Have you ever wondered if you’d have the time to explore your extracurricular interests while in business school, or share your interests with your business school friends? At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Sloan School of Business, the Joie de Vivre club, or JDV for short, will allow you to share your interests and explore new experiences. The club was just profiled in Businessweek. It has attracted attention because it has a different aim from most business school organizations: it encourages students to explore the wide world outside of business school.
The club was founded by Max Jahn in 2010 after he attended a classical concert with other students during his second semester at MIT Sloan. He observed that the concert gave him a chance to take a break from his business school work and get to know his classmates better outside of school. He founded Joie de Vivre to allow students to get to know each other better by sharing extracurricular interests.
According to Businessweek, JDV’s first meeting featured a chocolate tasting, a musical performance, and a lecture about orchids given by a student who catalogued rare orchids for the Mexican government before attending business school. Club activities have included attending a glassblowing class and going on trips to local museums. Students also had the chance to go to Jahn’s hometown of Vienna, Austria, where they learned about proper etiquette for a traditional Viennese ball, chocolate-making, and the waltz.
Jahn credits the club with helping him get his post-graduation job as Chief Financial Officer of New York City’s Neue Galerie art museum. He will lead another trip to Vienna next year for MIT Sloan students and alumni.
