Well, just like that, two years have quickly gone by. Looking back at my experience, I have certainly learned a lot of valuable life lessons and technical/leadership skills both inside and outside of the classroom. I started my journey at the Rady School knowing that I faced many challenges readjusting to being a student again and diving into unfamiliar territories. Now, I’m ending my MBA experience confident in a bright future, ready to tackle the challenges that I will face on my new career path as part of the Endeavor Leadership Rotational Program at Cymer in the San Diego area.
Thank you to our professors for challenging us to speak up and use our past experiences towards creating solutions to real problems we have not yet faced in our careers. Thank you for creating an experimental environment through unique classroom exercises and presentations, where I had the freedom to take risks and develop new ideas. I learned important lessons from both my successful (pitching a social venture to the San Diego business community) and failed (slamming the desk as a unique attention grabber at the start of a presentation… that did not work too well!) attempts.
Thank you to the Rady School student services staff for being open to new ideas we had for events (such as the Rady[x] tech conference, professional seminar series speakers) and classes (such as Rady School’s Analytics in the Wild course). Thank you to Career Servicesfor your help refining my resume, vastly building my network in California, and helping me prepare for interviews. Thank you to the alumni for helping me to obtain my internship and post-graduation positions. I am grateful for how supportive the Rady School community is in helping me to achieve any goals I set for myself.
With the community’s help, I’m proud of the accomplishments our MBA class had during our two years at the Rady School, some of which are:
- Reviving the Rady Marketing Club and setting up company visits to identify further career opportunities.
- Creating the first ever Rady[x] technology conference, which had speakers from Google Glass and Seagate.
- Giving back to the San Diego community by hosting beach cleanups, trivia night, and a dodge ball tournament.
- Helping to develop a social venture coffee shop / community space business to improve the economic conditions in the City Heights neighborhood.
- Participating in the first ever Rady Preview Day admissions conference and continually assisting prospective students with learning more about the Rady experience.
Above all, thank you to my classmates for making my Rady School experience a wonderful and fun time to remember forever. We started orientation week by meeting each other for the first time while trying to prevent an egg from cracking on the floors of the Rady building with our designs made out of plastic straws. Now, each of us is part of a special community that we have created throughout the two years and will continue past the walls of Wells Fargo Hall and Otterson Hall.
On June 13th, I will walk across the stage to shake Dean Sullivan’s hand, formally finish the MBA program and obtain my degree. Throughout the event, I will think back to the many great memories I have created with my classmates and Rady community. Some of the many fun memories that come in mind beyond the classroom are:
- The countless laughs and jokes we had in the lounge late at night when trying to balance accounting debits and credits. Those hilarious moments really helped us get by challenging homework problems and exams.
- Rocking out to tunes during our Great Gatsby themed formal party at the rooftop of a high-rise building on campus and during the annual Halloween party downtown.
- Conquering hikes under the sun at Cowles Mountain and Iron Mountain.
- Pulling off an unbelievable comeback as part of the “The Big Liabilities” team and making it to the championship round of the Rady dodge ball tournament
- Winning the intermural campus basketball championship as part of the “Rady Ball” team
- Participating in numerous happy hours at Home Plate and in the San Diego city area
- Playing pick-up basketball games at the RIMAC gym against each other and the undergrads
- River tubing and joining dinner parties with our San Francisco Rady School crew during my summer internship in the San Francisco bay area
- Falling and somehow losing my shoe in the final round of musical chairs during the farewell party held by the first year MBA class
While I am sad to be ending the Rady School MBA program and experience, I am proud of what we have accomplished during our time here. I look forward to accomplishing even more as an alumnus to the Rady School community. In addition, I am excited for the countless memories my classmates and I will create beyond the UC San Diego and La Jolla areas.
Thank you, UC San Diego’s Rady School of Management for the unique and valuable MBA experience. We are now ready to celebrate our successful MBA experience and take on what lies ahead of us in our lives!
Want to learn more about Rady’s MBA experience from current and past students? Download our eBook featuring insights on why they chose Rady, where Rady alumni work, the top benefits for Rady students and more.
Keith Louie (15) is a full-time MBA student at the Rady School. His hobbies include hiking throughout the county, trying out new restaurants (especially mom and pop places), visiting local coffee shops to get things done, and attending concerts downtown in the Gaslamp area. Louie is also a student MBA Ambassador at the Rady School.Â