Dr. Kaufman (or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Teaching)

This being business school and us being "the future business leaders of America" UCLA tries its bestest to instill in us some sense of social responsibility. In fact, one of the things about Anderson that I didn't see at a lot of other schools was a genuine sense of social responsibility among not only the administration, but also the student body. Throughout orientation I've had a chance to see that giving spirit first hand as we've raised a not insignificant amount of money for Challenge 4 Charity. (Exact figures will be released later).

Today, we spent all morning in an elementary classroom teaching underprivileged kids about entrepreneurship, financial literacy and work readiness through a program called Junior Achievement. Having a small group of successful young professionals in their lives for a few hours can obviously make a huge impact on these kids (emphasis on the CAN).

I spent my morning with 4 teammates at Cienega Elementary School teaching 4th graders all about human, capital and natural resources, income, expenses and the business decision making process. According to the principal, Cienga has been an under performing school for quite some time. It is about 82% Hispanic and 17% African-American; about 50% of students are learning English as a second language.

I have to say that I enjoyed being there today, even though our lesson plan was lacking and our organization hectic at best. I feel like I was able to really make a connection with a couple of students and hopefully provided them with not only a little knowledge, but also a positive example. Obviously, I never had any of the hardships they have had (single parent homes, poverty, learning a second language, etc.), but hopefully they will see me and realize that there is opportunity out there that awaits us all, including them.