It’s almost lunch, and I’ve just made it through the first week of Elective Period 5. It’s early January, and I am not acutely aware that for the MBA Class of 2015, there are now many more days behind us then there are ahead of us. It’s a bittersweet thought – the experiences that we’ve shared will yield a lifetime of memories, and pretty soon this life-changing chapter in our lives will draw to a close. I take solace in the fact that after Ivey, we are all going on to bigger and better things (even if most of us don’t know what that thing is yet!). Already, I’m looking forward to the first reunion after graduation, and finding out about how our class is making a difference across the globe.
From now until April, the focus of the MBAA will be to pick up where we left off after the Study Trips and the holidays, and truly make the most of our time in London. Our third Family Dinner will be taking place in about 2 weeks, and plans for the Formal and Dis-Orientation are coming together very nicely. The clubs will be making plans for a wide variety of social and recruiting events in the coming weeks – DJ Scammer is getting things kicked off tomorrow with the Ivey MBA Welcome Back Party, which should be a blast!
We are now firmly into just-in-time recruiting season, and the MBAA is committed to working with the Career Management Office to provide any assistance that we can. Although everyone runs their own race, so to speak, we are all in this together as Team Ivey. I want to see everyone cross their own finish line – a win for my classmates is a win for all of us. So far, I think that our class has done an outstanding job in helping and supporting each other, and the MBAA will do its utmost to ensure that remains the case going forward.
One of the next items on my to-do list is the preparation for the Admit Weekend, which is coming up in just three short weeks. It seems like just yesterday when I first walked into Ivey as an admitted student, eager to meet my future classmates and get a first real taste of the Ivey experience. I remember watching the excellent presentation given by my esteemed predecessor, Drew Rankin, and never contemplating that I would be called upon to do the same in a year’s time. And yet, all of a sudden here I am, trying to work out how to match the standard that the MBAA of 2014 have set. For me, Admit Weekend was the first time that I truly felt like I belonged to the Ivey Family, and the MBAA’s goal in the next few weeks is to help build an experience that will leave the Class of 2016 feeling exactly the same way.
Onwards and upwards!
About Graham O'Neill:
Born in the UK and raised in Ireland, Graham O’Neill graduated from the National University of Ireland (Galway) in 2006 with a Bachelor’s Degree in Civil Engineering. Graham has worked 8+ years in the field of traffic and transportation planning on wide variety of private and public sector projects in Ireland, the UK and Canada. Post-Ivey, he will make a full transition into the business world by moving into management consulting. Outside of class, Graham is the President of the MBA Association, and the co-captain of the Ivey MBA Rugby Team.