Friendly Competition

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My course load includes accounting and strategy (like the rest of the MBAs), but then I'm taking a design and operations course with two of the three MMM directors. I also had to choose my first core elective between marketing and finance.

To align with my career goals, I went into marketing. I'm taking the course with the Highlanders' rival section, the Poets, and the MMM sibling section, the JDMBAs. The class is amazing. Professor Julie Hennessy keeps us busy and entertained at the same time. Being an engineer, I used to think that marketing was just advertising and fluff. As a consumer, I think it is what makes me fall in love with cosmetics and fashion. However, we have crunched a lot of numbers and discussed strategies, which beat all logic utilized in successful businesses. I even snagged some takeaways on how to get the best boyfriend. One of the things that I love about Kellogg is that the professors and staff are generally open to getting to know us in a personal way, listening to our stories through organized lunches at the Allen Center (in which the executive-education programs are housed).

Mass e-mails and time management

Kellogg is a very collaborative environment that reinforces our leadership skills. But don't get me wrong: That does not mean there is no competition. There is intense competition. Imagine joining a section of type-A personalities who have already tasted success from every possible industry. You can picture me and my peers, all vying to bring our points of view and experiences to the table. I bet you have never before been in a classroom where the whole class is desperate to participate, or in a team in which everyone is eager to take on more work. You see all types of personalities, leadership models, and interests. Leadership, like collaboration, occurs both formally and informally at Kellogg.

Collaboration in my class is so commonplace that I found out I would write this journal through a peer who had sent a mass e-mail to make the accomplishment public. All of a sudden, a bunch of classmates were celebrating in the study room and sending me congratulatory notes by e-mail. Speaking of e-mails, mass e-mails and time management are big issues here because there are so many things to do, such as clubs for almost every interest, homework, reading, networking, and housekeeping. Nowadays, sleep seems like an impossible luxury. Wednesdays, when we don't have formal school, have become the busiest days in my schedule. Despite being technologically old-school, my iPhone has become my new best friend because it allows me to keep up to date with my calendar. Even my lunches are booked with speakers, corporate presentations, relevant career information, and the Kellogg 3 Ps—not product, position, and price, as you might think, but Panera, Papa John's, and Potbelly.

Having a well-defined career goal has helped me to stay focused. I have stuck to my goals and applied only for meaningful leadership roles. Maybe you thought the competition was over because you got into the Kellogg School of Management. Wrong again. You have to apply and be selected—or I should say elected—for every leadership position or competition in which you want to take part. I got selected to serve on the marketing committee of the Women's Business Assn., in the professional development committee for the Retail & Luxury Goods Club, and in the alumni relations committee for the East Coast Retail & Luxury Goods Trek, for which I will travel to New York City with classmates in the winter of 2010 to learn more about my target industry. Despite suffering from a little FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out), I can tell you that I wish the days in Evanston were longer. I cannot believe I'm already writing midterms.

Lorena Sánchez García is enrolled in the full-time MBA and Master of Engineering Management program at Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management. Before business school Sánchez García was an internal consultant for a Mexican company. She earned her undergraduate degree in chemical engineering with a minor in industrial engineering from ITESM at Campus Monterrey in Mexico in 2004. She has also interned for L'Oréal in Germany.

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