I just like this idea. From Forbes.com by Emily Lambert.
In the wake of hurricane Katrina, Tulane University's Freeman School of Business is partnering first-year grad students with local businesses hit hard by the hurricane.
Last summer Woodrow J. Wilson Jr. was paying the bills wholesaling drugs and medical instruments to hospitals and doctors' offices in New Orleans--until Hurricane Katrina put his inventory under 6 feet of water.
Sometimes the best way to learn is by doing. Maybe we could export this program to Congress...
Graduate students take a mandatory class--called Rebuild New Orleans--that puts them to work in the city’s rebuilding effort.
“They’re seeing the stresses and strains," says John Elstrott, Rebuild's instructor and director of Tulane's Institute for Entrepreneurship. "It’s been a really good experience for them.”
Reading about business operations in a textbook doesn't compare to doing it in the real world. Many of us know it's quite an eye-opener.
For (David) Drewek, 30, the hands-on work is a healthy change of pace from studying financial derivatives and venture capital: “Elstrott’s class made you go out and talk to real people."
There's wisdom to be found in many places. Kudos to some in the Big Easy for finding it amidst their tragedy.
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