CBS student Melissa D’Agostino was featured in a panel discussion hosted by Columbia University’s World Leaders Forum and moderated by President Lee C. Bollinger the evening of April 16. The event, titled "Emerging Leaders: Students Making an Impact," was sponsored in partnership with the University’s Student Affairs Caucus and included student representatives from Columbia College, the Mailman School of Public Health, SIPA, the School of the Arts and CBS. The five students discussed the importance of global social responsibility and how the work they are pursuing at Columbia builds a foundation for international leadership.
D'Agostino, a student in CBS's Social Enterprise Program, spoke particularly on the ways in which the University and the Business School support student leadership in fields with nontraditional or unconventional routes to top management, such as public education. Among other things, she reflected on her decision to leave consulting for public education, the characteristics of great leaders and the social necessity to foster leadership capabilities in children from a young age, particularly those in low income minority populations.