Well it’s that time in the MBA process, the last mini of year 2.  I have been spending time reflecting on the last two years, all the memories and well getting ready for the next step in life.  I thought maybe the last mini would be easy but it’s presenting many challenges both with course work and with working with the administration on improving the program.  These few months are shaping up to be the best of my life. 

As I have mentioned many times before the social life at Tepper is great.  I just got back from Spring Break in the Dominican Republic with 11 other classmates which was amazing.  This was followed up by an arepa bake-off at my house.  Arepa’s are a tasty breakfast dish that is popular in Venezuela.  Luckily, one of my roommates is an excellent chef and he competed with another classmate.  12 classmates and I were the beneficiaries of the best breakfast I have ever had, complete with blanco queso shipped directly from Venezuela and other homemade dishes, thanks Daniela! 

The last few weeks have also been very intellectually stimulating.  I have read two life changing books.  The first was given as a gift from our class president (thanks Colin) called Made to Stick by Chip and Dan Heath.  I have spent the vast majority of my time at Tepper bolstering my technical skills to be successful in the Finance field.  This book has sent me on the track to becoming a more holistically complete business person.  It talks about SUCCES an acronym for how to be a successful presenter and make people understand and more importantly remember the message I am trying to illustrate.  While I was turning the pages I realized that Tepper is an emersion in SUCCES.  The quantitative classes give you the understanding of difficult business concepts and the qualitative classes provide you with the SUCCES tools to share your knowledge with others.  The other book I read, the best $1.50 I have spent, recently was How to be a Star at Work by Robert Kelley, one of our best professors.  Dr. K outlines a Star Performer model that illustrates how to truly standout and succeed in any working environment.  After reading the book, I have become more aware of the true “Stars” in our class.  These two books are a must read for prospective students, having this knowledge prior to your experience will be very beneficial. 

So now I am on to the future which includes a trip to Singapore for the Graduate Business Conference, which should be another life enhancing experience.  The last one was held in Copenhagen Denmark and included 50+ top business schools from across the world.  This conference gave me a true international prospective of business and B-school.  Again, I realize that at Tepper our students are asked to do more than other schools and respond well to the challenge.  After that I am completing my yearly pilgrimage to the KY. Derby with 15-20 classmates, then graduation, and finally Greece with a number of classmates to celebrate the culmination of 2 years of hard work.  As I leave Tepper, I realize that the class of 09 will be in a better position than my class.  The building has received major upgrades during my time, the program has continually been retooling the curriculum adding impressive faculty like Marvin Goodfriend, the Career Opportunities Center has bolstered there staff and many new companies are coming to campus to recruit.  These are just a few of the improvements that are continually occurring.  I hope that all of you prospective students make the most of your time in B-school.  Tepper provides many unique and amazing opportunities to learn about business and more importantly about yourself.