BYU's Got Talent

Every Friday, 1st year MBA's attend a management seminar with a different guest speaker. This week, we had the fantastic opportunity to hear from Gary Crittenden, the CFO of Citigroup Inc. and former Executive VP of American Express . How amazing is that?

He gave us some great insights about how to be successful both personally and professionally, as well as what it is like to be a top executive at a major corporation. He also touched on his experience on the events of September 11, 2001 in New York City. Here are the five points he shared with us:

• Make a decision to get the best education that you can
• Marry the right person
• Take risks
• Make a decision to exercise
• Make a decision to be obedient (This was the most important)

Elder Crittenden is a fantastic example of great leadership! I loved his advice on how to meet the demands and responsibilities of such a busy life: "If you are not fitting everything in, you are not spending enough time on your knees [in prayer]."

This is just another reason why the BYU MBA is so amazing. They bring in huge corporate talent like Elder Crittenden to tutor us lowly students on how to be successful, ethical, business people and still be close to our families and fulfill church responsibilities. There is no way in my "previous" life that I would have ever been in the same room with the CFO of Citigroup, let alone just seven or eight rows up from him in a lecture hall. What an awesome opportunity!

(Also, of note...I really need to bust out my thesaurus. I'm only three weeks into this program and I've already hit my limit for the words amazing, fantastic, awesome and great on this blog. Apparently business school inspires me to speak in superlatives.)

WMBA

So the 1st year MBA girls decided to start an intermural flag football team and tonight was our first game. And....we lost big time. But I think we did pretty well for our first game. By the end, we were actually making some completions and we gained a few yards. We didn't get a touchdown, but hey, we've got to leave something for the next game. Thanks to our fantastic coach Nick Prince and all his hard work with us.

Here are some of the highlights:

We are so hott!!



Coach Prince strategizing...
Coach Prince shows us a new super secret play....
Us in action.
And of course....the team. Since we're first years....we're always #1.


And of course....some of went to Ben & Jerry's for ice cream afterwards. Here's a picture of Ben & Jerry...err...Cynthia and Maria.



Special thanks to Section 3 president Derek Bedke for playing team photographer for the evening (and for cheering us on).

We're #1.

You may have heard about this already but I think it's pretty cool...and this is my blog, so I'm going to mention it again.

The Wall Street Journal this week named BYU's MBA program as the top program among regional schools. What does this mean? Well, the WSJ surveyed recruiters that hire MBA's and we were the favorite among the regional schools. In addition, we came in second (behind Dartmouth) for the graduates with the most ethical standards.

This is VERY good news. It is such good news that President Hinckley called us out during this week's Homecoming devotional. It's good news for us trying to get internships for next summer. And it's just good news overall for this program. I feel incredibly blessed to be here. The caliber of my fellow students and the depth of their experience is literally awesome and a little intimidating at times. I only hope I can help them as much as they are helping me.

Settling in.

So it's been a few weeks since I last updated this. And I have a very good reason, I promise. It's been a busy three weeks. As a BYU 1st year MBA, there are six core classes for the first semester. The class of 2009 is divided up into three sections and we have all of our classes with the same people.

Here are the core classes I'm juggling right now:

Accounting
Finance
Professional & Interpersonal Communication
Operations Management
Marketing Management
Human Resources Management

Since I've been out of school for five years, getting back into the whole school thing, has been a bit of an adjustment for me. But I'm finally (only three weeks in) starting to settle in.

Orientating

So, this has been a kind of a busy week. Just 36 hours after getting back from the trip, I was back in Provo for the start of MBA Orientation Week.

Here's a quick run down of the schedule:

Monday - Lots of meetings about how hard we are going to work, and school pictures
Tuesday - Team building activities like a climbing wall, giant swing, and games like get everyone on your team across the (fill in the blank) obstacle.
Wednesday - Workshops on majors (i.e. marketing, OB/HR, supply chain, finance, production development), and intro to online resume posting.
Thursday - Resume reviews
Friday - Mock Interviews and Networking/ Keynote Event with Sheri Dew

They sure did pack a lot of information into five days...and that's a good thing. I didn't realize before the trip to Moab and orientation how important net summer's internship search is and how early the recruiting season begins. The career services team for the MBA program is phenomenal! And the program has a fantastic mentoring program in place. Classes haven't even started yet and I already know I've been given a huge head start. (Thanks Sherpas!)

Another important aspect of BYU's MBA program is the small group work. We met our groups on Monday and were with them for different activities throughout the week. There are five of us in our group: Brandon, Joseph, Kenji, Alex, and of course, me. Among the members of our group, I am the only girl, and the only single person in the group. There are also two international students in our group: one from Japan and the other from Italy-by-way-of-Brazil. I'm excited because I think our diverse backgrounds will make for stimulating discussions and a more rich learning environment (which is kinda the point).

Needless to say, even though I dropped $600+ for books this semester, and I have an assignment for a class I haven't even been to yet, I'm so looking forward to this semester and to this program.

Groovin' with MBAMA

Well I finally got my first taste of what the mba experience will be like. And it was a good one.

After working a 13-hour last day at work and staying up way too late packing, I had to get an early start to drive to Provo to meet the MBAMA group for our trip to Moab.

Every year the MBA Marketing Association (MBAMA) plans a trip to Moab so the 1st years can get a jump start on meeting, networking, and having a little bit of fun with some alumni and the 2nd years.

The trip organizers definitely put together a full schedule: a hike to Delicate Arch, an early morning Hummer tour of the Slick Rock, river rafting the Colorado, mountain biking and golf. And because this was a school trip, there was a little edu-macation thrown in for good measure.

Here's a few samples of the fun:








We happened to get a river guide AND philosopher all rolled into one. He taught us many important life lessons like what "grooving" is all about and what a "Colorado Corn Shark" is.

Fun was had by all.