Simone Walker: Multiple Perspectives for Change
During my Fellowship experience working as a Special Projects Fellow for Cristo Rey San Jose High School (CRSJHS), I am able to better understand my business school coursework because I always have to consider more than one perspective and situation in building out the correct solutions for the school’s needs. For example, I am currently working on building a career prep toolkit for CRSJHS’s alumni who are currently on their undergraduate journey. In building out this toolkit, I always want to keep into consideration the variety of situations that each student may be facing, especially in the midst of the global pandemic. I need to ensure that the tools that I provide are not only useful but also easily accessible, relevant to their college experience, and easily consumable, allowing each user to successfully and efficiently use the tools in the toolkit. Therefore, when reflecting on my business school coursework, I can understand why students are given the opportunity to explore a myriad of disciplines, ranging from accounting to information systems to management, while attending the school. It allows one to accumulate and leverage a diverse skillset for later use in a career that requires its workforce to consider many perspectives and considerations before solution implementation.
Additionally, I have gained a new perspective on how my set of business skills can be used to support additional sides of the business world, besides the corporate side. Before this fellowship, I did not know how much of an impact business skills could have on the nonprofit sector. One important reason business skills are important in the non-profit, government or even in community work, especially a diverse set of skills that emphasize the importance of multiple perspectives, solutions, and considerations, is for the purpose of addressing and implementing social change. Using business skills for the purpose of implementing such positive change has allowed me to consider new ways in which I can address my future goals, revealing new paths for me to take after graduation. Therefore, with this new perspective on business skills, one piece of advice that I would like to give to other LSB students curious about utilizing their business skills in a non-corporate setting, is to hone in on your passions and ask yourself how you can use your acquired skills for the betterment of society and those around you.