Ivey MBA students at Professor Denis Shackle's house. From left to right: Song Lu, Matt McLure, Yasmin Pestonji, Ash Chaudhury, Niousha Ghazni, Haley Jeffery, Steven Szekeres, Steve Gray, Tom Tao, Niaz Ahmed
Every now and then, you get to experience the MBA program in a whole other light. That day just happened to be the day Denis Shackel, our communications professor, invited us over to his house. During the elective period in August, I took the course High Impact Presentation. I took the course because I really wanted to fine tune my communication and presentation skills. The expectation set on the first day was that by the end of the course, we would all be singing. Literally, Denis had us all singing.
The course has allowed me to break self-imposed boundaries I had in public speaking. I have gained a new degree of self-realization, I can now speak with confidence and I am able to think quickly during an impromptu speech. Taking Denis’ class has transformed each and every one of us. The true test of our new ability was the day Denis invited us to join him and his wife in their beautiful home in Grand Bend and spend an evening singing! Everyone sang that night and we had a grand evening.
There is nothing ‘normal’ about the Ivey MBA program. Every day is different from the rest and you never know what experiences you’ll encounter each day. For me, that is the most thrilling part – there is so much going on around you and you want to capture as much of it as you can. Would you ever imagine coming to a MBA program, signing in front of your class, and not having that panic attack in the gut of your stomach? Neither did I, but the confidence you gain from taking High Impact Presentations does that to you. Ivey trains you to become a leader and a leader is someone who can stand in front of a group of people and speak with confidence. As Denis reminds us every day – “We are designed for accomplishment, engineered for success and endowed with the seeds of greatness.”
Prior to coming to Ivey, Niousha Ghazni was a clinical trial coordinator at St. Michael’s Hospital – working in the oncology ward. She completed a BSc from the University of Toronto, followed by a MSc in Neuroscience from Queen’s. What attracted Niousha to Ivey was the one year program and the Health Sector stream. Currently at Ivey, Niousha is co-president of the Health Sector Club and an active member of the Women in Management and Public Speaking Clubs. In her free time, Niousha is coordinating the Ivey team for the CIBC Run for the Cure team – set to run this fall in support of breast cancer!