OwenBloggers: Dana

Home for the Holiday

Thanksgiving break is here! For me, it's the first time that I've been home since school started and there are a few things that have changed. I am now able to keep up with my uncles in the endless conversations about the stock market (thanks to finance, the words securities and futures market now make sense), I have already thrown out some interesting figures about health care that I picked up in my landscape class which totally impressed my family, and I am noticing all the marketing campaigns in the grocery store instead just wanting to get in and out as fast as possible. So the important thing to note is not what internship or job we wind up with, it's the notion that what you learn in business school makes for good conversation around the Thanksgiving table or any other table, for that matter.

Although it's great to be home, this is the first time that my class is separated for an extended period of time and I definitely feel the void of not seeing my peers every day. All those jokes that are funny in b-school just don't get the same response from working folk. It's great to be home but I imagine that it will be just as great on Monday morning at 8am when I see all those familiar faces at Owen. Kinda like the first day of school all over again.

A cold, or just stress?

You can tell finals week is almost here as I sit in class and the sounds of people sneezing and blowing their noses, myself included, over powers the professor’s review session. The stress of finals has caused a lot of us to develop colds, making it harder to study; if only this had been handed out at the beginning of the semester, we all might be feeling a little healthier these days. The upside to the situation is the comradery among my classmates: tissues are plentiful, there are debates on the best cold medicine and I’ve even been given recommendations on where to find the least expensive Airborne (personally, I am a strong believer in Emergen-C, but I am willing to try anything these days). 

Even when stress is high and the group work is over (for now), people still want to help; this is the best thing I’ve noticed since starting business school. For most of the Mod, assignments have been team work and our grade depended on the group's effort. Now, we are suddenly faced with an 'each person for them self' situation knowing how much the final counts towards our grade. Given all the Type A personalities running around these halls, I am happy to see that there are still groups of people studying together and each person is making sure the other understands the material, especially those monster problems that Professor Chaney likes to hand out. We all know the ‘curve’ is out there, but it seems to be in the back of everyone’s minds, or we have an incredible group of actors among us who should have considered Broadway before business school.   

Keep up the teamwork and good luck on finals!

In the beginning...

Holla! My name is Dana and I am a proud member of the class of 2009 here at Owen. Although I am a late joiner to this blog, I am thrilled to be part of it. Thanks Jared! I’ve returned to school in search of a MBA after being in the working world for seven years; I was at the point in my career where it was now or never, so here I am. My background is in health care and I specifically chose Vanderbilt because of the excellent reputation of its Health Care MBA program. I am planning on sharing my experiences as a student in the Health Care program and shedding a bit of light on how what we learn here will take us into the future.

Take a look at Little Blue Pill and see what some other Health Care MBAs and I have to say about news in the industry. All of the contributors are second year students, and much smarter than me, but I'll see what I can do to keep up.

So stay tuned, I could say something brilliant at any moment.