The school faced unprecedented operational and financial challenges in response to COVID-19. Unrestricted annual giving provided the flexible and immediate resources needed to meet those challenges.
The Business School Fund is dedicated to improving the student experience and enhancing alumni connections, especially during these uncertain times. Annual and reunion contributions received in the fiscal year that ended August 31, 2020, made the following results possible for the school.
Stanford GSB overcame significant hurdles posed by the pandemic thanks to generous gifts to the Business School Fund. Faculty and curricular support programs adapted immediately to ensure a smooth transition for students to online learning. Financial aid, academic innovation, and diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts further helped students thrive.
Comprehensive Financial AidStanford GSB provided financial aid to nearly 600 students from around the world. With increasing student need in the current climate, a robust financial aid program attracts the highest caliber MBA, MSx, and PhD students, regardless of their financial situation, and creates a vibrant and diverse GSB community. Last year, the Business School Fund filled the $3.6 million gap between student need and support from dedicated fellowship funds.
Business School Fund FellowshipThe Business School Fund supports students like Edward Silva, MBA/MS Environment and Resources ’21. Silva, the son of Portuguese immigrants, grew up on a small farm in California. His passion is in agriculture. He aspires to bring advanced technology to farmers of all sizes. “This is a place where big ideas are not laughed at but instead respected and molded.”
Stanford GSB was forced to pivot from classroom to online learning in only 60 weekend hours. The newly formed Teaching and Learning Hub mobilized to support faculty as they transitioned to online delivery. The hub organized workshops, interactive webinars, and individual consultations; dispersed helpful tips; and responded to questions posed by anxious instructors.
Stanford GSB is committed to addressing racial inequity, and anti-Black racism specifically, by focusing attention and resources to increasing representation, building a culture of inclusion and belonging, and making positive change beyond our campus.
Faculty seized the opportunity to deliver five new courses that addressed issues related to the global pandemic, strengthened participation in leadership roles in civil society, or hosted leaders responding to the crisis. In Civic Workshop, teams of students implemented projects to provide immediate volunteer civic assistance to a community dealing with the effects of the coronavirus.
To further strengthen Stanford GSB’s long-term commitment to making positive change in the diversity, equity, and inclusion of our community, teaching, and research, the GSB appointed Lori Nishiura Mackenzie as the lead strategist for DEI efforts.
The Career Management Center and GSB Alumni Relations expanded virtual programming, made possible by gifts like yours to engage and support GSB alumni. New offerings like Long-Distance Leadership: How to Manage Your Team with Clarity and Compassion During the Coronavirus Crisis and Strategies That Advance Equity: How to Create a Great Place to Work for All addressed some of our alumni’s most urgent issues.
Alumni to Alumni SeriesLeading in a Pandemic is a collection of virtual conversations with GSB alumni who stepped up as leaders in their professional, volunteer, and personal lives in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, with the goal of inspiring others to do the same.
Lifelong LearningBrave Spaces and Investing in Black Entrepreneurs were new workshops that addressed racial equity. Alumni discussed diversity, equity, and inclusion, and the lack of representation for the Black entrepreneurial community and how to support Black investors.
COVID-19 Job Search StrategiesAlumni Career Services created a lineup of timely resources to help you navigate a job search in today’s uncertain environment. |
The Crisis Job Search PlaybookMembers of the Classes of 2008 and 2009 shared what they learned from launching their careers in the wake of the Great Recession. |
Other Career ResourcesChanging jobs? Returning to work after a break? Writing the next chapter of your career? Alumni Career Services is here to help. |