Inside NYU Stern’s First Sustainability Career Bootcamp

Written by MinHwa Oh

From March 22 to March 23, 2018, NYU Stern held its first Sustainability Career Bootcamp, offering a series of short lectures on how to view issues through a lens of  sustainability, as well as a career panel and a PwC-hosted case competition.

Sustainability is a growing trend in the business world. The concept of social entrepreneurship and B-corps are not new anymore, and more and more consumers are making conscious choices that force corporations to prioritize sustainability. Following the trend, Stern has recently launched the Sustainable Business co-concentration and the first Sustainability Career Bootcamp.

The Bootcamp’s goal was to introduce students to the concept of the “Sustainability Lens,” with lectures were taught by Angie De Soto, the Director of the Sustainability Institute at Virginia Tech, who has been holding the Sustainability Boot Camp at VT for several years.

There were a mix of student groups at the Bootcamp. Ranging from freshmen to seniors, over 30 students participated in the two-day event. While some of them had already learned these topics in their Sustainable Business classes, to others the topics were new.

After the lectures, there was the career panel and the PwC Case Competition. Participants looked forward to the panel because it was a chance for them to hear from and ask questions to a wide range of professionals working in the field. Moreover, the PwC Case Competition was a great opportunity for students to receive feedback from the professionals on their ideas.

Stern’s first Sustainability Career Bootcamp was a success, but students also were honest with their feedback. Students said they would have liked a longer career panel and more in-depth feedback during the case competition. However, this Bootcamp showed the steps Stern has taken in terms of educating students on sustainable practices in the business world.