The MBA Student Voice

Leadership Opportunities at UCLA Anderson

The UCLA Anderson community is made up of a truly diverse group of students and faculty. But if there's one thing we all have in common, it's that we're here to lead. Leadership is central to almost every course offered on campus, and it's something we've all reflected on in our application essays and interviews. However, leadership isn't just talked about, it's put into action through countless opportunities with student-led clubs and school events.

2014 ASA President, Brian Schoelkopf

What's great is that these opportunities aren't limited to upperclassmen. For example, take my first-year classmate, Brian Schoelkopf. Recently, he was elected President of the Anderson Student Association (ASA). From this spring, he and 12 other first-year students will serve on the ASA Cabinet and become the voice of Anderson's entire student body - before reaching their second year on campus! These types of opportunities extend to professional clubs like High Tech Business Association and Management Consulting Association, identity clubs like African American Students in Management and Out@Anderson, and interest clubs like Wine Club and Anderson Eats.

Although the new ASA Cabinet was elected earlier this month, the majority of leadership opportunities begin from the first days on campus. Student-led clubs all elect first-year students to serve as Directors of important functional areas like Finance, Marketing and - most importantly! - Social. These roles allow you to make an immediate impact on campus, connect with your second-year classmates, and are a great way to try out new areas of interest. They're also tried-and-true fodder for summer internship interviews.

With 100s of opportunities to get involved and LEAD as a first-year student, anyone with an interest and a can-do spirit can gain leadership experience and help establish Anderson's next generation of business leaders.

 

Daniel Genter, MBA '15 - Follow UCLA Anderson on Twitter.

Looking to Career Switch? An Interesting Graphic from Parker CMC

The Parker Career Management Center posted this interesting graphic today that I thought would be worth sharing with the MBA Student Voice readers. 

As you can see, there's a lot of career transition between industries - which is one reason why many people choose to get an MBA. What isn't highlighted in the graphic is that, for the people who stay within the same industry, a lot of them are moving to a different sector or part of the value chain. For example, some people in the technology industry might transition from a hardware company doing corporate finance to a software company doing marketing. 

This graphic also highlights the career diversity at Anderson, both pre and post graduation. That diversity is one unique strength of the program, and enables students to tap into incredible networks as they figure out their career. 

Anyways - that's all I've got! Just thought the graphic would be an interesting data point for people considering getting their MBA in general and at Anderson. 

Until next time, 

~Kyle Forrest, follow me on Twitter and follow UCLAMBA

 

Joint Ventures Winter/Spring 2014 Calendar

Sorry it's taken half the quarter to get our calendar for the new year sorted out but we've got some fun things happening over the next few months so stick this on your fridge, RSVP for the hike & picnic next Saturday, then come out to happy hour tomorrow night from 7-9pm at Taberna Arros y Vi in Santa Monica (90min free parking in all city lots)! :)

Looking forward to seeing many of you soon,
Neel, Tyler, Sunny and your Class of 2015 section reps, Carla, Brian, Andrew, Dan & Amir

Second Annual Challenge 4 Charity Winter Sports Day

It's that time of year again - middle of the winter quarter, recruiting is starting to wind down for some and crank up for others, and as all eyes begin to look towards spring break, they also notice just on the horizon is C4C Weekend at Stanford. 

As people start signing up for the sports and activities they want to participate in, what better way to prepare then to dust off the cleats and shoes and participate in some good old-fashioned competition? 

For those of you who've read through my first-year blog posts, I wrote about the first annual sports day last year. I also wrote about the AWESOMENESS and just all around epic experience that is C4C Sports Weekend at Stanford. 

To start getting everyone excited about the C4C experience again, here's some pictures from the action that took place at the Second Annual C4C Winter Sports Day. There was a twist to the competition, as the fields were a bit muddy due to some rain (sorely needed in LA these days!), but that just made for some amazing pictures. 

This year there were four sports to compete in: flag football, wiffle ball, ultimate frisbee, and dodgeball. 

 

 

This picture may be from one of the more epic plays of the day. Tie game, 20 seconds left, a deep ball was thrown that the receiver caught after the defender had his arm hit the ball. #SCTop10!

As you can see, the middle of the field was the muddiest, which made for some interesting slip and slide manuevers whenever people were running in that area. 

 

Wiffle ball made for some hilarious moments. People used to playing baseball or softball had their timing thrown off due to how light the plastic bat was - to the point that we saw some strikeouts! Tough to imagine happening, especially when batters were facing a pitcher from their own team throwing underhand... 

 

If you've never played competitive dodgeball before, it is far and away the most contentious sport out there. Arguments break out about people getting hit or not; if someone's foot crossed the line or if they jumped out of bounds to dodge a ball; if the referee is correct or not, or any nother number of things. Who knew that the Dodgeball movie so accurately depicted the competitive world of dodgeball? 

 

Ultimate frisbee was the sport that required the most amount of skill. Teams that had players who could actually throw a frisbee in a straight line quickly piled up the points, as teams that couldn't throw frequently turned the frisbee over. 

 Elliot Ling is a true renaissance man. He was the full-time MBA recipient of the John Wooden Global Leadership Award , he is a contributor to the Anderson community, and he also happens to dominate at every sport he plays on the field and isn't afraid to get dirty doing so. 

 Sports day runner-ups, a strong showing by some of the first-year students who came out and took a break from recruiting to participate. 

The winners, a group of second-years led by an impeccably well-dressed coach. Since none of the other teams were aware that they could recruit someone to dress up and play coach, this team had a definite edge. 

That about wraps up sports day. Teams have begun practicing for their various C4C sports (beach volleyball met for the first time yesterday), and excitement is beginning to build for Sports Weekend at Stanford!

In the meantime, keep an eye out for other upcoming C4C events like the Polar Plunge and the Junior Achievement Shadow Day. 

Until next time, 

~Kyle Forrest, follow me on Twitter and follow UCLAMBA