No Shave November 2012

My class is amazing – I always knew that! :) However, the November razor buzz and over $25K raised for charity showed that MBAs know how to make money… out of hair!

Every November Haas students commit to give up their razors for 30 days to support Challenge4Charity, a non-profit organization that unites MBA students from nine West Coast business schools to support local charities and develop socially responsible business leaders.

Upon 30 days of struggling to explain employers the new not-so-business look, students auction their faces, heads, chests and other body parts to be shaved in a way the highest bidder wants and wear that hairstyle for next 24 hours…going to class, doing career treks and interviews..

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This year my classmates went above and beyond, generating even more cash flows via bake sale and bold Facebook campaign!

  No Shave campaign of 2012 doubled previous year’s bid. Will November 2013 beat that?

C4C Special Olympics Basketball Clinic

This gallery contains 12 photos.

This morning 10 volunteers from Haas headed down to the Haas Pavilion for a morning of basketball organised by the Cal Athletics Department and the Special Olympics. About 30 Special Olympics athletes came, and we were helped by about 10 student athlete volunteers. It was cool to get out on the Haas Pavilion Court! We […]

Challenge 4 Charity Half Marathon

Serving on the board of Challenge 4 Charity is by far one of the most rewarding experiences I’ve had thus far at Haas. Challenge 4 Charity is the only club on campus in which everyone is a member. We have a number of initiatives coming up, including a March Madness bracket challenge, an annual spring auction, and the C4C Sports Weekend held on the Stanford campus.

Sports Weekend is a highlight of every Haas student’s experience — a culmination of lots of volunteering, lots of fundraising and lots of fun! This year, we’ve decided to implement a few new fundraisers. I’m especially excited about our newest fundraising program, which involves training for a half marathon while raising funds for charity!

A little bit of background information…

Each year, a consortium of top-notch business schools raises funds and contributes volunteer hours to benefit the Special Olympics through a friendly competition. The MBA Challenge for Charity (C4C) is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization that draws on the talents, energy, and resources of MBAs from nine West Coast business schools to support Special Olympics and family-related local charities, to develop business leaders with a lifelong commitment to community involvement and social responsibility. Since 1996, C4C has contributed over $5.8 million to the Special Olympics and other local charities, as well as donated tens of thousands of hours of community service. C4C today remains the World’s Largest MBA Non-Profit Organization.

The UC Berkeley, Haas Running Group and Haas C4C Chapter have partnered to raise money for this great cause. 20 runners are training for the US Half Marathon 2, held in San Francisco on April 8, 2012, in an effort to raise funds and awareness for C4C. Proceeds will benefit the Special Olympics and Alameda Point Collaborative of Oakland, California.

I’m excited about this idea because it combines two of my passions: running and fundraising. I adapted the C4C Half Marathon idea from Team in Training–an organization for whom I’ve run and fundraised in the past. The C4C team has just set up a website to collect donations and will be jogging, walking and running all over Berkeley over the next few weeks to prepare for the big race. The funds we’ll raise as we train for the US Half Marathon 2 will facilitate free sports training and competitive events for children and adults with developmental disabilities. Because of our collective efforts, special needs athletes across the state will participate in aquatics, basketball, bocce, bowling, floor hockey, golf, soccer, softball, tennis, track and field and volleyball free of charge. Through sports, Special Olympic athletes will develop physical skills as well as a powerful and resounding belief in themselves.

The idea of running a race to provide recreational outlets for special needs athletes really resonates with me and I hope we see lots of success with this fundraising endeavor. My dream would be to implement half marathon training/fundraising into our annual C4C fundraising agenda. I look forward to seeing what this season brings!

Shameless plug:
Support our cause! Please donate if you can!

-Alison Brock

One Semester Done Already!

I can’t believe how quickly this semester has flown by! As of last Monday I was on holiday, and have actually spent the last week up at Lake Tahoe with about 30 Haasies. We had a huge house just a few minutes from both Squaw Valley and Alpine Meadows, the 2 resorts where our season passes worked. Unfortunately there wasn’t a lot of snow yet, but we had a great time. We generally spent the morning on the slopes, before relaxing at our house around the bonfire or in one of our 2 hot tubs! It was an excellent way to kick start the holidays.

Now everyone is heading off on treks all around the world (South East Asia, Brazil, Columbia … the list goes on), and I’m off to explore California – Christmas in LA with family, followed by surfing in San Diego, and snowboarding at Mammoth for New Year’s. What an amazing place!

Prior to the holidays beginning, it was a busy few weeks for all of us. On top of working hard in our classes and studying for exams, other aspects of campus life did not slow down. Our ‘Golden Egg’ cohort competition came to an end, with my cohort (Go Gold!!) winning the competiti0n thanks to an extremely strong win in No-Shave November and the total number of service hours, and second place in the Walkoff – the final event that involved putting together skits in the theme of Haasily Ever After. Company and club events also continued – in just the final week of class I attended the GigaOm Net:Work Conference in the city as a volunteer (and got to meet all of the speakers from Bay Area tech companies such as Google and Box.net), and went to visit Facebook HQ in Palo Alto.

Semester then wrapped up with a masquerade ball in the city where everyone had an amazing night. It has been a wonderful first semester – I’ve learnt a lot, had heaps of fun and made lots of great friends. I’m really looking forward to seeing everyone again in January.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

Ben

Community Events: EBC Fall Mixer & No Shave November

Just a couple of quick examples of events that have happened in the past few weeks, are already tradition here at Haas, and showcase the openness and values of our community.

The European Business Club recently held its Fall mixer in which students and partners from numerous European countries brought typical local food, drinks and trivia to share with all the other students and faculty. I think I have never seen the Wells Fargo room as full as I saw it during this event, which was a great opportunity to show the richness of Europe, in terms of cultures and flavors, to our non-European friends.

The second event I want to quickly mention is the reason why I have a beard in the picture above: No Shave November! During the whole 30 days, students agree to ignore the razor and we fundraise among friends and family to support Challenge for Charity (C4C),  a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization that draws on the talents of MBAs from nine West Coast business schools to support local charities and develop business leaders with a lifelong commitment to community involvement and social responsibility.  On the final day of the month, the rights to be shaved are auctioned and the highest bidder, while donating all the money to C4C, decides how to shave the subject, who commits to stay in whatever facial situation the winner has decided for 24 hours. Yes, that includes going to class the following morning…Pictured below are the auction stage and the shaving area, which was busy until the late hours of the day. The result: 123 MBAs donated the rights to shave their beards/head/chest/legs raising in excess of $12,000!

Volunteering At Alameda Point Collaborative

Today a group of us decided to head down to the Alameda Point Collaborative to do some volunteering.

APC aims to end homelessness by providing housing to 200 families and teaching work skills, nutrition and a range of other things. Haas does a lot of volunteering with APC, organised as a part of Challenge for Charity (C4C).

We spent the morning helping out on the farm, where we pulled out weeds, cut back wild blackberries, cleaned the chicken coop and generally tidied up. It was actually kind of fun, as well as a chance to enjoy the sunshine and get a bit of exercise – all while contributing to a good cause.