New MBA Journal Writers Chosen

Among the new batch of BusinessWeek's MBA Journal writers: A Bosnian war refugee and a combat veteran from Baghdad

By Francesca Di Meglio

Going to business school, for many, is a life-changing experience. Often, it means transferring to a new town or city (for some a new continent or country), meeting new people—and learning to work with them—and choosing an entirely different career than the one previously launched. It means learning to be a student again, from cramming for tests and philosophizing with classmates to choosing free pizza at the finance club's open house instead of a five-star gourmet meal. Whether you are the student or you are the husband, wife, or child of the student, life feels brand new.

Every year, BusinessWeek calls for MBA applicants, incoming first-year students, and the spouses of incoming students to share their unique business school journeys with readers. After reading writing samples from hundreds of applicants, editors chose just 10 new people to write for the popular MBA Journals column in 2009. (Of course, in addition, the writers who were introduced in 2008 will continue to document their business school and job-hunting experiences as they always have.)

In recent weeks, many people have asked about this new crop of MBA Journal writers. Who are they? What will they reveal? When will they begin writing? Until this story hits the Web, not even the writers themselves will know who won this voluntary but coveted writing gig. Judging from past journals, the writers will reveal lots about the state of business school and themselves. Their application includes the first entry that will eventually get posted on the site—and you can get a preview of each journal below.

Drum roll please. Without further ado, meet the new first-year MBA Journal writers, who will pour out their souls periodically throughout the year as they crack case studies, work in teams, seek internships and jobs, and try to prove to themselves and the world that the MBA in all its forms is still relevant:

Incoming Student: Jeremy Dommu

Program: George Washington University Full-Time Global MBA Program (GW Full-Time MBA Profile)

A businessperson with heart, Dommu writes that he plans to study environmental sustainability with a goal of working somewhere that allows him to help measure and reduce carbon emissions to fight climate change. As a Global Leadership Fellow, Dommu won a full academic scholarship. Already a member of Net Impact, a nonprofit group seeking ways to use business to create a socially and environmentally sustainable world, he also earned a certificate in training in greenhouse gas accounting from the Greenhouse Gas Management Institute.

This isn't Dommu's first round at GW; he earned his undergraduate accounting degree at the university in 2004. Before entering the MBA program, Dommu was a senior associate at Reznick Group in Bethesda, Md., where, among other tasks, he led and executed audits for a variety of real estate and commercial and nonprofit clients and researched and wrote a 50-page accounting manual on investments in renewable energy that provides guidance to potential investors.

MBA Journal Preview: "I want to leave my job each day knowing that the work that I completed was not done solely for the benefit of financially enriching myself and my clients but rather to enrich the lives of people who are unable to hire the teams of lawyers, consultants, or lobbyists to champion their causes; and to protect our planet from the risks of climate change that is currently poised to have lasting and irreversible consequences."

Incoming Student: Christine Marie Shepherd

Program: HEC Paris (HEC Paris Full-Time MBA Profile)

A renaissance woman, Shepherd appears to have done it all—she was an au pair for a family in France, took a night job waiting tables in a diner, served as a tour guide in Washington, worked for her senator, organized a Moscow-based international research workshop, joined a startup consulting firm, and helped launch a nonprofit to boot. When she decided to go to business school, she sought a program with an international focus, coursework in corporate social responsibility, and partnerships with several international relations programs. She found what she wanted at HEC Paris, which also fulfilled her desire to live overseas.

At the Center on the U.S. & Europe at the Brookings Institution, where she held her last position, Shepherd managed about 100 conferences and events annually—both domestic and international—focused on transatlantic relations, Turkey, Italy, and France. She is fluent in French, which will come in handy in Paris. Earning her undergraduate business degree at the University of Georgia Terry College of Business, she graduated cum laude with honors in 2005.

MBA Journal Preview: "After graduation, to recharge my battery, collect my thoughts, and improve my French, I crossed the Atlantic to the west coast of France to be an au pair for a family I had never met. At summer's end, four French friends richer, renewed in spirit, and ready to take on the world, I headed to Washington, which in my view provided the perfect stomping ground to explore the nexus of business, politics, and international relations."

Incoming Student: Rusmir Musić

Program: Georgetown University McDonough School of Business (McDonough Full-Time MBA Profile)

A war refugee, Musić and his family fled their home in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1992. At 13, Musić thought of himself as without home or country, he writes. He came to the U.S. on his own at 17. Since then, despite struggles with visa and green card applications, he earned a bachelor of arts in chemistry in 2001 from the College of Holy Cross and a master of arts in humanities and social thought in 2003 from New York University's Graduate School of Arts & Sciences. Now a quarter-life crisis had led him to graduate business school.

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