Guest blog by Harriet Spears
Like many young people in the social sector before me, I flirted with the idea of getting an MPP, JD, and MA before ultimately arriving at the decision to pursue an MBA. As a nonprofit fundraiser, I recognized that the biggest gaps in my toolkit – financial accounting, investing, managerial decision-making – were best-aligned with an MBA curriculum. I believe in the importance of financial sustainability and a strong understanding of business fundamentals in every sector; a social venture cannot run on passion for the organization’s mission alone.
While my foundational and functional coursework at Booth has helped me close my knowledge gaps, I’ve pursued additional opportunities to accelerate my career in social impact. I chose Chicago Booth with my short-term career goals in mind: 1) to secure a strategic grantmaking role post-graduation and 2) to build out a philanthropic venture I started in 2022 to promote equity-minded giving among young professionals. Below are a few of the resources and experiences that I’ve sought out at Booth to help reach my goals.
Extracurriculars
One of the first clubs at Booth that I joined was the Steven Tarrson Impact Investment Fund, a student-managed impact investing fund making real investments in early-stage companies with a focus on environmental sustainability, health equity, and economic opportunity. I joined the economic opportunity group, and gained hands-on experience in sourcing, talking to founders, pitching to an investment committee, and due diligence. The Tarrson Fund (as it’s known among students) is housed in the Rustandy Center for Social Sector Innovation, the hub for all things social impact at Booth. Beyond offering a collaborative space that my friends and I find ourselves working in most days, the Rustandy Center hosts a huge range of programming for impact-minded students: from office hours with social entrepreneurship experts to support for case competitions to lunch n’ learn events with notable alumni.
One of the most exciting offerings at the Rustandy Center is the Edwardson Social Entrepreneurship Program – including the John Edwardson, ’72, Social New Venture Challenge (SNVC), the impact-oriented counterpart to the New Venture Challenge. My first friend at Booth, Lorenza Ramirez (who I met at an admitted students’ event before we both chose Booth) was a finalist in the 2024 SNVC, and used the competition to launch her nonprofit venture, Blueline. Watching Lorenza build Blueline with the backing of the Edwardson program inspired me to get more involved with its programming for my second year.
In tandem with Edwardson programming, the most recent impact-oriented extracurricular I’ve pursued while at Booth is the Obama Foundation Scholars program. As an Obama Scholar, I’m a part of an interdisciplinary cohort of leaders across the university that receive financial resources, interactive seminars, and personalized support to work on the social issues that we’re passionate about.
Coursework
To complement my extracurricular experiences, I enrolled in Social Sector Strategy and Structure with Professor Christina Hachikian during my first quarter at Booth. I loved this class because it encouraged me to think more expansively about the benefits of both nonprofit and for-profit social enterprises. It also gave me a strategy framework to understand some of the key challenges that I faced in my pre-MBA fundraising career, and how I might navigate similar roadblocks in future leadership roles.
Now that I’ve completed my required functional coursework, I’m excited to take on electives like Impact Investing with Professor Priya Parrish, and to enroll in courses through the Harris School, like Gender and Policy. The flexibility of Booth’s curriculum, combined with the ability to take classes through other schools at University of Chicago, were two of the major reasons I chose to attend Booth. There are more impact-oriented classes than I’ll be able to take during my six quarters, including Social Impact Lab, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Social Impact Practicum, Global Social Entrepreneurship Lab, and Navigating the ESG Landscape: Sustainability Information and Analysis.
Internships
Because I knew the MBA internship opportunities at philanthropic foundations would be limited, I decided to do my summer internship in corporate social responsibility at Nike’s headquarters in Oregon. I served on the Social Community Impact team, and supported their Asia-Pacific team in developing a grantmaking strategy to accelerate girls’ participation in sports. A few of my favorite parts of my summer at Nike were meeting company founder Phil Knight, learning how to skateboard with a Nike grantee partner in downtown Portland, and hiking the Oregon coast with the other MBA interns.
I also enrolled in the Private Equity/Venture Capital (PE/VC) Lab course in Spring 2024 to do a bonus internship with Advancing Women in Investing (AWI), a nonprofit supporting emerging female fund managers investing in African countries. AWI was founded by a Booth alumna, Lisa Thomas ‘06, and I enjoyed the experiential learning opportunities that I had while interning with her while simultaneously learning about capitalization tables and deal sourcing in the PE/VC Lab classroom with Professor Jason Heltzer.
While social impact may not be the first career path that comes to mind when considering an MBA, I am so grateful that I chose to pursue this path at Chicago Booth. More than my extracurriculars and coursework, I have met the most interesting people at Booth, who have both supported me and challenged me to sharpen my perspectives on how to create lasting, positive social change.
