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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Excerpt from my Brazil travel journal  Episode 4: GRES Estacio de Sa  Our last night of the program was spectacular in every way. As a class we all met for our farewell dinner at a Brazilian steakhouse in Ipanema. As we sat along a seemingly endless table, the waiters began serving every kind of meat you could imagine. From chicken, to beef, to pork, to bacon-wrapped bacon, the food just kept coming. It was nice to sit down together as a group and reflect back on the trip. What companies we went to, what presentations we liked, what the Brazilian economy looked like, and what we were dreading about what lay waiting for us back in the states. As a group we visited AES Brasil and learned about the intricate game they have to play to satisfy their shareholders and the government. Our next stop was Brasil Kirin, a Japanese owned brewery outside of Sao Paulo, where...
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During my time away from Kogod this past December, I was able to take a trip down to Costa Rica with my family to enjoy some fresh air, sun, and most importantly warm weather! Little did I know that I wasn’t actually going to the CR, but instead to Coca-Cola land where farmers are paid to paint their barns Coca-Cola red, the town names are pointed out to motorists on a Coca-Cola framed sign, and large Coca-Cola signs tower above the tourists in the capital as they shop for trinkets to take home. They are known so well throughout the country that if you go to the bus depot in the capital, San Jose, you’ll find it’s not a normal bus depot, but the “Coca-Cola Bus Terminal”. To be honest, I am a tried and true Coca-Cola fan, but I had to think to myself – how did they become...
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