UCD Smurfit MBA Blog

Posts Tagged ‘Socialising’

A fifty strong gang from across all three EMBA YR1 classes elected to drop the books and let the hair down for a social night in the Defence Forces military Barracks on the 23rd of March.

The evening kicked off with a lively drinks reception in the visitors centre were everyone was enlightened on the eventful history of Cathal Brugha Barracks. There were some surprised expressions in the crowd to hear of some of the happenings inside the gates over the years. It was certainly an eye opener for those who would not have been previously familiar with the finer details of Irish history over the past century and a half.

We moved from there to the Officers Mess where we indulged in the military’s finest cuisine! It wasn’t long before the weekend [class] crew had the wine opened and began to set the pace. Spirits were high and the “craic” as one says was mighty.

The meal complete we retired to the bar to enjoy the rest of the evening.  If the event was to be judged on the amount of people who stayed until the end well it would surely be marked as a great success, with many moving to the realms of Lesson Street to perfect their dance moves once the bar closed! In all the event provided an excellent opportunity for all of us to get to know and network with counterparts many of whom we would not have seen since the induction week.

Many thanks to all who attended, no doubt we will all see out the last few academic weeks of year one with success and hopefully we will soon meet again in high spirits.

- Conor Ryan, EMBA MidWeek, 2012-14

Congratulations to the winning team from the EMBA Weekend Year 2 class who are this year’s winners of the annual in-house case study competition.  Three teams battled it out on Saturday 30th May last in what proved to be a very closely fought competition.

The winning team are Eoin Lyons, Kate Healy, Jonathan Cuthbert, Sinead Hope and Dave Collins.

The team will now go on to represent the school in the MBAAI All Ireland Strategy Competition on June 23rd.   This annual competition will be held in the UCD Smurfit school this year as defending champions from 2011.

L to R: Dr. Brian McGrath(Judge), Siobhan O'Dowd(Judge), Eoin Lyons(Team Captain), Sinead Hope(Team member), Jonathan Cuthbert(Team member), Dave Collins(Team member), Prof. Pat Gibbons(Judge), Kate Healy(Team member).

Thank you all who participated – to the judges and the teams who made it such a successful day.

Best of luck to the team on Sat 23rd June!

MBA Programme Team.

Day 5 (continued.): We landed in Rio de Janeiro after four exciting days in Sao Paulo and headed straight to Corcovado, where the monumental statue of Christ the Redeemer is located. Once arrived, we were left standing in awe of the legendary figure and the spectacular view from the top of the mountain. In the evening we had a Brazilian style dinner at a local Churrascaria.

The group at Corcovado

Day 6: The day began with a presentation by major development bank BNDES in down town Rio. It was very interesting to find out how Brazil was preparing for major sporting events including the 2014 FIFA World Cup and the Olympic Games in 2016. Following the insightful morning session, we had an eclectic lunch at Café Colombo. We then attended a meeting with Brazil’s largest company, Petrobras. After that we were free to explore Rio and the beautiful Ipanema beach by night!

Day 7: We had a meeting with Deloitte that morning and then visited Vigário Geral, one of Rio’s favelas for lunch and presentations by the social enterprise organization, Afro Reggae. It was a once in a lifetime experience where we witnessed a few exhilarating music performances and got to do some drumming ourselves! The final dinner was held that evening at one of Brazil’s finest restaurants, Porcao Rio’s. Most of the group then headed to Lapa, probably the most happening place in Rio on a Friday night!

Getting a taste of Brazilian music

Day 8: The last morning in Brazil was at leisure and I took that opportunity to visit the landmark Sugar Loaf Mountain. We all then boarded the flight back to Dublin after an intensive week of work that gave us a wonderful opportunity to get a first-hand experience of rich Latin American culture and understand how it influences business and society.

- Vishal Balasubramaniam, Full-time MBA 2011/12

We started the MBA journey a few weeks ago and ever since day one I’ve been intrigued with the diversity of our class. With 55% of our students hailing from 10 different countries outside Ireland, you’re guaranteed to get a different perspective during lectures, workshops or bootcamps, whether the subject is Financial Reporting, Competitive Strategy or Strategic IS. This is especially true when you consider the large range of professional backgrounds also present. You’re always going to get a lightning bolt from somewhere when you throw Vets, Barristers, TV Producers, Professional Gamblers, Bankers, Traders, Lawyers, Engineers, Scientists, IT and Telecoms Professionals, Digital Journalists, Marketing Executives and a former Tank Commander into a room!

What’s fascinated me most during the last 19 days however, is the outrageously diverse range of perspectives that my new class have on life outside of the classroom. I already have countless examples which have opened my eyes to how different many of my new colleagues are in terms of outlook on life and life experiences. This is true on numerous levels. I’ve learned how sometimes Reiki is preferred to traditional medicine, reading tarot cards is favoured over blind fate and reading a persons’ energy as a means of judgingtheir personality is chosen over, well… the more old school ‘getting to know them’ technique.  It was apparent to me that this year was going to be interesting for a whole rainbow of reasons. Read the rest of this entry »