Columbia MBA Essay Question
The Phillips Pathway for Inclusive Leadership (PPIL) is a co-curricular program designed to provide students with the skills and strategies needed to develop as inclusive leaders. Through various resources and programming, students explore and reflect on the following five inclusive leadership skills: Mitigating Bias and Prejudice; Managing Intercultural Dialogue; Addressing Systemic Inequity; Understanding Identity and Perspective Taking; and Creating an Inclusive Environment.
Background Information: The example is of a Black Woman Candidate working as a consultant for one of the Big 4 Consulting companies for a public service sector project, a precursor to President Biden's announcement in Baltimore of the largest rail project in the Northeast Corridor.
Theme: Creating an Inclusive Environment and Addressing Systemic Inequity
Theme (Explained): The challenge for her was two-fold - one on digitizing a legacy industry, and the 2nd was finding evidence to support the government's move to increase unionized workers for the project.
Profile: Consultant
Industry: Government
Similar Narrative (Industries): Non-Profit
MBA Essay Strategy - Atul Jose (Admissions Consultant, F1GMAT)
For the applicant, this was an opportunity to share a perspective that was close to her identity; a systemic inequity that has kept black workers underpaid for generations.
Narratives that are believable often present dilemmas in subtle ways. In the applicant's case, it was a choice between capitalistic ideals that have helped her parents come out of intergenerational poverty vs. facilitating jobs through unions that had a historically positive impact on black workers. Initially, the applicant was skeptical about doing a study on the IMPACT of unions on wages and the net positive it had on communities in Baltimore. But an instinct to go back to the workers helped her present a study that was critical to increasing the percentage of unionized workers.
Opener: The idea is to build intrigue by mentioning cost and a human – “Michael” in the same line.
Columbia PPIL Essay : Recommending Unionization (Railway Project) (250 Words)
"You want a cost-effective adoption process, choose Michael."
My friend shared the horror - not of the question but the calmness with which the Adoption Counselor was bidding for a black boy. This wasn't a push for equality but the remnants of a systemic injustice that black communities still pay. Black children were put up for adoption at a rate that didn't match the demand. Adoption works mostly for infants. The cuteness of an infant wanes away fast, and what remains are black children, panhandling for dignity from one foster home to another - permanently behind.
I saw the..
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