StartingBloc announced today six Class of 2005 StartingBloc fellows have been accepted for deferred admissions into the MIT Sloan School of Management’s two year MBA program. The new recruitment program, created in partnership with MIT Sloan, is an effort to develop tomorrow’s leaders and social entrepreneurs. As part of the new initiative, MIT Sloan will select up to six StartingBloc Fellows who are undergraduate seniors for deferred admissions into MIT Sloan each year. Selected fellows work in the private or social sector for 1 or 2 years before matriculating at MIT Sloan. In addition, MIT Sloan has included a “StartingBloc Affiliate” section to its MBA application, in order to readily identify StartingBloc alumni. Due to the success of the MIT Sloan/StartingBloc program, the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University is now offering early deferred admissions to six StartingBloc fellows during the 2005-2006 program. StartingBloc intends to expand the admissions program to an additional fifteen graduate schools over the next three years.

StartingBloc is a social venture dedicated to recruiting, training, placing, and supporting a generation of young leaders and entrepreneurs that redefine enterprise as a force for creating both profit and positive social change. Each year, StartingBloc works with graduate school admissions directors to select around 250 undergraduate students and young professional to become StartingBloc Fellows. As such, they attend three months of weekend sessions in New York or Boston, during which they receive social innovation and leadership training that focuses on four key areas: Sustainability, Social Entrepreneurship, Corporate Responsibility, and Cross-Sector Partnerships.

The StartingBloc application is available online at https://application.startingbloc.com and is open to all undergraduates studying at four-year institutions and recent graduates.