Entering HBS I knew what my fundamental professional ambition was: leading profoundly positive change in society by working at the cross section of engineering and technology, business, and government. I was able to experience such a role during my summer at the City of Detroit Office of the Mayor. Specifically, I served as a policy associate for Detroit’s Chief of Mobility Innovation, Mark De La Vergne. One of my section-mates was also on the same team this summer; it was fantastic working with her daily and debating the merits of various ideas out loud. [...]

This year’s graduating MBA class will re-enter the work force ten years after the onset of the greatest economic recession in a generation. While the stock market has since recovered, business leaders today face an increasingly complex web of ethical and legal challenges amidst a rising level of public scrutiny of their actions. As members of the MBA class of 2018 preparing to enter this world of uncertainty, we are reviving an effort launched by alumni who graduated into the depths of the financial crisis: to recruit our classmates to take an MBA Oath pledging to lead socially responsible and ethical careers. [...]

I’ve known for a while that I want to be a community developer, and I want to start that work in my hometown of Detroit. I desire to create beautiful spaces and experiences for people that enhance the fabric of a neighborhood, community, and city. Having been involved in community-based organizations and non-profits since I was child, and working in public service in New York City after college, my pivot to HBS was to dive into the hard skills and action-based work that I was missing to make my community development goals more realized in a more fulfilling way. I plan to do this through real estate development and business investment. Having studied architecture before transitioning to urban and African-American studies in my undergraduate program, it was a relief to discover that developers, not architects, actually build buildings – a lesson that came alive this summer as I worked on a community-based real estate project in Detroit. [...]

“Nice talking to you as well!” I hung up the phone and looked out the window of my company’s conference room, high above midtown Manhattan. I had just finished a call regarding my acceptance to HBS with Matt Segneri, Director of the HBS Social Enterprise Initiative, and it was an impactful one. Not only was I impressed that he made time to chat with me, but he also seemed very warm and genuine on the phone. I already knew that HBS had an incredible MBA program--that call demonstrated to me the culture and type of people I would be surrounded by. After speaking to Matt, I knew that HBS was the right place for me. [...]

In November of 2015 I set in the upper deck of Faneuil Hall in Boston, looking on 300 people from 80 countries congregated to take their oath as the newest crop of US citizens. Among them was my girlfriend, now fiancé, who had navigated her own journey to the US as an asylum seeker 14 years prior, arriving here with no contacts and no English, ready to start a new life. Seeing her would have been an emotional experience no matter what, but having been supported through chemo for the prior few months, arriving together on the other side, healthy and ready to celebrate her accomplishment, elicited one of the most powerful feelings of gratitude I had ever experienced. [...]