Fall on Hyde Park’s campus looks familiar to me. I lived here for four years here as an undergraduate studying economics. But a lot has changed for me since the last time I walked the Midway or grabbed lunch at the Medici. I spent the last four and half years in the Marine Corps, stationed in Hawaii and deploying around Asia as an Intelligence Officer.
Transitioning to civilian life and Booth has been a lot of fun, but jumping into the b-school trifecta of academics, social events and recruiting has had it’s challenges, too (not to mention working on growing my hair to a civilian length!). As I celebrated Veteran’s Day at the Armed Forces Dining Out with over 120 current and alumni Booth veterans last weekend, I thought a lot about how great it’s been to have the Armed Forces Group (AFG)— one of campus’s tightest knit support networks on campus— to lean on along the way.
Last month, I attended the 36th Annual Fogel Dinner, along with scores of students, alumni, and staff from across the Chicago Booth community. Named in honor of the professor and Nobel laureate Robert Fogel, the Fogel dinner has become a time-honored tradition and a symbol of diversity and inclusion at Booth. Professor Fogel was an advocate for building community at the University of Chicago, especially for the under-represented and marginalized groups, such as African Americans.
Roughly 30% of Booth’s full-time program is composed of international students, hailing from all corners of the earth. Over the years, international students have planned “unofficial treks” to their home countries and invited fellow Boothies along for a glimpse of their rich cultures, customs, and stomping grounds.
Before heading back to Chicago to start classes, I travelled to Lebanon with a group of 11 2Ys for a week-long country tour. My classmates, Jad Houry and Stephanie Saade, grew up in Beirut and were the perfect guides to show us all that Lebanon has to offer. We got the opportunity to not only visit Lebanon, but experience the country through the eyes of locals.
And what better way to share this Booth experience than to show you?
Last year, TBE blogger Oma Nwabudike posted an article about being an introverted MBA student. It turned out to be one of our most-read blog posts of all time!
Whichever way you lean on the Myers-Briggs scale, this is a raw look into how the less extroverted types thrive in the business school environment, especially at Booth.
Our Class of 2020 has arrived on campus and they are finishing up their first week of Orientation. In true Booth fashion, this class is made up of a diverse group that represents a wide range of industries and functions. For example, one incoming student, Grace Zimmerly, was previously a lead for overdose reduction initiatives with the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area in New York and New Jersey.
While we may all come from very different professional backgrounds, Grace says there is a common factor across her Booth classmates, “Intense curiosity, broadly applied.” Hear more from Grace’s interview with Poets & Quants about her past job, what led her to Booth, and what she’s most looking forward to during the next two years.
