Student Profile: A Meaningful Impact

Lindsey Blumenthal '12
General Representative, Student Government
Post-MBA: Nest Collective

I like bringing together disparate models, people, and ideas. I was with IBM in the Strategy Consulting Group for close to four years before coming to SOM, and I came to business school to figure out what my next focus would be. I knew ultimately that I wanted to do something that had both analytical rigor and social meaning.

I chose Yale SOM because when I came to visit, I got the sense that this was a place where someone with a range of interests could flourish. It's partly a reflection of the people here. They're really willing to explore with you. I knew I could learn about a lot of different topics, think across disciplines, and draw upon the broader Yale community and resources.

During my first year at Yale, I worked at the Yale Entrepreneurial Institute, and helped undergraduates develop business and financial plans. I took a nonprofit management class at the Law School, attended General McChrystal's class on leadership, and sat on the board of the Elm Seed Enterprise Fund, a nonprofit microloan organization in New Haven.

While there's a lot of learning in the classroom, a real effort is also made here to help you learn from your peers—students are assigned to work in a variety of different groups throughout our first year. People have incredibly diverse backgrounds, professional goals, and personal interests—but being willing to teach and learn is the common ground.

I spent my summer interning at Morgan Stanley in New York and DBL Investors, a "double-bottom-line" venture capital fund in San Francisco. These internships helped me realize that I wanted to work for a socially responsible company in a strategic or financial role. I've accepted a position with a healthy foods company, backed by private equity and venture capital funds, called Nest Collective. It's a role that includes finance, strategy, and operations in the business innovations group. This is the hybrid-type opportunity I was seeking—using my analytical training to make a meaningful impact.