Louis Barkan: Getting the News In Hong Kong

Definitely a major highlight of the week, the third day of orientation brought Professor Kinicki back to lead us through a series of workshops designed to enhance as quickly as possible our teamworking capabilities. As you will learn in OB, groups have to form before they storm, storm before they norm, and norm before they perform. By the end of the day, our group had definitely formed. It was a great day where people learned a great deal about themselves and others, and where new team members met each other for the first time.

I mentioned earlier how truly diverse a group of peers I have and how rewarding this is. A quarter of our group are women, and a quarter of our group are also international students. The admissions staff really has done a great job of pulling people from very different personal, educational and professional backgrounds. If you are like me, then you thrive on such diversity because it provides for a much more dynamic environment and interesting world to inhabit. To give you a clearer idea of what a special team I had, check out my team members (core support group) and fellow MBA superheroes:

Jill (Philadelphia, PA), late 20s, Caucasian female, dazzling hipster with an engineering background. Most recently worked as a consultant. Super-organized, works like a machine, kills in fantasy football and can dance all night to Paul van Dyk.

Terry (Louisville, KY), 35, African-American male, finance undergrad, law degree, business analyst, prior Army service, off-the-chart intelligence, loves sports, has achieved Grill Master status and has more than a few things (including some old-school dance moves) to show the younger students in class.

Yi-Hsien (Taiwan), 28, Asian male, systems engineer, studied Japanese and Japanese literature undergrad, Master in Information Management, loves gaming and being online I think more than anything else except for his girlfriend and J-pop (Japanese pop music).

Chris (Chantilly, VA), 25, Caucasian male, marketing undergrad, product manager, Ichiro-esque softball prowess, easygoing lover of life with, it's rumored, "crazy freestylin' " skills on the mic.

On the fourth day of orientation, we gathered at Old Main, the oldest building on campus (erected when Arizona was still a territory), for our final session. Case study is a major aspect of the Carey program, and this workshop was dedicated to teaching us how to utilize and learn with cases. Dean Keim and Professor Hillman, another distinguished management teacher, first laid the framework for analysis and then gave us our first case to analyze. We held a working lunch with our new team-members and then went into breakout sessions to discuss. By the end of the week, we had been fully prepped and prepared for a challenging, life-changing first term.

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