LEAP Week! Ever since I received my acceptance letter in
March, I anticipated the start of my MBA journey. The program has an
orientation week called LEAP Week for the incoming MBA class. LEAP stands for
Learn, Engage, Assess, and Present, and we exercised each of these throughout
the week.
LEAP Week
is really a 7-day orientation program spread out over 10 days. It occurs the
week before classes are set to start, and allows the students to get acclimated
before the entire university comes back for the fall semester. LEAP week is
filled with informational sessions, Excel assessments, business communication
lectures, and the all-important Rinehart Negotiation Project.
Right off
the bat, we started LEAP Week with our professional headshots and group photo.
I’m really excited about our class. We have a very diverse group of students
with various professional interests and international experience. The first day
was full of information. Throughout the day, we heard from administrators,
faculty, alumni, and guest speakers about topics ranging from program overview
to “How to Dress Professionally”. We also learned about the concentrations
offered by the program:
·
Business Analytics
·
Entrepreneurship
·
Finance
·
Marketing
·
Operations
·
Supply Chain Management
That afternoon we met our communications professor, Dr.
Linda Lyle, and she delivered our first MBA class lecture. Her course is so
comprehensive that we have to start class a week early just to fit all of the
curriculum into the schedule! Dr. Lyle spoke about the effectiveness of
professional communication in both oral and written applications.
The next
day was the start of the Negotiation Project by Dr. Lloyd Rinehart. Probably
the most charismatic professor I’ve ever encountered, Dr. Rinehart introduced
to us a supply chain negotiation project accompanied by an extensively detailed
Excel file. The premise of the project is teams are broken down into four
groups: Suppliers, Manufacturers, Carriers, and Distributors. The goal was to
use the Excel file given to each team and negotiate with the other team to
maximize your profit margin. Sounds simple and fun right? Well it was fun, but
not simple at all. The next three days (and nights) were spent negotiating and
finally on Friday afternoon, we were able to turn in our projects and present our
findings. Oh, and none of this was for a grade.
Overall,
LEAP Week was really busy, but was very informational and helped build
friendships among the class. I think it’s beneficial to start classes knowing
your classmates, and this will help our teams work well together throughout the
semester. The first session will consist of the semester’s first 7.5 weeks, and
the classes will range from Business Skills Development to Demand Management to
Financial Accounting. I can’t wait to start!
