Vice President, Social Responsibility Candidates
Jeremy Dommu
Email address: JDommu@gmail.com
Why are you running for the VP – Social Responsibility?
I believe that the George Washington University MBA program has positioned itself to be the top business school in developing students to become ethical and responsible business leaders that respond to the challenges of a global economy. My own individual career aspirations, like so many other students, align with this goal. To date, with its revised ciriculuum, enhanced marketing efforts, and focus on community involvement, the GW MBA program has taken great strides in developing its offerings for students interested in environmental sustainability, corporate responsible, and other triple-bottomed line businesses. As the MBAA’s Vice President of Social Responsible, I will continue to develop the existing initiatives and create new opportunities for current students, future students, and the program as a whole to participate in sustainable business school activities. I am running for this position I understand the tremendous potential that the GW MBA program has to truly become the leading academic institution for the next generation of business leaders looking to make a positive impact on the world, and I have the dedication and time to make that happen over the next 2 years.
Qualifications to be VP – Social Responsibility:
I believe that an important aspect for the VP of Social Responsibility is to have a strong working relationship with the student organizations that focus on providing the programming to further the agenda of many of the students at GW whose career goals involve addressing global challenges in an ethical, responsible, and sustainable manner. I have strong ties with the boards of both Net Impact and the GW Energy Group and believe that I can act as liason to help represent their agendas on the MBAA while also help promote the GW brand through cross-coordination and communication between the MBAA, student clubs, and the GW Office of Sustainability and Institute for Corporate Responsibility.
I have been selected to write a regular column on Businessweek.com’s Business School website blogging about my MBA experience. My articles will be prominently featured over the next two years on the site for thousands of potential MBA students to read. While the purpose of this column is to share my individual insights into the GW MBA program and my personal experience, I feel that this platform is a great opportunity to also help express the goals and vision that our entire study body has for the future of the program. A board position on the MBAA will help me to gain the insight of the rest of the program for inclusion on in this unique and valuable platform.
Goals and plans if elected VP – Social Responsibility:
My primary goal as VP of Social Responsibility is to organize and execute a student-run conference that brings leading thinkers and innovators in the environmental, international development and non-profit industries to GW to challenge and inspire students to make a difference in business. I believe that such an event, held annually, will motivate current students to think big and fulfill their career ambitions, will help develop the GW brand as producers of globally minded responsible business leaders in the eyes of future employers, and ultimately help elevate the program as a whole. I additionally hope to organize several community service initiatives and fund-raisers to help support philanthropic organizations, further develop our ethical, sustainable, and social aspects in our curriculum (particularly by providing more opportunity for elective courses during the first year), and work with the entire GW MBA community (including the global, part-time, and executive programs) to fulfill these visions.
Dmitry Polyakov
Email address: polyakov@gwmail.gwu.edu
Why are you running for the VP – Social Responsibility?
I decided to pursue the opportunity to run for the Vice President of Social Responsibility position for two primary reasons:
First, I would like to channel my passion for social responsibility and environmental sustainability, along with my experience within this field, into a position that would allow me to serve the George Washington School of Business and the MBA student body. Within the past couple of years the faculty, MBAA, and, most importantly, the student body have made a number of major efforts to make our school better known for its social and environmental responsibility. For us—young professionals who will soon become business leaders—it is important to continue developing the corporate social responsibility academic component, much needed in a contemporary business world, to be better prepared for upcoming career challenges. It is also imperative to exercise social and environmental responsibility while in school, by being socially and environmentally concerned members of the GWSB community. I would like to expand the existing sustainability efforts and help students to initiate new projects that would benefit all stakeholders: the school, the students, and the community.
Second, I am excited about the opportunity to become a civil servant to each and every GW MBA student. All of us have feedback, concerns and/or ideas that might be useful to the school administration in its effort to create a better learning environment. I personally feel that communication between the student body and the school administration could be improved. I believe that both the administration and the student body could be more socially responsible to each other by sharing ideas and feedback about curriculum, school policies, securities, and many other topics on more regular basis. I am confident that the school could greater benefit its students by creating a better environment for exchanging opinions. As we all share ideas within cohorts, clubs, groups of friends, and other professional and social formats, we should have more ways to bring a positive change to our community whenever we see a need for one. I am well aware of how busy all of us are in trying to balance our academic, professional, and social lives; therefore, I am eager to serve as an additional channel of communication for each and every GW MBA student through MBAA to the school administration.
My stance is truly social. I want to serve the MBA community to make the school, and the university as a whole, a more sustainable and socially responsible institution by building on the existing successes and by creating more opportunities for students to be responsible stakeholders.
Qualifications to be VP – Social Responsibility:
I am confident that I possess numerous qualifications necessary to serve as the Vice President of Social Responsibility. Specific examples include:
Professional qualifications. I have over seven years of international development and non-profit experience, which includes running community-oriented, grass-root initiatives, as well as promoting and supporting civic education projects in Central Asia, Eastern Europe and the United States. Upon graduation I plan to continue my career in the international corporate social responsibility sector.
Community service qualifications. Having lived, gone to school, and worked on three continents (Asia, Europe, and North America), I have always been passionate about social work and environmental awareness. As such, I have served as a volunteer in various charity, community service, and civil advocacy projects everywhere I lived. Currently, I am a member of the nation-wide Net Impact organization, as well as its local chapter.
Academic qualifications. I have a Bachelor’s degree in International Comparative Politics and a Master’s degree in International Relations with a concentration in International Humanitarian Relations. My current academic interests focus on the global corporate responsibility initiatives, and community development and environmental sustainability projects funded by multi-national corporations. As a Global MBA student I am also enrolled in GWSB’s Certificate of Responsible Management program.
Student governance qualifications. I was always involved with student self-government. With a group of students, I started a student parliament in my high school and was elected student body president one year later. I was also a student body senator at my university during my undergraduate studies, instituting a set of practices to better communicate students’ concerns to the university administration.
All of the listed qualifications, multiplied by my desire to increase and improve social responsibility and environmental sustainability at the George Washington University School of Business, make me a strong candidate for a civil servant position for the MBA student body.
Goals and plans if elected VP – Social Responsibility:
In the capacity of the Vice President of Social Responsibility I plan to accomplish the following goals:
1. Expand the scope and depth of social and environmental responsibility and sustainability projects. As the contemporary business sector becomes more focused on social and environmental responsibility, I believe that, as future business leaders, the GW MBA students should get greater academic and professional exposure opportunities in this growing field. This goal would be achieved by:
• Working with the school administration, faculty, and student body to build on the strong sustainability reputation of the George Washington University School of Business;
• Helping students in their search for a better academic and professional exposure to the social and environmental responsibility; and,
• Supporting local and university-wide clubs’ social and environmental responsibility-targeted initiatives.
2. Increase accountability of the school administration. I am convinced that communication between the student body and the administration could be improved by increasing the role of the MBA Association in the ongoing dialogue among all of school’s stakeholders to continue creating a better learning environment. This social accountability would be amplified by:
• Increasing the frequency of the MBAA open meetings;
• Making MBAA weekly meetings open to club representatives and interested individuals by appointment;
• Instituting a practice of making MBAA weekly meetings’ notes available to all MBA students;
• Inviting representatives of the MBA Program office and the Career Center to attend open MBAA meetings; and,
• Assisting students in communicating their concerns about faculty, school policies, security, and other issues to the school administration.
3. Improve campus environmental sustainability. As the university strives to become a more environmentally friendly institution, the MBA student body’s skills and knowledge could be more effectively implemented while developing business and environment sustainability models to decrease pollution and resource consumption on campus. I would strive to improve campus environmental sustainability by:
• Continuing university and student-driven environmental sustainability-oriented initiatives;
• Helping students and clubs to communicate their ideas to the school and university administration; and,
• Assisting students and clubs in finding resources to fund their environmental initiatives.
4. Continue the students’ community service involvement. As The George Washington University School of Business leads a number of community service initiatives, it is important to continue and augment the support of such projects to help the university remain in its good socially responsible status to the community it is situated in. The community service involvement would be supported by:
• Continuing community service projects successfully initiated in the past;
• Defining the needs of the local community and designing new community service projects; and,
• Making information about all community service opportunities that GWSB MBA students might be interested in better available to them.
5. Ensure continuous support of the student- and faculty-driven initiative to institute the Certificate in Responsible Management program. I am fascinated by the efforts that GWSB students and professors are making to develop the program and I am confident that such efforts should receive more support. This goal would be achieved by:
• Assisting the local Net Impact chapter in its curriculum change initiatives;
• Providing more information about volunteer and community service opportunities for students interested in fulfilling the certificate requirements; and,
• Helping the school to advertise the program better to prospective students, other academic institutions, and potential employers.
6. Support all kinds of student initiatives and improve communication between the student body and the MBA Association. Seeing a great number of bright ideas and initiatives generated by the student body, I would serve to help students to obtain support and resources for implementing their ideas. Such a goal would be achieved by:
• Being available to all GWSB MBA students by email, phone and in person;
• Helping students present their ideas and initiatives to MBAA and the school administration; and,
• Assisting students with search for resources to accomplish their ideas.
I believe that accomplishing the goals stated above would improve the quality of the learning environment, school’s social and environmental suitability and accountability, and form a great basis for continuing to bring positive changes in all dimensions of students’ academic and professional lives in the long run.
Kristina Brzezinski
Email address: kbrzez@gwmail.gwu.edu
Why are you running for the VP – Social Responsibility?
I consider myself fortunate to be a part of this community that values leadership, globalization and ethics; and it is important to me that I give back to it. Given my interests, unique skill set and background, I see the role of VP of Social Responsibility as a great opportunity to contribute to the school and build upon everything that those before us have accomplished.
Qualifications to be VP – Social Responsibility:
I am currently working as an assistant at the Institute for Corporate Responsibility, I am an active member of GW Net Impact and a candidate for the Certificate in Responsible Management, so I will take all that I’m learning from those experiences and apply them in my role as VP of Social Responsibility. I also have worked in the DC nonprofit community for the past three years, and will be able to use my contacts there to expand the community service opportunities. Lastly, I work very well with diverse and interdepartmental teams, which is important for this position.
Goals and plans if elected VP – Social Responsibility:
Create a resource center for all interested MBA students to focus on learning how to incorporate sustainable practices into their respective function areas, learning more about what social intrapreneurs and corporate responsibility officers are seeing in the workplace, and ultimately serve as a bridge between GW and the workplace. This center would work very closely with the Institute for Corporate Responsibility, the Office of Sustainability, the School of Business, general administration and GW Net Impact to provide learning opportunities such as a speaker lunch series; a library of articles, essays and case studies; and a forum for students to exchange ideas.
Develop an Ethics Oath for those who want to take it at graduation. While some students are pursuing the Certificate in Responsible Management, other students may want to voice their commitment to pursuing an ethical career in another way, and this would serve that need. While there are examples of an oath other schools have used, I would like to create one that reflects the School of Business’ values and what we’re learning here at GW.