Seize the day

The program was held by University of California (don’t get it wrong, it is in Washington DC) as a result of a consortium of 16 leading business schools in the US. In our session there were 81 participants (full or part time MBAs) from 8 business schools. The objective is providing students with an inside view of Washington as a political marketplace and the effects of government upon corporate strategic planning (quoted from the website http://www.washcampus.edu/courses/mba/default.asp).

The program has the length of 33-34 contact hours including 3 hours exam that worth 3 credit hours. The preliminary readings were about 150 pages of articles and part of books about the 3 pillars of modern government (legislative, executives, and judicative systems as well as how they are related to each other). I only did one third of those readings since I was more busy preparing the logistics (so I didn’t have to cook too much during the Washington DC stay).  

I found the course director and moderator, Dr. Gerald J. Lynch, a prominent faculty and expert that led our classroom effectively. He is an Associate Dean for Programs and Student Services, Krannert School of Management, Purdue University). Some of the speakers, based on my opinion, are probably not too clear in delivering the material. They kept talking without some structures (or maybe it was just because I was too far behind? It is always two sides of the coin, right?). Some of them are very straight forward and only repeating what was in the handouts.

Some are naturally great speakers. One of them was Megan; she is a journalist. What I can tell about her is that she is so passionate about her job that it is so much more than something she does for a living. She’s smart, brave, and (I hope) still retains her idealism. She was the only woman speaker and probably the youngest. She has her own blog and uses it as cross-checking mechanism for information (of course she assumed that all important and true information are accessible through the net). She explained more than just long talks about how journalism could change the world in some ways; she also told us how a human brain works in reacting to good news and bad news. Bad news are always more interesting, shocking, and inviting since naturally some parts of our brain are easily alerted by that kind of news. She also mentioned about the imbalance of news from Iraq since based on her research, almost all the western journalists hardly speak Arabic and the Arabic translators mostly come from one side. So the stories ultimately only speak for that side. There are still many things unfold in Iraq due to language and culture barriers beyond the war lines. Hmm, very interesting.

We also had a game in which we were divided into 8 groups. Each group has to follow every step of the game with the ultimate goal to make the Senator in our group reelected. We have to do many things including fund raising, meeting with local constituencies, meeting the lobbyists (that was one thing our group didn’t do), and working with interest groups. We had some very short visits, too. We visited Russel Building in Capitol Hill (met some Head of Staff of some reps and met a senator from Texas), the US Bureau of Labor and Statistics, the Eisenhower Executive Office Building (met one of 3,000 staff in White House; he handles the Management Budget Office), and National Press Club (where we had lunch in the last day and met with both Republican and Democrat press counselors).

The “field manager” of the course: Lisa and Natalie were so responding for things we needed, at least from my experience in getting a prayer room in the building and the invoice for my company reimbursement process. I also mentioned to them that it will be better if they can provide some preliminary sessions for international students who have very little knowledge and exposure to the material.

Well, let’s hope for the best result in term of grade. I think I did relatively fair. I still got some bonuses, though: big city, lot of lights, lot of interesting places, new experience, and meeting with Mas Agus –who is now working in IMF– and his wife; people I didn’t see for a long time. We stayed at Randolph Tower Apartment (we actually got a penthouse, thanks to Mas Agus). It is a very nice neighborhood near to Virginia Square Metro Station and Ballston Mall. I shall come to DC someday with Kaylia. She must be very excited. To sum it up, the 10-day trip to DC was worthwhile.