Stanford’s Graduation: Inside The GSB Bubble

THE RESULTS OF A NEW PERSONALIZED APPROACH TO THE STANFORD GSB MBA

And this year’s crop of GSB graduates, the seventh class to have gone through a significant change in Stanford’s core MBA curriculum, seem grateful to have spent two years in that bubble. All of them experienced an MBA program redesigned to provide a more engaging and customized experience for students. The changes introduced personal mentoring from advisors, small seminars focused on analytical thinking skills, greater exposure to the global implications of business, and an expanded emphasis on leadership and communication. Launched in the fall of 2007, the new core curriculum also brought Saloner, then a professor who led a committee that recommended the upheaval, into his position as dean of the graduate business school.

As the sun set on the post-commencement ceremony reception, Poets&Quants asked students which changes meant the most to their MBA experience and which were responsible for drawing them to Stanford in the first place. The reception outside Knight Management Center saw many jubilant graduates sip Prosecco, snap selfies and reflect on their two years under the palm trees on the Stanford campus.

Russ, the McKinsey-returnee, found most appealing the leadership aspects of the MBA program. During her MBA, she earned the distinction of the Arbuckle Leadership Fellowship. Students apply in their first year, and if accepted, spend their second year deepening their leadership skills by working closely with first-year MBA students in small-scale settings. “Being a leadership fellow was definitely the most meaningful experience for me during my time at the GSB.” Russ said, “The basic assumption of the whole program is that in order to be a leader, you first have to know yourself very well. It’s all about understanding yourself so that you can better help others.“

FOR MANY IN THE CLASS OF 2015, IT ALL CAME DOWN TO THE PEOPLE

The school’s leadership focus was a draw for many in the Class of 2015. Sarah Maud Rizk, a former environmental scientist for the Environmental Protection Agency who seeks to continue working in the environmental sector, said that the leadership program was a major factor in her coming to Stanford.

“I knew that both programs (Stanford and Harvard) were absolutely fantastic, but what I found when I arrived here was that Stanford’s approach to leadership is really about finding out who you are and then honing that in a way that brings out the qualities that are more apt for leadership.” Rizk said “So rather, than teaching a set method of leadership, it is really far more of a personalized approach that seeks to discover the natural skills you have that empower you as a leader. What drew me in were the people. When I came to admit weekend, I really felt at home with this crowd of people. It was more of a visceral feeling that anything else.”

Michelle Jiang, another graduate and former mechanical engineer at Intel, echoed those sentiments. “It was the people. The alumni that interviewed me and I really connected, and so I felt that if could have that same connection with other students at the GSB, then I would have a fantastic time here, and I was definitely not disappointed when I came to admit weekend.”

TOM STEYER TO GRADUATING STANFORD GSB CLASS: BE OPEN

Tom Steyer, the former co-senior managing partner of Farallon Capital Management and GSB alumnus, summed up the culture best in his commencement address. Steyer urged students to remember and to live by two simple words – be open.

“More than any other school, Stanford has the concept of openness in its DNA. We’re blessed with the weather and a campus that makes collaboration and collegiality easy.” Steyer said, “We spring from a West Coast culture of friendliness and cooperation and the university has deliberately sought to foster interdisciplinary problem solving.”

That is a bubble many would love to be in.

DON’T MISS: STANFORD GSB: “WE DON’T WANT TO BE THE GRADUATE SCHOL OF ENTREPENEURSHIP” or STANFORD MBA’S SHIFT AWAY FROM TECH