My Summer in Tulsa, OK
Interning with the George Kaiser Family Foundation in 2021
One of these is not like the others: San Francisco, New York, Boston, Tulsa. Having always lived in large coastal cities, I never would have imagined landing in Tulsa, Oklahoma this summer.
For my business school summer internship, I wanted to explore the world of economic development, so I recruited for public sector roles in large cities. And then, right as I thought I knew what I’d be doing for the summer, a classmate slacked me a new posting on our career site for a role with a philanthropy in Tulsa.
Before HBS, Tulsa may have felt like a random city to wind up in, but it kept surfacing on my radar during the first year at school. First, I came across an HBS case highlighting an innovative program that incentivized remote workers to move to the city, a model several other cities started to adopt. Then, in one of my favorite cases of the RC year, we discussed whether reparations could address the atrocities of the Tulsa Race Massacre.
The more I learned about the philanthropy, the more I was intrigued. HBS alum George Kaiser was taking his billions in oil wealth and investing it to revitalize growth and opportunity in Tulsa. To my surprise, Tulsa was once a flourishing a city. As the six-decade oil capital of the world, Tulsa has a built up and beautiful downtown; in fact, Tulsa has the third most art deco of any U.S. city, behind just New York City and Miami.
Nonetheless, Tulsa also struggles from an economy heavily reliant on the boom-and-bust oil industry, a checkered past, and painfully stark divides in life outcomes based on race. This is where the George Kaiser Family Foundation (GKFF) comes in. GKFF invests across a portfolio of initiatives, ranging from education, to healthcare, to family planning and place-making. One investment that I personally made use of was Gathering Place, a truly exceptional public park voted best in America.
Within GKFF, I joined a team focused on creating a lively and inclusive economy in Tulsa through building a technology ecosystem. I felt privileged to approach this work where we were incredibly well-resourced (often engaging MBB teams for projects), entrepreneurially minded (I felt like I was back in a Silicon Valley startup), and positioned to make decisions with a timeframe longer than a typical political cycle.
Over the summer, I had the responsibility of building Tulsa’s presence in Energy Tech and Advanced Aerial Mobility (i.e. drones!) — two of five sectors the team had prioritized. For this, I worked with key stakeholders across, industry, university systems, tribal nations, non-profits, and the public sector. Throughout, I was pushed to ensure our long-term strategy and day-to-day programs were fostering inclusive economic growth, rather than just focusing on traditional economic development metrics.
One year ago, I couldn’t have told you if Oklahoma was in the South or the Midwest; now, I’ll be the first to tell you about Braum’s, Tulsa Tough’s Cry Baby Hill, or Eskimo Joe’s. This summer was not only an opportunity for me to develop my business skills; living in Tulsa also pushed me to grow as a person, reinforcing some of my views and broadening my perspective on others. I’m already looking forward Tulsa’s Oktoberfest so I can set my clock back to Tulsa Time.
