OwenBloggers: Colleen - MBA '09

Community Service at Owen

Welcome Weekend brought back memories of the similar events I went to. One, the club fair, left me very impressed with how committed Owen was to community service and bettering the world around it (NetImpact for example).

The big force on campus here is 100% Owen. Even when you're not part of the club (like myself), it's easy to participate in their activities since so many of them are on campus. Recycling initiatives, food drives, toys for tots at the holidays, etc., make it easy to participate. It's also a competition between classes - whichever class participates the most gets more points and wins the clash of the classes at the end of the year.

Some activities also take place off campus. And this brings is to the photo of the week. A mixed group of 1st and 2nd years braved the cold one Saturday morning for a 5K at 7:30 AM (!) to benefit the Mental Health Association of Middle Tennessee - "Runnin' To Beat The Blues".

Welcome Weekend To Follies...

About 200 of you out there are coming into town this weekend for Welcome Weekend. Owenbloggers asked us to think about our own experience at Welcome Weekend and blog about.

It's cliche, but it seems like yesterday I was at Welcome Weekend. I was excited to come to Nashville to see if the people I met at Discover Weekend were back with me - most of them I can say, were. Usually the people you meet who feel the same way about Owen are the ones who show up again at Welcome Weekend. You're more relaxed (you've gotten in - yay!), you're enjoying the city, the beautiful campus, you're seriously looking at neighborhoods you want to live in and so forth. Welcome Weeekend is great - the friendships that will take you through the next two years are starting to form and yes, things will happen so that at this time next year you'll be saying "Remember at Welcome Weekend when [insert name here] did..." Ahhh yes, Welcome Weekend is fun.

Last night when I was standing around waiting for Follies to begin, a fellow 1st-year, Rachel, and I were talking. We were looking at everyone gathered into the Belcourt waiting to be made fun of and Rachel made some comment about how far we've come from Welcome Weekend to airing our dirty laundry in front of everyone (if you don't know about Follies, you will eventually). And it's true - Welcome Weekend is just the beginning of your experience at Owen. So enjoy it, take it all in, try to meet as many people as possible and above all - have a good time.

My First Case Competition

So today I was in my first case competition - something I thought I wouldn't do during business school. To me, it just seemed with all the other academics and activities at Owen, I wouldn't want to make the time for a case competition. However, an investment bank called Cobblestone Advisors, a bank that recruits on campus, decided to host a case competition for Owen. It was open to all first-years and mainly geared towards finance majors.

The case centered around a deal that Cobblestone had done the year before involving Smith Mountain Industries (also known as Virginia Candle Company). The teams had to value the company and pitch it. We had a week to prepare and it went fairly well. It was nice to be able to go through the experience of a pitch and valuation while not being in a very stressful situation. I think the class did a good job of representing Owen and it was great for Cobblestone to provide us an opportunity to participate in a case competition on campus. Now if only we didn't have to be at school at 7:45 it would have been even better...

Tired and...

Yes kids. I am very, very tired. I have spent all day studying for my investments exam, which I take in about an hour, and I still feel like I have a million things left to do before I head off to Bangladesh. Pack. Make sure my Bottom of the Pyramid paper gets handed in. Finish my Corporate Val project. Have three different conference calls about the project I am working on for my internship at Cumberland Pharmaceutical. Find housing in NYC this summer. Study for my Corporate Val Final. Oh yeah, and take that other final in an hour.

And yet...when going over everything in my head of things I have left to do, I thought about how many different and varied opportunities I'm getting. An internship with a pharma company. A trip to Bangladesh. An internship in NYC. While I feel too tired and overwhelmed for all of it (my own fault there), this Mod has definitely pushed me to my limit and helped me prove to myself what I can do, all on a very little amount of sleep. I tell everyone not to make the mistake I did, but somewhere in the course of getting your MBA you will inevitably have far too many things to do - but will be amazed at how much you've grown in being able to get them all done at the end of the day.

Sidenote: This is amazing. It's only going to be 3 blocks from me. Hotness.

The Craziness of Mod 3

Do not believe anything I have previously written about being busy. I had no idea what I was talking about.

Do not believe anyone that says "Oh if you can get through the first two mods, you'll be fine.." They are wrong.

Mod 3, is a whole different beast. I know I haven't posted in a bit, and here's why...

1. 3 cases, usually due each week
2. Instead of a case, a presentation making up a 1/3 of your grade
3. One problem set per week
4. 5372573257385583725 pages of material to read
5. Scheduling group meetings with 3 different sets of people

And all of this during the infamous internship search: traveling for interviews, spending hours on the phone networking with alumni, meeting with 2nd-years to get the scoop on the interview process at companies you're gunning for, going over questions both technical and behavioral, studying the industry you're interviewing for, studying the company you're interview with, going on mock interviews, writing e-mails to establish new contacts every day, writing a new cover letter for each company, trying to remember deadlines for resume drops and so on.

Also, an internship in Mods 3 and 4, research with a professor and helping a 2nd-year on their "Leadership In Action: project.

Read #3 in Sharran's post. I wish I had before this Mod.

Learning From Paulson's Bet

This article is a great read if you're an MBA with a concentration in finance. Here at business school they are giving us the tools to understand our markets and what's going on in finance: how to read a yield curve, how everyone is connected in the sub-prime mess, the formula for CAPM, and so forth. But what is essential to remember is how to take that knowledge and apply it critically to what is going on around us. I think our strategy class is starting us down the path of critically assessing the cases presented to us, as opposed to following the crowd and doing what every other MBA would do. A great deal that everyone is making may be great...but it can't last forever. As the sub-prime mess and Paulson show, taking the other side may be a great pay-off. While his hedge fund structure takes some very complex finance knowledge, it's the application of it in a way that no one else thought of that is the true pay-off. So go get your MBA and take your finance classes and learn what everyone else is learning - but don't forget that every now and then it pays to hedge your bets a little differently then the rest of the crowd.

Undefeated

While Vandy may not be the best in football, they definitely excel in basketball, especially this year. The team is 15-0, and will hopefully stay undefeated after the conference opener against South Carolina on Wednesday. The game on Saturday went pretty well, although the start was a little disappointing. But this does bring us to the photo of the week.

First years Matt, Jeff, Tina and Dan cheered on Vandy's win against UMass this past Saturday. Dan was especially excited to see the team win, as shown below.

It Gets Better With Time

I truly can't believe how fast the first six months flew by here at Owen. I remember reading all the blogs last year at this time from the 2nd years (who were 1st years then) when I had found out I had gotten in - congrats to those who recently found out, too. They all talked about how hard the first six months were, how much they had grown from being in school, and how they knew if they made it through the first six months then they would be fine. So wahoo! I'm going to make it. I think the biggest take-away for me from this whole process has been the opportunities given to me. I'm gearing up for some interviews when I get back to school, I'm on a research project with one of my professors, I've met and talked with numerous alumni about internships, all of whom have been more than happy to take time to talk to me, I was involved with Net Impact, I'll be helping out on a second-year's project to improve recycling at Vandy in Mods 3 and 4, I'll be going to Bangladesh on my spring break with Project Pyramid...and the list goes on. There's never a dull moment at Owen and there is so much to do.

But there is also, most importantly, the people. This brings us to the photo of the week. There's a great sense of community at Owen, especially when finals are done. To celebrate the end of Mod 2 and a student's birthday, the event Mod II vs. Wild Birthday America Freedom Stossel Thunderjam 2k7 was planned. Below, birthday boy Tate gets to experience Music City from a different perspective - that of a musician. His stirring rendition of "Dust On The Bottle" will be one we remember for a long time.

Debate Teams?

...but I thought this was business school, not law school! So one would think, but last week, to end Health Care Landscapes, we had a debate. Students were broken up into teams and assigned a candidate who is running in the primaries. From the group one student was selected to actually speak during the debate while the whole team did research on the candidate and the platforms of others. Only health care platforms were debated, and it was monitored by Dean Bradford and Professor Froeb. It turned out really well, and there was a great turn-out from the other students to see what was going on (albeit beers in hand from kegs going on outside). And so we come to the photo of the week.

Below we have students Patrick (Rudy), Joanna (Edwards), Steve (Clinton), Kyle (Romney) and Jeff (McCain). Please note the pearls on Steve.

Yes It's 80's Night...

A great thing about a small program is how close you can become with those in your class and those in the class above you. It seems every weekend there's always something to do that everyone ends up going to. This weekend was no different, with the 80's-theme birthday party of Ami, a first year.

And so we have the photo of the week. Below, ladies' man Shep is surrounded by a bevy of 80's beauties: Shelby, Sarah, Lisa and Amanda (counter-clockwise). Lookin' good Owen first-years. Lookin' real good.