Now that I am in my last semester at Stern, I have started to reflect on what I really love about being the school. The following are a few of the reasons I’m so excited to walk into the Kaufman Management Center every day and am always proud to tell people I go to Stern:
- My friends: I have made fantastic friends at Stern. I have found people to connect with through various facets of my life – friends who also used to live in DC, friends who like to do yoga, friends who are excited to travel, etc. We have brunch together regularly, go to each other’s conferences and shows, and travel together. I’m now even living with one!
- The community: From the moment I walked into Stern as a prospective student in July 2012, I knew I wanted to be part of the Stern community. I have found community in several places – from my first-year block and the Social Enterprise Association to the friends I share a Class Pass calendar with. I love being able to walk into Beer Blast* on Thursday night and know that I could talk to and find a commonality with almost everyone in the room.
- The faculty: My professors at Stern keep getting better and better. They keep classes lively and engaging through their humor and real life anecdotes. A few of my favorite professors include Glenn Okun for entrepreneurship and management, Diane Lennard for communications, and Bill Silber for finance. Moreover, I’m confident that I could contact any of them during my career and they would be willing to help or offer sage advice.
- The opportunities: I just found out that one of my good friends is in the United Arab Emirates for the week, facilitated and funded by the school. Through the Stern Signature Projects, she and a group of Stern students are working on a strategy and business plan for the country’s first national park. No big deal. It is these types of opportunities that continuously astound me. Over the past 18 months, my friends have traveled to Singapore to present at a conference on women in business and to Paris to attend a conference on the sharing economy. Opportunities such as these are countless at Stern.
This list well captures how fun and special it has been to be part of Stern for the past year and a half. It certainly makes me glad that I have a few more months left to take advantage of it all.
*Beer Blast is a weekly social event for full- and part- time students. Think of a more mature and elegant college party.