It’s that bittersweet time of year again on college campuses—Commencement. On May 16, here at Babson, we’ll proudly applaud as our undergraduate and MBA women walk across a stage and receive their diplomas. This year is particularly poignant, because we know how difficult it has been (and continues to be) for many of them to take the next step into the working world. But finding a job is only their first challenge.
In today’s marketplace, it’s tempting to say that graduates are lucky to have a job, a place to work. Maybe. But I, for one, think we’re lucky to have them take a chance and join us in the work force when things are such a mess! Their extraordinary talents and unbounded energies really can help us move our corporations, our nonprofits, and our entrepreneurial
ventures into the future. They didn’t create today’s economic downturn, but their intelligence and creativity can help us dig out—if we let them.
But it’s not going to work—for us or for them—if we lock them into old, tired, and ultimately unsuccessful models of work, because that’s how we’ve always done things. Speaking as someone who annually watches the next crop of new women leaders march, this year, more than most, I don’t want them to just “survive,” I want them to thrive! Their “job” is to do their best. Our job is to make sure they get that chance.
J. Janelle Shubert, PhD
Director, Center for Women's Leadership
Babson College
781-239-5585 | 
