Business Students Shifting Focus | Jackson Free Press | Jackson, MS

Business Students Shifting Focus

"Corporate responsibility" is becoming the mantra at many business schools, AP reports: "As the stereotype goes, business students are supposed to be single-minded in their career goals: making money, more money and still more money. But don't tell that to Daron Horwitz, who spent his spring break in Iraq - visiting schools that will be helped by a nonprofit group he and a small group of students formed at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management.

"Experts say they're part of a new breed of MBA student, influenced by everything from corporate scandal to the dot-com bust to concerns over the effects of globalization on everyday people. They also note that the curriculum at business schools across the country has been changing in recent years, placing more emphasis on ethics, nonprofit work and "corporate social responsibility."

"'Our data suggests that the students are more interested in thinking about the role of business in society ... and as a generation, are saying 'We want to do a better job,'" said Nancy McGaw, deputy director of the New York-based Aspen Institute Business and Society Program, which has been tracking the trend."

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