STACY BURNETT ’20 MBA ’23
CREATIVE DISRUPTION When Stacy Burnett ’20 MBA ’23 received her letter of acceptance to the Bard Prison Initiative (BPI), she didn’t want to open it. She’d just found out that five other people from her unit were admitted, and with only 10 or so slots available, she was worried about her odds. “I opened it in private in my cell later and just sobbed,” she recalls. “I knew my whole life was about to change for the better, and you can’t say that very often when you’re in prison. I knew that I was joining something much bigger than me.”
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ALUMNI/AE PROFILE
Burnett thrived in BPI, honing a talent for writing and discovering new interests along the way. Although initially resistant to taking a required course on public health, Burnett soon realized that the field was a good match for her: she could channel her passion for topics like the environmental impact of microplastics into actions that would actually create change. She also became the resident research maven, helping her classmates learn how to navigate JSTOR, a digital library of academic articles and journals. Before her
Photo by Samuel Stuart Hollenshead