August 2013
Update from the Boston Ballet
Happy summer from Boston, everyone! I am over half way through my one-year secondment at Boston Ballet—time has flown by very quickly. Everything is going well at the Ballet. We launched our partnership with Northeastern University since I last wrote, and our professional dancers took their first classes last semester. It was a huge success: one of Northeastern’s top-rated professors came to Boston Ballet’s facilities to teach the dancers in the evening after rehearsals and received great reviews. This project has meant so much to me—I've been able to actually help incredibly talented people get a college education they wouldn't have otherwise received. The impact was amazing to see.
Students from Launch
The company also recently returned from a tour in London that received rave artistic reviews from a set of critics who are typically skeptical of international companies. Boston Ballet is one of the few international companies to tour to London and receive such praise, so I’m very proud of the work everyone did to have a great showing. In short, all has been going very well at the Ballet. I’m honored to be helping design and execute this organization’s strategy; it’s an impactful experience and I’m learning a lot.
Launch
A few weeks ago, I took a vacation to work on another side project and passion of mine, Launch (
http://www.launchsummer.org). I am the volunteer co-founder of Launch, which is a summer program held at MIT that helps high school students start companies. This is our first year in operation, and we were able to recruit 30 amazing high school students from all over the world (US, India, China, and Israel). As of today, we are two weeks into the four-week program, and the energy of the students is incredible. The students are working in ten teams of three to start a real company over the four week period. On the last day of class, the teams will pitch their ideas to investors, with real money at stake.
So far, we have had the students interact with entrepreneur panels, hear amazing guest lecturers from Harvard Business School, conduct competitive simulations, and generally have lots of fun. I have taught classes on pursuing your passions, communication skills, giving and receiving feedback, and strategy—all things I learned at McKinsey. Every day I try to share as much as I can with the students, and I see them grow daily. The whole experience has made me increasingly interested in how to scale business and entrepreneurship education in high schools—a challenge I’m looking forward to working on when I return to McKinsey later this year.
This year has been amazing so far. I look forward to keeping you updated on all things with Launch and the Boston Ballet until I return to McKinsey!
Mary Winn