in the U.S. and international markets, providing a micro-lending system for small businesses and individuals.
• Cheers to a new social enterprise course! This spring, Prof. Frances Milliken & Mark Tercek (Dir. of Goldman Sachs’ Environmental Markets Initiative) will teach Leading Sustainable Enterprises. 
• The trek to Chile kicks off in a week!! This is SEA’s first trek… and I was silly enough to decide to plan the thing. It’s quite an effort to organize, but I’m so excited to attend myself that it will be worth it. Forty of us will travel to Chile over spring break and split our time between enjoying Chile and exploring the country’s social enterprises and public and CSR initiatives. Right now the goal is to hit our numbers and book the airfare before the prices skyrocket. For the purposes of the blog, I’ll also share that we have some stiff competition: treks are going out this year to Turkey, Japan and Kenya. But SEA’s trek to Chile will be the most unique in terms of its social enterprise focus.

I also heard from my friend who is studying abroad in London this semester. I never considered studying abroad in the short two-year business school time frame, but my friend loves the experience. She’s developing a global network, learning business from an entirely new perspective and taking advantage of this “no-responsibilities” time in life to immerse herself in another country and travel around Europe on the weekends.  There are a number of students who study abroad – China, London, Copenhagen, Madrid, Barcelona, Mexico.  It’s definitely worth considering before venturing out into the post-graduate school world.

Lastly, SEA Admissions VP Debbie Adler will be in Washington DC this week for an information session in that city. Be sure to pepper her with questions about all of SEA’s programs this year!

Another big week for the Social Enterprise Association!

Acumen Fund presented on Wednesday. This was the first time that Acumen visited Stern.  The organization is the exact blend of business and social impact that I find so compelling – using market-driven approaches to solve huge global problems such as poverty, access to water and malaria. Check them out at www.acumenfund.org. 

Thursday and Friday brought more SEA events. The Microfinance Career Panel was the first of its kind at Stern. And, we teamed up with the Association for Hispanic and Black Business Students for their conference – one of the best attended of the year. We sponsored a panel on social responsibility on Wall Street. Joining forces with other clubs is a priority for SEA this year, and it makes sense given that social enterprise transcends all business topics. 

We started the week with the SEA happy hour. I have to say – as a prospective student, I was always skeptical of this “Stern Community.” Or maybe I was just a cynical New Yorker. But really, there are many “mini communities” at Stern that make up this larger community. Chatting with the other SEA members highlighted this distinction for me. Despite a looming paper and a week’s worth of classes and commitments, I ended up talking for two hours about jobs, classes, social enterprise topics, New York restaurants, recent travel excursions and the trek to Chile. It was great to break away from my group meetings, personal commitments, and case studies – and the broader Stern community - and connect with these other members, whom I might not even know but for our involvement in SEA.    

Although it would be great if all of my learning happened at Monday night happy hours, my Supply Chain Management project calls to me! Time to learn about the newsvendor model…

Ring the victory bell! NYU Stern has catapulted into the Beyond Grey Pinstripes ranking. The ranking is part of the Aspen Institute's biennial report designed to assess a business school’s leadership in integrating social and environmental issues into its full-time MBA program through coursework and research. And “catapulted” is not an exaggeration - this was our first entry into the rankings, and we landed a #11 position in the world and #9 in the U.S. Check out the link: www.beyondgreypinstripes.org.

And as if we knew the announcement was coming (we didn’t), the Social Enterprise Association (SEA) has prepared a full slate of October programming to back up this impressive recognition:  

1. SEA was invited to the World Savers Congress -- an effort to bring together travel industry leaders with various innovative thinkers to encourage the industry to do more around issues of travel and social responsibility.
2. We hosted the Commongood Careers workshop, where we discussed internships and full-time opportunities in the social sector with the CEO of Commongood Careers, an executive search firm for the social sector. 
3. This Wednesday, we welcome the Acumen Fund, which is the leading global social venture fund.  This is the first time that they have formally presented to NYU students about their fellowship opportunities. 
4. On Thursday, SEA is partnering with the Financial Access Initiative (FAI), a NYU-based microfinance research consortium sponsored by the Gates Foundation, to host a professional development panel. Speakers confirmed so far include ProMujer and Deutsche Bank's Microfinance Group.
5. On Friday, SEA joins forces with the Association for Hispanic and Black Business Students (AHBBS) to sponsor a panel called “Social Responsibility on Wall Street.” Panelists include the VP, Goldman Sachs Foundation, an ED at Morgan Stanley and an MD from JPMorgan Chase. The moderator is our own Professor Bruce Buchanan, Director of the NYU Stern School Markets, Ethics and Law Program, and the C.W. Nichols Professor of Business Ethics.

Of course we have the fun stuff planned, too: happy hour this week and the trek to the Net Impact Conference in Nashville in November. And our global trek to Chile will go into full-gear with a kick-off meeting at the end of October.

In non-SEA news, we just received word that we have to choose our courses for next semester! Didn’t this semester just begin?! I’ll keep you posted on my decisions. For now, it’s back to the reality of this semester and the five group projects that have been consuming my time over the last few weeks…

My night classes started this week. I’m specializing in Operations, so I’m taking three Ops classes – Service Operations, Real Estate Operations and Supply Chain Management. I love the contrast between the Ops classes and the Strategy classes. Strategy courses are high-level and theoretical while in the Operations courses, I can actually picture the processes in the cases and chart the immediate repercussions and impact when the systems change. Our first Real Estate Ops assignment is about a young couple grappling with the purchase of their first house. My group needs to advise them on whether or not the investment makes sense given the market and their financial situation. 

In club news, the Social Enterprise Association (SEA) was invited to attend the World Savers Conference hosted by Conde Nast next Wednesday morning. Former Ambassador Richard Holbrooke and Ashoka founder Bill Drayton will speak to leaders from the travel industry about how to sustain competitive advantage through socially responsible tourism. I’m excited to explore this topic and network with some of these industry leaders, and it’s great recognition for SEA and Stern.   

I’m looking forward to celebrating the launch of a new club on campus – Stern in Africa (SIA) – at its inaugural event, “Taste of Africa.” One of our SEA officers founded the group, and although we give him a hard time for “seeing other clubs,” there are many links between SIA and SEA. Taste of Africa will raise money for Darfur refugees and will feature internationally acclaimed singer, somi, a musician whose unique sound fuses jazz, classic soul, African folk and rare urban grooves and special guest speaker and leading activist Stephen Friedman. Mr. Friedman is General Manager and Executive Vice President of mtvU, whose Sudan Campaign to fight the genocide in Darfur has been honored with two Emmy awards, including the 2006 Governors Award - the highest honor bestowed by the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. Check out SIA.  

We’re rolling!  It’s busy!

On Wednesday, Stern alum Kenny Lao (2004) opened his second Rickshaw Dumpling Bar right up the street from Stern. Picture the Chipotle of Dumplings – fast, fresh, delicious, affordable. And, one of my classmates, Tira Grey, is a shift manager at this new store, so a bunch of us stopped by on Wednesday night to cheer her on and try out the dumplings – including my favorite, the chocolate one. Highly recommended!

In Stern social enterprise news, two big time leaders in microfinance have created buzz on campus. Fazle Hasan Abed, Founder and Chairman of BRAC, spoke to a full audience through the Reynolds Program in Social Enterprise. And, next Saturday, Stern welcomes Nobel Prize winner Muhammad Yunus of the Grameen Bank. It doesn’t get much bigger than that in the microfinance world.  

As I reported last week, the Social Enterprise Association kicked off our social calendar with Beer Blast. Thirsty Sternies drank the organic wines in no time, and the falafel was a marked improvement over the usual pizza. We had fun despite the ominous projection of “An Inconvenient Truth” on the walls.

Lastly, a quick note on Stern alumni. The “great Stern alumni community” is not admissions hype! I took them up on their promise and started making calls and sending emails to alumni last year as I considered possible career options, and I have continued my efforts this fall.  They almost always respond and are always willing to schedule conversations to discuss their ideas and perspectives. This week alone, I reached out to three alumni. All three responded within 24 hours, offered to speak with me and connected me with more contacts. One alumna is located in Germany, and she is calling me on a Sunday night from her hotel room. It really is a terrific network and huge benefit to attending Stern.     

Hello prospective students!  Here’s a quick introduction: I grew up outside of Boston, MA, graduated from Columbia in 2001 and spent almost five years in New York, working at a think tank for two years and then starting a small public high school in the city. When applying to schools, I knew I wanted to stay in New York, and I connected immediately with the students who were focused on social enterprise at Stern. They spoke enthusiastically about Stern’s efforts in social enterprise and told me how they play a role in the development of the social enterprise initiative, collaborating with administrators and professors to develop courses, summer internships, career development, events and business plan competitions. I loved their energy, and we shared a perspective of how business skills and the private sector can make a social impact. When I arrived on campus, I immediately joined the Social Enterprise Association and became an officer, and that has been the focus of my extra-curricular commitment at school.   

So far in my second year, I’ve only started two of my classes (I’m taking three evening classes with Langone students, and they don’t start for another week). Decision Models with Professor Juran and Competitive Strategy in the Marketplace with Professor Czepiel both should prove useful in my real life post-Stern. Once the night classes kick off, I’ll be in full “Operations Specialization” mode with three ops classes. I didn’t know much about operations before starting business school, but I love it because it is sequential and tactical.   

Wednesday was the Social Enterprise Association’s big kick-off meeting, and we had record attendance of 100 students. This is huge growth – as I alluded to, Stern’s social enterprise initiative is only a few years old, and last year only 20-30 people attended the first meeting. SEA’s goal is to serve as a resource and conduit for students who want to use their business skills for social good in the for-profit, non-profit and public sectors. We have many initiatives on tap for this year – check out our website for more information. First up is the SEA-hosted Beer Blast (every club plans a Beer Blast, and we secured the coveted first slot of the year). We will serve beer from Brooklyn Brewery, a wind-powered brewery based in Brooklyn, in biodegradable “corn plastic” cups. I’d love to take credit for the biodegradable cups, but they are part of the Campus Greening Initiative – Stern’s effort to lessen its environmental impact. After we recover from Beer Blast, SEA is hosting Common Good Careers in early October. Then, a bunch of us are flying to Nashville for the Annual Net Impact Conference – a gathering of around 1,000 business school students who are interested in social enterprise. On top of that, our first speaker event is scheduled for October 30. And, drum roll please…SEA is leading its first Global Trek to Chile over March break! So, it’s a busy year.

The weather is absolutely gorgeous in New York right now – bright blue skies and crisp air – so I’m going to attempt to multi-task and finish some homework in the park… 

Until next week,

Genna