What a Wednesday
Filed under: GreenTips, Internships, Life at Rady, Networking, Rady Phase II
Every day at Rady is unique. The events of this past Wednesday really illustrate how diverse and action-packed a random weekday can become, so I thought I’d share my experiences (aww how thoughtful of you). My day started with an early rise of 6am – I had passed out early the night before. I jumped on craigslist to search for last-minute tickets to see his Holiness, the 14th Dalai Lama, speak at RIMAC Arena. I replied to a few postings, but came up fruitless – the event was sold out. My first item of business was a 7am call with a representative from the Kansas State Alumni Association. As a social responsibility consultant for Profits4Purpose, I’ve begun reaching out to the alumni groups of major universities across the country to learn how they reengage alumni through philanthropic activity. The chat lasted twenty minutes, I took some notes, and then it was time to really start the day. Breakfast, shower, load the backpack, and make the mile trek to the north end of campus.
On my way to Rady, I walked past RIMAC arena where the Dalai Lama event was taking place – t
here was a huge crowd assembled and the line for admission went on forever. Given that I had nothing to lose, I started asking if anyone had an extra ticket – yes, I was trying to bum a ticket to see the Dalai Lama. Ready to give up hope and head to my 9am class, an undergrad female spoke up and gave me an extra ticket she happened to have – jackpot! I shot my professor a quick email – sorry Del, His Holiness gets preferential treatment over Lab to Market. The event focused on “The Global Impact of Climate Change,” and featured two distinguished professors from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, in addition to His Holiness. There were a lot of takeaways from the presentation, and I was thoroughly impressed at how much of a comedian the Dalai Lama was. As for the takeaways, there’s tons of scientific evidence to support that global warming is already taking place. The key points going forward are how to initiate the necessary changes as a global population, set aside our short-sighted interests, and realize that we are one humanity sharing one home. It’s easy to garner support for these topics in an auditorium full of environmentally conscious individuals – and I hope to see these views become mainstream over the coming decades. It’s astonishing to me that people refuse to accept that global warming is real. Then again, there was a time when people refused to accept that the earth was round.
Following the presentation, I set up shop in the Rady library to clean out my inbox. I’m serving as a Teacher Assistant for the first time this quarter – for an undergrad class – and the nature of the emails I receive can be quite comical. But hey, we’ve all been there. Next on the itinerary was a tour of Rady Phase II. I had been looking forward to getting an insider’s view of Wells Fargo Hall – and the tour didn’t disappoint. For starters, the new student lounge (or should I say student wing) is awesome – triple the size of the old space, there’s a coffee bar, a flat screen TV, and a breakout room that seems destined to have a billiards table. There have also been high expectations for the Beyster Auditorium, which can hold a crowd of nearly 300. Again, no disappointments. I look forward to the opportunity of being one of the first classes to have access to the resources within Wells Fargo Hall.
After the tour, it was time to get back to work. I had a case write-up for my Strategy class due th
e next day, but writer’s block was getting in the way. My solution? Lunch and a beer at Home Plate. 1,000 words later, I shipped the assignment out to my study group for approval. I squeezed in another informational interview for Profits4Purpose – this one was with Novatel Wireless. In addition to learning the best practices of alumni networks nationwide, I’ve been interviewing San Diego-based companies to learn of their volunteer efforts here in the local community. Many of these philanthropic activities take place in isolation, and through increased awareness, I hope to creatre increased participation. (Check out UCSD’s Volunteer50 campaign for upcoming volunteer opportunities!)
I had one more event on the schedule to end the day – the Spring Kick-Off of UCSD’s Entrepreneur Challenge. Hosted at the Institute of the Americas, the evening included a networking session, a complimentary dinner, a martial arts performance, and keynote speaker Greg Horowitt, Co-Founder and Director of Global Connect. After all that, the E-Challenge announced the top five winners of its Executive Summary competition, giving away $17,500 in cash and prizes. The auditorium was full of entrepreneurial energy, and it was inspiring to hear the descriptions of the companies that were awarded prize money – in addition to the start-ups that weren’t fortunate enough to take home the cash.
Making the mile trek back to my apartment, I was reflecting back on what a busy day it was – the Dalai Lama’s presentation was already becoming a distant memory. When you enroll at the Rady School of Management and you become a part of the larger UC San Diego community, you’re presented with an endless number of opportunities each and every day. Truth be told, it can be overwhelming. But it’s important to take a step back and make a distinction between the things that you have to do, and the things that you want to do. At Rady, you decide for yourself what you want to get involved in. And I’m having the time of my life.
March Madness
I had the intention of writing this blog a month ago, when the title would’ve made a lot more sense. The plan was to catch your attention and make you think I was going to write all about college basketball – then pull a complete 180 (what a trickster) and discuss the hectic schedule that is Winter Quarter. Well it turns out that my schedule was SO crazy, that writing for fun got pushed to the bottom of my to-do list!! (easy with the exclamations, buddy)
Truth is, finals came and went, I flew back to Jersey for Spring Break, and by the time I picked up my head to look around – it was Week Three of Spring Quarter. When did that happen? I knew Winter was supposed to be chaotic; the Rady MBA program is designed that way. When it comes to extracurricular activities, Fall serves as an intro to all the resources we have at our disposal, and Spring allows for the transition of leadership roles from 2nd- to 1st-year students. Which leaves Winter as the stand-alone quarter for the preparation, planning, and execution of major events (hey bright guy – those first two mean the same thing). Everybody in the full-time program is on the same page and some great things get accomplished. One month ago, I planned to give a bunch of examples and talk about how productive I was. Now, all I can remember is that I got 2nd place in the Bracket Pool.
Sure, Winter is a heavy course load and there’s a ton of activity outside of the classroom, ranging from Careers related events to an impressive supply of Professional Seminars. And Spring is designed to provide Rady MBAs with more free time. But I’m finding that it can actually be quite the opposite – my free time is often consumed by thoughts of idea generation, attempts at identifying business opportunities, and dreams of starting my own company. Having completed its core courses, the Rady Full-time Class of 2013 has officially entered the “Lab to Market” phase of the curriculum.
There’s a lot of literature on the type of environment that spurs the creation of new ideas – the philosophy is that these concepts are not born in isolation; they do not occur in the traditional “Eureka!” moment. To the contrary, it’s collaboration that breeds innovation. It’s the bringing together of thinkers with different backgrounds, with different areas of expertise. That’s exactly the type of culture being encouraged here at Rady, here at UCSD, here in the greater San Diego community. I’m constantly learning new things from my Rady classmates, I’m finding myself at networking events with grad students from the Jacobs School of Engineering, and my inbox is full of invites to professional events with venture capitalists.
When I was going through the MBA application process, Rady lured me to San Diego with assurances of an entrepreneurial mindset and an innovative culture. Standing here in Week Three of Spring Quarter, I can say with confidence that Rady is living up to those promises.