Today, as a classmate put it, “the madness started”. Assembled at the Student Life Center were the 200 plus MBA, Ms.F and MaAC students from Owen. I now have two years, or one year in the case of the MSF and MaAC students, to learn everyones names. It should be fun watching my brain explode.
Thankfully, the dean reminded us that we’ll have bigger problems than remembering names, namely trying to keep our heads above the water while juggling our academics, career search, and personal life.
The guest speaker, a very accomplished Owen alum, gave some very unconventional yet sage advice. Her advice was, “Don’t network. Build relationships”. I don’t remember what her other nuggets of wisdom were because my back teeth were floating, but that slide stuck.
After lunch, we had a team building exercise conducted by Afterburner Inc. The instructors, a bunch of retired military guys, taught us an organizational model called Flawless Execution. I totally wasn’t expecting to plan a military campaign against “Floribama” so the whole thing was entertaining but cheesy. The only problem with the event, at no fault to the Afterburner guys I’m guessing, was that a lot of people were falling into a food coma because of all that heavy cheese and cream we ate for lunch. And there was no coffee.
At night, we went to a reception at a grill called Cabana. There was more meeting and greeting and more small talk. I think I’ve retained most of the names of the people I met today, but thank goodness for name tags. Oh look, there’s mine.
The food at Cabana looked horrible so I only drank my two free comp’d beers. The international students however really went to town on the springs rolls. I ate dinner at Jackson’s with a classmate I met during Welcome Weekend. The grilled chicken sandwich I got was bombtastic.
And so concludes day one of being a lifelong Owenite.
Henry,
Sounds like you had a great first day! Good luck at Owen over the next two years. I look forward to reading about your experiences.
Naveen