officially oriented....
It's been an eventful two weeks. And nothing like I expected. When I first learned that classes started on the 23rd and that I was expected to be here on the 8th, my reaction was "what in the world are we going to be doing for 2 weeks?!?". Well, to answer the question, we've done everything. We began with the normal introductions by our professors, the dean, and career management. Each day was packed with activities. We've completed two case analyses, had a mock interview with career management, been advised by a panel of 2nd yr students, gotten reprimanded about our spreadsheets for a homework assignment in Excel, and we even got to go "play outside" on a ropes course.
I think the most exciting day for me was meeting my team. Through all my research for b-school, I was continuously informed that it's all about the team experience. The process of meeting my team was quite entertaining and I felt like I was on a reality tv show. Just before getting our lunch on Thursday, we were each handed sheets of paper that listed our names with a corresponding number next to them. Everyone scanned the sheets to learn their team number and decipher who else was on their team. Suprisingly, I didn't recognize any of the names listed for my team and so I walked alone to the room assigned for my team to meet. As we each filed into the room, we gave quick intros, talked about our interests and discussed not-so-important topics like what restaurants we've eaten at since we've been in Columbus and what parts of town we live in.
At Fisher, we are divided into teams of five and this is your group for the entire year. Teams are a mixture of different backgrounds- careers, gender, nationality. My team consists of 3 males and 2 females: an OSU grad with a background in industrial engineering, another Ohioan with a background in finance, an engineer from Bogota, Columbia, and an employee of the Korean Stock Exchange from Seoul, Korea. We haven't had any real assignments yet, but so far, so good with my team! I'm really looking forward to work with them :-)
[caption id="attachment_217" align="aligncenter" width="622" caption="My Team at the Summit Vision Ropes Course"][/caption]
Although orientation serves the purpose of helping to create a level playing field for each student so that everyone knows what is expected once classes start, equally important is its role to help everyone to get acclimated socially. Getting an MBA is a 2yr process and so its important that we all feel at ease with each other. Meeting people and forming friendships is a lot easier to accomplish in a relaxed orientation setting before everyone gets stressed out and burdened with work. We've already had 2 formally organized social get-togethers and countless others organized by students. Its been extremely helpful to just get out and relax and meet people who I haven't encountered in orientation. Yesterday I had the chance to play the Gray Course at the OSU Golf Course with 3 classmates. I was going to take a pic of the score card and put it up here but I don't want to embarrass myself like that....
Alright....believe it or not, there's homework due the first day for a couple of my classes. I've yet to even glimpse at what's expected...so, until next time....