Purpose. Calling. Vocation. Passion. They are words you’ll often hear from the MBA students in the class of 2021 at Yale School of Management . So is the word mission. It is an end that reflects impact and defines legacy. It can take the form of a venture launched or community served. For mission-driven MBAs, the value of every course or activity is measured against this pursuit.
That’s especially true at Yale SOM. The top MBA programme for the non-profit sector, the school tends to attract a different type of professional: big-picture thinkers and local community doers who operate at the intersection of business and social good. That’s exactly where Yale SOM’s culture and curriculum overlap with their students’ larger purpose.
I think people who are mission-oriented, they’re thinking not just about the private sector but the public sector, the non-profit sector, and how they’re interrelated, says Bruce DelMonico, assistant dean and director of admissions at Yale SOM, in a 2019 interview with Poets&Quants . “They’re also very global in nature, so we’re trying to teach our students to be very broad-minded about how they approach things.”
What types of missions do the 345 members of Yale’s MBA Class of 2021 plan to undertake? Eva Leung, a Hong Kong banker, hopes to become a “consequential leader” — one who applies technology to drive upward mobility. In contrast, Swapna Kumar, a clinical researcher, is focusing on raising health outcomes for children. After working in advancement at the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum, Anna Troein intends to learn how to adopt more diverse hiring practices in the arts. For Kiara Feliz, the larger purpose is to reduce the financing gap that dooms smaller impact funds. For Abhishek K Agarwal, a Unilver-trained product manager, humility is the defining virtue of the class.