{"id":7185,"date":"2017-02-01T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-02-01T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/business.cornell.edu\/centers\/2017\/02\/01\/startup-snapshot-service-first-career-second\/"},"modified":"2026-07-14T18:16:31","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T18:16:31","slug":"startup-snapshot-service-first-career-second","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/business.cornell.edu\/centers\/2017\/02\/01\/startup-snapshot-service-first-career-second\/","title":{"rendered":"Startup Snapshot: Service First, Career Second"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Matt Ronen, MBA \u201911: ServiceCorps<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>by Dick Anderson<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"320\" height=\"320\" src=\"https:\/\/business.cornell.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2026\/06\/service-first-320x.jpg\" alt=\"Startup Snapshot: Service First, Career Second\" class=\"wp-image-7186\" srcset=\"https:\/\/business.cornell.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2026\/06\/service-first-320x.jpg 320w, https:\/\/business.cornell.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2026\/06\/service-first-320x-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/business.cornell.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2026\/06\/service-first-320x-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 320px) 100vw, 320px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>As a senior at Colorado College in 2004, Matt Ronen felt compelled to pursue a service year before settling down professionally. He even wrote a business plan for a partnership between companies and nonprofits that would create a service \u201cgap year\u201d between college and career. His professor told the Cleveland native that his idea was \u201ccreative and original, but ahead of its time,\u201d recalls Ronen, who turned down a position with Oppenheimer &amp; Co. to spend a two-year hitch in the Israel Defense Forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In March 2011, during his last semester at Johnson, Ronen was walking home from dinner when he was assaulted and mugged. During the long recovery that followed, he had an epiphany inspired by reading Anne Frank\u2019s words: &#8220;No one has to wait, but can start right now to gradually change the world.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI wanted to leave the world better than the way I found it,\u201d he says. \u201cI always thought this was something I would do later in life. But what if you don\u2019t get the chance to give back?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI wanted to leave the world better than the way I found it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignleft size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"320\" height=\"320\" src=\"https:\/\/business.cornell.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2026\/06\/Mat-Ronen-320x.jpg\" alt=\"Mat Ronen\" class=\"wp-image-7187\" srcset=\"https:\/\/business.cornell.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2026\/06\/Mat-Ronen-320x.jpg 320w, https:\/\/business.cornell.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2026\/06\/Mat-Ronen-320x-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/business.cornell.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2026\/06\/Mat-Ronen-320x-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 320px) 100vw, 320px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Although Ronen subsequently took a job offer as a brand manager at Colgate-Palmolive, his old idea never left him, and in 2014 he left the corporate world to follow his dream. Now, ServiceCorps has a staff of five and operates out of office space in Manhattan donated by Cornell trustee Howard Milstein \u201973. The program launched in summer 2016 with 11 recent college graduates who deferred prestigious job offers from ServiceCorps corporate sponsors GE and Citi in order to work at top nonprofit organizations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ronen\u2019s goal for ServiceCorps is \u201cto empower the most talented emerging leaders to tackle society&#8217;s toughest challenges the first year of their career and every year thereafter.\u201d Participating business partners share the cost of the program with ServiceCorps, with the nonprofit covering other expenses such as healthcare and any student loan repayments during the deferral year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ronen hopes to double the number of student participants every year until they hit 1,000. \u201cMy vision is to be the next Teach for America \u2014 the next post-college movement,\u201d he says, adding that: \u201cWithout my Cornell degree, I would not have the skills, knowledge, and wisdom to pull it off.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Matt Ronen, MBA \u201911: ServiceCorps by Dick Anderson As a senior at Colorado College in 2004, Matt Ronen felt compelled to pursue a service year before settling down professionally. He&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":7186,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[171],"tags":[196,201],"ppma_author":[11],"class_list":["post-7185","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni-profiles","tag-archived","tag-eii-cornell-startups"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v28.2 (Yoast SEO v28.2) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Startup Snapshot: Service First, Career Second - Cornell Business Centers &amp; Institutes<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Matt Ronen, MBA \u201911: ServiceCorps by Dick Anderson As a senior at Colorado College in 2004, Matt Ronen felt compelled to pursue a service year before\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/business.cornell.edu\/centers\/2017\/02\/01\/startup-snapshot-service-first-career-second\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Startup Snapshot: Service First, Career Second - Cornell Business\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Matt Ronen, MBA \u201911: ServiceCorps by Dick Anderson As a senior at Colorado College in 2004, Matt Ronen felt compelled to pursue a service year before\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/business.cornell.edu\/centers\/2017\/02\/01\/startup-snapshot-service-first-career-second\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Centers &amp; 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