I recently spoke at the Yale School of Management to students interested in using their MBAs to advance social change. While talking with these young people I realized how lucky I am to be a part of First Book, a social enterprise organization pioneering important work at the intersection of the public and private sectors. It was heartening, too, to meet an entire group of future MBAs interested in devoting their newly acquired skills to helping organizations like ours advance the social sector.

During my conversation with these students I began to think about which courses and professional experiences had been the most useful in preparing me for the work I do at First Book. While many experiences came to mind, a class I took my senior year in college — Robert Coles’ course entitled The Literature of Social Reflection — was perhaps more influential than any other.

During Dr. Coles’ course we read Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, Twenty Years At Hull House by Jane Addams, Let Us Praise Famous Men by James Agee, The Doctor Stories by William Carlos Williams, and many others. Over the years these battered books — and the social activists whose lives they chronicle — have become like trusted advisors an arm’s length away on my bookshelf. While I never met these heroes in person, I feel grateful to have been introduced to them by Dr. Coles… and, in turn, to have the chance to introduce these books to students at Yale and elsewhere.

What about you? What courses, books, or professional experiences prompted you to do the work you do? Which of these books and or experiences would you recommend to those wishing to advance social change?