The MBA Student Voice

Making the Odyssey

Wednesday, September 26th... the day after orientation is officially over, and the day before classes officially begin. If I had to pick one word to describe what I just experienced over the last 2.5 weeks of orientation, it would be UNFORGETTABLE (I thought about creating a word, like Amazcrediblyunforgettablyawesomefuntimes, but decided to keep it simple.)

Fellow bloggers Ayushman and Alejandra have touched on different aspects of orientation already, so this blog post is going to be focused on the ropes course. Odyssey is an organization that focuses on team building and leadership by putting teams through situations where they are forced to work together to achieve a goal. UCLA has a ropes course on campus, which is where our day long adventure took place. 

(One of the co-founders, Lain, talking to the group and getting everyone ready to take some risks.)

They deliberately mix up the teams, which provides everyone a chance to meet people outside of their sections. 

(Gold Team 8 represent!)

The activities were a mixture of brain teasers on the ground and ropes above the ground. Our team started out with one that sounded extremely simple. We divided into two teams, and each team had to lower a pipe to the ground. The pipe was positioned on our index fingers, and if a person took their finger off the pipe we had to start over.

Sounds easy right? The catch is...the pipe is SUPER light. As in, you can barely even feel it on your fingers. 

We were supposed to start with the pipe at our waists, but as you can see, it quickly floated upward. Any slight nudge upward led to a chain reaction, where everyone was trying to keep their fingers touching the pipe and it continued going higher and higher. 

After the pipe, we did two more activities on the ground. One involved crossing a "mine field" without being able to speak to your teammates (only pointing) and the other consisted of everyone being blindfolded, handed an obect, and determining which two objects we were missing as a group and what color the objects were (yes, color, while blindfolded.) I won't give away how we solved those two so you can enjoy the thrill during your own Anderson orientation!

On to the above ground activities...

Our first ropes activity was the "High V", so named because the two ropes start close together at one end, and get wider and wider as two people walk across to the other side while leaning in against each other. 

(My name is Kyle Forrest, and I choose to climb. My partner for the activity was fellow blogger Gregory Paige.)

(After climbing to the top of the ladder, the hardest part is getting on the two ropes and balancing against your partner.)

(Then you start walking across... while trying to stay balanced and not look at the ground.)

((

(Whoever isn't climbing can serve on the belay team, keeping a watchful eye out on the climbers...)

(...or they can be supportive and cheer people on as they climb.)

(It can be very difficult to keep your balance, as shown above, but some partners were able to press back and keep progressing down the rope!)

 

Our second ropes activity was an individual climb up a pole, followed by a jump to a bar. It's a true test of overcoming any nervousness and anxiety, and trusting in your teammates' support to guide you safely back to the ground. 

(The pole. From top to bottom, it's roughly 30 feet.)

(We were given the option of going up blindfolded, which I decided to do after teammate Mark Joshua trailblazed the way. His climb was made more challenging because he was wearing sandals.)

(Narissa also made the decision to climb up blindfolded...)

(...but shortly after making the top, she took her blindfold off to enjoy the view.)

 

It was a day of self-discovery. Everybody learned something about themselves and each other, as we were only able to successfully make it through the day by trusting ourselves and our teams. That trust may have led to some crazyness later in orientation... but that's for another blog post. 

For now, I'll leave you with a video of my blindfolded climb!

  

Until next time, 

~Kyle Forrest, follow on Twitter and follow UCLAMBA 

 

ALMA Welcome Week Event!

UCLA Anderson Latino Management Alumni

Welcome Week event at Obika Mozzarella!
When: October 9th, 6pm - 8pm
Alumni: $15 - Students $5
Where:  Obika Mozarella - Century City Westfield, 10250 Santa Monica Blvd, Los Angeles, CA

Hawaii (redux) and NAAMBA

Only about three months have come and gone since my last post about my summer in San Francisco.  I think we're reaching a new record here, folks.  So I've decided to make this a massive, bandwidth-bustingly pic-heavy post to make up for my disappearance over the last several months.

My summer internship experience was a great one and it ended in mid-August.  The second year of school starts on Thursday, 9/27.  So what have I been doing the entire time?

Besides much career-focused deliberating, general soul-searching, and Instagramming any and all food items that come my way, I decided to make a trip to the National Association of Asian MBAs (NAAMBA) conference and expo a few weeks ago.  I was already in the Bay area so I figured it couldn't hurt to peruse around.  There, I ran into one of our Parker Career Center directors, Phil Han:

I also ran into my name (almost-)twin, another MBA student who goes to USC Marshall:

Continue clicking to read more!  

First week for orientation (and my birthday)!!!

Hey everyone!! Last week orientation started and it has been awesome! The first day of orientation was actually my birthday and it just marked the start of a great week. Let me tell you all about it! 

I finally got to meet all my classmates in section A (the island section!) and our awesome section leaders Robbie and Aviva:

They are enthusiastic second years who have generously donated their time to organizing orientation activities for us, guiding us in our first days here, and making us feel very welcomed. Thank you guys for all your efforts for us, section A loves you both!!

We got a welcome from the MBA program deans, an introduction to orientation and to the Parker Career Management Center. I love how they decorated the conference room with flags from all the countries our very diverse class represents:

That evening I had dinner with some of my friends at Tomodachi Sushi in honor of my birthday. The sushi there is really nice and it is right in front of weyburn terrace. 

Back to orientation we have been taking a class called Leadership Foundations with Professor Kashkooli:

Our section is so luck to have him teach us! He makes our lessons so fun and interactive. We had a lego man building competition (You should go to Ayushman's latest post for a picture of it) and many leadership cases. I know what you must be thinking "Cases? Ew what is so fun about that?". Well these cases are! We had one that described clues for a murder case and, at the time we did not know but, there were three versions of it with different information and we got in groups to try to solve the case (our team got it right of course!).

We also had another one where we had to imagine we were stranded in a mountain during a snow storm and had to rate, individually and as a team, a list of 12 items according to how important they were for our survival. I have to tell you guys I think I had the lowest score ever on this one, I have no survival skills. I hope I never get stranded in a snow storm in a mountain and if I do then I hope one of my classmates is with me, some of them turned out to be very good at this!
Did I tell you guys that section A is the best section ever and that we are out to win the glorious and coveted section cup? We were born ready for it, just look at all this section spirit:

We all secretly decided to wear our section t-shirts on the same day and people in the other sections were so confused wondering if they had missed something! It was so much fun! If you play close attention to the picture you can see Chris Varin, a fellow blogger, right there on the bottom right. He is also a proud member of section A!

Another super fun activity we had last week was the scavenger hunt! We ran all over UCLA taking funny pictures, according to instructions on a list, while we got to know all the campus. This is me and two of my teammates planking like champions during the scavenger hunt at UCLA: 

Doesn't the picture scream fun!? If there had been a planking competition we would have won for sure! 

There is still another week and a half of orientation to come so please look forward to my next post about week 2 of orientation! A second year told me week 2 is way better than week 1!

 

-Alejandra Rodriguez '14
Follow UCLA Anderson at @UCLAMBA

Wheels!

Wow, I'm late. Ayushman's article did an excellent job in explaining why I haven't written an article in over two weeks. I will spare you the melodramatic complaining that I'm ridiculously busy, going out most nights, averaging 6hrs of sleep a night (welcome back to investment banking) and don't even know what day of the week it is to focus on a matter that is dear to my hears at the moment and that is wheels.

Hollywood Boulevard at Night (source)

Detroit is the automotive heart of the United States but LA is where driving takes its true meaning. Despite its pot-holed roads and rude, lousy drivers LA offers incredible driving opportunities, whether you are going for a ride up the PCH, driving up the Santa Monica Mountains, heading East into the desert or cruising down Hollywood Blvd. Not having wheels my first month here was a serious handicap so the least I can do is encourage you to get them as soon as possible upon moving here.

Pacific Coast Highway

Getting a license in California is ridiculously easy but do spend the time reading the driving handbook as I have friends who have failed the written exam which is incredibly frustrating. Make sure to get an appointment as well as the California DMV is a real pain. The driving part is also really easy for those international students who need to take the behind the wheels part, just coerce one of your new American friends to lend you his car and go to the DMV with you (they're too nice to say no during those first few weeks - thanks Heather!).

Once this is done you need a car. Now I can't speak from personal experience as I just bought a beautiful motorcycle off Craigslist but I can shed some light on what my friends are going through so here are a few pointers: 1) set yourself a budget and don't go over it, once registration, insurance and taxes come in you're going to be over anyway; 2) buy second-hand - Craigslist if you know something about cars (you need to check it thoroughly), dealerships if you want a good warranty but are going to pay over or friends who you trust; 3) take your time - I know this goes against me saying that it's hard without a car but don't rush into a decision for the sake of road independence, people will help you out until you're settled and it's better than buying a car you don't want. Once all this is done and you've bought a car, a motorcycle, a scooter or anything else on wheels you're ready now you can join the hopefully-soon-to-be Anderson Motorsports Club.

My new wheels (Kawasaki Versys 650)

A couple of 1st years are getting together to try and start up a Motorsports Club at Anderson for anyone who loves engines and I just came back from our first meeting today which was looking really promising. Hopefully this will allow me to give you all insight into how to start a student club at Anderson as well. For now though, the brainstorming of all the cool activities that you can do in the LA area once again showed me one thing, there's way more to coming out to school here than meets the eye.

-Chris Varin, 14'

Follow UCLA on Twitter @UCLAMBA

Building our leadership skills, one Lego block at a time!

Regular readers of the blog might have noticed a drop in the number of posts published since the past 2 weeks. Here's why: the new class of 2014 is immersed in UCLA Anderson's comprehensive orientation program called the "Leadership Foundations". The result: we're all super-busy and super-excited!

When I first looked at the schedule and read that we have to go through a 2 week long orientation, I was a bit apprehensive about the whole thing  - wondering whether we'll have to sit for long hours in a big hall listening to an endless line up of speakers from all over Anderson dole out endless "leadership anecdotes" and whether i'll be able to stay awake at all given that the day starts at 8 am. Oh, how wrong I was! The Anderson orientation, like everything about the school, is such a wonderful experience. Let me give you a lowdown.

We started with the UCLA-wide New Internation Students and Scholars Orientation (NISSO) and Anderson's Internation Student Orientation Day (ISOD), which were both full of very useful information about visa, job search, culture issues, campus resources, etc. for international students. It was a pleasure meeting the Anderson MBA Admissions team that recruited us all, and the Parker CMC staff that have already begin the hardwork to prepare us to get recruited to our dream jobs. 

The Leadership Foundation course started next and we're into the second week already. The case readings for each day of the course were already given to us. While going through them, many students imagined a boring classroom discussion. However, to our surprise, the whole program is group-discussion oriented and hands-on. On the first day, we did some excellent role-playing for a case and learnt important leadership lessons. Earlier in the day, Assoc. Dean of the MBA program, Robert Weiler left us spellbound with his welcome speech. An international specialist was also invited to speak about his experiences with the various cultures around the world and we had an interesting time as he talked about some extremely hilarious cultural habits, eg. What does an Indian mean when they shake their head side-to-side. The second day saw some interesing discussions over John Wooden's leadership style, a group activity to find a murder suspect in an interesting case, among others. In the end, we constructed a Lego model in a group which taught us what can go wrong in planning and strategizing even though everyone in the team is doing their part of the role perfectly. We've already been assigned into 5 sections of 70 students each and learning teams with 5-6 students each and we go through the program together each day. We're also preparing for the section cup and you'll soon see some hilarious moments from the cheer and skit we're supposed to do soon.

(International students at NISSO)

(Building the Lego man!)

Another interesting aspect has been the awesome food! Every afternoon, we sit on a different tables with randomly picked people so that we get to talk to as many classmates as we can before the real grind starts in 2 weeks. We also had out first Anderson Afternoons last week - free food and drinks in the Anderson north lawns. To sum up, the experience till now seems to suggest that the MBA program at Anderson is not just gonna be another line in my resume, but a whole array of life skills in my armoury. I'm so happy I decided to invest in this program!

PS: we at UCLA are fundraising for three non-profit organizations in the US- Special Olympics, Junior Achievement, and Project Echo. This is a part of the Challenge 4 Charity - an annual fundraising effort across several west coast B schools. Please consider making a small donation because it can make a huge difference to somebody's life! Thanks in advance for your contribution. 

~Ayushman Jain, '14

@ayushman_jain

Follow UCLA on Twitter @UCLAMBA

UCLA Anderson 1st Football Game, 1st Tailgate, or "What happens when Anderson MBAs combine forces to have a great time!?"

Hi All,

Last Saturday, UCLA had an epic win over the rather *ahem* "eager" CornHuskers. We won both inside the Rose Bowl on the football field and on the golfcourse outside the football field beforehand at our first unofficial UCLA Anderson tailgate attempt. The stadium was full of red, but it was the team in gold and blue that won the day, stole the show and is now ranked number 22 in the country!

 

Anderson 1st years 1st tailgate- showing our UCLA love!

 

Not only did we win the game, we would have won any tailgaiting comparision by far. There was a great deal of chatter about tailgaiting amongst us incoming 1st year Anderson students before the game, so being the A-type MBA students we are, and me the sound Southern tailgater I am... we decided to combine forces with our future Anderson classmates to put an epic gathering of MBAs ready to have a great time at our first home game to usher in of a new era of GREAT Bruin Football.

We Anderson students got together to pool our resources and spend a great day getting to know each other on the golfcourse at the gorgoues RoseBowl all day in preparation for the game.

Here's what fun looks like:

 

Showing off our UCLA tattoos for the game

Getting the grill ready for our first anderson tailgate

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Rose Bowl- Gorgeous! Especially when UCLA beats Nebraska!

 

 

Class of ‘14 insider summer scoop - PART 7 - "Start of an era"

This will be oue last collective summer post! We’re all here, orientation starts today, we’ve met a bunch of classmates, socialized and found out as much as we possibly could about what’s going to be happening to us for the next two years. We all have different first impressions but here is how we are seeing things today.

(source)

Kyle Forrest: This is one of the best decisions I’ve ever made personally. When I first began thinking about an MBA, I originally thought part-time would be the way to go - let’s face it, as Dwight said in the previous group post, not having a salary is a big change, and the two year MBA experience can be quite expensive. However, in the 6 weeks I’ve spent in Los Angeles before orientation started, I’ve been able to get to know my classmates in a way that I never would have been able to do in a part-time program. The relationships are already more meaningful, and I can’t wait to see how things turn out after the next two years with everyone!

Gregory Paige: Pressing the pause button on a career is a significant risk for most people. I certainly fit into that group. But here we are at the start of Orientation, and I can already tell that Anderson will prove to be one of the best decisions of my life. You’ve heard it before, and I’ll say it again: It’s all about the people. My classmates have arrived from all over the country and across the globe. From every industry imaginable. And with all types of personal and career aspirations. I feel privileged to have access to such a variety of minds and experiences. Ultimately I’m not hitting pause on my career, I’m upgrading from DVD to Blu-ray!

Ashley Mallinson: I have been incredibly impressed with my future classmates, Anderson and Los Angeles. I knew that business school was the right decision for me personally and fell in love with Anderson  as early as my first campus visit, and so far the experience has surpassed my expectations in every way. I truly could not have imagined being this happy with all the dramatic changes that have taken place in my life over the last two weeks. Based on my experience so far, it is truly the people at Anderson that make the school exceptional and set the entire experience apart. It is incredible to be surrounded by such a friendly, intelligent, open-minded group of people who are each individually outstanding in unique ways. I am beyond excited to see what we, as a collaborative group, are capable of. I feel confident that I am starting a new chapter of my life with new allies, realistic goals and no limits!

Alejandra Rodriguez: It has been as awesome as I thought it would be! I had the opportunity to talk with a lot of my classmates before even coming to Los Angeles so I already knew the kind of fantastic people I was going to share my next two years with and let me tell you I was not disappointed! It has also been surprisingly easy for me to adapt to living in a new country and I believe it is because my new friends have been keeping company and helping me every step of the way. Anderson has one of the best communities you will ever find and I am delighted to be a part of it! I am very much looking forward to the first day of orientation, which also happens to be my birthday, so expect a post about it soon!  

Dwight Asuncion: Happy birthday Alejandra! How auspicious! I’m excited to start school again, but I also have butterflies in my stomach. It’s the first day of school all over again. I’m sure I’ll be a little nervous again before classes actually begin. Today I’ll meet everyone in my section and start to build meaningful relationships with them. That’s what I like about Anderson. Everyone’s in it together and willing to help each other. We’re at the start of a two-year journey that hopefully be full of personal and professional growth, and I couldn’t be happier that I’m at Anderson.

Kate Edwards: The others bloggers are correct - it is all about the people! Having spent the past two weeks spending quality funemployment time with my future classmates, I could not be more impressed with how diverse, ambitious, and thoughtful everyone is. We have organized trips to the beach, explored Los Angeles, and even attended our first UCLA football game en masse (Go Bruins!). School hasn’t started yet, but we are all so eager to get to know each other; I know these will be lasting friendships. Getting to know these people reminds me that Anderson was the right choice, and I can honestly say I am just incredibly happy to wake up every day in Los Angeles knowing I have such an adventure ahead of me.

Ann Ching: Every time I have started a new school, whether it was junior high, college, or law school, I’ve always worried whether I’d end up eating lunch alone on the first day. Sounds weird, but I think that’s where I channel my “real” anxieties about new people and a new environment. Well, this is the first time I’m not worried about that, because I already have so many new friends at Anderson. Whether through Forte Foundation, organized mixers, or informal events, I have met a lot of my classmates and they are truly exceptional. I heard that what makes Anderson unique is the incredible sense of community among students and alumni, and so far I have not been disappointed. I’m starting orientation ready to take on a new challenge (and have fun at the same time!).

Chris Varin: I just got back from sunset on the Santa Monica beach with 8 of my other new classmates and I had this moment of existential angst as I briefly contemplated what these next two years would bring. I've had a lot of great experiences up till now and while I don't really believe in fatality it all kinf of lead to this new beginning - I guess I did somewhat engineer it. After three weeks of meeting up with classmates before things start I'm completely at ease and looking forward to take the next step. These next two years are going to be special and I'm incredibly fortunate to be here.

Ayushman Jain: Having spent my first fortnight in beautiful LA and the awesome company of my Anderson classmates, I can truly say that the pre-MBA experience has taken my expectations to a much higher level, and I’m pretty sure I’m still underestimating how brilliant the next two years are gonna be. The social events and even the international students’ orientation were great opportunities to meet a large number of classmates with such diverse backgrounds. The best thing is that we blend in very well together, irrespective of geographical or linguistic boundaries. Everyone has been immensely helpful even before the program starts and I can already see the collegial culture building up amongst ourselves. I’ve also got the chance to interact with people from the Student Affairs Office, Parker CMC as well as the Financial Aid office and they have been unbelievably courteous and encouraging. Thats why, even though I know the next 3 months are gonna hit us like a ton of bricks with all the coursework and job search, I’m totally looking forwarding to starting the next chapter of my life - the MBA!

-Anderson 14' bloggers

Follow UCLA on Twitter @UCLAMBA

The BIG Sur

Like Ashley and Chris, I also went on a Pre-O trip.

I went to the Big Sur with 9 of my fellow first years, a second year, and 3 guides. I was encouraged to go on a Pre-O trip by my interviewer. She said it was a great way to make new friends and bond with them. After 22 miles of hiking (10 of which were on an absolutely brutal first day when we started in the middle of the day), Sykes Hot Springs, and a couple of swimming hole later, bond we did! It was great to share the experience with everyone and get to know their stories, what they wanted to do, their senses of humor, etc. We've even met up for drinks and for a BBQ after our trip. I'm looking forward to seeing everyone at Orientation tomorrow!

 

Like Ashley I'll let the pictures show you the rest of our story. Photo credits to Jacqueline Sutro!

 

Beach camping! Here's all the first years that came! We stayed at San Simeon State Park the first night. It may have been one of the best camp sites I have ever seen: near the beach, clean bathrooms, and you didn't need to worry about bears (unlike Yosemite).

 

An amazing sunset.

 

About to head out onto the trail!

 

Hiking along the Pine Ridge Trail

 

After our trip we went to Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park, which has an amazing view of a waterfall dropping into the ocean.

 

 We also went to Elephant Seal Beach afterwards!    

 

Last Week Before The Action Starts

This blog post will be written true retro journal style... with (almost) daily entries! Get excited to hear about how I spent my last week before orientation starts on Monday. And so we begin with...

Labor Day Weekend 

My girflriend and our dog, Campbell, flew in on Friday night for their first visit to Los Angeles. Friday night we had dinner at Tavern in Brentwood, which was a pretty incredible meal. What made it even more awesome is the fact that we can walk there! Coming from Houston, not having to drive everywhere has been quite a nice change. 

Saturday began with our first trip to the beach at Santa Monica, where we were greeted with gorgeous Labor Day weekend weather. 

(Beach...blue skies...sunshine...I think every weekend is going to be like a mini-vacation, perfect way to relax and take a break from the action-packed MBA schedule of class, recruiting, and clubs.)