NAWMBA Welcome Event

This past Friday, the National Association of Women MBA's at Darden (henceforth, NAWMBA) hosted a welcome event for first-years at a winebar on the downtown mall. The event was fantastic -- we filled the event space, wine and conversation flowed freely and I was able to meet and chat with more than a dozen of Darden's newest members.

Back in Charlottesville

I'm a week into my second year at Darden and I'd just like to take the opportunity to dispel the notion that second year is a breezy, golf-filled float to graduation. True, I no longer have 15-case weeks, or hours-long learning team meetings, but I still spend a ton of time on-Grounds (maybe even more than last year!). Each day this week there has been reading to catch up on (in some cases, entire books), bonds to price, club meetings to attend and events to help plan. And to think my expectation was to have wide open gaps in my Outlook calendar!

Yet while the schedule and pace may not have improved, my ability to manage those things certainly has. One of the greatest skills I think we acquire here at Darden is the ability to prioritize what needs to get done, focus in the free hours we have and quickly jump from one thing to the next.

Almost home

Just three more days until my summer in DC ends and I make my way back to Charlottesville. And I have to say, I'm pretty excited about going home.

While I've loved my internship and the chance to explore a new city, I've missed my life at Darden. I've missed my friends, I've missed my apartment and I've missed the b-school community I've become apart of. And what's struck me recently isn't just how much I enjoy being at Darden, it's how temporary my stay there is. One more year and I leave the bubble for good.

Post-presentation work

With my final presentation done, life at the office has entered a new phase. Gone is the feeling of intense pressure once so palpable atop my shoulders. Gone too is the compulsive need to update my PowerPoint decks every 15 minutes. Now, I just have ... work. With a week and a half remaining in my internship, my presentation may have signaled a peak in my summer workload, but it certainly didn't mark the end of it. Today, for example, I had three different meetings on three different projects (two of which I presented on last Friday and one of which is new).

Without the all-consuming stress of my presentation bearing down on me, this return to routine has been a relief. I've gotten the opportunity to work on another new product concept and through it, investigate a couple new marketing channels and meet with a few new faces around the company. But it's also been pretty busy. As I realized during an 8 a.m. Monday chat with my boss, the real world offers no post-presentation reprieve, no prolonged pat-on-the-back. It's simply back to work. Until of course, it's back to school.