An Investment Upon an Investment — Freya Lee
Freya Lee (MBA ‘17) came to Haas from a large energy company, desiring to explore careers in social impact and sustainability. She wanted her summer internship to serve as career hypotheses tests:
- Social sector, public sector, or private sector?
- Small, relatively young organization or large, established corporation?
- Close to the people served or further removed?
“Access to a high-quality education is like a child having the tools to build himself up on a foundation of rocks, so I looked for internships related to education.”
With the help of the Haas Social Impact Fund, Freya became an Education Pioneers (EP) Fellow and gained exposure to the social and public facets of education at GO Public Schools, a 501©(3) co-founded by Jonathan Klein (Haas MBA ‘06). GO is committed to building and supporting a multi-city network of local coalitions, whose members — families, educators, and community allies — work together to expand access to quality education in California’s most historically underserved communities.
Freya’s project entailed a review of GO’s knowledge management systems to recommend ways for GO to institutionalize its knowledge and align its resources as its network and staff grew. While she conducted interviews, research, and analysis for her project, she witnessed powerful moments of GO’s impact: hearing parents advocating for their kids’ education, seeing children engaging with community leaders, and learning from teachers and students about “Why They GO.”
“GO allowed me to test my hypotheses and put into practice what I learned at Haas,” Freya said. “Social Sector Solutions gave me the expertise to take on this nonprofit consulting project. Haas’ core classes taught me what I needed to get it done. Although GO’s knowledge management fell under the purview of strategy and operations, I could not have addressed the problem without a stakeholder analysis of GO’s employees and design thinking methods to guide my recommendations for implementation. I had to understand the motivations of the staff in order to communicate ideas for change they would adopt.” Freya recognized the sense of urgency at nonprofits that necessitate clear processes and action plans.
Alongside her knowledge management work at GO, Freya participated in Education Pioneers training with other Bay Area EP Fellows, which included candid discussion about the opportunity and achievement gaps as well as other systemic issues that affect education. “I had to acknowledge my privilege,” she admitted. “I was so grateful for the additional funding from the Haas Social Impact Fund, even more so when I realized over half of another EP Fellow’s entire stipend went toward housing in the Bay Area and travel to and from here.”
“ HSIF is an incredible investment: it brought the value of the Haas MBA to the education sector, which itself is an investment in children and the future.”
Freya’s collaboration with Education Pioneers and GO Public Schools was made possible through the funding of HSIF. To find out more about how to get involved, visit the Haas Social Impact Fund page.
