Hey Everyone,
We have been on a summer break here at FEMBA and there have been great summer courses and International trips to Argentina, South Africa and South Korea. We'll write more about it in the upcoming few weeks. For now, we have a blog post from Geetha Rajan (FEMBA 2017) where she shares her experiences during her first week at Anderson. Enjoy reading!
-Sandeep Shah
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My first official week at UCLA Anderson!
Flying anxiously on my 6.5-hour plane ride from Boston, I was really excited to attend the Leadership Foundations.
In a room filled with more than 300 students, we had a very warm welcome by Dylan Stafford - Assistant Dean, FEMBA on the first day. As he was going through the statistics of the class in terms of their achievements, I felt privileged to be amongst the smartest people. Dylan’s welcome was followed by Gonzalo Freixes - Associate Dean, FEMBA and Magaret Shih – Senior Associate Dean, FEMBA sharing their excitement in welcoming the class of 2017 and some words of wisdom.
On day two, we were split into our individual sections. It was closer setting of people and much more intimate. Going through our first group exercise based on IDEO Design theme was very interesting to note how everyone behaved in a group setting with people we were not very familiar with. I was pleasantly surprised with how easy it was to collaborate and successfully complete the task.
On day three, I was part of the Leadership Odyssey. Without giving away too many details, this was certainly the most memorable and cherished day of the Leadership Foundations for me! I started to recognize the power of inspiring people and pushing them to stretch beyond their limitations. This experience resonates with a famous quote from Andrew Carnegie - “No man will make a great leader who wants to do it all himself, or to get all the credit for doing it.”
Day Four was geared towards understanding your personality, leadership styles, skills and weaknesses with the Birkman exercise and Power Speech. Not being very familiar with the campus, Scavenger Hunt was a great way to get around the campus and taking fun-filled photographs with your teams.
The last day we went through our first case-study analysis. Having heard so much about case-studies in Business Schools, I got to experience this first hand. It was a very good exposure to real-life scenarios and an effective way to get acclimated to various types of management issues.
Saving the best for the last was our crazy, wild and incredible HAPPY HOUR that was organized every day of the Leadership Foundations! It was a great opportunity to get to know each other and building the ever-lasting bond with one another!
-Geetha Rajan