Presenting The Class of 2020
As you already know, this is not a traditional MBA.
Set against the backdrop of the Bay Area, known for an adamant commitment to advancing a better world, we train future leaders to question, listen and design, centered around the human condition. Given the unique nature of a college of art and design, we reframe the notion of winners and losers. We approach our work with the optimism that any system can be designed to be better. Our students not only learn to analyze balance sheets and come up with marketing plans, they learn to design alternate futures and then build them from the ground up.
In March we learned that the DMBA Class of 2020 would likely not be returning to school this year.
So we did what we teach our students to do.
We moved to online-only classes in less than 24 hours. We received and integrated feedback about what was missing and we made it better.
We mourned what we thought we knew about how summer might look. And we made new plans.
We worried how the next parts might go (and they were harder). We are taking that concern and asking big questions.
Some of us sang together. Some found relief, others got comfortable with a new type of vulnerability.
We engaged with COVID-19 as a community. We have students working on anti-eviction issues this summer.
And in more recent weeks, we’ve reaffirmed our strongly-held belief that the methods we teach are important to redesigning the justice and economic systems that are failing Americans.
We’ve organized this collection of the best ideas from our graduating class. It’s what would have been our ‘Venture Show’, but it’s so much more. These pieces provide a great window into the Class of 2020. Published here, they live on to mark the moment, and to suggest what can be.
