The paths that people follow to business school can be remarkably diverse—as can those they follow once they’re done. Mallory Dwinal’s interesting course to Harvard Business School (HBS) and beyond caught our attention. The recent HBS alumna (pictured above, far left) wound her way to the Boston business school only after picking up a PhD in education from the University of Oxford and working for Teach for America as a middle and high school Spanish teacher at a charter school in Washington, DC.
The former Rhodes Scholar is now hard at work founding a school of her own—Oxford Day Academy—a proposed public charter high school for the Sequoia Union High School District of San Mateo County, California. “Slated to open in fall 2017, its mission is to engage and develop intelligent, empathetic young leaders with the character, ability, and passion they need to create positive change in the world,” her LinkedIn profile states.
Students at Oxford Day will spend half of each school day in their local communities completing real-world electives and internships. Using Oxford-style tutorials, the school’s teachers will help the students apply personalized academics to social issues that they care about. “Through this approach, our young people will develop not only deep content mastery, but also the open-ended problem solving and interpersonal communication skills required to become impactful leaders for positive social change, both at home and around the globe,” reads Dwinal’s profile. Pretty cool, we think. Our thanks to Dwinal for letting us share her reflections on her time at HBS with Clear Admit’s readers.
This following post has been republished in its entirety from its original source, “MBA Voices,” the HBS student blog.
6 DISCOVERIES I MADE ABOUT HBS
by Mallory Dwinal
- First year is really hectic
RC year is a lot more work than people are willing to admit! There’s a ton of new material to cover and exercises to complete, especially during the first term. It’s interesting and 100 percent manageable, but I didn’t know to expect it and wasted a lot of time feeling like I was behind.
- Second year is a great time to take some risks
Make EC year work for you, and take the risks you want to take. There are tons of resources (financial and otherwise) to help you explore your interests—find them and take advantage. I was trying to pull together financial and political support to open a new kind of charter high school in California, and HBS was very generous. From grants to covering plane tickets, to Independent Project (IP) credit for designing the school, they made it possible for me to chase that dream. They want to help, so reach out and advocate for yourself.
- It’s okay to say no
The people from my class (2015) who seem happiest with their time at HBS are the ones who were deliberate about prioritizing what was important to them and occasionally saying ‘no.’ You spend hours every day in open discussion with people—you will still meet colleagues and make friends if you skip some parties, clubs, and networking events.
I wish I’d let go of the guilt I felt about not going to every single social event. Big, loud events were never my thing—but I often felt like I was passing up an important part of business school. Now, on the other side of HBS, I’m very happy with the choices I made, and wish I would have owned them from the beginning.
- There are lots of different approaches to summer internship recruiting
Don’t be afraid to get off the beaten track. For family reasons, I split my time in rural areas between Illinois and Kentucky and did research remotely for an education non-profit in New York; I also worked on school start-up funding on the side. Grants from Harvard University paid for all of that work. There is no prescription for careers outside of consulting, banking, and a few other traditional business school fields. Let yourself enjoy that flexibility.
- You’ll learn a lot about yourself and what you want to do with your life
I realized that I would probably never be happy working 1) in a routine role or 2) outside of K-12 education. This realization came through reflection over the course of two years of case discussions, simulations, and summer work; I’ll be forever grateful for that opportunity to better know myself. Clarity about the field you want to be in—and the daily lifestyle you want from it—is half the battle.
- The community at HBS is warm and kind
The people are down to earth and caring in ways I never could have imagined. My dad passed away a few weeks after graduation, and the outpouring of love and support was indescribable. It’s easy to get caught up in insecurities about how successful everyone there is, but you soon find they’re also some of the most generous and compassionate people you’ll ever meet.
