Election Season!

I'm sure many of you are on the edge of your seats, devouring every last second of campaign ads, stump speeches, closing arguments, and so on, as we round the curve to election day. But we're having our very own election here at Haas -- for officers for our student government, the MBAA.

But, unlike in the national scene, if you walked onto campus, you'd have little to know idea that we are in election season. Rather than focusing on campaigning and whatnot, candidates simply have conversations with classmates, send out emails regarding their platform, and give short speeches moderated by Charlene, our current VP of Communications.

Yours truly is running for VP of Clubs - I gave my speech today to a crowd of supportive classmates. I was nervous and mixed up the flow of my speech, but on the whole it turned out fine (I hope!). I'm energized for the chance to make a difference in our MBA experience -- and possibly yours, too!

Here's a photo from the MBAA President speeches. I was at kind of an awkward vantage point, but I did my best. Enjoy!

-Rumana

Lunch with Prospective Students

I just had one of the most intense yet rewarding lunches of my life today during our lunch escort program. It was intense because Champa and I were responsible for answering questions, which included "why Haas" and "what classes do you like" to "what kind of social activities do you do" and "how do you manage a long distance relationship once you're in business school," from 14 prospective students during the one-hour lunch session. It was also very rewarding because I had time, for really the first time in the last two months, to reflect on everything that I've done at Haas. As I answered questions and witnessed my cheeseburger get really cold, I realized that, wow, I do love my experiences at Haas a lot.

For those of you who are reading this blog and thinking about applying this Fall, I strongly encourage you to come visit the campus, sit in a class, and have lunch with students like me. I assure you that we will give you a candid description of our experience.

Axe-N-Blue at In-N-Out

Yet another delicious cohort-mixer! This time, Axe and Blue met up a bit north of Berkeley at the renowned In-N-Out. There were plenty of In-N-Out newbies (including myself... I started with a cheeseburger animal style and went back for a double double!), and I think all were satisfied.

Deja vu!

Yesterday I had a phone call with a first-year who is interested in a career in brand management (like me). Normally I like chatting over a meal or coffee, but since I'm here in London for my exchange semester, I resorted to drinking coffee alone with the phone pressed to my left ear.

I shared with her everything I knew, and then we chatted about professors, travel plans, and the upcoming consumption function party.

At the end of the call, she thanked me profusely. At that moment, I thought to myself, deja vu! I remembered being in her shoes exactly a year ago, having similar conversations with the then second-years.

Next year, she will be a second-year, and the pattern will continue. She will generously give her time to help the next class of first-years.

To all the classes who came before us, thank you for building the pattern!

P.S. Now, time for a little update from London:
#1 The weather here is not as ugly as expected.
#2 I joined the touch rugby team at LBS.
#3 The Starbucks here have almond syrup in stock!

YEAH (Young Entrepreneurs at Haas): Part 2

Our last meeting was a whirlwind. We spent the morning getting the mentors up to speed, introducing ourselves to the freshmen group, and then getting to work on the case. The goal for the kids this semester is to analyze and present their findings on a case discussing opportunity recognition.

We wrapped up our second session last Saturday which was largely spent in the computer lab developing their PowerPoint presentation (they definitely taught me a thing or two about the new version of PowerPoint).

Similar to the MBA environment at Haas, a large component of the YEAH program is to help the kids learn and understand the benefits of teamwork. It was great to see how the kids worked together (with minimal encouragement) to get all of the slides completed.

One unexpected benefit that I’ve gotten out of the YEAH program so far is the ability to witness these team dynamics, as well as the ability to coach them on understanding how to work as a team even better. Interesting! This is one of the main skills of mine I wanted to “scale up” at Haas, I had no idea I’d get that chance through YEAH.

-Aaron

Study Group Mashup Dinner!

As social rep for my cohort, I've been organizing a variety of events to get my cohort to get to know each other and other cohorts. So far, we've gone bowling with Oski, and we're hitting up In-N-Out with Blue tonight.

But my favorite initiative is what I like to call "Study Group Mashup" where I set up 5 groups of 12 (one person from each study group) for some activity - in October, this was dinner.

Enjoy some photos from my mashup's sushi dinner... and of our newest Axe!

Facebook Connect Case Competition

(This is posted on behalf of Ran, Nipun, and Feng, winners of the Facebook Connect Case Competition)

One of the most exciting aspects of being an MBA student is the opportunity to participate in case competitions and work closely with the best companies in the world.

Everybody knows Facebook, but these past 2 weeks, Haas students actually got to work on a real strategic problem for Facebook. Facebook is looking for a partner for its “Facebook connect” application, and invited Haas students to submit their ideas for partnerships. 26 teams submitted their presentations, and 4 teams were selected for the final that then took place at Haas.

To create a winning presentation, our team – Feng, Nipun and Ran - invested a lot of time, but it totally paid off! We were selected for the final and could present our idea in front of five Facebook judges and our classmates. Preparing and perfecting our story was an awesome experience, in which the three of us bounced ideas off of each other, got to know each other better, and bonded over many late nights. And we won! It was definitely a very rewarding experience and we already look forward to the next case competition at Haas!

Haas Iron Chef

Back to my favorite subject: food. Below is the winning team (I'm in orange) and the judges from Sunday night's first ever Haas Iron Chef.

The winning recipes were: roasted chicken on a bed of pumpkin; sweet cous cous with cranberries, pumkin, toasted almonds, garnished with mint; and caramalized onions with a fresh baby green salad dressed with a citrus vinaigrette.

50% taste, 25% creativity, 25% presentation. Apparently we won 2 of the 3 categories.

Special thanks to our AMAZING second year hosts: Karen and Jordan, 2nd and 3rd from the right. And, by the way, if anyone is wondering, all 3 of our little ones were upstairs snoozing away to the white noise machine.

Finals were fun. Not really.

I am looking forward to finance and accounting. I think they're going to each respectively pound me, but I'm stoked anyway...I've always wanted to learn this stuff.

This thursday night we're going into the Mission for some good eats. http://eatingasia.typepad.com/eatingasia/2008/10/this-morning-i.html
Oh yeah, baby.

We Are 1/8 of the Way Done!

FINALLY! Three finals (and 1 stats project) later, Fall A is over! The Axe Cohort showed their pride again by wearing Axe T-shirts, but in a brilliant coup d’état planned by Rumana and Anna, we got our beloved Stats professor, Laura, to wear an Axe T-shirt to show her Axe Pride today! Woot!













After the final, the MBA Association was kind enough to have bagels and mimosas to help us drown our sorrows.














And tonight we have our Post-Fall-A-Party: "Monochromtastic!"

Stay tuned for pictures of the party!

OMG! Finals!

The Finals are coming! The Finals are coming! The Finals are coming!

In case you were wondering why there haven't been many posts lately, and why students in general look a little stressed when you're visiting campus, it's because we have 3 back to back finals coming up Wed-Fri. Throw in 2 more projects due this week, everyone's just a little bit "out of it".

Alright, I've used my my 3-minute break posting this, so I'm going back to studying for Econ again. See you next week! =)

Long time to blog

Ok. I must admit that I had planned to blog more often than this. And I can't even say that I was too busy over the last few weeks. Yes, I had stuff to do, but overall, I guess I was just having a good time and every time I was going to blog, something else came up - these are exciting times after all.

The geek in me
Yesterday I attended the Free Culture Conference at Cal. Organized by Students for Free Culture and Free Culture Berkeley, this was not your typical MBA conference, but provided very interesting insights into the world of copyright and copyleft, open access and open source. Two years in management consulting and my time in b-school haven't been able to entirely kill the geek in me, so I was especially pleased to listen to Lawrence Lessig and Mozilla CEO John Lilly (Photo copyright fczuardi - used under creative commons attribution license), but the panel on Politics and Transparency was equally interesting.

Pigs
Today it was time for the annual Pig Roast in Golden Gate Park. Organized by one of our class mates, the pig roast brought a number of MBA students and friends together in San Francisco for drinks, talk and lots of food. It wasn't just pork though: The menu also featured oysters, goat and sheep meat, salads, fruits, and more. The highlight of course was the pig. Or should I say: The highlight of course were the two pigs? Anyway: A wonderful day with lots of sun, lots of fun and lots of good food.

Now back to work. I still have to prepare for my negotiations class tomorrow.

I feel your pain.

So, I know what you're thinking: "I just need to write these essays, submit my application, and just relax while waiting to get all those acceptance letters. And then, that's it. No more soul-searching to describe my deepest hopes and dreams."

Wrong.

You'll have to write essays again. To get a spot in the International Business Development (IBD) program. To join a project team for the Social Sector Solutions (S-cubed) nonprofit consulting class. To apply for co-chair of the Global Social Ventures Competition (GSVC).

What's most important to me, and why... sigh.

Lost + Found

How much do I love Haas? My brand new Canon 850 IS went missing, and I had no idea when or where. I checked the lost and found in the mailroom to see if it had been, miraculously, turned in. Lo and behold, my camera must have fallen out of my bag in a classroom, returned by a good samaritan, and recorded in the lost and found log. What a streamlined and heartwarming process! Yay!

A photo I took from my deck later that evening...

The Greek Theatre ROCKS

We second-years know our way around this place. We know what we like, and we want to maximize every second in pursuit of those activities.

Though I'm busier than ever this semester -- our last to 'run' the school (not to mention try to find, you know, a job) -- one of my priorities this fall was to go to more live shows. I went to a grand total of ONE all last year...pathetic given the abundance of amazing acts, both large and small, that come through the Bay Area -- and the Greek Theatre in particular, which a mere stone's throw from Haas.

The Greek is a super cool venue -- an outdoor ampitheater nestled in the tree-lined Berkeley hills that, despite its size, somehow manages to retain the all-important quality of real intimacy between artists and audience.

I've already checked out 4 shows since this summer at the Greek (this pic is of a bunch of us second-years at one of three Dave Matthews Band shows in early September...I'm the guy in the hat; can you tell I'm having fun by the width and toothiness of my smile?! :)).

Since the fall months are so temperate here, there are several shows still coming up. I can't wait.

And by the way - me and my classmates will finally get OUR chance to rock the Greek in May as newly-minted Haas MBA grads. Check out this video for my favorite Haas graduation in recent history. Fast forward to about 30 seconds in...Pretty cool, huh?!

Hello from London

I've been in London a little more than two weeks now. Being an exchange student is exciting, and London couldn't have welcomed me with better weather!

Going to school here is a completely different experience because I don't know anybody! At Haas, I pretty much know everyone in my class, and it's so nice to be able to greet everyone by name.

There are six of us from Haas here on exchange. We arrived separately and live in various neighborhoods. Two days ago we finally had the chance to see each other as a group.

I am so glad they're here with me in London!

Cohort Pride

Nothing says cohort pride better than sporting headbands during an econ midterm.



Axe up!!