Beyond Yourself Consumption Function

Beyond Yourself!

That was the rallying cry for a great event we recently held at Haas (and not coincidentally one of the four Haas Defining Principles). One Friday evening each month, different student clubs host a “consumption function” on campus. It’s like a big happy hour with free food and a different theme each time. On March 16, which coincided with the first Days at Haas for admitted students, we wanted to show off all the great social impact work that’s going on at Haas.

More after the jump.

Days At Haas 1

The magic of Days at Haas!!!

Although the weather was less than perfect, the entire Haas community was excited to show our admitted class of 2014 what makes Haas unique. More than words on a page, we believe and act according to our four defining principles. They were present in each and every interaction that weekend.

These principles are, in our opinion, what makes Haas unique. One of our goals was to show the class of 2014 how integrated the principles are in our daily lives.

With more than 150 attendees (partners included, as always) and more than 100 current students volunteering, the weekend was a blast. We hope every attendee had fun, learned about the classroom experience, connected with alumni, professors, and clubs about career opportunities and most importantly got to know awesome new classmates. We were very impressed by next year’s class!

While organizing the weekend, we got to know the class of 2014 by name even before we met
them. We planned the Amazing Race teams, discussed seating assignments for dinner at the Faculty Club, and organized homes for student dinners!

We got to know students’ preferences, career goals and even dietary restrictions! We couldn’t wait for the opportunity to put faces to names.

By our first interactions, the dinner, and Bar of the Week, it was quickly apparent that the class of 2014 has amazing energy, broad and inspiring experiences and a huge desire to be agents of change. We saw bonds already being formed, future companies being discussed, and heard great real-time feedback about the weekend’s events!

While we had naturally hoped that Days at Haas would be a great experience for incoming students, the weekend was a truly eye-opening experience for the HSA team as well!

We realized quickly that we’d be honored to be your classmates. The admitted students reminded us of why we chose to come to Haas. We recalled our passions, our career goals and our enthusiasm.

We are now preparing for Days at Haas 2 and we are certain that it will be just as amazing as the first edition, so come with energy and curiosity!

-Andrea Schalka, HSA Team 2012

The Beginning Of My Journey At Haas

Hi everyone, this is my first post on the Berkeley MBA students blog and I am so excited!

Welcome to Haas! I was reading these students’ posts one year ago when I planned to apply for Haas and at that time I was really attracted by the exciting life at Haas. So here I am, after one year’s preparation, from taking GMAT, attending schools’ info sessions, writing application essays, taking interviews and finally booking my tickets to SFO, a fresh first year MBA student arrived at Haas! I hope my post will help you in your application and understanding more about B-school life, especially for international students.

It has been over one month since I arrived at Berkeley. If there is anyone asks me, how do you like Berkeley? My answer is always: it is fantastic! Berkeley has unbeatable weather, unbelievably diversified restaurants, and extremely nice people!

So how about Haas? Even though I have only been to Haas for one month, I feel the spirit has already built into my blood. I am deeply impressed by the people surrounding me here.

– 2nd year students are awesome! Even though I heard that many activities at Haas are run by students, however, the extent of how broad and how deep our students are operating and running different organizations is really amazed me.  O-week, which is the acronym for “Orientation Week,” is mainly run by three 2nd year students, Kawai, Moritz and Mark! I can’t help telling others how amazing they are! For the entire orientation, all the activities, from our famous Cohort Olympics, to innovative speaker series, from taking us to contribute to community services to feed us with delicious food, is all their credit! It is just so unbelievable that three of them need to take care of 240 of us. Thanks again guys!

– My classmates are also amazing! Comparing to other top business schools, our class size of 240 students is one of the smallest. However, among 240 of us, you could find people from all kinds of different background, from working at Obama campus, to Coastal Guard,  from Olympic Athlete to Riding bicycles cross US, let along say other backgrounds, such as consulting, banking, technology, marketing, etc. Of course, Haas is most famous for its entrepreneurial spirit. So many of my classmates want to start their own companies or they have already done so. I even took a survey asking that what ranking among my classmates I would guess for myself regarding to the number of companies I will found in my life. Amazing?! Isn’t it!  This year, we have students from 39 countries. International students count for 40% of our total class. So as an international student, you can really feel it is your home here.

This is the beginning of my journey and I look forward to posting more soon!

Bringing Alums and MBA Students together for a night of Scotch

Guest Post: David Breger, Co-President of the Berkeley Digital Media and Entertainment Club (DMEC) gives us a peek into the different events hosted by clubs at Haas. This recap is cross posted on the DMEC Blog.

One of the best things about DMEC is our extremely passionate and fun alumni base.  Because the Club is less than a decade old, DMEC alums are recent alums that are awesome to hang out with and are always working on the most interesting things.

Case in point: a couple weeks ago was our First Annual DMEC Past & Present Scotch Tasting.  Sponsored by Johnny Walker, we held the event at the Yardbarker offices in San Francisco, started by two DMEC co-founders, Pete Vlastelica and Jack Kloster.

The night began with appetizers and cocktails, where dozens of DMEC members and alums alike had the chance to talk and catch up with one another.  Then began the scotch tasting.  The Master of Scotch explained to us the differences between the five types of Johnny Walker scotch we tasted that night: Red, Gold, Black, Green, and Blue.  It was a great chance to interact with DMEC students and alums working in the digital media and entertainment industries over some fantastic scotch!

   

—Vince

Janet Yellen at Haas

Great speech last night by Janet Yellen, CEO of the San Francisco Federal Reserve and a member of the Federal Open Market Committee. Yellen had been a professor at Haas before joining the Fed and came back to Haas to discuss the current economic situation in an event that attracted quite a large crowd and received plenty of news coverage.

Overall she struck a cautiously optimistic tone. Some great insights into the risks of deflation and inflation and what tools (both conventional and unconventional) the Fed has to fight inflation going forward and to stave off deflation in the short-run.

Janet was a great speaker and clearly an extremely intelligent person. This was probably one of the last speakers I could see before graduating, and while I am busy finishing papers and projects, I am so glad I went to see her speak.

A video of her speech is online at http://www2.haas.berkeley.edu/Videos/Janet_Yellen.aspx.

—olistrut

Berkeley Business Plan Competition, 2009

Back in March, my partner and fellow-classmate, Antony Passemard and I presented in the semi-finals of the 2009 Berkeley Business Plan Competition. With several days of intense preparation under our belts, we faced the panel of judges – some of the most high profile individuals from the venture capital industry – with confidence. Three hours later, the winners had been declared; we were moving on to the final round.

Antony Passemard, Sanjit Mitra
Haas MBA 2009

What’s unfolded through the course of the semester has been an unforgettable and unparalleled experience. The competition has been a big highlight of our two year journey at Haas, especially given the slim shot at making it this far (top 8 out of approx. 110 teams). The final round is in less than a week, and the excitement of presenting our venture idea – this time in front of both VC’s and the broader Berkeley community – is exhilarating.

Provided is a link to the competition website, which is open to the public on Thursday, April 30, 2009 from 6 pm onwards at the Andersen Auditorium on the Haas School campus. It promises to be a wonderful evening!

http://bplan.berkeley.edu/index.cfm?section=Home

—Sanjit Mitra