Learning from Difference

I just sat in on a Public Policy course that I will audit for the remainder of the semester: Nonprofits, Volunteerism, and Philanthropies. The course is taught by Joel Fleishman, who is supposedly "the man" on the national philanthropy scene. He's a sweet old man.

I entered the classroom and the girl I sat next to was brewing her own yerba mate (a tea from Argentina). We had a guest speaker who used to run Oprah's philanthropies for 9 years, and is now the Executive Director of a family foundation. While she was talking, the professor got up to turn on a pot of coffee (making an awfully loud noise), which was placed directly on the podium. I bring up these two examples to make one simple point: policy school is different than business school.

Five of my Fuqua classmates and me are auditing the class, which has about 15 people total in the class. After the first few minutes of class, I immediately regretted not taking more policy and law classes during my tenure at Duke. Why? For one, the nature of these subjects (policy, in particular) is what I'm familiar with. Subjects that have global and social dimensions naturally speak to me, while many business disciplines - while interesting in their own way - do not speak to my personal purpose/mission. Second, small, discussion-based classes are more my style. I'm naturally more engaged, and this has an impact on my learning. Third, the mere difference of taking a policy course is refreshing. I'm not making a judgment on whether business courses are good or bad. But, learning how the "other half" thinks (e.g. policy folks) is important for me as a professional (since I'll be dealing with this world after graduation), and perhaps more so for my intellectual stimulation. As a fundamental principle, I believe in the value of cognitive diversity and from learning through escaping one's comfort zone. At business school (or any graduate school, profession, etc.) it is so easy to be myopic. I believe that those who venture into other intellectual worlds or different cultures will be rewarded with so much - knowledge, empathy, etc.

By the way, the speaker today gave a presentation on celebrity philanthropy responses to natural disasters - pretty interesting stuff.

Now, onto study for Financial Statement Analysis. It's raining outside. Here's a photo of the library (pretty cool scene while it's raining outside this massive, brand new library with huge windows).