OwenBloggers: Sharran Srivatsaa

BrainJam with Dean Jim Bradford

As a member of Project Pyramid's Leadership Team, I am building an Advisory Board for the organization comprised of C-Level officers and Foundations from around the world. This is an exciting process as I get to design and build the board from the ground up. This way, if it does not work, I can be assured that it was all my fault. I am working with Professor Bart Victor and Dean Jim Bradford on this process. I recently had a meeting with Dean Bradford to talk about the vision for Project Pyramid and to get  his advice on how I should go about building the board. 

First, it is important to understand that not many people get to even build a board in their professional careers and for that I consider myself very fortunate. Second, it is amazing to have a mentor like Jim, especially since he has built multiple advisory board's during his tenure as Dean. Jim started talking and I listened, taking notes... then he started getting excited about the possibilities and we started connecting a lot of dots. The conversation lasted about 15 minutes but at the end my hand was cramping and I had three pages of notes from our discussion. Jim walked to his shelf and pulled out a 3 inch binder, handed it to me and said, "Read this, and we'll talk again soon." The binder contained Jim's strategy and notes that guided him through building Owen's Board of Visitors.

While this module of classes makes me wonder if I will ever forget the intermittent torture that I am putting myself through in the classroom, I will always remember the opportunities for learning and development that I have been given outside the classroom here at Owen. While I am learning how to compute Section 1231 gains in the classroom, I get to learn how to build a Board of Directors outside the classroom.

But I sometimes wonder about the rhythm of the samba...

 

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What are you taking in Mod 3?

 
I saw this during the holidays...

A lot of prospective students (both the ones who visit and the ones who send us emails) have been asking questions about course loads, types of courses, and in general what we are doing in the classroom. Everyone's course load varies based on the other commitments outside the classroom. Most students take at least one lighter module in their first year when it is peak recruiting season for the careers that they are interested in, and the first part of the first year is filled with the core curriculum anyway. 

I have one of my heaviest academic loads this Mod. It just so happens that all the courses that I want to take before I graduate are somehow offered in Mod 3... and I know that I will not have the inspiration to take a very heavy load in Mod 4 when graduation is just around the corner ;-)

1. Equities Markets
   > Professor Nick Bollen
2. Game Theory
   > Professor Mike Shor
3. Developing and Marketing New Products
   > Professor Dawn Iacobucci
4. Derivatives
   > Professor Bob Whaley
5. Project Pyramid: Economic Development and Global Poverty Alleviation
   > Professor Bart Victor

Each class deserves a blog entry of its own but I want to write about the Taxation class that Isaac and I are taking...

Taxation of Business and Investment Transactions
> Professor Bill Henderson

Owen students talk about Corporate Valuation being the most challenging class they take at Owen, I am starting to think otherwise. Taxation is probably the most challenging yet intellectually rewarding course that I have taken in my educational career. Professor Henderson is "old school" and will cold call you until you are blue in the face... which means that you don't dare show up for class unless you are prepared (oh, and if you don't come to class, he will pick on you more the next time... so you are done for either way ;-). Isaac and I just go to class prepared, and it is awesome... Professor Henderson knows the tax laws inside out and does a phenomenal job of giving us real-life examples and bite-sized information so that we can understand the material. The take home final (which is a mini-binder) which he gives you in Week 2 is to prepare an entire tax return (yes, the complicated kind) which on average has taken students about 75 hours to complete in the past. This is a class that I will remember forever, and every Owen alum who has taken it raves about it. I am particularly enjoying this class because it brings a whole new dimension to what I learned last semester in the law school in my Trust and Estate Taxation class.

My favorite part of his syllabus for the class:

What is Expected of You as a Student:

You are expected to perform as a professional -- with dedication, integrity and a commitment to excellence. You are expected to attend all classes; to arrive on time and remain until dismissed; to arrive with all assigned reading and homework problems completed; to participate actively and effectively; and to demand of yourself and your fellow students complete fidelity to OGSM’s Honor System in all aspects of your course work.

Oh, and he means every word.

Bottom Line: This class is not for the faint-hearted and it jives to the rhythm of the samba.

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