Summer classes are iNtenSe

We are just wrapping up our last week of the first module of summer classes. Let me tell you, they took a little getting used to. Only, we didn't really have time to get used to them ...

Our summer semester is broken into two modules, with two classes during the first half and one more during the second half. Our TCP spans the entire summer. The summer courses are only 6 weeks long, meeting for three hours twice a week. INTENSE! I must say that this is not my preferred course schedule. I didn't feel like I had the time to spend delving into subject matter that I found interesting. It was always a sprint to get work done for the next class sessions. I'll be happy to get back to our regular once a week, semester-long class schedule this fall. I'm also happy to be nearly finished with our first summer module, which will allow more time to spend on my TCP project.

Our marketing project was a good way to end the first summer module! I had a great group, and our project focused on marketing the use of locally grown produce to restaurants in a local Boston neighborhood. It will be interesting to see if our organization implements any of our suggestions. That is part of the fun of MBA projects ... sometimes they have a real purpose!

Innovation in tough economic times

Much has been written about this topic - innovation stemming from this time of economic hardship - but I continue to find it all very interesting. Here is an article about how recent grads are turning into social entrepreneurs and coming up with great ideas, partially due to the fact that they have the freedom to think about other options now that their prescribed potential high-power, high-money career options have dried up. My take-aways from this article:

1. the importance of finding work that "feeds your soul";
2. and the potential of my generation to learn lifelong lessons from experiences such as these when we are forced to think of new ways to do things and new paths to carve out

These new adventures don't necessarily involve all of the things we "should" be doing with our education , but I'm pretty sure they're going to have good results for our world overall. My question is how to continue to support and encourage opportunities like this for recent grads when the economy begins to recover and the potential for great wealth from traditional career paths returns?

Building capacity

I need to build some capacity into my schedule so that I have more blogging time, right?!  I think this summer semester might need to subscribe to the philosophy of quality over quantity ... 

Anyway, for those current and former VISTA members out there, the phrase "capacity building" should be ringing a bell!  I'm here to tell you that this phrase exists in real life, in case you ever doubted the validity of your capacity building work to help you in your next steps.  It is potentially one of the most important things an organization can do. 

I am being reminded of the importance of capacity building as I get started on my Team Consulting Project (TCP) with ACCION USA this summer (who, by the way, just announced a cool partnership with Kiva!  Check it out here.).  We're working on reaching more potential borrowers through ACCION's internet loan program, an innovative idea that has room to grow.  We'll be looking at how to build capacity and systems to make this program sustainably grow in a few different ways.  It's potentially going to be one of the coolest projects I work on during my grad school stint, and I'm looking forward to digging in a little bit more. 

As a final note, if you think my grad school program sounds cool, and you're looking for one of your own to get into, check out the upcoming Idealist Grad School Fairs in DC and NYC.  Here are a few quick details, but visit www.idealist.org to find out more!

Wednesday, June 17 5 - 8 pm American University, Katzen Arts Center, Rotunda, 1st Floor 4400 Massachusetts Avenue, Washington 

Thursday, June 18 5 - 8 pmFordham University, Lincoln Center, Pope Auditorium 113 W 60th Street, New York, NY 

Back at it

Finals have been finished, vacation has been taken, and now I'm back in this game of grad school.  Though Brandeis classes don't officially start until next week, I decided to pick up a tax accounting class this summer at Bentley.  That started last week, and it's going to be a six-week learning whirlwind.  I find it to be a very interesting and useful subject, though the fact that the professor thinks that we'll be competent enough to prepare individual and business tax returns (and that we'll know 95% of the CPA exam material) by the end of it all baffles me.  It seems impossible now, but I bet he's right.  He's probably done this a few times before. 

The semester ended well.  I finished two big projects: a strategic position for Citizen Schools (which I still need to pass along to my contact there ... eek!) and a financial plan/budget for a youth organic farming program that I hypothetically started up.  Though those projects were a TON of work, they both turned out to be pretty interesting.  I wish I'd had more time to spend on them and really dig a lot deeper than I did.  It was a taste of what doing something like that for a job might be like, and in retrospect, it was pretty fun.  

I'm looking forward to our summer semester.  We're doing our Team Consulting Project, and my team is working with ACCION USA to expand an internet loan program.  It's a super interesting organization, and I'm looking forward to producing something that will hopefully be valuable to them as well as learning a few things along the way!  

Finals are upon me!

My apologies for being MIA in the blogosphere ... the insanity of finals has firmly taken its hold on my life from now until May 10th at midnight when my final take-home final shall be submitted. Or else.

I have TONS of ideas of fun things I'd like to write about and share with you. I even made a list! That's what I do when the workload is overwhelming ... make lists of all of the things I have to do and all of the things I want to do. A little forward-thinking motivation never hurts, in my opinion.

So, upon completion of said finals, you will be graced with the presence of multiple blog entries from me. Perhaps even multiple blog entries in one day! Until then, here's a little sampling of what's left until I am the proud owner of 1/2 of an MBA:

• Finish creating budget package for hypothetical organic youth farming program
• Study (ALOT!) for Cost Accounting Final
• Finish group presentation for Operations Management and present to classmates
• Study for & complete take-home final for Operations Management
• Complete final case analysis/assignment for Corporate Fraud

Whoa! Better get to work ...

Three Cups of Tea

I just finished reading "Three Cups of Tea" written by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin, and it was truly one of the best books I've read in a while. The book basically details Mortenson's quest to build schools to educate girls in Pakistan and Afghanistan. He is a mountaineer who nearly dies on an attempt to summit K2 and subsequently has a change of heart about what he wants to make important in his life from then on. He becomes what I consider to be one of our greatest social entrepreneurs as he works to fulfill his mission to bring peace through education.

Some of the pieces of his story that I found most remarkable were:

• the determination he showed to complete his goals and keep his promises despite MANY obstacles
• the relationships he formed with his "second family" of Pakistanis thousands of miles from his home
• the way that he integrated himself into a completely foreign culture and came to love it
• his efforts to share his personal story and knowledge of Muslim people post-9/11 in an attempt to diffuse the hatred that was seeping into Americans' culture for this "enemy"

We discussed the book in a book club gathering last night (accompanied by a delicious Pakistani meal!), and one of the questions/comments that arose was a general admiration for Mortenson's complete faith in his mission and his choice to give up most material possessions in order to achieve this mission. I think it's a very real tension that is becoming more apparent as we face the deterioration of our economy and a serious reduction in opportunities for people to "get rich" in the ways that have worked for the past 15 years or so. What is the price of doing humanitarian work? Does the benefit outweigh the cost? Is there a happy medium? Where does idealism meet reality in our financially-based society?

I have some thoughts on this trade-off, which I'll share in a subsequent post because it's a topic that I'm pretty interested in and passionate about ... and I could ramble on, making this the longest post ever! But, for now, read the book! I hope you will love it and be inspired.

School/Work/Fun BaLanCE

I had the opportunity to attend a lunch for accepted students last week at the Heller School, and one of the most commonly asked questions in my group was whether it was possible to keep a part-time job while going to school full-time and vice versa. There are people of all work/school balance levels in my program, and they all manage to do it somehow.

My opinion on the matter is that it is possible, but it's certainly a situation that forces you to prioritize and often times make trade-offs. I had two small part-time jobs during the fall semester - tutoring and coordinating community service spring break trips - and found it to be manageable most of the time. I've now pretty much completed my community service trip work and am on the verge of having no part-time jobs! This is probably a good thing, given the amount of work I expect the summer semester to hold.

That said, I believe that it would be possible to hold a more substantial part-time job and still get a good educational experience. Though, if I had a significant part-time commitment, I can see where some trade-offs would need to be made. I'd definitely be spending less time with Net Impact and networking activities and perhaps not doing these things at all. And though my blogging on here is slightly infrequent now, I imagine I might not find the time to do it at all with more outside work commitments. I know that I'd have to cut down on social time as well. I usually spend one day each weekend doing something fun and not school-related. These activities would most likely be supplanted with some of the homework that I didn't have time to do during the week because I was working.

I find that I need this balance of fun and meeting inspirational people alongside my coursework to give me energy and to find meaning in my school work. Nothing's impossible when it comes to balancing school with work and fun, but each person's formula for achieving this balance is probably different. Seek your balance!