Hello! For many of you this is the first time you have heard from me in months, if not years! I am finally, after six months in business school, lifting my head above water for a few minutes to gasp some air! While I had a few minutes, I thought I would use the time to reach out and stay connected.

As most (if not all) of you know, I started at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business last fall. I went back to business school to gain a fundamental business education that I could use in concert with my communications background and my commitment to – and passion for – corporate social responsibility to, in short, change the American corporation as we know it. And I have to say, so far so good.

JUMPING IN WITH BOTH FEET
Last semester was a whirlwind! In addition to taking my core classes – Statistics, Microeconomics, Organizational Behavior, Marketing, Finance and Accounting – I also got involved in a few extracurricular activities. First and most exciting, I was elected Vice President, Community Affairs by my classmates. In that capacity I am working to help Haas students get engaged with the community so that after school and throughout the course of their careers they stay engaged and recognize community involvement as an important part of their every day lives. My job includes helping connect students with volunteer opportunities, raising money and goods for different local organizations, and fundraising from the Haas community and beyond so that we may supplement the salaries of Haas first year students who choose internships in non-profit or public sector jobs. One of the reasons I chose Haas was that the culture and the people really support and promote this kind of community engagement. It has been a thrill to make this such a core part of what I am doing here!

In addition to my student government role (that sounds so geeky!), I am also involved with two clubs on campus – Berkeley Net Impact (the student club focused on corporate social responsibility) and GSVC – the Global Social Venture Competition. For Net Impact I am a Vice President (we are big on titles here!) of Outreach. My goal is to work with some of the more traditional career clubs on campus – Marketing, Finance, Real Estate, Health Care – to educate their members about corporate social responsibility so that when they go back into the professional world they are carrying out their job functions with an understanding and awareness of socially responsible business practices. I have to say, I love that I am a member of Net Impact after so many years working with Net Impact and MBA students on behalf of Nike! Through Net Impact I have also helped organize a student-led Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) speaker series. This is a one-credit class and each week features a different topic on which invited guest speakers share their expertise and perspectives with students. This has been incredible! So far, speakers have included the representatives from HP and Intel who were part of an industry working group that created a voluntary code of conduct; Socially responsible investment experts, including SRI gurus from Piper Jaffray and Calvert; Former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich (who I invited and therefore had the honor and pleasure of introducing!). Coming up we have a reporter from Fortune who covers the CSR “beat,” and a panel on CSR in the food industry, with representatives from Whole Foods, Niman Ranch, Spectrum Organics and the founder of Sharffen Berger chocolates (we are hoping they all bring samples!).

For the Global Social Venture Competition, I got involved early in the school year in helping set the strategic direction for the club, which puts on a social venture business plan competition every year. Now that we are in competition planning mode, I am working on collecting participant feedback so that we can make adjustments to the process as we go along and think about longer-term changes that can enhance the comepteition moving forward. The people involved in this club have been some of the most impressive people I have met in a long time. They are all true believers and we feed off each other’s energy and passion and it allows us to get a lot done in a short period of time!

I also started writing for the school paper, HaasWeek, which just resumed publication after a semester-long hiatus. The editors liked my first story so much, they offered me a column! Not sure I can commit to another deadline but you know me – I cannot imagine passing up the opportunity to say what I think about things for an audience!

School has also been a lot of fun socially (of course!). The people are not only incredibly smart and interesting, they are also hilarious and a ton of fun! Over winter break a group of about 12 of us went to Argentina for three weeks and it was one of the best trips I have ever taken. We are already thinking about where to go for Spring Break (as we plan our Argentina reunion dinner!)! I also convinced a group of about 20 classmates to train for a triathlon together (suckers!) - none of them have done one before! In all my spare time, I also managed to meet myself a nice young man...his name is Peter, he’s a second year and he’s European – who would have guessed?!

ONE SEMESTER DOWN, THREE TO GO
So I am about a month into my second semester, busier than ever and yet I am still loving it, more convinced than ever that going back to school was the right move for me. This semester I am able to take some electives and I am loving them all! One class I am taking is Business and Public Policy. The Professor is amazing – he is incredibly smart and dynamic and the material we are learning will be applicable in the real world, I am sure.

I am also taking Strategic Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), taught by Professor Kellie McElhaney (studying with Kellie was a significant reason I chose to come to Haas) – an incredible class in which we get actual CSR consulting projects to work on all semester long. My client is Yahoo! and the project is awesome! We are working closely with Yahoo!’s CSR manager to benchmark CSR best practices in the Internet industry, research socially responsible investment criteria and develop other tools and materials the company can use as it develops and implements its corporate social responsibility strategy. It’s been amazing to have the opportunity to take the skills I already had, supplement them with what we are learning in class and then apply them, real time, to our client’s needs.

My third elective is called International Business Development. This class, to which I applied and was one of 64 applicants accepted out of a pool of 120, puts us into four-person student teams and we are each assigned an overseas client for whom we will be working. We will spend the semester researching and developing materials for our clients and then, in late May, we will travel to our client sites to finalize and present our deliverables. My team is working on developing a business plan for a planned ecotourism resort on Easter Island. That’s right...EASTER ISLAND! I am going to the island of those strange statues! You have to admit, that’s a little bit insane! I am really excited about it (of course!). Business school has opened up the world to me in ways I never would have expected and I feel so lucky that I am able to take advantage of all it has to offer!

THE SUMMER JOB SEARCH COMMENCES
Now the search for the summer job is on! Can you believe it? I feel like I just left work! But this is how it goes here in business school. In fact, many of my classmates already have jobs lined up for the summer! I am just getting started, but because what I want to do follows a less traditional path, the process will be a bit slower and a bit more challenging. I am hoping to get a job this summer working with a large corporation on developing and/or implementing some aspect of a CSR strategy (preferably in the Bay Area, though I am open to going somewhere else). So what does that look like? Well, it can look like a number of things, including the following:
Helping develop a CSR report – more and more companies are doing these now and with my communications background, this would be an ideal assignment for me!
Working with the investor relations department of a company trying to compile information and answer questionnaires from socially responsible investment research analysts and fund managers
Researching and analyzing best practices to help guide a company in the development of its CSR strategy and/or programs

Most large companies have MBA summer internship programs, though the internships are usually in finance, marketing or product management. This means I am going to have to network and cold call to find my summer job! So do not be surprised if you hear from me in the coming weeks seeking your assistance or advice in helping me land my summer gig. I sent my most recent resume for you, just so you can have it at your fingertips in case that job-that’s-perfect-for-Marcy comes across your desk! In the meantime, if you have any suggestions about people to call who may be looking for someone like me for the summer (or who I can convince really needs someone like me for the summer!), please let me know!

BACK TO THE BOOKS
Well, it’s back to the books for me! I hear things slow down in the second year and I really hope they do; in fact, I am counting on it! I hope you are all well and I hope to be in better, more consistent touch. Drop me a line to let me know how you are and if you will be out this way soon!

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Marcy Scott Lynn
Berkeley MBA Candidate, 2006
Haas School of Business