by Kit Swain (’15)
As I was visiting business schools and trying to decide where to enroll just over a year ago, one of the things that struck me about Anderson was the community of the student body. I couldn’t put my finger on what made it different — things like culture and community within organizations are so hard to define. Now, as my first year at Anderson draws to a close, I understand what the Anderson culture is for me, and I believe that it is embodied in Challenge for Charity (C4C).
With more than 300 Anderson students in attendance at Stanford Weekend for C4C (on a weekend that competed with Coachella!), I was proud to be wearing True Blue. As an MBA, school spirit can be complicated because many people still pledge allegiance to their undergraduate school. What made Stanford Weekend so special was that we were all Bruins first. We had a lot to be proud of too, as Anderson students raised more than $75,000 and volunteered more than 4,600 hours to charity in just six months time.
The weekend opened on Friday as I played in the men’s basketball tournament. I had no idea what to expect from the competition, but I was excited to be playing (semi)-organized basketball again. In the early rounds, we were able to handle University of Washington (Foster), Berkley (Haas) and Stanford GSB without much trouble. Advancing to the final, we were pitted against crosstown rival, USC Marshall. Whether it was nerves or impenetrable defense, some ugly basketball was played for the students in attendance with a halftime score of 13-3 (no typo). In this clash of the titans, we were able to hold on to win, and our fans rushed the court to celebrate the victory that helped kick off the weekend.
On Saturday, I didn’t even compete in any sports and the day was awesome. The sun was shining. I walked from flag football to volleyball to the cheer competition, drank some beer and high-fived everyone I could find who was sporting UCLA gear. The day was perfect, and when all was said and done, UCLA won 13 of the 20 sporting events — and my hand still hurts from all the high-fives.
Find out more about Anderson C4C at their club page.
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