There are three main things SAB members want to achieve by attending orientation:

1. Meeting and welcoming the members of the incoming cohort.  We can help jump-start their sense of belonging within the Enterprise MBA Program and the greater WSOB community.  Plus, we get to meet them before everyone else.  Score!
2. Explaining our means of effecting change in our program, the Student Advisory Board.  We will discuss the history of the SAB, what we do, and how the upcoming elections will operate.
3. Presenting experienced MBA student perspectives.  Until you are actually in an MBA program, it is difficult to know which skills, behaviors, and activities are necessary to optimize one’s experience in the program.  For example, it will seem to them as if they are being invited to an indistinct, endless array of events.  But in reality, many events are rare opportunities only available to members of the WSOB.

I enjoy being a part of events like this.  This is one of the greatest things about being in a three-year, lockstep, cohort program: when you start, you get to meet your cohort and the two years ahead of yours.  By the time you are in your third and final year of the program, you have additionally met the two years behind yours.  A person in the WSOB Evening MBA Program can know 300 to 400 professionals with MBAs by the time they finish!

The backgrounds, skills, and experiences of our fellow program members are rich and varied.  My mission during the orientation will be to encourage the members of the Class of 2012 to meet as many of the students in the program as they can.