Haas for Students Draws Record Interest

Haas for Students has received a record number of applicants this year seeking funding help for their internships in the nonprofit and public sector.

Seventeen students have applied to receive funds from the annual Haas for Students campaign. The campaign asks students with private sector summer internships to donate a day's salary to help cover basic living expenses for first-year students with nonprofit or public sector summer internships who will receive a sub-market salary.

The idea behind the campaign is to level the playing field so that there is less disincentive for students to work in the nonprofit field or public sector, explains organizer Jason Hirschhorn, MBA 10.

Haas for Students has raised $29,018 through student donations, while the campaign goal is to raise $33,000. Student organizers held a Scotch and bourbon tasting event last week as part of the campaign.

Thirty percent of the first-year class has donated to the campaign; second-year students are encouraged to donate, too.

"I give to reward the implied commitment someone is making to the public sector as a long-term career," says Sean Simplicio, MBA 10, who worked in the public sector before coming to Haas. "We should do all that we can to encourage bright people to enter the sector."

The organizations that applicants will work for include Coral Reef Alliance, the only international organization working to protect the planet's coral reefs; Education Pioneers, which develops leaders to improve and transform urban K-12 education; and Agora Partnerships, which fights poverty and inequality by unleashing the potential of developing world entrepreneurs. Six applicants will work in developing countries.

Students can donate a day's salary online at givetocal.berkeley.edu/egiving/index.cfm?Fund=FN1218000. (Make sure you enter 10265-55608 in the “Special Instructions” box.)

For more information, please contact Jason Hirschhorn, MBA 10, at [email protected].

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