Pre-Enrollment Program for International Students
Orientation for the MBA Class of 2011 begins tomorrow, August 13th, but for some of us the Leeds experience has already begun.
Last week we started with the Pre-Enrollment Program, conducted exclusively for the international student population joining the MBA program this year. The specialist trainers - Matt Baca and Dieter Bruhn - have been doing this program at Leeds for over 5 years now. The 2-and-a-half week program began on 23rd July and I along with a few other internationals joined the program in the second week. The pre-enrollment program is designed to introduce international students to the American graduate education culture in order to optimize our learning experience in the new environment. We had sessions on basic classroom etiquette, negotiation skills, case discussions, business and academic writing, verbal and non-verbal communication and presentation skills. We wrapped up the program yesterday with three group presentations on Crocs and Celestial Seasonings (two world famous Boulder-based companies) and I was happy to note the progress that we had all made in the span of those two weeks. Even though I have had a fair bit of undergraduate experience in the topics that we discussed, I can confidently say that it was a thoroughly enriching program. Meeting with so many people from countries like Thailand, Chile, Israel, Russia as well as fellow Indians was a fantastic cultural experience. Just knowing that I am not the only person new to this land and to this culture was extremely reassuring. What's more, in the process, I ended up with a bunch of good friends even before the MBA has begun! Well, orientation for all 120+ students begins tomorrow and I'm certain that I'll get to make a lot more great friends in the days to come. I'm totally stoked for tomorrow!----
This post can also be found on the official Leeds MBA Experience Blog at http://www.cuboulderblogs.com/mba.
Last week we started with the Pre-Enrollment Program, conducted exclusively for the international student population joining the MBA program this year. The specialist trainers - Matt Baca and Dieter Bruhn - have been doing this program at Leeds for over 5 years now. The 2-and-a-half week program began on 23rd July and I along with a few other internationals joined the program in the second week. The pre-enrollment program is designed to introduce international students to the American graduate education culture in order to optimize our learning experience in the new environment. We had sessions on basic classroom etiquette, negotiation skills, case discussions, business and academic writing, verbal and non-verbal communication and presentation skills. We wrapped up the program yesterday with three group presentations on Crocs and Celestial Seasonings (two world famous Boulder-based companies) and I was happy to note the progress that we had all made in the span of those two weeks. Even though I have had a fair bit of undergraduate experience in the topics that we discussed, I can confidently say that it was a thoroughly enriching program. Meeting with so many people from countries like Thailand, Chile, Israel, Russia as well as fellow Indians was a fantastic cultural experience. Just knowing that I am not the only person new to this land and to this culture was extremely reassuring. What's more, in the process, I ended up with a bunch of good friends even before the MBA has begun! Well, orientation for all 120+ students begins tomorrow and I'm certain that I'll get to make a lot more great friends in the days to come. I'm totally stoked for tomorrow!----
This post can also be found on the official Leeds MBA Experience Blog at http://www.cuboulderblogs.com/mba.
