Mid-year update

Time flies as they say and it surely has for me. One year of my two year MBA program is already over and it seems like not so long ago that I left Mumbai to come to the University of San Francisco.

I have traveled quite a bit since I got to the US. I was in Chicago in October for a NetImpact (www.netimpact.org) conference at the Kellog School of Business. I spent my winter break in Orlando, Florida with my sister and family and took a vacation in Keywest, Florida. The traveling has continued in the first half of 2007 as well. I spent my spring break in March visiting friends in Washington DC after which I went on to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Just returned from another short 10 day trip to Orlando where I got to meet my parents who were visiting from India.

The spring semester from January to May was very eventful in my MBA experience so far, some highlights
-The university team I was part of, won an award at the VCIC business plan competition held at the University of Santa Clara.
-I began my term as VP-IT of the Graduate Business Association, the student body at the business school at the University of San Francisco.
-Served at the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship, a non-profit, on their bay area chapter’s advisory board.
-Worked on the Marketing Taskforce for TiEcon 2007, one of the world’s largest conferences on entrepreneurship between January and May (www.tiecon.org)
-Visited the capital of the United States of America, Washington DC where I got a chance to meet some dear friends and attend a session at the House of Representatives on Capitol Hill among other things.
-Got selected to participate in the McGinnis Venture competition at the Tepper School of Business, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, which was an amazing learning experience.
-On the same Pittsburgh trip got a chance to visit Fallingwater, a house built by the legendary Frank Lloyd Wright on a waterfall in the 1930’s. The residence has been voted among the best of the last century and is a place I had always dreamed of visiting someday. Traveling with new found friends from Colombia, made the trip all the more memorable.
-Applied for and received the McGowan scholarship towards the second year of my MBA program.

Just this past week I also commenced my summer internship at Network Appliance Inc. (www.netapp.com). I am working with the Customer Advocacy and Quality group as a Business Systems Analyst till August. NetApp is a great company to work at; having being voted as the 6th Best place to work in the United States. I am sure its going to be an amazing three months other than the 3 hours of traveling I have to put in each day to get to and from work.