This year’s MBA Welcome reception and dinner took place on Friday night last in the restaurant on the UCD Smurfit campus and was pronounced (by us) a great success with lots of positive feedback from those who attended.
For the MBA Office staff, this annual dinner traditionally marks the end of the busiest period of the year with all that goes into the beginning of a new academic year and the arrival on campus of fresh, new MBA participants to begin their MBA. For incoming MBA particpants it marks the end of a significant period of preparation, change and in some cases moving across continents and it is a celebration of the achievement of each and every individual participant which recognises that they have worked very hard already to gain a place on the programme of their choice and that they have successfully made it through the Foundation module and the first full week of lectures, no mean achievement in themselves.
As partners are also invited to this event it is an opportunity to welcome them to Smurfit and to show them where their loved one is going to be spending a significant period of time over the next year or two -and to thank them in advance for their support. The only danger noted by attendees was that the good food, company and ambience of the candlelight restaurant might give the wrong impression to their significant others who might think they were having too good a time and not really suffering for their MBA at all.
The Welcome Dinner was attended by 160 guests, including members of the Full-time MBA programme and Executive MBA year 1 classes and their partners. The dinner was also attended by a large number of the academic staff and all the members of the MBA Office. The official welcome was given by Professor Ciarán Ó hÓgartaigh, Dean of the UCD School of Business and Orla Nugent, MBA Director.
-Roisin O’Loughlin, MBA Programme Manager
Pictures courtesy of Bui Thi Hien Anh