Our community blog highlights the Olin experience through the voice of our students, faculty, staff, and partnering organizations. It’s a platform to highlight our stories, including business interactions, business ventures, travel and study abroad experiences, and Olin’s collaborative environment. Visit the blog to check out the latest news and happenings.

We welcome contributions

We encourage students, alumni, faculty or staff to share stories and insights about their Olin experience. Have questions about contributing? Contact blog@olin.wustl.edu. If you submit a post, please include a brief bio.

Why blog?

Writing for the Olin blog enhances your personal brand and creates a positive digital footprint – for you and Olin. Blogging communicates to potential employers and the business community your:

  • passion and interests
  • ability to effectively communicate and compel a reader’s attention
  • expertise on a particular subject or industry
  • leadership and involvement within your academic community

What we’ll do

Olin Marketing & Communications is happy to accept blog posts and photos by email, edit them, and post them on your behalf. For regular contributors, we’ll set up an account for you or your organization and show you how to submit your posts.

We’ll edit for grammar, spelling, style consistency, and length. We’ll share posts on social media, and boost search engine optimization. Edits that go beyond the basics will get your review before publishing.

Marketing & Communications is responsible for the Olin Blog and therefore reserves the right to decide what is or is not appropriate for publication.

Some guidelines for blogging

If you’re interested in writing for the Olin Blog, here are some best practices to consider—some guidelines, if you will.

Remember the audience. We’re writing a lot for prospective students, interested in the heartbeat of Olin as they consider coming here. We’re also writing for fellow students, staff, faculty, and alumni.

Keep it simple. Don’t try to cram too many ideas into a single blog post. Make sure it’s clear what the reader’s takeaway will be. Keep posts to about 400 words, 500 max.

Make sure it’s newsworthy. Consider why your idea is worth a blog post. The 10th GMS trip to Japan probably isn’t that exciting. But it might be if you can highlight a particular experience that was unique, revelatory, or different.

Lead with the news. How would you tell your mom about your blog post? Start with the most important information in the first paragraph. Each subsequent paragraph can be “less” interesting. It’s OK to start with the news, then back up to give any necessary background. But try to start with a bang.

Send photos. Make sure to give us at least one. Your photos are preferably large ones with people in them. A nice headshot of the blog author is helpful.

Identify people. If you mention a student or WashU alum, please include their program and graduation year (e.g., Angela Lu, MBA ’19).

Consider different formats. Maybe you’ll write a straight narrative—in first or third person. Maybe your post could be a Q&A with a subject. Maybe it’s “the top five takeaways” from whatever you’re writing about. Be flexible.

We welcome your submissions. We’re also happy to discuss ideas by phone or over coffee at S’bux, so reach out if you’d like to brainstorm. Call or email Kurt Greenbaum, the blog’s editor, at kgreenbaum@wustl.edu or 935-5363.

Send a Word document and photos (as attachments) to blog@olin.wustl.edu. If you have credentials to our WordPress site and you can post directly, that’s fine too, but we’d still like an email heads-up that it’s there. Happy blogging!