NEWS
Trailblazing for Community and Charity Six months, one week, and 2,180 miles after leaving the Appalachian trailhead in Springer Mountain, Georgia, Michael McLaughlin, MBA ’14, arrived at trail’s end: Mt. Katahdin in Maine.
“It’s not about one guy hiking. It’s about a community coming together to help these underprivileged kids and make sure they have a good life for themselves.” MICHAEL McLAUGHLIN
McLaughlin set out to thru-hike the Appalachian Trail and the Ozark Trail in Missouri back-to-back, as part of a personal goal to help children who, like him, have been the victims of physical and emotional abuse. McLaughlin and classmate Brooke James discovered a common passion for community service and created Hike4Kids, an organization to raise awareness and funds to improve the plight of neglected and abused children in St. Louis and in Africa.
James, who is legally blind, worked in the Peace Corps and remains dedicated to a school for blind children she helped found in Cameroon. Funds raised through Hike4Kids will support the school and the Family Resource Center in St. Louis. The MBA Class of 2013 has rallied around the cause by holding t-shirt sales and a charity basketball game, and many classmates pledged to donate 1% of their summer internship salaries to Hike4Kids. hike4kids.com
ABOVE: Brooke James, MBA ’13, with one of the students at the school for the blind she helped build in Mokolo, Cameroon. She says blind people are generally treated as marginalized outcasts in the community and left to roam the streets as beggars. But thanks to the school’s achievements, attitudes are beginning to change.
10% Increase in Women MBAs The number of women enrolled in Olin’s MBA program jumped from 24% last year to 34% this fall, one of the highest percentages in school history.* Members of the MBA Class of 2013 worked closely with the admissions team to boost female recruitment. Women leaders in the Class of 2013 also have reinvigorated and re-named their student organization. The new
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OLIN BUSINESS SCHOOL | FALL 2012
Olin Women in Business (OWIB) board, under the leadership of Zoe Hillenmeyer, MBA ’13, is launching several new initiatives:
• Cross-gender orientation program with training similar to the crosscultural sessions conducted with international students
• Women at the Table (WATT), an inter-generational mentoring and networking series of meetings
To learn more about OWIB events or to contact board members, visit their website: olinwustl. campusgroups.com/owib/about/
• Résumé and career coaching that targets women • Speakers series featuring alumnae in leadership positions
*Women made up 35.5% of the full-time 2010–2011 classes entering the top 10 MBA programs in the U.S. according to Bloomberg Businessweek.