Creating Social Value

January 2021

Marriott School of Business

“All of the best parts of my experience have been donor funded.”

Just before she began applying to graduate programs, recent MPA grad Alyssa Clark sent off a “fangirling” email to BYU Marriott professor Eva Witesman after hearing her speak in a devotional. Months later, Clark was headed to an interview for a graduate position in another state when Witesman replied.

“She said, ‘When you come back, let’s visit,’” Clark remembers. “And when I did, she offered me a research position with her on the spot.”

In the MPA program, Clark and a classmate founded the Virtuous Organizations Initiative, a think tank and consultancy to help corporations take better care of customers, employees, suppliers, and communities by offering them more social and financial value.

Clark also represented BYU at an intercollegiate competition that involved simulating policy in a European country during a refugee crisis—and her team won! After that experience, Clark did a refugee-focused study abroad in Europe where she worked with refugees who had been marooned in diplomatic purgatory while nations determined whether to allow them to enter.

“I’ve been so grateful for the opportunities the MPA program has given me,” she says. “All of the best parts of my experience have been donor funded.”