In a snapshot of the PresenceLearning leadership team taken this spring, CEO Kate Eberle Walker (MBA 2005) stands, smiling, just right of center. She’s flanked by three other women and four men—the gender-balanced C-suite she had been determined to build when she took the reins of the online special-education company in early 2019. “You have to be very deliberate and proactive to achieve this,” says Eberle Walker, who set and accomplished the same goal in a previous CEO role. “But it is important. Business needs gender diversity.” [...]

As part of my recruiting, I was able to meet on campus with Conor Walsh, Duolingo PM and HBS ‘18. Conor gave me context on what it was like to work at Duolingo as well as on the role of a PM on a day-to-day basis. This help was particularly useful because I had never worked in tech or in a PM role - I had previously worked in strategy and design consulting, but I really wanted to explore actually applying insights to change a real, live product. Over the summer, I got to do that and much more. [...]

I envisioned many scenarios for my summer and often questioned whether or not I would end up picking the ‘right’ thing. But deciding what is right for me can be a selfish way of thinking about where and how you’ll make a difference in the world. For me, the difference is deeply tied to surrounding myself with kind people, creating more good in the world, and protecting our wild and public lands. So much of my experience at Patagonia has shown me how to advocate for change, to live with authenticity, and to build beautiful products customers can appreciate without causing unnecessary harm. [...]

During the recruiting process with Shell, I had the opportunity to interact with senior leaders and learn about the ambitious strategy that Shell has of reshaping the energy landscape by investing in “new energy” technologies (e.g. renewables, electric utilities, low carbon intensity biofuels). This inspired me to join the Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) group at Shell, from where I have been able to invest in the types of cutting-edge technologies that have the potential to mitigate the urgent challenges highlighted above. Here are three of my favorite things about my internship. [...]

An engineer by training, Stan Chang, MS/MBA 2020 candidate in the SEAS/HBS joint degree program, came to Harvard to “balance a business curriculum with an advanced engineering education. When I saw the curriculum here and the focus on ways to help people start companies, I knew that this was the best program for me.” [...]