The 2011 C4C Sports Weekend was as epic as anticipated.  Foster had a record turnout with over 100 students making the trip down to Palo Alto from our modest 200+ student program.  We came in 2nd place for the coveted Golden Briefcase, after having a 2nd place finish for volunteer hours per student (9.34), a 2nd place finish for dollars raised per student for our charities ($275), and a 4th place finish in Sports Weekend.

 

We would like to congratulate the other eight schools for coming together to collectively raise over $500,000 and volunteer over 15,000 hours for our local charities this year.  We hope that we can do even better next year!

 

There were some great performances by Foster students, including finishing as runner up in Ultimate, runner up in ladies table tennis (Sally Lin), champions in men's volleyball, and a sweep of the top three times in the 5K at The Dish (Ian McMorran, John Huberty, Todd Haberly) with other great times by Colin Beazley, Jesse Bommarito, Kayla Villnow, and 2nd trimester expecting mother, Erika Haberly.

 

To cap the weekend off, our very own band, Death Spiral, put on an amazing set and blew the roof off the pavilion.  Great showing by Foster and all of the other MBA programs who prioritize C4C giving and volunteerism.

 

It is with great pleasure that I announce that the Foster Class of 2011 gift of a student-managed investment fund, has surpassed $100,000 in pledges from 101 donors from the full-time class.  With 98% of our class participating, we have once again come together to do something amazing.  We hope that future classes, past alumni, and members of the community will consider donating to this fund to really allow it to take flight.

 

Thanks to everyone who dug deep into their pockets for the future of Foster!

(That was my best attempt at a tabloid-style headline)

 

Another shoutout to the Global Business Association (GBA) for putting on a really fun event with the Indian TG on April 8th.  The food was delicious, the dance routines were fantastic, and the place just had a buzz about it the whole night.  It was clear there was a lot of effort put into making this a success, so thanks to all who were involved in making it a fun Friday night!

 

If you are like me, when you were looking at business schools, you saw several that had an MBA Student-run Fund where students managed the investment decisions of a large pool of money with the goal of appreciating its value.  Whether you were into finance or not, you had to admit that such a fund was pretty cool and had a lot of appeal.  Unfortunately, Foster didn't have one.  Until now.  (I love saying that)  Thanks to the tremendous generosity of the Class of 2011, the Foster School of Business is in the process of planting the seeds for a student-managed investment fund.

 

The institution of this, along with the seed funding, is our Class Gift to our great school.  Our hope is that this will one day become a robust fund from student, alumni, and community donations, and will be managed prudently by motivated MBA students each year, under the guidance of faculty and industry mentors.  The potential for this fund is incredibly high.  We hope that this can one day be a self-sustaining fund that grows through successful investment decisions, and can reach the point where discretionary distributions may be made from the fund to support student initiatives.

 

While this is still a work in progress, there have been great strides made that are owed to the grunt work and diligence performed by several individuals, but a special acknowledgement must be given to Matt Eliseo, who has led us through this entire process with the goal of achieving nothing less than the will of our class.  So if you're reading this in 2011 with great anticipation, or if you're reading this in 2061 to brush up on the history of the Foster fund that bought out The Coca-Cola Company because it had some spare cash sitting around, don't forget about the hard work that went into this undertaking so that we could make the experience of future Foster students that much better.

 

Thanks again to everyone involved, and infinite gratitude to all those who contributed to this gift and did their own part to make this program that much greater.

Congratulations to our team of first-years who came home as Champions of the National Net Impact Case Competition at the University of Colorado. Over 60 teams participated, with 20 reaching the finals.  Three of the 20 teams were from Foster.  The 1st Place team won $7,200 and became the first Foster team to take the top spot in this competition.

 

Congratulations to the team who represented us this year at the 4th Annual Baylor University MBA Case Competition in Ethical Leadership.  The team finished in 2nd place and took home $1,500.  Other schools who competed were: Auburn, Baylor, Florida, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Pepperdine, Texas-Austin, and Texas A&M.

 

Great job, guys!

 

The Foster Field Day was held on Saturday, February 26th from 12:00-4:00 p.m. at Cowen Park.  This was a Foster Cup event sponsored by Part ii and co-hosted by C4C.  The day began with a game of Ultimate, followed by a game of softball, and concluded with a football rematch.  Many first and second-years braved the elements (snow flurries and muddy terrain) in the spirit of competition and camaraderie, making for a very fun event where competitors and spectators alike had an exciting day in the park.

 

The first-years finally began to fire on all cylinders and came home the overall winners of the day, with a score of 167-97.  This significantly narrowed the gap in the standings.

 

Ultimate

 

Notable Performances:

Dave Wellington and the entire 1st year team.  These guys are nuts.

 

 

Notable Performances:

Steve Brockett and Paul Sandhu (defensive players of the game).

Play of the day goes to Todd Haberly for his sick TD catch.
 - Stat leaders:  Hullinger (1 receiving TD and 1 defensive TD); Sandhu (3 INTs)

Two more events were held for the Foster Cup, including the 8-on-8 flip-cup challenge at the December 3rd TG, where the class who won the best of three would take 10 points.  The Class of 2011 cruised to a two-game sweep, increasing their lead to 75-15.

 

On January 9, 2011, the inaugural Foster Fun Run was held at Green Lake, which presents a 2.8 mile scenic loop.  This was a fun but also competitive run, where points were awarded for participation, completing the loop, and time.  Guests and significant others who participated were awarded a participation point, but could not accumulate performance points.

 

The Scoring System

 

After a truly impressive turnout with great showings from both classes, the Class of 2011 came out on top to build on their lead.

 

Top performances:
Fastest Male: John Huberty (16:00)
Fastest Female: Kayla Villnow (18:20)
Team with most sub-25:00 finishers: Class of 2011 (20)
Stroller Pushing Challenge Winner: Brian Russell (21:15)

 

Close second-place finishes went to Todd Haberly (16:02) for the fastest male time, and the Class of 2012 finishers under 25:00 (19).

 

 

The updated standings are: Class of 2011: 324  Class of 2012: 166

 

On November 4, 2010, The Foster Cup was dreamt up.  After much talk about a 1st-years vs. 2nd-years football game, it made sense to me to have an entire series of competitions, with points accruing along the way.

 

The main idea of The Foster Cup is to unite the classes and to get as many people involved as possible, all in the name of friendly competition.  The events are centered around physical activities and challenges, and will hopefully span the whole spectrum of competitive sports, hobbies, and games as this evolves.

 

Currently, we have an improvised competition committee of advisors from each class who discuss the plausibility of certain suggested activities being appropriate for The Foster Cup.  After an event is deemed feasible, interest is gauged and a point system is structured.  Rules, points, and other terms are negotiated.  These often involve selecting a venue, points for participation versus points for feats, involvement of significant others and guests, one-off challenges, and so on.

 

The first event of The Foster Cup was the Foster Kickoff on Friday, November 5, 2010.  This was a men's football game that was played in the elements.  After a hard-fought battle that included injuries, cuts, intentional tackles in goose droppings, and Shane Parris imposing his will on the 2nd-year offensive line, the Class of 2011 won by a touchdown, 14-7.  Shoutouts for great performances went to Erik Lewis on the 2nd-year squad, aka the Straight Cash Homies, for quarterbacking the team to victory, and to Matt Johnston on the 1st-year team, aka the Buffalo Bills, for giving it up for the team on every play.

 

The scoring system (below) gave the Class of 2011 an early 65-15 lead.

 

Events to come:

We are looking for suggestions for more events!  As of now, some of our ideas are basketball, foosball tournaments, various drinking games, a tug of war, chess, running events, a field day, a modified triathlon, and women's only football.  So come on out and help your class bring home the inaugural Cup!

There is certainly a large number of messages that I had wanted to post pre-blog, so I'll try and put up some notable messages from this year.

 

I do, however, want to go way back and just post this picture from when the Class of 2011 entered Foster.  Surely the admissions committee brought us in on looks alone.

 

We finally have our blog up and running!

 

Please check back every now and then to see what has been going on with the MBA Association and the Foster MBA program in general.  It is our hope that this blog will be continued on for many MBAA iterations to come, and will serve as an informal timeline of the history and evolution of our wonderful program and culture.

 

Thanks for visiting!

Raja Das

 

A message from the Evening President....

Congratulations New Students!

Your life is about to change.  Realizing our untapped potential and achieving our goals is why we’re all here.  Over the next few years, you’re going to be extremely busy making it happen.  You’ll be building your business skills, making lifelong friends, developing valuable professional networks, challenging your mind as you compete with other students around the country in case competitions, and shifting your point of view about how business is and should be conducted in our global community.  Along the way, you’ll discover just how much fun it can be to do all these things in the Foster environment. 

New Students and Returning Students!  Its time!

Grab on with two hands.  This program is more than just some business classes; you kicked off your new career by deciding to attend Foster.  Be sure to think of this time at school as another part of your job.  Just like at work, you need to ramp up, learn as much as possible, find mentors to help your development, share your experiences with everyone around you, and above all, network, network, network!  Put as much energy into Foster as you would your career, because this is the first and most important step. 

Join clubs.  Here you’ll meet like minded business students as you deepen your experience and knowledge in a specific area that interests you, or join a variety of clubs to explore options and see what fits.  Either way, Foster has a huge variety of clubs including Finance, Global Business, Marketing, Women in Business, Entrepreneurs, and much more.  You’ll have the opportunity to listen to inspirational business leaders, join case competitions, visit businesses, and learn from your classmates.  I believe participation in everything Foster has to offer is essential to your success and getting everything possible out of the program, so start by joining some clubs. 

Meet Everyone.  The Foster MBA Program has some of the most inspiring and amazing people I have ever met.  Since I became part of the Foster program I have met fellow students from the US and around the world that develop cutting edge technology, start non-profits, own multiple businesses, speak eight languages, have families, climbed Kilimanjaro, sold their startups, defend our country, have been awarded patents, met Warren Buffet, went to chef school, lived and worked abroad, and were part of the peace corp.  Each year the student body takes on a unique personality as new students join and graduating students leave to pursue their dreams.  I am excited to meet each of you as you add your stories to Foster.

Get Social.  Relax.  Decompress.  Too much work and studying will drain your enthusiasm and energy unless you stop and recharge.  But it doesn’t mean you can’t still multi-task!  Attend some social Foster events and meet other students while you talk about hobbies, vacations, dreams, and ambitions.  Who knows, you may just be meeting the future CEO of a fortune 500 company, a friend you’ll have for life, or the person that helps get you your dream job.  How can getting social be anything but a good investment of your time?

Welcome to the Foster School of Business.  I’m looking forward to meeting each of you.

All the best,

Susan Wojahn

Evening Class President, MBA Association

Evening MBA Class of 2012