Olivia Staffon, MBA 2019, shares a day in the life during her summer internship at the National Park Service, Dinosaur Park. Her project is focused on evaluating opportunities for sharing operational resources such as equipment, labor, or expertise, between multiple parks. [...]

I began my MBA with the goal of utilizing business practices for land management issues. Scouring for applicable insights, I attempted filtering my coursework through the lens of a natural resource specialist. However, even with that perspective, the connection between business and conservation was not yet becoming clear. This guided my decision to intern with the National Park Service (NPS). My objective was to test the portability of MBA principles to practical and timely resources challenges. [...]

I spent most of my career harnessing the power of business to effect positive social change. Before and after attending HBS, I helped grow Working Assets (now Credo, founded by Laura Scher, MBA 1985) into a successful social enterprise that has generated more than $80 million for nonprofits. Whereas Working Assets is a for-profit enterprise whose business model includes 1% of revenue being donated to nonprofits, Accion Chicago is a nonprofit organization whose purpose is to build communities through entrepreneurship. [...]

Nanako Yano grew up in Tokyo, Japan and attended Pomona College in California. After graduating, she worked with Oliver Wyman in New York City and then moved to Swaziland to work with the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI) until two years later she was admitted into the HBS/HKS Joint Degree Program. We caught up with Nanako to learn more about her experience with the HBS/HKS joint degree program and her plans to make an impact on the world. [...]

How do you balance between being a mission-driven organization and a financially profitable company? That was the central question we posed to participants and speakers of this year’s Social Enterprise Conference (SECON). [...]