Ross Jensen

MBA 2014
  • Hometown: Kalamazoo, Michigan
  • Pre-MBA: Teach For America; Director

Ross Jensen

Post Graduation Goals:

I’ll either return to the education field or enter the social sector with a focus on improving resource allocation or human capital development.

Favorite GSB Memory So Far:

My TALK and the day or so after. The support and encouragement I received from my classmates was unbelievably awesome. It confirmed what I had begun to suspect: this is where I belong.

Monday
07:00am
Woke up, ate breakfast, checked email.
08:00am
Did fascinating reading for my Incentive Mechanisms for Societal Networks (“Incentives”) class. The reading discussed the differences between “broken hydrant” and “leaky faucet” societal network problems and the power of lottery incentive systems.
08:30am
Reading and online homework for Finance class. Off to a good start…
10:00am
I normally have class at this point on Mondays, but it was President’s Day, so Monday classes were shifted to Wednesday. Scheduled a conference call with the GSB alum with whom my group is working for our regression project for Data and Decisions (“D&D”) class.
10:30am
Worked on a proposal for a Stanford social entrepreneurship pitch contest I entered with a GSB classmate and a few others. We have a pretty great–if you ask me, that is–idea for placing more talented young people in impact careers.
12:00pm
Went on my favorite run – the Dish – while listening to a This American Life podcast. It was unusually cloudy. (We’re very spoiled when it comes to sun.)
01:00pm
Finished my workout in the Schwab gym.
01:30pm
Showered, ate lunch.
02:30pm
Met up with my friend Andrew for a walk. We were in the same section last quarter, but we don’t have any classes together this quarter, so we needed to catch up. (I should explain why I’m taking so many walks. As part of my Incentives class, I’m participating in an incentive mechanism system involving Nike Fuel Bands, which tracks daily physical activity. I’m pretty close to my daily goal after my walk with Andrew.)
02:45pm
On the way back, I broke down and bought a box of Girl Scout cookies. I had been walking past the stand for the better part of a week. My willpower has its limits.
03:45pm
Stopped to chat with Lawrence, Nader, and Edgar, the awesome Schwab staff, on the way back to my room.
04:00pm
Email triage, scheduled flight for summer internship interview the following week, did some work for the Student Association Diversity Committee I serve on. Ate most of the Girl Scout cookies, felt sick.
08:00pm
Fun dinner in downtown Palo Alto with Jonny (a GSB classmate), Malini (a friend from high school who’s a med student at Stanford, and Kacey (not pictured; sorry Kacey!). I must be telling a really great story.
11:00pm
Caught up on email, scheduled a visit to a potential apartment for next year.
12:30am
Bedtime.
Thursday
06:00am
Woke up, ate breakfast, checked email, showered. Another beautiful day outside. This is the view from my window in Schwab.
07:00am
Reading for Incentives and Finance classes.
08:00am
Walked across the street to Finance class. The topic was pretty technical and dry, but we ended with a fascinating discussion about the way firms use leverage to create tax shields and whether the U.S. could and should change this policy.
10:00am
Incentives class. Apparently the old GSB campus didn’t have any windows in classrooms. That sounds bad, but it’s pretty hard to focus when you can look out at this:
10:30am
During class, we talked about the role of incentives and games in behavior change. The professor walked us through systems he designed and implemented at Stanford to reduce peak-time traffic volume and to encourage recycling. We played a few different varieties of the games and debated the merits of each model.
11:45am
Walked through Town Square–my favorite part of campus because it actually feels like a real town square–to get lunch in Arbuckle.
12:00pm
Went to lunch info session for a boutique consulting firm focused on healthcare and nonprofit practices.
01:00pm
Ran into Haley, Jasper, and Juan Pablo on my way back to Schwab.
01:15pm
Email triage.
03:00pm
Met up with Allison, one of my Leadership Lab squad-mates from last quarter, to catch up. Went on a walk through campus (gotta meet my Fuel Band goal for the day!).
03:30pm
Met up with my friend Christine and walked over to the d.school. Christine’s taking a class there and her team’s project involves middle school kids. They wanted to hear about my experience as a teacher and about my strategies for engaging middle schoolers. The short version of my answer: it’s not easy.
04:30pm
Walked back to Schwab, email triage, talked to my friend Natalie about running for the Diversity committee, talked with D&D group about our regression project.
06:15pm
Prepared reading and case for D&D class.
07:30pm
Went downstairs to a Social Innovation Club small group dinner hosted by my friends Monica and Steph. The topic for the dinner was the balance between lifestyle and impact in social sector careers. We had a fascinating conversation ranging from the meaning and value of “work-life balance” to the choice to work in the private or public/social sector. The food was from Oren’s Hummus Shop, a local favorite.
09:30pm
We had to leave the room because another group had it reserved. So we continued our conversation in the hallway for almost another hour. Monica had made brownies but dropped them on the way into Schwab. I convinced everyone they were still OK to eat. They were delicious.
10:15pm
Our dinner group eventually dispersed, but Matt, a second-year friend, stuck around to help me think through which club leadership positions I might want to apply for.
10:45pm
Email triage, reading for Econ, worked on social entrepreneurship pitch competition proposal.
01:00am
Bedtime.
Friday
07:00am
Woke up, ate breakfast, checked email, showered. (Yes, this is the same photo from Monday, but I promise it looked exactly like this.)
08:00am
Background reading for lunch meeting, brainstormed potential topics for Incentives group project.
09:00am
Skimmed case for Econ class.
09:45am
Walk over to D&D class.
10:00am
D&D class. Nafeesa’s ready!
11:45am
Ran into Johnny and Gaya after class.
12:00pm
Grabbed lunch from Arbuckle. The pizza looked especially good that day.
12:15pm
Met Allen from the GSB Center for Social Innovation, Rob Mosbacher from BizCorps, Rebecca from the GSB Career Management Center, and Anay, a second-year classmate, for lunch. Rob was on campus to speak about BizCorps’s plans to send a cohort of MBA grads to small/medium businesses in developing countries to facilitate economic growth. Allen invited me to the lunch because he knew about my interest in talent development in the social sector.
01:00pm
I was supposed to meet with my friend Athip to talk about my experience at Teach For America because he’s interested in potentially applying the TFA model back in Thailand. Unfortunately, Athip had to cancel. Fortunately, I ran into my friend Sam and we had the opportunity to catch up before walking over to Econ class.
01:30pm
Interesting Econ class about the pros and cons of pay-for-performance models.
03:15pm
Walked over to the library with my friend Caitrin to work on regression group project and prepare for Incentives project group meeting.
04:15pm
Meeting with Incentives group to decide on topic for our project. We came up with lots of ideas, ultimately deciding on an approach to get parents and kids to read together more frequently. We’ll work on it for the next few weeks and create a video and report about our eventual approach. I forgot to take a photo during the meeting, but we did get this photo of us jumping. Always fun.
05:30pm
Went over to the weekly Friday LPF (aka happy hour) on Town Square. This week’s LPF was sponsored by the Black Business Student Association. I did not join in the group dancing. No one wants to see me try to dance.
06:00pm
Met up with Louis and Faris. Faris’s shoes were really, really orange.
06:30pm
Walked over to Arrillaga Dining Hall and had dinner with Louis, debriefed the week, and talked about summer plans.
08:00pm
Walked back to Schwab, made sure to send a description of our Incentives project to the professor before I forgot what we decided on, email triage.
10:00pm
Did Econ homework that was due at midnight. Thank you, procrastination!
11:00pm
Planned out my priorities for the weekend. I just always feel better when I have a sense for what I need to accomplish. Then I wasted some time on the internet.
12:00am
Bedtime. Boring Friday night, I know, but it has been a long week. And it’s not so important that my Friday nights are exciting when my weeks in general are awesome.