Not to be hyperbolic, but Summer in Washington DC is amazing. I am sorry that some of my classmates won’t get to experience what the city has to offer during its hottest and stickiest months, but for us lucky few (and for newly accepted Kogodians), the opportunities to be enriched are endless. And so, the DC Summer-I’m-only-here-two-years-Bucket list is born; 1. Jazz in the Sculpture Garden. Every Friday starting in late May, the National Gallery of Art hosts live jazz in the sculpture garden from 5:30 to 8PM. Get there early, find a spot by the water, dip your feet in, and forget about your troubles OR remember your triumphs. Either way you’ll enjoy yourself. 2. Mini Golf at the National Building Museum. Right around the corner from Chinatown you can enjoy a nice round of mini golf in one of the most impressive buildings in the city. Five bucks...
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As May comes to a close, we’ve now had time to tuck our textbooks and notebooks away and enjoy the feeling of accomplishment having successfully completed the first year of our MBA program. My classmates have been busy in these past few weeks after finals – some have traveled abroad, others participated in the week-long Kogod Global Management Institute (KGMI), and others have prepared for a myriad of summer internships that are kicking off over the next week or two. Now that I’ve had time to relax – and breathe a sigh of relief! – after finals, I can’t help but to reflect on the past year and everything our class has experienced in our program. I thought I would share a few of my favorite moments with all of you, so without further ado and in no particular order… MKTG 612 Client Pitch Our Marketing Management class this semester...
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When I saw the flyer for the Copa Para Las Americas charity soccer tournament at American University, I knew our MBA class, with its diversity and passion for sports, could have a strong team to compete. The tournament was a charity event to benefit schools in rural Honduras. The rules were such that each team plays with five people on the field with small goals and no goalkeepers. In almost every one of our classes, we have been discussing Porter’s Five Forces, so it made sense to call ourselves “Kogod’s Five Forces.” On Saturday, April 6th, I called upon my classmates Julio Gonzalez Piera (Spain), Naif Alawi (Saudi Arabia), Daniel Parvu (Romania), Alex Ries (USA), and Jean-Yves Mutanda (Democratic Republic of the Congo) to join forces with me (USA/Afghanistan) to represent Kogod against the AU community in this tournament. We had never played soccer together as a team before, but...
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Back in March, I was itching with excitement as we discussed the itinerary for our trip to the Middle East in International Business class. We were headed to Dubai and then on to Doha—which my classmate Stephanie wrote about last week. After learning about cultural differences and how this affected doing business in the Middle East, the time had come for us to see for ourselves. A week and an 18-hour plane ride later, I arrived in Dubai. “Amazing” is not sufficient to describe the experiences I had in Dubai. Have you ever seen the movie “The Fast and the Furious,” which is all about having the fastest, most expensive and the best cars? Or, perhaps you have seen “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory,” where you step into an imaginative world of colorful gumdrops and characters. For me, Dubai was a mix of the two. It was a world that only...
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Spring officially arrived in DC this week, bringing temperatures near the 90s and a seemingly endless number of tourists checking out the cherry blossoms. Yesterday was a beautiful day, providing the perfect backdrop for Kogod to take over the sand volleyball courts for a rematch of last semester’s Faculty vs. Graduate Students game. Last semester, the MBAs walked away from the game victorious but that was, unfortunately, not the case yesterday. Though we fought hard, the students fell 3-1 to the faculty and are already itching for a rematch in order to redeem ourselves. A big thank you goes out to Professor DeLone who spearheaded the game and to the Graduate Business Association (GBA) for coordinating everything and providing snacks. Most importantly, thank you to the students and faculty who came out to play and spectate! It’s safe to say everyone had a great time and enjoyed the weather and...
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Doha, Qatar – where is this place, and why are we going there? When I signed up for the International Dimensions in Management course over Spring Break 2013, believe me, it was in part because of the allure of Dubai—our first stop on the trip.
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Hi everyone! My name is Laura and I’m a first year in the full time MBA program at Kogod. This is my first post for the Graduate Insider Blog and I’m excited to be here. I thought I would introduce myself by doing a “then and now” perspective – looking at where I was a year ago and where I’m at today. Let’s get to it! A year ago, I was working at a small government relations and communications firm here in Washington, D.C. I worked on numerous interesting projects for clients ranging from non-profit organizations to Fortune 500 companies. I enjoyed working at my company but realized I wanted to change the direction of my career and decided that going back to school for an MBA would be the best next move for me. So this time last year, I was in the throes of the application process. Specifically,...
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After an amazing winter break that included family coming to DC for the holidays and a trip to Brazil as part of my Global Emerging Markets concentration at Kogod, classes have started again. Before things get too busy with homework and my full time job search, I wanted to write a quick entry about the amazing experience we had in Brazil. The trip was the culmination of a course I took this past fall in which we studied the economy of Brazil through literature, news sources, and guest speakers. Brazil is a fascinating case study because in a short amount of time they have emerged as a major economic player and some argue the 5th world power. After landing in a small, cramped airport without air-conditioning, and passing favela after favela on the way to our hotel in Copacabana, I wouldn’t have guessed I had landed in one of the wealthiest...
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Every wonder what your days might look like as an MBA?  Here’s what an average weekday looks like for me as a second year MBA and a mom: 7:00 a.m. My husband wakes me up late, as I was up until 1:00 a.m. doing reading from the night before. 7:00-8:45 a.m. Breakfast and all of the other prep to support making the mad morning dash out of the front door.  Since I have night classes this semester, I spend time in the mornings with my daughter. 8:45-9:00 a.m. Drop off my daughter at AU Child Development Center – the Center is open to students, faculty, and alumni of AU and since it’s on campus, I can stop by and visit for lunch if I ever want to! 9:00-10:00 a.m. Coffee, and emails (especially to set up the rest of the week’s group meetings for all of my classes) 10:00-10:45 a.m....
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