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FROM UCLA FEMBA Admission Director: Homesick Halloween, 1993 |
Happy Halloween 2014, It’s an overcast afternoon in Los Angeles, with a slight chance of rain. I’m leaving early today to get home to my two trick-or-treaters: my S.W.A.T.-team costumed second-grader and my little puffy-penguin two-year-old. 21 years ago–in the fall of 1993–I was a first-year MBA student at the University of Chicago. I was 24 years old and having my big life experience, starting grad school in the big city. One of the youngest people in my class, I was clueless about how to best leverage a top-tier MBA experience. It was like someone gave me a Ferrari, when all I wanted was to go to the store for a gallon of milk. I had a History degree with honors from Texas A&M, but in the two years since graduating, the world hadn’t beaten a path to my door. Getting my MBA from Chicago was my attempt to make something happen, but I really couldn’t tell you what that “something” was. That Halloween night the temperature was cool and brisk, but not bitter. I had no idea how much colder it would get, when winter really reached Chicago. A festival was happening out on the Midway, a carnival/fair-like atmosphere with families and children in costumes. The trees had the last of their fall foliage and the air smelled damp and musty. The six weeks leading up to Halloween had included two weeks of orientation and then the first month of classes. I’d probably been living mostly on adrenaline up to that moment: moving to Chicago, meeting my new roommates, buying my computer, doing orientation and then delving into the first four weeks of business classes (as a History major, I’d not seen Statistics, Economics–any of it–before). I barely had any work experience and I was quickly coming to feel like the “little brother” to most of my classmates. That Halloween night, getting out of the b-school-bubble, seeing the little kids in their costumes, it all caught up to me. A wave of homesickness caught me off-guard. What was I doing here? I had a girlfriend back in Texas. We’d met the year after I graduated. She was smart and pretty and I thought she was awesome. But I also felt like there was no way I could ever support a family. Even if I’d had the guts to propose to her, there was no way I felt like she could say “yes” to me. I was going to Chicago to figure out how to make a living, so that someday I could be a husband. That Halloween night, I saw all these families and thought about the small town of Denison, Texas, (population 21,000) where I grew up. I thought about what was happening in Denison that night. I thought about my own mom and dad and how they fell in love in college and got married directly afterwards, no MBA but they made it work somehow. What was I doing? Borrowing $100,000. Living in Chicago. Taking classes with no background. Chasing something, and not having any real clue what that ‘something’ was. The homesickness followed me as I wandered around the festival, eating a carmel-candied apple and feeling jealous of all the couple I saw with their families, their own little S.W.A.T.-teamers and their own little puffy-penguins. 21 years later, I am probably similar now to many of those parents I saw that night with my own two-year-old and seven-year-old. I know how to make a living now. My MBA paid off. It has given me two careers so far, the first with Siemens and this current, second career with UCLA Anderson. That girlfriend from way back then? She and I didn’t make it. But the woman I share life with now, my wonderful wife Marisa, she and I are living the life now that I could only dream of then. Am I grateful for my education? For sure. Am I glad I never have to do it again? Yes, that too. It takes guts to pursue graduate study. It’s a leap into the unknown. I’ve been watching part-time MBA students here at UCLA since 2002. They juggle work, life and school in pursuit of their dreams. They inspire me to work hard every day to make sure UCLA pays off for them, the way Chicago paid off for me. I’m going to pass out candy tonight from my porch in Culver City. I’m going to smile and laugh and be grateful. Happy Halloween. |
FROM UCLA FEMBA Admission Director: Anderson in Argentina 2014, by Alex Lawrence ’15 |
Oh the places you’ll go…during FEMBA. Alex Lawrence ’15, Brand Marketing Analyst, Theatrical New Release at Warner Bros. has done two International Studies. This September he traveled with classmates to Argentina and sent me this great movie of seeing Iguazu Falls, one of the seven natural wonders of the world. Alex: Hey Dylan, Glad you liked the video! After our International Studies week in Buenos Aires, there were about 15 of us who flew to Iguazu (about a 2 hour flight from Buenos Aires) to check out Iguazu Falls, which is one of the 7 natural wonders of the world. It was one of the coolest things I’ve seen. We hiked around different trails for most of the day and, at the end, got on a boat where they drive you right up to the falls and you get completely drenched. Alex Lawrence FEMBA ’15 We had this awesome Argentine guide named Adrian (he’s the guy fist pumping in the video) who was with us for the entire week and he kept telling us that we were going to get “soak wet” on the boat ride. From the video you can see that he wasn’t lying, but it was about 85 degrees in the middle of the jungle so it felt nice. Dylan: Thanks Alex. Anything else I can tell people about your experiences? Alex: This is my second international studies class and it’s always awesome how closely we get to interact with the profs. We went with Professor Terech, who is from Argentina, so almost everywhere we went he had a story or a recommendation on what to do. He shared “mate” which is the Argentine version of tea with us and generally just told the kind of stories you would only get from someone who grew up there. Really cool experience. Professor Andres Terech We definitely had some interesting company visits as well. My favorites were Club Atletico Boca Juniors (the most famous Argentinian soccer team) and Nieto Senetiner Winery (wine tasting to truly learn about the booming wine industry in Argentina). On the last night, the whole class had tango lessons and went to watch a tango dinner show. Because of the exchange rate there, everything was so cheap for us. One night we wanted to check out what some locals had told us was their favorite steakhouse and, even though we had to wait for 2 hours, and it started raining, and we had to use our broken Spanish to order, it was one of the best meals I’ve ever had and was incredibly cheap. Dylan: Thanks Alex. Again, I love your video and I appreciate you sharing it. |
FROM UCLA FEMBA Admission Director: Saturday on-campus |
Back-to-back action today! Just a typical Saturday at UCLA in FEMBA. Breakfast meeting with the 2016 FEMBA Council Section Reps. Next was the Women’s Breakfast, organized by Christy Marquez and featuring great alumnae. Here I am with Christy and Carole Neal FEMBA 1997. The panelists today were (l-r) Carole Neal ’97, Julie Brensike ’11, Aubrey Kelly ’12 and Sara Kramer ’14. Our Faculty speaker was Professor Jenessa Shapiro. Here she is giving an overview of Organizational Behavior. From recruiting to Hollywood. Raymond Morada, our Marketing and Communications Manager, organized a video shoot for today to capture “Welcomes” from current students that we’ll share with the new Class of 2018. Here is David Duong ’15 recording his welcome, with Jordan Cruz ’17 standing next to Raymond, awaiting his turn. And my last event of the day…FEMBA Council! Here we all are in A.202 for the monthly, all-FEMBA Council meeting. It’s the leadership of FEMBA Council that keeps FEMBA growing in real time, to meet the needs of our students. |
FROM UCLA FEMBA Admission Director: FEMBA, Soccer and Football |
Back-to-back action today! Just a typical Saturday at UCLA in FEMBA. Breakfast meeting with the 2016 FEMBA Council Section Reps. Next was the Women’s Breakfast, organized by Christy Marquez and featuring great alumnae. Here I am with Christy and Carole Neal FEMBA 1997. The panelists today were (l-r) Carole Neal ’97, Julie Brensike ’11, Aubrey Kelly ’12 and Sara Kramer ’14. Our Faculty speaker was Professor Jenessa Shapiro. Here she is giving an overview of Organizational Behavior. From recruiting to Hollywood. Raymond Morada, our Marketing and Communications Manager, organized a video shoot for today to capture “Welcomes” from current students that we’ll share with the new Class of 2018. Here is David Duong ’15 recording his welcome, with Jordan Cruz ’17 standing next to Raymond, awaiting his turn. And now, FEMBA Council! Here we all are in A.202 for the monthly, all-FEMBA Council meeting. It’s the leadership of FEMBA Council that keeps FEMBA growing in real time, to meet the needs of our students. Here I am with Kari and Raymond. Then, it was down the 405 to the Fox Hills recreation area to watch my seven-year-old and his team, the “Black Dragons.” The Black Dragons have orange shirts, because we named the team before the uniforms arrived. And, finally, home to watch my beloved Aggies. We’ll see how they do. Just another day with UCLA, family and fun. |
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