MBA life update to mentors
MBA 를 시작하면서 세웠던 목표 중 하나는 멘토들에게 주기적 업데이트 이메일을 쓰는 것이었습니다.
아래는 가을 학기에 보냈던 메일입니다. 혹시나 MBA life가 궁금하신 분에게 도움이 될 까 하여 공유합니다.
Dear mentors,
Winter is coming in Evanston!.... It's been around 10 degrees Celcius here for the past few days, which is mid winter weather in Hong Kong. It's only October...
(By the way, I've added a couple of people on this list! If you're getting my update email for the first time, I've attached my first updatebelow for your enjoyment. :))
Personal Life:
In my first letter, I wrote that I was worried that I would not make any friends. Guess what, that worry was completely unnecessary. Everyone I meet here is great and I've been busy meeting new people. Not just meeting them; I've been having meaningful discussions on the weather, life, race, careers, religion, and everything in between.
Personal sustainability is an issue that I have little progress on. Sad face. I have been going to a few yoga classes but that's about it on exercising. It's only going to get worse in the winter - am determined to be more active!
I've been hearing from many different leaders that come to give talks that "self reflection" is key to growth. I haven't been able to do that on a daily basis, but this letter is helping me self reflect on what I have learned so far in business school and what I can do to make my time more valuable, so, that's a personal benefit to writing these in addition to being able to keep in touch. :)
School Life:
I've decided to get involved with leadership with 3 main activities. (I wanted to do more, but people tell me 3 is really the max with the limited time and energy we have.)
· Kellogg Student Association - Director of Global Affairs
o I noted in my last update that my personal goal at Kellogg is to promote diversity and inclusion. As part of my personal initiative, I applied to be on the student association here to work with faculty and administration to officially do this with resources from the school - and I got selected as one of the first year directors! Global Affairs is the committee that exactly does what I wanted to do. It supports and hosts events that promotes diversity and cultural understanding, specifically around internationals and exchange students, within Kellogg.
· Charity Auction Ball Committee
o Every spring, students at Kellogg hold a formal auction event for charity. This is my "fun" activity here. I love parties (especially ones you have to dress up for) and I care about social impact.
· Korean Business Club - Social Director, Kellogg Community
o This is also as part of my initiative to promote my culture at Kellogg. I applied to be the social director for Korean Business Club not just to organize social events for the Koreans here. My role is to collaborate with other cultural clubs at Kellogg to introduce the broader Kellogg community to Korean culture and promote cross-cultural understanding.
I'm continuing with hosting "small group dinners" for topics on diversity and inclusion. So far, we've talked about micro-aggressions, cultural appropriation, and our next topic will be on intercultural dating. These dinners have been very rewarding.
Job Search:
Official recruiting hasn't started yet but people applying for banks and consulting are busy around me everywhere. Companies that I am targeting will be accepting applications early December, so so far I've been updating resumes, attending company events, and attending workshops. Next steps: reach out to alums and second years and arrange coffee chats. I've never formally "networked" before, so this is completely new to me. I believe it's a necessary skill set so will be figuring out what my networking style is and what works for me. I welcome any advice on this front!
I've gotten feedback that my last letter lacked photos! So here is a photo diary of key events that have happened during the last 5 weeks. Enjoy!
More feedback on what you want to hear from me is always welcome.
Kellogg Cares Day
For Kellogg Cares Day, my KWEST (Kellogg Worldwide Experience and Service Trips) group (we traveled to Montenegro together before start of school and became Kwestie Besties) volunteered at Build Chicago. We painted their conference rooms, kitchens, and bathrooms to make their facilities look cleaner and nicer.
Cooking Across Borders
My fellow Korean Business Club execs and I hosted a Korean dinner for "Cooking Across Borders" - a diversity event organized by Kellogg Students Association.
We had 19(!) guests and plenty of food - bulgogi, chicken galbi, japchae, various jeons (pancakes), etc enjoyed by classmates from around the world. We had friends from the US, Ukraine, Israel, China, and India join us for dinner on this night.
CUBS are in the World Series!
The picture below is not from the World Series, but before this happened I was able to see one of the earlier games with fellow Korean classmates. Fun times.
Best regards,
Lily 정원 드림
