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.