Acton Scholars
Watch VideoMatthew Arnold
"Believing in yourself is key."
MBA 2008
Credentials:
- Currently launching a distribution business that purchases handmade goods directly from artisans in developing countries
- Architect of Workforce Development Project, Lifeworks Ben & Jerry’s
- Former Food Security Specialist, Peace Corps, Guatemala
- MBA, Acton MBA in Entrepreneurship, BA in Politics, Washington and Lee University
Ten years ago, if you had asked Matthew Arnold if he was going to be a businessman, he would have given you an emphatic “no.” “I have never seen myself as a businessman,” he says. “Money, as an end in and of itself, never appealed to me, and traditional business, from my perspective, seemed to be all about the dispassionate pursuit of money.”
After serving in the Peace Corps, however, his perspective changed. He began to see business as a vehicle for change. As he worked with women’s community groups in Guatemala to develop project plans, he saw first hand how businesses could invigorate local communities through economic stimulation.
When he got back to the US, he turned to Acton to transform his desire to create a business with a social agenda into a reality. His experiences at Acton also helped him take his calling to serve others and turn it into a marketable enterprise.
He compares the challenges of Acton’s grueling curriculum to a particularly rough night he faced in Guatemala, when he and his group found themselves lost on a remote mountain top, without water, and unable to find the natural spring where they were supposed to spend the night: “Last fall, in my first semester at Acton, there were a couple of times when I felt as scared and empty as I had felt that night in Guatemala. The workload was tremendous, my energy low, and the spring seemed forever out of reach. I had gone to the edge of my being and yet was required to go further; Believing in yourself is key. I admit there were times when I just wanted to lie down on the side of that mountain and give up. And there were times at Acton when I wanted to quit and rest. But I believed I could go on, and I believed I had inspiring people all around who could motivate me to finish.”
Today, Matthew is launching a distribution business that will purchase handmade goods directly from artisans in developing countries. “This is exactly what I was looking to do after receiving my MBA,” he says.