It's finally arrived... the end of the internship chapter of my MBA and the beginning of year two. Nothing sums it up better than a song I'll be sure to karaoke this year, The Final Countdown.
While many of you have been hearing a great deal about why Anderson and how to prepare for the MBA experience from the fantastic bloggers in the class of 2015 (Aimee, Alena, Buzz , Daniel, Devon, Lorraine), this post will provide some perspective on what I'm looking forward to as a 2nd year student.
Internship wrap-up and career decisions
As of today, August 30th, I'm officially done with my summer internship with HP. It's been a wonderful learning experience. I worked with an incredible team, discovered what it's like to actually work for Corporate HR, and even gained exposure to additional functions, such as Supply Chain.
While my time at HP helped me realize that I could have a future career within Corporate HR, especially at a company like HP, or others within the technology industry, I now have a lot of thinking to do as to whether Corporate HR, or another function, is the right next step for me. I'll give you an update on my career decision in the coming month.
Involvement with Orientation
The incoming class recently found out their assigned sections. As I blogged last year, finding out your section makes for an incredibly exciting day. You finally learn what your fall academic schedule will look like, and best of all, you can start building up section pride.
This year, I was lucky enough to be selected as one of the two Orientation Co-Directors for the Class of 2015. Along with an incredible team of peers in roles as section leaders and event directors, and amazing faculty and administration, I'm looking forward to orientation officially kicking off on September 9th.
Fall classes & AMR
As a second-year student, academics change. For one, no more core classes - it's all electives from here on out! Second, either in Fall/Winter, or Winter/Spring, students go through the Applied Management Resource (AMR) program. Students have the option of doing a consulting project, helping a classmate start their own business, or a variety of other specialty options.
This fall I'm taking three classes: Insight to Outcome, taught by a former Boston Consulting Group partner; Marketing Strategy & Planning; and Business Law for Managers & Entrpreneuers. Each class provides me an opportunity to explore areas of academic interest I've never studied before, so it should be an enjoyable fall!
(Pretty cool to see the faces of recent grads on the AMR program home page).
For AMR, our team sourced a project through a family connection. We will be working on an initiative between the Albert Einstein School of Medicine and the government of Ethiopia. Our project goal is to determine how to create econonomically sustainable oncology programs in one of the poorest countries in the world.
Social
It's hard to say, but this is my last go-round as a full-time business school student. Which means I have to take full advantage of all the tailgates, official and unofficial school parties, Anderson Afternoons on Thursdays, and all the trips in/around/outside of LA that business school students embark upon before they re-enter the working world.
This year, as ASA VP of Social, I hope to graduate from Anderson with a bang. With an unbelievable team of ASA Socials, and the (most likely phenomenal, but to be determined who they are) first-year social chairs, we'll make sure that people have plenty of opportunities to cut back and let loose after a long day of class, academic internship, recruiting, or combination of all three
(It's always fun to see how creative MBA students can get at Halloween...)
(...and then see how well they clean up for AnderProm.)
(Football season starts tomorrow! Get your grills fired up, because...)
(...Anderson is ready to head out to the Rose Bowl and support UCLA!)
With everything that I'm hoping to squeeze into this year, the blog posts might not come as fast and furious as they did in year one, but rest assured they'll still provide plenty of quality material.
Until next time,
