As the stereotype goes, business students are supposed to be single-minded in their career goals: making money, more money and still more money.

But don't tell that to Daron Horwitz, who spent his spring break in Iraq visiting schools that will be helped by a nonprofit group he and a small group of students formed at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management.

Experts say they are part of a new breed of business student, influenced by corporate scandals, the dot-com bust and concerns about the effects of globalization on everyday people. They also say the curriculum at business schools across the country has been changing in recent years and placing more emphasis on ethics, nonprofit work and "corporate social responsibility."

"Our data suggests that the students are more interested in thinking about the role of business in society ... and as a generation, are saying 'We want to do a better job,'" said Nancy McGaw, deputy director of the New York-based Aspen Institute Business and Society Program, which has been tracking the trend.

Every two years since the late '90s, her organization and the World Resources Institute have surveyed business schools and students worldwide for a report called "Beyond Grey Pinstripes." She said the most marked growth in business programs emphasizing "social and environmental stewardship" came between the 2001 survey and the most recent, completed last year.

For Horwitz, the inspiration to start a nonprofit came a year ago, after the fall of Baghdad.

"I was watching this historic moment on TV and wanting to make some sort of contribution," said the 29-year-old.

Soon after, he approached his peers to help him form their organization, Americans Supporting Iraqi Students.

There is a new breed of business student, influenced by corporate scandals, the dot-com bust and concerns about the effects of globalization on everyday people.

They have done all the work to form their nonprofit in their free time, including securing a large corporate sponsor, which has yet to be named publicly.

"Whichever side of the war you're on, whether for or against, it's an easy rallying cry," said Yaser Moustafa, a 28-year-old business student whose duties have included raising funds for the organization in Arab-American communities. The money they raise goes directly to a relief organization called Mercy Corps, which is helping students and schools in Iraq.

Business students elsewhere say they, too, want to use their degrees to make a difference.

Stephani Kobayashi Stevenson, for instance, made the decision to attend business school while she was volunteering with the Peace Corps in Papua New Guinea.

"It changed my life to see the devastating effects of globalization, as well as the ramifications of poor business decisions," said Stevenson, a student at Georgetown University's McDonough School of Business.

Christina Murray, who will graduate this spring with her master's degree in business administration from Babson College in Wellesley, Mass., accepted a job at Project Place, a Boston nonprofit that helps homeless and low-income people find jobs and housing.

Murray said she used to think her business background would be a liability in the nonprofit world. She soon discovered that charitable organizations are increasingly looking for business types to help them survive.

She also said the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks helped her and many of her peers make their career decisions.

Business schools are responding. Northwestern has opened the Center for Business, Government and Society, which is working with Americans Supporting Iraqi Students and another group looking for ways to provide medical devices to test for HIV in sub-Saharan Africa.

"More and more students are interested in addressing social problems, but they want to do it in an innovative way," said Daniel Diermeier, the center's director. "They want to do it in a way that has impact, that is efficient."






Contributed by Martha Irvine of The Associated Press. Reprinted with permission from MyrtleBeachOnline.

To read another Global Envision article about making social entrepreneurship work for the poor, see Making Business Work for the Poor.