{"id":5288,"date":"2016-02-28T07:26:20","date_gmt":"2016-02-28T11:26:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kerryhannon.com\/?p=5288"},"modified":"2016-02-29T14:44:02","modified_gmt":"2016-02-29T18:44:02","slug":"thinking-about-a-gap-year-harvard-and-stanford-help-boomers-shift-to-a-purposeful-second-career","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kerryhannon.com\/?p=5288","title":{"rendered":"Thinking About a Gap Year? Harvard And Stanford Help Boomers Shift To A Purposeful Second Career"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"magazine ng-binding ng-scope\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"article-text\">\n<div class=\"article-injected-body ng-scope\">\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/players.brightcove.net\/2097119709001\/4kXWOFbfYx_default\/index.html?videoId=4758588822001\" width=\"300\" height=\"150\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>By 2008 Doug Rauch, president of Trader Joe\u2019s, was burned out. He had spent the last 31 years\u2013virtually his entire career\u2013overseeing the quirky California retailer\u2019s rapid expansion to the East Coast, developing its buying philosophy as well as its private-label food program and traveling \u201cceaselessly.\u201d He was just 56, he didn\u2019t need to make any more money, but he wanted to slow down and \u201cget off the wheel,\u201d as he now puts it. So Rauch \u201cretired\u201d with a plan to keep busy serving on corporate and not-for-profit boards from his base in Newton, Mass. Within a year, he says, he realized that he had \u201ctoo much operational stuff in my blood\u201d to be satisfied with that.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/kerryhannon\/2016\/02\/10\/gap-year-harvard-and-stanford-help-boomers-find-a-second-act-with-purpose\/#580b50a92d56\">READ ARTICLE \u00a0ON FORBES<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_5294\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5294\" style=\"width: 150px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/kerryhannon.com\/?attachment_id=5294\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-5294\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"5294\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/kerryhannon.com\/?attachment_id=5294\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/kerryhannon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/DT_People-1925.jpg?fit=5472%2C3648&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"5472,3648\" data-comments-opened=\"0\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;3.5&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;Canon EOS 6D&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;1428942484&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;50&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;320&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0.008&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"DT_People-1925\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/kerryhannon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/DT_People-1925.jpg?fit=300%2C200&amp;ssl=1\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/kerryhannon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/DT_People-1925.jpg?fit=640%2C427&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"wp-image-5294 size-thumbnail\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/kerryhannon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/DT_People-1925.jpg?resize=150%2C150&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"DT_People-1925\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/kerryhannon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/DT_People-1925.jpg?resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1 150w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/kerryhannon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/DT_People-1925.jpg?zoom=2&amp;resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/kerryhannon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/DT_People-1925.jpg?zoom=3&amp;resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1 450w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-5294\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Doug Rauch at The Daily Table (Photo by Samara Vise)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Rauch had heard about a newly launched program at Harvard University called the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/advancedleadership.harvard.edu\/\">Advanced Leadership Initiative<\/a>, a yearlong program for executives and other successful professionals, mostly in their 50s and 60s, looking to tackle major social problems, or move into the not-for-profit world. For a fee of $55,000, the handpicked fellows (48 made the cut for 2016) spend a calendar year auditing classes across the entire university, brainstorming with professors and other students, making contacts and developing their own independent projects.<\/p>\n<p>In 2009 Rauch applied to the program, knowing he wanted something hands-on and with social impact. He also figured that he had the best shot at making a difference if he stuck to what he knew. \u201cI really do know the food system, and I know retail,\u201d he says. Plus, he\u2019d long been disturbed by both food waste and the problems poor people have affording healthy food.<\/p>\n<div class=\"fbs-brightcove ng-isolate-scope\">\n<div class=\"video_placeholder ng-scope\">\n<div id=\"brightcove_perform_0\" class=\"video-js brightcove_perform vjs-paused vjs-controls-enabled vjs-mouse bc-player-4kXWOFbfYx_default vjs-errors vjs-plugins-ready not-hover vjs-user-inactive\" data-setup=\"{&quot;techOrder&quot;: [&quot;html5&quot;, &quot;flash&quot;]}\" data-embed=\"default\" data-player=\"4kXWOFbfYx\" data-account=\"2097119709001\" data-video-id=\"4758588822001\">\n<div>Rauch, who earned his undergraduate degree in 1972 at commuter college Cal State Los Angeles, entered Harvard in January 2010 and spent the next year learning about everything from dark matter (in his astronomy class) to agribusiness and social entrepreneurship through a range of courses. About once per week he attended three-hour discussion seminars or dinners focused on change leadership with other institute fellows.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\u201cGoing back to college was a blast,\u201d says Rauch, 64, mentioning that he felt the need to overhaul his wardrobe with a black Patagonia jacket, backpack and blue jeans. \u201cI soaked up the pure joy of learning and the energy of young people. I began to look at the world with fresh eyes. I was re-energized. \u201d His awakening also forced him to rethink his food-market concept numerous times as he \u201c bounced ideas off of and crowdsourced with really smart people.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>The result was<a href=\"http:\/\/dailytable.org\/\"> Daily Table<\/a>, a 3,500-square-foot not-for-profit market in the lower-income Dorchester neighborhood of Boston. Today it sells groceries and produce at rock-bottom prices and healthy prepared and ready-to-cook meals at prices designed to compete with the cheapest fast-food joints. (Prepared dinners like rotisserie chicken and fresh fish start at $1.99.)<\/p>\n<p>Daily Table keeps prices low, in large part, by accepting tax-deductible donations of perishable food near its expiration date or close to being too ripe. Donors include local growers, wholesalers and manufacturers like Boston Organics, Newman\u2019s Own and organic-yogurt maker Stonyfield Farm. Slightly brown bananas go for 29 cents a pound and eggs $1.49 a dozen\u2013about half what they cost elsewhere.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s a clever idea\u2013selling food that might otherwise end up in Dumpsters. But confusion over \u201csell by,\u201d \u201cuse by\u201d and \u201cbest before\u201d dates accounts for a big chunk of the $165 billion of food wasted in the U.S. each year, according to a study by researchers from Harvard Law School and the Natural Resources Defense Council. And Rauch certainly has collected a blue-chip list of backers. The Dorchester store was opened last June with funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts and the PepsiCo Foundation, among others.<\/p>\n<p>He\u2019s also opening a teaching kitchen at the Dorchester site that will be used for free nutrition and culinary education. The whole Daily Table operation, he explains, \u201cis really a health care initiative masquerading as a healthy food store.\u201d Once that concept is proved in Boston, where he is planning to open a second store later this year, he\u2019s looking to spread it to other cities where he sees a need, including Detroit, Baton Rouge and Los Angeles.<\/p>\n<p>Call it the new retirement fantasy. Instead of exotic beaches, successful folks of a certain age dream of going back to school and then continuing to work\u2013but at something with social impact. \u201cI believe in my heart that most of us find real satisfaction in our lives when we are doing something meaningful,\u201d says Rauch. \u201cGolf and mah-jongg will not leave people with a deep sense of satisfaction.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ann MacDougall, 62, was chief operating officer of Acumen Fund (a not-for-profit that makes impact investments) and prior to that General Counsel at\u00a0PricewaterhouseCoopers\u00a0-US (PwC-US) before she entered the Harvard fellowship in 2013. She had the idea of reinventing herself as an intermediary focused on helping other successful boomers looking to transition to nonprofits. During her year at Harvard she decided to apply for the position of president at <a href=\"http:\/\/encore.org\/\">Encore.org<\/a>, a 19-year-old organization that has been in the vanguard of promoting social impact work for those in midlife and beyond. MacDougall landed the Encore job.<\/p>\n<p>Paul Irving, 63, was CEO of Manatt, Phelps &amp; Phillips, the big Los Angeles law and consulting firm, where he\u2019d spent 26 years before he left the firm to join the 2010 class of Harvard fellows. He\u2019s now chairman of the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.milkeninstitute.org\/centers\/the-center-for-the-future-of-aging\">Milken Institute Center for the Future of Aging<\/a>\u00a0and credits his year in Cambridge with helping him make that successful transition. \u201cI couldn\u2019t say the specific education was critical,\u201d he says, \u201cbut it did get people thinking about me in a different way and me thinking about myself in a different way\u2013instead of just being a lawyer.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In many ways Harvard\u2019s program functions much like a gap year\u2013that year before college or grad school that some students take off to figure out what they want to do or who they are or simply to get a break from the grind. Rosabeth Moss Kanter, the 72-year-old Harvard Business School professor who conceived and directs the institute, stresses that her program \u201cis not a year off.\u201d The goal of the fellowship, she says, is to \u201cdeploy a pool of highly experienced, accomplished people with many productive years ahead, beyond their primary income-earning careers, who are motivated to apply their skills to tackling big, complex, messy problems.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Given the economics of Moss Kanter\u2019s \u201cback-to-school\u201d brainchild at Harvard, which now receives about 500 applications per year, plus the potential demand for such programs, you can expect more \u201celder gap year\u201d programs at other prestigious colleges. Last March, for example, officials from 21 schools, including Columbia, Cornell, Tulane, UCLA and the University of Washington, attended a summit at New York University\u00a0to confer on policies and practices. (The meeting was organized by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.encore.org\/\">Encore.org.<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p>Stanford University has already started its own yearlong program. The <a href=\"http:\/\/dci.stanford.edu\/\">Stanford Distinguished Careers Institute,<\/a> now in its second year, with 25 students paying $62,000 each, is run from Stanford\u2019s Center on Longevity, not its business school, and doesn\u2019t push c-suite retirees to develop a specific social action project the way Harvard does. Instead, in a more laid-back California fashion Stanford focuses on the fellows\u2019 personal transition from high-powered career to a meaningful second act. It even invites their \u201clife partners\u201d to participate for an extra $28,000.<\/p>\n<p>Dr. Philip A. Pizzo, the 71-year-old pediatric oncologist and former Stanford School of Medicine dean who founded the institute, embraces the gap year label. When high-powered types leave their primary jobs, he observes, \u201cthey begin taking on tasks just to keep busy. Becoming busy is easy, but being happy about a renewed purpose takes time and reflection.\u201d The Stanford year, he adds, permits them to take stock and think about what they really want to do.<\/p>\n<p>That approach suited Susan Carter, 59, who entered Stanford\u2019s first class last year after 17 years as CEO of Wilton, Conn.\u2019s Commonfund Capital, which manages $14 billion, mostly for nonprofits. \u201cI have always had goals\u2013goals for the company, annual goals, goals for the team. I actually like the idea that I\u2019m going to take it one day at a time,\u201d says Carter, also a veteran of GE and Morgan Stanley, who now sits on the advisory board of the startup Girls Who Invest.<\/p>\n<p>At Stanford Carter took a class on memoir writing that helped her to \u201cthink hard about what I want out of my next chapter,\u201d as well as courses on personal wellness, the mind\/body connection, nutrition, art history and one dubbed \u201cRethinking the Ballerina.\u201d \u201cI was so absorbed in the campus scene that I thought I was 20 again,\u201d she laughs. \u201cThe most challenging thing was deciding what not to do on campus.<\/p>\n<p>BY<a href=\"http:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/kerryhannon\/#3311b7f4f22c\">\u00a0Kerry Hannon<\/a><br \/>\nI cover boomer careers, retirement, aging and personal finance.<\/p>\n<p>This story appears in the February 29, 2016 issue of Forbes<\/p>\n<p>Follow me on Twitter, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/kerryhannon\">@KerryHannon<\/a> Visit me at<a href=\"https:\/\/kerryhannon.com\/\"> Kerryhannon.com<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - http:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_toolbar\" href=\"http:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-small.png?w=640&#038;ssl=1\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top:5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\"\/><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services_t=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\",\"Pinterest\",\"Linkedin\",\"StumbleUpon\",\"Digg\",\"Reddit\",\"Bebo\",\"Delicious\");var hupso_background_t=\"#EAF4FF\";var hupso_border_t=\"#66CCFF\";var hupso_toolbar_size_t=\"small\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_url_t=\"\";var hupso_title_t=\"Thinking About a Gap Year? Harvard And Stanford Help Boomers Shift To A Purposeful Second Career\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share_toolbar.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By 2008 Doug Rauch, president of Trader Joe\u2019s, was burned out. He had spent the last 31 years\u2013virtually his entire career\u2013overseeing the quirky California retailer\u2019s rapid expansion to the East Coast, developing its buying philosophy as well as its private-label food program and traveling \u201cceaselessly.\u201d He was just 56, he didn\u2019t need to make any [&hellip;]<\/p>\n<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - http:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_toolbar\" href=\"http:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-small.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top:5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\"\/><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services_t=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\",\"Pinterest\",\"Linkedin\",\"StumbleUpon\",\"Digg\",\"Reddit\",\"Bebo\",\"Delicious\");var hupso_background_t=\"#EAF4FF\";var hupso_border_t=\"#66CCFF\";var hupso_toolbar_size_t=\"small\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_url_t=\"\";var hupso_title_t=\"Thinking About a Gap Year? Harvard And Stanford Help Boomers Shift To A Purposeful Second Career\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share_toolbar.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[20,59,212,6],"tags":[389,335,388,390],"class_list":["post-5288","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-career-change","category-careers","category-forbes-2","category-second-verse-blog-on-forbes-com","tag-harvard","tag-second-acts","tag-social-impact","tag-stanford"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3YFQS-1ni","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kerryhannon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5288","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kerryhannon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kerryhannon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kerryhannon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kerryhannon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5288"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/kerryhannon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5288\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5300,"href":"https:\/\/kerryhannon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5288\/revisions\/5300"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kerryhannon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5288"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kerryhannon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5288"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kerryhannon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5288"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}