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Presidio Graduate School
IN THE NEWS
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Presidio Graduate School is featured in "Business as UNusual: The Student Guide to Graduate Programs 2011" by Net Impact. The article below is excerpted from NetImpact publication.
Click here to view the full guide.
 
 
 
 

Presidio Graduate School integrates sustainability into every course and across the entire curriculum—including social innovation, integrated bottom-line accounting, sus tainable marketing, and ecological economics. The MBA in Sustainable Management program does not simply have a stand-alone course or concentration in environmental management or corporate social responsibility. Instead, each rigorous MBA course is designed to teach social and environmental sustainability from the ground up. This is the difference between incremental change and designing for systems thinking. Presidio Graduate School teaches students to think critically and apply sustainable management skills to create more effective business solutions. Graduate School emphasizes not only transformative thinking about each discipline but also practical tools and approaches to implement concepts within real-world contexts. As an evolving field,sustainability requires hands-on learning that is not added on as an elective or internship, but is incorporated into ev ery aspect of the curriculum.

Experiential or applied learning is a cornerstone of the curriculum design at Presidio Graduate School, in which students work on real-world projects with companies or or ganizations in four courses. Presidio Graduate School works with a growing number of local and global partners that value students’ unique perspective in tackling management challenges. Organizations range from startup businesses to Government agencies and Fortune 500 companies, such as Walmart, Hewlett Packard, IDEO, Salesforce, Goodwill Industries, Sun Energy, HelioVolt, Straus Family Creamery, and SF Environment. Students graduate with a robust résumé of accomplishments and professional connections.

 

The culmination of the MBA program is the Integrative Capstone course. In their last semester, students plan, start, or build an ethical, sustainable, and profitable venture for an existing or new business, NGO, or governmental organization. Students work individually or in a group to complete a strategic business plan, as well as an action plan to implement the venture.

The expert faculty members at Presidio Graduate School are at the forefront of new learning in the field of sustainable management. They are academically qualified educators who are accomplished practitioners and thought lead ers within their fields. Together with guest lecturers and academic advisors, faculty members are a dynamic and experienced resource.

Presidio also offers students the unique opportunity to engage with business and policy decision makers. The school not only offers an MBA in Sustainable Management but also the nation’s first integrated MPA in Sustainable Management. Over 40% of the courses in these programs overlap to integrate the student body in public and corporate sectors and allow students to earn a dual degree. Graduates from either program gain a strong network of business, government, and nonprofit colleagues. Together, students explore how these various sectors are interconnected.

 

Outside of classes, Presidio offers a variety of opportunities for students to be involved and engaged in its vibrant community. The Net Impact chapter, which is seven years old and proudly includes every Presidio MBA student as a member, serves as a hub for students to connect with each other and with Net Impact professional and educational resources. The Net Impact chapter sponsors various events each semester including career workshops, business plan competition workshops, speaker events, and social gatherings. One of Net Impact’s most valued contributions to Presidio Graduate School is the Mentor Program, which connects new students with a mentor who advises them on all aspects of the MBA program. The chapter also connects students with regional Net Impact chapters by co-hosting mixers with the other Bay Area chapters.
Because Presidio Graduate School is designed around the principles of sustainability, all of the

 

clubs and organizations promote social and environmental sustainability in business. The Net Impact chapter houses all other sustainability-related student clubs: the Social Venture Finance Club, the Entrepreneur Club, the Clean Tech Club, the Green Building Club, the Water Club, the International Sustainability Club, the Equity in Sustainability Club, and the Presidio Sustainable Table Organization. Most student are actively engaged with at least one student club, if not more, and new club charters are developed every year.
Presidio clubs are an important outlet for students to explore specific focuses within the program learning. For example, the International Sustainability Club is sponsoring multiple efforts in South America and Asia. In Nicaragua, they are working with two local nonprofit groups to bring electricity, potable water, and watershed protection to more than 7,000 Nicaraguan villagers, many of whom have no electricity.
 
 
 

The Student Services team at Presidio Graduate School is dedicated to providing career services for students looking for jobs and internships with a social and environmental focus. Career services offer students a range of resources including résumé preparation, interview coaching, career workshops, one-on-one counseling sessions, and job and internship postings. Presidio Graduate School also has an extremely engaged alumni network of sustainable business leaders, which provides an invaluable resource for job seekers, as well as ideas and career advice.

 

 

 

The faculty and administration at Presidio Graduate provide tremendous support to the Net Impact chapter and are completely aligned with the mission and goals of Net Impact. The administration sponsors all MBA student membership dues.
Presidio Graduate School believes that graduates must be armed with both the competencies and the courage to implement a sustainable future. Due to the nature of programs at Presidio Graduate School, the admissions team places special value on applicants with the capacity for leadership and with a background or interest in social and environmental impact.

 

In addition to the administration and faculty, Presidio Graduate School also offers a unique Sustainability Experts-in-Residence Program (EIR). The program provides a formal opportunity for distinguished leaders to work collaboratively with the Presidio network to stimulate and implement innovative ideas in sustainability. EIR seeks to expand innovative sustainability thought and practice with scalable impact for both the school and the larger community.
 
 

Presidio Graduate School is a learning community dedicated to developing business and civic leaders with the courage and competencies to implement a sustainable future.
Sustainability and systems thinking are woven throughout the MBA program at Presidio Graduate School. Rigorous management theory and practice is connected with social responsibility, ecological awareness, systems thinking, and leadership within an integrated framework of sustainable management. This framework, in addition to its emphasis on applied learning and robust network, makes Presidio Graduate School a unique learning community for students interested in social and environmental sustainability.
The integrated curriculum is designed around three fundamental and interconnected concepts that together define competence in sustainable management: sustainable systems, leadership, and business foundations. The coursework is designed to build competencies in personal efficacy, resilience, adaptability, relationship management, and organizational change. Foundational courses focus on building practical management proficiency

 

in economics, innovation, capital management, and critical thinking.
Experiential learning is a key component of the program and trains students to address real-world business regarded among socially responsible companies, organizations, nonprofits, and governments. Presidio is recognized for its rigorous business and management fundamentals, as well as its hands-on sustainability learning opportunities for students.
Alumni of Presidio Graduate School are implementing social and environmental change across a broad range of corporations and organizations including Mattel, US EPA, Salesforce, Red Bull, Sabre Holdings, PG&E, Goodwill Industries, Alactel-Lucent, and RSF Social Finance. Other graduates have founded successful sustainable enterprises, often creating business sectors where none previously existed.
Presidio Graduate School is educating a new kind of leader in every area, from business management to public policy, and from social entrepreneurship to global governance.

 


About Presidio Graduate School

Founded in 2003, Presidio Graduate School in San Francisco, CA, was one of the first and remains one of the only schools in the country offering MBA, MPA and Executive Certificate programs in Sustainable Management. Presidio Graduate School is dedicated to building in its students the character, competencies and courage to create a sustainable future. It is an affiliate of Alliant International University and accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC). For more information, please visit http://www.presidioedu.org