In September, as part of an “Impact Initiative,” some 130 first-year HBS students visited two Boston public schools to discuss leadership with small groups of seventh graders.

“We wanted the middle-school students, or Super Sevens as we call them, to reflect on what it means to be a leader,” HBS assistant professor Zeynep Ton, the initiative’s faculty adviser, told the Harbus. “We wanted our students to get to know the community around them, to develop both compassion and respect for that community, and to see service as part of leadership.”

Conceived of by Jon Doochin (MBA ’10), the initiative also saw the seventh graders visit HBS in November for a special case discussion on leadership with Professor Ton. HBS students plan to make a visit to a new school early next year, with a joint community-service activity involving HBSers and middle-schoolers to follow later in the spring.

For Chris Dempsey (HBS ’12), the most memorable moment of his school visit was when each student was presented with a small wrapped box that held an “image of a leader.” “We watched the students open their boxes to find that inside was a mirror, reflecting the image of themselves.”

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