Educational Innovation
Those questions inspired Perlow to develop a new second-year elective called Crafting Your Life. “The course was created primarily by students for students—and heavily influenced by alumni input,” says Perlow, the Konosuke Matsushita Professor of Leadership. The course equips students to better handle the choices, surprises, and trade-offs that they will inevitably face in the years after graduation. “It’s not about creating a rigid 10-year plan, but preparing for a lifelong journey,” explains Perlow. “Students consider what really matters to them and how they might stay true to their priorities, as well as how to cope when things don’t go according to plan.”
“The course was created primarily by students for students—and heavily influenced by alumni input…It’s not about creating a rigid 10-year plan, but preparing for a lifelong journey.”
“The course was created primarily by students for students—and heavily influenced by alumni input…It’s not about creating a rigid 10-year plan, but preparing for a lifelong journey.”
To develop the course, Perlow selected 17 second-year students to work closely with her in a yearlong independent study. To find out what alumni wish they had been taught at HBS and what they have learned since they graduated, the students hosted roundtable discussions at reunions, sought feedback from the Alumni Board and the Board of Dean’s Advisors, and conducted one-on-one interviews. “They talked to and gathered data and insights from hundreds of alumni,” says Perlow.
The students then paired off to develop course content around specific themes that had emerged, such as managing dual careers, deciding where to live, building resilience and mental health, establishing habits for self-care and reflection, and coping with unexpected life events. Triston Francis (MBA 2019) focused on reflection. “One of the course goals is to help students develop self-knowledge and live with greater intentionality,” explains Francis, who journals regularly. “We created an app that prompts students to reflect daily and then aggregates that data.” Another pair created a partners’ workshop—students bring their spouses or partners to class to work on how to have effective relationships. Crafting Your Life employs self-assessments, written exercises, workshops, and a simulation all developed specially for the course.
“I spent an hour talking with one alum about everything from how to instill values in your kids to how to figure out which of your friends . . . will go the distance with you. The advice I received was so much more valuable than anything I ever could have asked him about my career.”
Many of the alumni who were interviewed said they wish a course like Crafting Your Life was offered when they were students. The alumni enjoyed helping current students but also valued the opportunity to have rich conversations on these topics with each other and find ways to learn more. Toward that end, Perlow and her colleagues are partnering with HBS Alumni Relations on a larger initiative to strengthen alumni learning and connection.
Alumni interaction is also key to the course’s delivery. Tayler Danziger (MBA 2020), one of the first 40 students to take the course in fall 2019, especially appreciated an assignment to interview five alumni. What made these conversations so special, explains Danziger, is they went beyond professional issues to address life topics that all students grapple with. “I spent an hour talking with one alum about everything from how to instill values in your kids to how to figure out which of your friends are the ones who will go the distance with you. The advice I received was so much more valuable than anything I ever could have asked him about my career,” adds Danziger.
The fall 2020 offering of the course was one of the first to fill during registration. Perlow refined the content based on student feedback and in response to the pandemic. She expects that such adjustments will continue in the future. “Like life itself, the course will always be a work in progress, evolving to meet the changing needs of the people involved.”
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