A mixed view of Kellogg

Someone told me once that there are only two values that are true of all cultures—incest with one’s mother is wrong, and it is essential to bury or dispose of the dead in some honorable way. Let’s add another: when you are done lifting weights at a gym, put your weights back on the rack. My professor in college has traveled everywhere in the world—the Caucasus, everywhere in Africa, Latin America, Australia, and everywhere else—and he said that in all those places, people clean up after themselves at the gym by re-racking their weights. One exception: at Northwestern University, where the Kellogg students leave their weights on the floor for the people who lift after them to clean up.

This is always how I’ve viewed Kellogg students: too arrogant and into themselves to feel they need to clean up after themselves. But over the past year, I have been extremely impressed with Kellogg's willingness to make a difference in the Chicago community and in the world. At the Illinois Education Foundation’s (www.iledfoundation.org), mentoring program, there are 8 Kellogg grads serving as mentors. Yesterday I had the chance to attend the Town Hall meeting of an incredible organization, the One Acre Fund (www.oneacrefund.org), founded by Kellogg alum Andrew Youn. Their Board of Directors consists of all Kellogg students, and their investment council is predominantly Kellogg grads as well. Impressive.