I have returned to school to get my MBA in Sustainable Business at Bainbridge Institute. The experience has been a whirlwind for me. I left Pennsylvania with most of my belongings in the back of my pickup truck bound for Seattle. Orientation was scheduled for a small island near Vancouver, British Columbia and I was headed there not knowing what to expect.
While in route I received a phone call from the Recruitment Coordinator and she informed me that I had to meet my group in Seattle to travel together to orientation. Now I did not know what to do, I had my stuff in my truck and no place to leave it in Seattle. I contemplated aloud while talking to her and she suggested that I come to her place, put all of my stuff in her spare bedroom and leave my truck at a friend’s house. This was the first of the many differences between this program and school from what I had come to expect.
I arrived at the bus to travel with my 14 colleagues on a journey to Channel Rock for orientation. Little did I know where this would take me? We left on a ten hour journey via bus and ferry to Channel Rock. We arrived at Channel Rock to discover a beautiful oasis of gardens growing organic food, surrounding forest and nestled on the edge of the sound. Across the water, the snowcapped mountains of Vancouver Island could be seen.
Orientation proved to be a transformational experience. One of the questions posed to me before I arrived was whether I wanted to sleep in a tent, a yurt/tipi or I needed walls and this gave me an indication of what was to come. The group opened up and bonded in ways that I did not know was possible. The vast and broad experiences allowed for a unique beginning of the journey we are all on to change the way business is done in the world.
Imagine the founders of the school Gifford Pinchot III and his wife Libba spending with us at orientation and playing disc golf and dancing to Asian new age music. Imagine one of the first exercises was to arrive for breakfast and not speak and then find a quiet spot to contemplate for two hours in silence what it means to be sustainable and what your ideal job would be. Imagine returning to Seattle for our first classroom session and the accounting professor brings her guide dog in training and walks around barefoot. Imagine half of the class on the floor because they are more comfortable there. Imagine being at the opening dinner to meet faculty, staff, other students and the dean of the school gets you a beer. This is no ordinary school.
This may all sound like it is not serious but it the exact opposite. It is about getting in touch with who you are and applying it to your job, your business, your passion in life. I am truly excited to begin this journey.