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[ Social Entrepreneurship ]
Forging a Future: A Job Offer, and It’s Microsoft
s an intern, Sonali George proved her
She processed Aentrepreneurship potential at Microsoft. six target communities. She visited sites, spoke
to nonprofits and data center employees, and
In turn, Microsoft decided she was a keeper. developed her own “theory of change” model,
social, economic She started there in January. using metrics for social return on investments.
George’s dream job, as a program manager, George, who is from Chennai, in southern
and environmental follows a stellar McGuire career. She teamed up India, worked with the local chapter of Net
to develop a social venture in the New Venture Impact, a student club dedicated to social
data for Microsoft’s Development Program, and the business concept change.
won the Microsoft Social Innovation Prize at the
“It wasn’t easy as a young international
McGuire Innovation Expo last spring. student to be elected as the president of Net
Datacenters for Using analytical and problem-solving Impact, organize community events in Tucson,
skills, plus lessons from courses in business follow my entrepreneurial dream of developing
Good program. strategy, economics, performance metrics, a nonprofit, travel to Ecuador for volunteering
statistics and data analytics, she processed work, participate in multiple case competitions,
social, economic and environmental data for finish two masters with a job offer in Microsoft,”
Microsoft’s Datacenters for Good program in she says. “I think the real story is how this
journey helped me to discover myself.”
A key lesson, George says, was simplicity.
“Don’t worry about finding the perfect solution.
It will be OK. And remember, pivots and failures
are part of the process.”
She adds: “And put your heart and soul into
it.”
One faculty member who helps interns
is McGuire Lecturer Rick Yngve. George, he
says, typifies those who take on the Microsoft
challenge.
“They’ve gotta hustle,” says Yngve. “It’s very
‘real world.’ You can’t wait. You have to move
quickly and learn to talk to vendors and suppliers
and validate an idea, to see if it has merit, if it
meets a real need.”
Adaptability, says Yngve, is a must. And
George had it.
She began at McGuire expecting she would
start her own small nonprofit to register social
impact.
Now she’s got a job as a program manager at
Microsoft, one of the largest tech companies, and
she’s still working for a social-impact project.
That’s adaptability.
Sonali George / Submitted photo
40 ARIZONA ALUMNI MAGAZINE
