BoothRight is an annual Spring Break trip to Israel that is open only to second-year students. Because of its timing and awesome itinerary, BoothRight is the perfect way to finish the Booth MBA. Essentially, BoothRight is actually a student-led trip that is initiated and led by second-year Boothies from Israel (fun fact: Israel is among the most represented countries per capita in the Booth student body). Each year, a team of 4-7 Israelis takes the reigns and organizes the BoothRight trip for 100+ Boothies. While the reward in leading such a big and diverse group of business school peers is huge, there’s also a lot of effort involved in “making it work” spanning operational, financial, and marketing functions.
As we are in the midst of planning this year’s trip, I wanted to reflect on the motivations of the 2018 BoothRight Leaders, as well as share how different Booth Experiences are helping us to execute this ambitious project.
Aviv Shalgi: “My motivation for leading BoothRight comes straight from our ‘paying it forward’ mentality and from the extremely supportive student community. Booth nurtures the notion of students and alumni helping one another, without expecting anything in return, and I want to give back to my fellow classmates by showing them a part of the world they might not be able to get exposure to if they travel to Israel by themselves: from our culture, our historical monuments, through the lifestyle, and our business ingenuity and entrepreneurship.”
Alex Patiev: “Booth is super flexible and there’s no structured yearly cohort system. This allows each Booth student to know MANY peers in their class, without being limited to one specific group. Nonetheless, our class’s community is very strong, so for us trip leaders it’s that much more of an incentive to dedicate ourselves to the mission of producing an amazing BoothRight trip that will WOW fellow Boothies visiting Israel. We want this trip to open eyes, widen horizons, and become an everlasting memory of The Booth Experience.”
Oren Yunger (yours truly!): “For me, the first year at Booth was really helpful in crafting not only a Booth-related team spirit, but also in enhancing my teamwork capabilities. Collaborating on different group projects in hands-on courses like Commercializing Innovation and Entrepreneurial Selling and participating in national team-based case competitions helped me become more effective in my communication style and more geared towards results. At Booth, we work hard, but we also are very focused on having a good time and creating strong friendships, which I hope to facilitate as trip leader.”
There you have it, three BoothRight trip leaders representing different influences within Booth that made them own one challenge to the fullest. On a personal note, the fact that the answers are so different is the pure essence of Booth’s flexibility and empowerment of students to be their best selves, in the way they see fit.
