Immersion Round Up #7 - Sustainable Global Enterprise

We're back from Spring Break! Destination Johnson is just around the corner and we can't wait for you to get here. To resume our set of posts on our immersion, today's note comes from Elicia Carmichael (you'll also get to hear her speak at the opening session on Friday night!)

An interviewer recently asked me, “Why did you leave your incredible life in Costa Rica to get an MBA?” It’s a question I hear frequently. And my answer is Johnson’s Sustainable Global Enterprise immersion.

Eight months ago I was reforesting a cattle farm in Costa Rica while consulting remotely on strategy and innovation for a firm in Boston. I had a lucrative job with a company I loved, and had finagled a way to work remotely from a tropical climate. By many standards, I had found success. Even so, I knew I would only feel truly successful once I had managed to merge my strategy skills with my passion for environmental protection and social justice.

The funny thing is, it is never my SGE classmates who ask this question. With highly successful professional backgrounds ranging from sustainability consulting and public relations to energy analysis and engineering, and with passions ranging from solar power and microfinance to the greening of the ski industry, we are all here for the same basic reason: to merge our passions with our strengths and make an impact that has real meaning.

The SGE immersion started on January 14, and since then my classmates and I have been consulting on sustainability for companies including GE, Yingli Solar, Johnson and Johnson, Ocean Spray, and the World Bank. We’ve bussed to New York and DC to visit a diverse array of CEOs, white house officials, and game-changing NGOs. We’ve customized our elective coursework to build upon our knowledge in marketing, operations, consulting, and finance. We’ve formed lifelong relationships with each other, our incredible faculty, and alumni in our fields of interest.

Beyond the incredible faculty, corporate connections, and world-class resources at Cornell, I believe that what makes the SGE immersion so powerful is the cohort of highly intelligent, passionate, and inspired students it convenes and develops. Together, we will be the leaders who green the energy industry, design triple bottom line startups, and revolutionize private sector norms.

And so, potential SGE-ers, I advise you to connect with each other and with us while you’re visiting Ithaca over DJ weekend. Make a few SGE friends this weekend, and I think you’ll quickly see why immersing yourself in this community may be the best professional choice you’ll ever make.