Graduate Student Blog
A Summer Internship Abroad
As a dual degree MBA/MPH student with a concentration in Global Health, I knew that I wanted my internship in the summer after my first year to be working for an international company outside of the United States. I was also hoping to get work experience in Sub-Saharan Africa after having several brief prior experiences in Kenya. I was thrilled when BU alumni Paul Chen and several professors at the School of Management and the School of Public Health contacted me last spring about the potential opportunity to work in Ghana with Vestergaard Frandsen, a Swiss-based company that operates under a unique humanitarian entrepreneurship business model.
Vestergaard Frandsen (VF) has turned corporate social responsibility into their core business. They are most well-known for their long-lasting insecticide treated bed nets which help prevent malaria. However, the work I completed for them over the summer involved the LifeStraw, a water filtration device designed to prevent diarrhea which results from drinking contaminated water. It’s not always popular to talk about, but diarrhea is the number 2 cause of death in developing countries such as Ghana, especially for children under 5. In fact, diarrhea kills more children than AIDS, malaria and measles combined! Fortunately, filtering water with a high membrane filter such as the LifeStraw in the house immediately before consumption can reduce diarrhea by up to 63%.
Living in Ghana was an adventure in itself. I was fortunate enough to travel and work with two other Boston University students for this internship and was definitely grateful that we could explore Accra together. Additionally, Kristen McCormack, faculty director of the Public and Non-Profit program at SMG and recent alumna Sayaka Koseki were with us in Accra for the first week of our internship to make sure we got off to a good start. I’m definitely excited about the relationship that BU has formed with VF and I look forward to seeing what kind of collaborations we can work on in the future. Stay tuned for details about a symposium that we’re planning in January where we will highlight some of our work.
The BU Team with co-workers from Vestergaard Frandsen’s Accra office:
Here is a picture of us after taking a dance class:
The LifeStraw water filter being used in a rural school that we visited:
And we’re off!!!
Carl Palme
MS-MBA Candidate, 2012
President, Graduate Student Council
The rest of the graduate student body is back in the School of Management and things seem to be in full swing. We have had class for two weeks, and already so much has happened. For starters, we are getting to meet all the new students, who are great! A team of second years has already won a global case competition. And, we have gone on a boat cruise with 300 other students and significant others.
As president of the Graduate Student Body Council, I could not be happier. It is the priority of the student council to maximize the student experience and so far we have done just that. Over the summer we were busy organizing the boat cruise, revamping our newsletter, and working with club presidents on helping them get the year started. We also launched a new website!!!
The council is elected in the spring by the graduate student body, and has representation from many of the programs such as Public Nonprofit, Health Sector Management, and MS-MBA. The Graduate Student Council also represents the students and works as a liaison between the student body, the University and the community. Click here to meet the current council members!
Next Time: How to use technology to your MBA advantage.
Welcome from a Math Finance Student
Post from:
Taylor Marge
MSMF candidate 2013
I’m excited to be writing my first blog post. My name is Taylor Marge. I am a first year student in the Mathematical Finance program at Boston University. I am from Rhode Island and went to the University of Rhode Island as an undergraduate. My hometown is only about an hour south of Boston. Living so close I have been to the city many times although since moving here I have become much more acclimated to traveling around the city. Growing up in the area I am a longtime fan of all Boston sports. It’s nice to see many of my classmates joining me in rooting for Boston.
The program started just a few weeks ago and already the work is picking up. Although I have spent many hours solving homework problems I have also had time to explore the city and the university as well. Outside of the classroom our class has spent a lot of time together in both formal and informal events. The Graduate Programs Office started the semester with an orientation which included an introduction to the program, an introduction to Bloomberg and a manners workshop which taught business etiquette. The orientation also included at trip down to the Boston waterfront where we were all able to socialize and get to know each other. Since then many of us have gone out together on our own. In addition to exploring the city my classmates have gotten together to do many activities ranging from studying to playing soccer and going to the gym.
In addition to the rigor of the program an advantage of the Math Finance program at Boston University is the Feld Career Center. We have received both group and one on one advising on topics such as networking, resume writing and writing a cover letter. The Feld Career Center offers the Math Finance program a dedicated advisor to prepare us to find an internship and subsequently a career.
I am looking forward to getting to know math, finance, my classmates and the city better in the coming months. Hopefully this will culminate in both an internship and an interesting and fun career.
Wish me luck!
Taylor
Making The Most of Your First Semester
Hey class of 2013, you’re finally here! Pre-term is flying by and next week the second years will join you at SMG. You have your calendar for the semester and opportunities and assignments are multiplying at exponential rates. So here is a little unsolicited advice.
1. Remember What’s Most Important
You will have to juggle academic, career, and social responsibilities, so take some time over the long weekend to remind yourself of the reasons you decided to get an MBA. Use these goals to help you choose which opportunities to take advantage of and which ones to turn down.
Do not let the quest for the best grades shape your semester or you might miss out on key networking opportunities and memorable life experiences.
Have fun. You are going to work really hard, but you are also going to become close friends with the amazing people in your cohort. If you realize that you have spent two weeks in the library, it is time to take a break and explore Boston with friends, or do an informational interview at one of your target companies.
2. Take Advantage of Resources at SMG
One of SMG’s greatest assets is the personalized attention that you can receive. So after you choose a career community, go visit the faculty director and ask him/her to introduce you people who are working at your target companies.
Also network with your classmates and with second years . . . we can not wait to meet you.
You all know this by now, but we have one of the most approachable Deans ever. So introduce yourself.
In short, settle in and make yourself at home!
Post by:
Anya Thomas
MBA & PNP candidate 2012
Optimizing The Summer Before Your MBA
Are you wondering how to best prepare for your first year of B-School? Are there things you can be doing before you start the program?
Rising second year student, Anya Thomas shares here tips:
- Find housing and move in by the beginning of August (don’t wait until September 1st, your classes start before then and you’ll be stressed if you’re still moving)
If you can . . . take a few weeks off of work and use the time to move to Boston, rest, travel, spend time with family. Basically get refreshed and be ready to give 100% when the semester begins.
- Do informational interviews. You’ll get more training for this during Pre-term, but take advantage of contacts you’ll be leaving behind in NYC, San Francisco, Lima, Beijing etc. Use the fact that you’re a student to put people at ease and to learn about roles, functions, and industries that you were always curious about.
- While you do not need to spend a lot of time preparing for specific subjects, you can get a head start or review key principles by reading some of the following books:
- FINANCE: Corporate Finance (Plus MyFinanceLab Student Access Card Package (2nd Edition)
By Jonathan Berk, Peter DeMarz - STATISTICS: The Manager's Guide to Statistics
by Erol A Pekoz - ECONOMICS: Managerial Economics
by Susan Samuelson - D. The Accounting Primer will be sent to you. Try and check this over before school starts.
**(note the professors will not post the updated reading list until August, so you may want to check these out from a library or just wait until the exact edition is posted
4). Connect with your future classmates through facebook, BU clubs/organizations you plan to join, contacts you made at Open House. Also, there are several 2nd year students who are in Boston over the summer and they would love to meet you.
5) Make a list of companies that you are most interested in learning about or working for and search your LinkedIn network to see if people in your social sphere work for these companies.
6) When you get to Boston, visit the gardens in Boston Common, go on a Duck Tour, eat Italian food in the North End, or Clam Chowder at one of Boston’s famous seafood restaurants. Get to know your new city.
I hope that gives you some good ideas. All of us here at BU look forward to welcoming all the incoming students to campus in the coming months!!
image from http://www.wpclipart.com/people/moving.jpg
My Take on the First Year of the MBA Program
Health Sector Management & International Health
MBA Council
(L-R: Juan Machado, Sergio Floris, Roman Sverdlov, Ivan Busulwa)
First Semester
Now that I’m done, I’d like to share with you my assessment of the first year of BU’s MBA program. I have come to realize that the program is as much about time management as anything else. There are lots of on-campus & off-campus activities, optional courses to take elsewhere, keynote speakers to listen to, and extracurricular events like the cohort cup to participate in. Oft-time, I wish I could be in two places at once!
Despite all the class work that will be thrown at you especially during the 1st semester, I strongly encourage you to participate in the extracurricular events, get involved with the clubs, and get to know the second year students and mentors that will be assigned to you. I found these quite helpful since they usually went out of their way to listen to students’ issues and guide 1st years on how best to navigate the hurdle that is the first semester I. My only regret is that I didn’t get involved with as many clubs as much as I’d have liked to.
And did I mention there’s a lot to see in Boston? Fellow students from the area gave me a useful list of places I should visit before I ever think about leaving the city. There’s the Quincy market, the Aquarium, Fenway Park (which you’ll get to see a part of during orientation), all the pubs along Comm. Ave, and inevitably, a Red Sox game. Being the fair weather fan that I am, I’ll probably go to one of their games before the close of the year.
Cohort B after the finals. Goodbye first year… Enter second year!
Second Semester
I felt the 2nd semester went way better than the first one, especially since I got an internship early. This allowed me to focus on lots of other things without having to worry about where I was going to be in the summer. Besides the internship, there was a lot more to be happy about. The winter blossomed into a beautiful spring and the class work got more manageable. I also felt I got to spend more time with friends and to participate in events like the cohort cup. I decided to wrap up the year with a trip to New York City. I haven’t been to many places yet but I can certainly say NYC ranks up there as one of the grandest I’ve visited (after Boston). And the best part is that it’s only a $15 bus ride away and 4 hours from school. At such prices, I’m considering making the trip down there a weekly ritual.Although I had been forewarned, only now do I notice that MBA hours move faster than the real time. I just watched the 2nd years graduate and I still can't believe I'm less than one year away from joining them.
Overall, at the expense of sounding cliché, I feel the biggest value one gets from the MBA is the ‘experience’ with other students. Just sharing classes and spending time with various people from different backgrounds and having diverse personalities & perspectives, is one of the MBA's greatest values – and it's difficult to attach a price to that. There's definitely the in-class knowledge from the professors but I don’t think that even comes close.
In fact, at the close of the semester, I felt somewhat sad since we weren’t going to be seeing much of each other during the 2nd year as we’ll no longer have the same classes in the same cohorts. Despite all the hard work though, I can confidently say that this has been one of the finest nine months I've ‘experienced’!
Some Cohort B members after the MBA talent show. Still don’t understand how we didn’t win the cup! (L-R: Kerri Carlson, Ivan Busulwa, Assad the Assassin, Siddharth Garg, Akshay Bhargava, Rachel Dacwag)
Cohort Cup Champions
Post By:
Ajay Mehta
MBA '11
It took two years to finally hoist the Cohort Cup Trophy and this year Cohort D was able to enjoy victory. As you probably know, as full time students at BU you are split into three cohorts which consist of approximately 50 students. Those 50 students become your close friends and teammates as you navigate your way as a first year MBA. Too add to the friendly competition, competitions and networking events are hosted by the Cohort Cup Committee pitting cohorts against each other in sports, trivia, and other friendly competition.
The year comes to an end with the annual talent show where you get to see entire cohorts perform dances and songs, as well as other members of your class display talent you never knew existed. The show is judged by professors picked by each cohort to add some interesting allegiances into the mix.
Last year…it was a battle to the end with Cohort C and Cohort D taking every other competition and C finally squeezing out enough points to take the lead and win the cup. Needless to say, Cohort D was slightly bitter and with motivated first and second years, D remained in the lead the much of the year. It was a competition that brought us together as classmates. It was a nice distraction and much needed break from the rigors of a full time MBA.
The end
Post by:
Juan J Estrada
International MBA 2011
The academic year flew by and it has finally come to an end. There is a confusing bitter sweet taste in completing this program. The sweetness of the victory of completing a demanding program in one year and of joining the ranks of people trained to take decisions, manage resources and make things move forward. At the same time the bitterness of moving on from a group of people you have come to appreciate and hold dearly close, an environment of learning and camaraderie and the advantage of being a student in a student in a city of students.
In this entry I will pick what made each of my three semesters in this program bitter and what made it sweet.
Summer:
Bitter: the intensity of the work in China was harsh. Classes six days a week, three to six hours a day, a parallel project running all summer long made it challenging.
Sweet: China is an amazing country, so different in terms of culture, ideology, business practices and ways of interacting- yet so similar in its hunger for growth, for the luxurious comforts and trends coming from the west- totally worth experiencing.
Fall
Bitter: Feeling lost in my job search. As an example, I attended NSHMBA, big job conference in Chicago and the first day was rough, feeling one more of the bunch of job seekers, struggling to differentiate myself and to overcome the limitations from being an international student.
Sweet: life sciences strategy and commercialization courses. It took my best courses in the program this semester. I did a real new technology commercialization feasibility assessment and also climbed the steepest part of the business learning curve both for general business.
Spring
Bitter: The academic load + the job search. The spring is stressful. Graduation is approaching and all you hope for is a job. But you still got your last six courses stinging you the whole time, dragging you away from that one objective.
Sweet: the weather gets warmer and life gets more fun. To make things even busier, it’s in the spring that your social life will be most demanding- and rewarding. You know each other already and you will want to hang out as much as possible before it ends.
Enjoy.
The Ins and Outs of the Summer Internship
Post by:
Anya Thomas
Public and Nonprofit MBA, '12
What kind of internships do BU MBAs get? Where do they work?
You could learn banking in North Carolina, or how to lead 100 people in the telecom industry in Chicago. You could develop a growth plan for high schools in New England, or work for the Mayor’s office in Boston. From Seattle to New York City, from Tanzania to Pasadena, Boston University MBAs are spending the summer honing their skills and building relationships that will help them launch the next phase of their careers.
Finding an internship can be grueling at times. A balancing act where class projects, exams, and papers often seem to outweigh the importance of an informational interview or filling out an application. Even so, students must be diligent to build their network, figure out how to make the most of their summer, and then secure the internship that will move them forward professionally. It is exciting during the Spring semester as classmates get hired. However, it can be stressful for students who are searching for internships in industries that tend to hire late. In the end, whether you get your internship in December or May, the hours devoted to searching and preparing for an internship pay off.
I started my formal internship search in January and I was thrilled to secure my internship in Ghana by mid March. This internship embodies everything I was looking for. In a nutshell I get to apply the business skills I have been learning in class in an overseas setting. I get to work with a team of other graduate students, and if we are successful we will help people get access to clean water. What could be better than that? But there are always challenges: finding housing in a foreign city, realizing that the product you are marketing may be too expensive for the target population, adjusting to a new business culture . . .. Anyway, there is no way to tell whether success or failure is ahead of me, but regardless of the results, the depth of the learning and the relationships I will build will be priceless.
You can never start too early on your internship search. If you have a few spare hours, make a list of companies and functions that you are interested in, and start doing some informational interviews. You will thank yourself later.
Graduation Brunch
Post by:
Lauren Abrahams
MS-MBA 2011
Public & Nonprofit Management
MBA Council, PNP Club, Net Impact
Last Friday was our Graduation Brunch and what might considered the kick-off to a month of festivities leading up to the big day. After organizing so many events over the past year as a member of Graduate Student Council, it was a welcome opportunity to have someone else throw the party and be in charge for a change! I don’t want to give too much away to current first-years and future students (there are a lot of fun surprises that the faculty and staff manage to keep from the students), but it was a lot of fun and a great opportunity to spend some quality time with our professors and classmates outside of classrooms and teamrooms. It was also a lot more emotional than I expected—I saw a lot of sniffing, a few tears, and TONS of running around and herding friends into one more precious photo. I’m looking forward to what seems like the hundreds more events over the next month, but I don’t know how long I’ll be able to hold it together!
I’ve also been involved lately with the 2011 MBA Class Gift. As a Cohort Captain, it’s my job to encourage my fellow cohort B-ers to participate in the gift campaign by making a pledge to support the MBA Class of 2011 Alumni Relations Initiative. Earlier in the semester, the cohort captains all sat down and brainstormed about where we thought our class gift would have the most impact. It was actually a pretty easy decision to recommend to Dean Freeman that it support something related to alumni, as that is an area that both the dean and my classmates feel strongly about. While we don’t yet know exactly how the gift will be spent (since a lot depends on how much money we raise), everyone has generally seemed enthusiastic and supportive. While we’d like to raise a good amount so that we can have a real impact, it’s really about getting everyone to participate at whatever level they feel comfortable. We are working on setting a record of 90% participation—still have a long way to go, but the momentum is picking up and hopefully we’ll make it!