Contact the WSA 2008-2009 Board A Day in the Life
Aaliyah Shafiq | Karla Berman | Winnie Ma
Karla Berman - A day in the life…
A First Year Student Perspective
6: 55 a.m. My alarm clock goes off for the first time of what will probably be 8 or 9 snoozes. After a while I realize I really need to get up because I am meeting my learning team for breakfast. After jumping in the shower I get dressed quickly and walk 4 minutes to Spangler. I love living in One Western, one of the apartment complexes of campus, because I am so close to all the MBA happenings.
7:45 a.m. At Spangler, I grab some fruit and head to the dining hall. I haven’t met with my learning team for some time, but once in a while we get together to chat about how life is going. Today we talk about plans for the summer, give each other advice on how to go about our job search and mainly laugh about anecdotes of the last couple of weeks.
8:35 a.m. I get to my seat and start chatting to my seat mates, Sailu and Luke. We have become very close since we have to seat to each other every day for 4 months. We talk about everything ranging from today's cases to the section event that we just went to last night. Sailu is my section's Social Rep, so she is always reminding me about the activities she has planned for the section for the rest of the week
8:39:47 a.m. Everyone gets in their seats and the chatter stops right in time for the class to start. We have BGIE class and Professor Wells is standing at the front of the class. Today we are talking about the economic crisis in Mexico (my home country), a subject that I am an expert in, as I lived through it. The professor cold calls me and a little bit nervous I start talking. The class is very interesting and even coming from Mexico I learn a lot about the root causes of the crisis from what my classmates have to say.
11:40 a.m. After an Entrepreneurship class were we talked about Kate Spade I go over to Spangler where I am meeting my husband and some friends to have lunch. My husband is also a first year student at HBS, which makes the experience very unique. Even though each one of us hangs out with their section we have also gotten to know each other’s friends very well.
3:30 p.m. I get a call from an alum I e-mailed last week about my interest in the Media industry. He runs a publishing company in Mexico and agreed to speak with me for a while to give me some advice. I am always impressed at how responsive the alumni are. After talking for a while he tells me there might be a summer opportunity in his company, and that he would like the Strategic Planning VP to interview me. Yippee!!!
5:30 p.m. After a few hours reading cases by the fireplace in Spangler, I grab my backpack and head to Shad. I enjoy going to the gym almost everyday, and taking my mind of cases, recruiting, etc. when I take the whole variety of fitness classes offered.
6:30 p.m. By the time the spinning class finishes I hit the showers and get ready to go to a party of the CLUB LATINOAMERICANO, which I am part of. This is one of my favorite clubs, because contrary to what some may think, there are actually many non Latin people in it, so it's a great place to meet people that are fun loving and interested in the Latin American culture.
9:30 p.m. I get home and me and my husband have some dinner while we talk about today's events. I love getting his perspective on the cases because although we read the same ones, he always brings in a different view point.
12:00 a.m. One more day when I finished EXHAUSTED of so many things going on. I can't help falling asleep like a log, and wait for the alarm to go off in the morning.