Issue link: http://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/406930
38 November/ December 2014 BizEd Path to Profits, Passion, and Pur- pose by Tony Hsieh, CEO of online retailer Zappos.com. On a whim, Gould wrote Hsieh to ask for a phone interview. Hsieh didn't just agree to a phone interview—he agreed to be interviewed in front of Gould's class. After that visit, Gould began inviting everyone from McArthur Genius Grant recipients to actor Ashton Kutcher to give motiva- tional talks to the class. Soon, students were coming to Gould's office to let him know they'd cho- sen majors they loved and found mentors. "But there would be a pause, and then they'd say, 'I'm graduating in a few weeks, and I don't know what's next in the playbook,'" says Gould. With the country just emerging from the recession, these students were car- rying heavy loads of student loan debt and had few job prospects. "The scariest part was that they actually thought I had a play- book," says Gould. He realized that it wasn't enough for students to simply find their passions. If they didn't know how to turn those passions into fulfilling careers, then he hadn't solved the problem. In 2012, Gould proposed another experiential—and experi- mental—class to his dean. He wanted to create an interdisci- plinary team of students, from finance majors to dance majors, to work on social problems—and he immediately wondered if Hsieh might have a project for his stu- dents. Since his visit to Gould's class, Hsieh had invested US$350 million to purchase 19 blocks of Las Vegas' struggling and forgot- ten downtown district, located miles away from the famed Las Vegas Strip. In what he called the "Downtown Project," Hsieh had moved the company's headquarters from Henderson, Nevada, to the old city hall building in the heart of downtown, in spite of the neigh- borhood's high crime rates. He also had hired individuals to sup- port the project and granted small business loans to entrepreneurs who opened new businesses in the area. Believing that college stu- dents could bring new perspectives to the project, Hsieh gave Gould $50,000 to create "Reimagining Downtown," a course offered in the spring of 2013. The 14 students who enrolled in Gould's "Reimagining" class spent the first eight weeks of the semes- ter studying the challenges facing downtown Las Vegas; then they collectively chose to launch Sugar- coat, a venture that makes healthy desserts from organic ingredients such as kale, honey, and carrots. The students continued to work on the business model for the second half of the semester and through the summer. Two students, Chelsea Gaylord and Kelsey Hastings, relo- cated to Las Vegas after graduation and continue to manage Sugar- coat's operations today. Hsieh then offered Gould a sal- ary and living accommodations, so that Gould could temporarily relocate to Las Vegas to meet with business owners and residents. At the same time, Gould transitioned from his role as associate director of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences to become the Obermann Public Scholar for the University of Iowa. In this position, he says, he has "one foot in academia and one foot in social entrepreneurship." Sudden Turn of Events Gould spent more than a year in Las Vegas, discovering both how a city can collectively learn and evolve, as well as how higher edu- cation can be improved. Soon, he extended his "Reimagining Down- town" project to other schools. For instance, this year a group of Harvard MBAs came to Las Vegas and met 40 community leaders; they then created a pilot program that mentors small business owners and provides them with a student- designed business curriculum, delivered via Skype and social media. Gould also worked with a student team from Babson College and the nonprofit MBAs Across America. The team studied The Window, a community center that opened in spring 2014 that pro- vides free co-working office space to the public by day and acts as a Professors brainstorm ideas for educational innovation as part of a faculty institute that Gould held in June.