Canaccord Learning Commons

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Happy Friday to all of you!

The BCC would like to highlight one of our partners in student learning & development at Sauder.

The Canaccord Learning Commons is here to help you go further during your time at Sauder. They provide all Sauder students – including MBAs, MM ECM, and all other degree programs – with learning support services and opportunities to hone the skills that will make you successful at Sauder and in the work world.

Canaccord Summer Hours -> Monday to Friday (9:00-5:00 pm)

Over the summer they only offer writing coaching. You can find a full (and up to date) listing of their services here (http://learningcommons.sauder.ubc.ca/services/). There is also some content you can explore around Teamwork and Presentation Skills here (http://learningcommons.sauder.ubc.ca/learn/).

Once you arrive, drop by and say hello!  They look forward to working with you during your time at Sauder!  Any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact:

Alex Monegro, Student Development Manager at: alex.monegro@sauder.ubc.ca

Twitter: @canlearncommons

Minerva Foundation Awards for Women in Business – Reminder

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Deadline for Application to both awards is August 1, 2013.

The Minerva Foundation for BC Women is building a sustainable community of women leaders. The Minerva Foundation Education Awards promote the development of women leaders through education, by assisting them with the costs of tuition. Our education awards target women who will have the most impact in their work or community, and those in fields or demographic groups who are currently underrepresented in leadership roles.

Hager Family Fund Award – $10,000
This fund for BC women seeking to pursue their career in Business Administration is a result of the generosity of the Hager Family in partnership with the Sauder School of Business, the University of British Columbia.

Randy Sung Award – $500
This fund for BC women seeking to pursue their career in Business is a result of the generosity of the Randy Sung Education Endowment Fund.

Message from Current Class President – MBA Society Student Fees

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Dear incoming MBA student,

As you may be aware through information on Connect, each MBA student pays a one-time levied student fee as a part of their first tuition installment.   The decision was recently passed by current Full-time MBA & Part-time MBA students to increase the MBA Student Society fee from $261.10 to $400 as of June 1st 2013. 

The total fees collected for all MBA students makes up the MBA Student Society budget, 100% of which supports co-curricular activities for current MBA students throughout their program.  This increase will allow the MBA Society to enhance the student experience by providing funding for more student led events and by creating additional opportunities for MBA students to participate in activities throughout their program. 

Furthermore, the enhanced budget will allow the MBA Student body to build on current initiatives to leave a positive legacy for future classes to come.

If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact me at jonmains@gmail.com

Best wishes,

Jon Mains, Class President

Creative Photo Challenge – $150 Prize up for grabs

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Creativity is one of the courses you can look forward to taking in your UBC MBA program, and we wanted to start you thinking about it early. Jim Southcott, your instructor for Creativity, has provided a suggestion for an article you can read and we are throwing down a creative picture challenge for you to complete prior to arrival as well.

Article: “Get Back in the Sandbox: Teaching CEOs how to Play”, Manfred F. R. Kets de Vries. This article discusses the role of play in human creativity, and you can access it at this link: http://www.insead.edu/facultyresearch/research/details_papers.cfm?id=31339

Picture Challenge:  Take a picture of yourself that features the Sauder Door Logo  (below) and that illustrates a side of your creativity that you would like to explore in the Creativity class.  If it helps tell your story, feel free to use other images or words to complete the picture.Upload the picture to the class Facebook group and share your creation! There will be a $150 UBC Bookstore Gift Card as a prize at Orientation for the picture that makes the biggest impression! The deadline for submission is midnight Vancouver time (PST) on Monday August 19th.

We have taken our photo, and we are looking forward to seeing what you all come up with!

 

 

 

Welcome Webinar Powerpoint & online link

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Great webinar today – thanks to everyone who participated!

Attached is the powerpoint presentation used in the webinar, which will also be posted on your Connect site, and for those who couldn’t attend you can watch the recording here.

If you have any questions after watching the webinar feel free to ask them on the Facebook group (if you think other students would like to see the answers), or email askmba@sauder.ubc.ca

 

Minerva Foundation Awards for Women in Business

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The Minerva Foundation for BC Women is building a sustainable community of women leaders. The Minerva Foundation Education Awards promote the development of women leaders through education, by assisting them with the costs of tuition. Our education awards target women who will have the most impact in their work or community, and those in fields or demographic groups who are currently underrepresented in leadership roles.

Deadline for Application to both awards is August 1, 2013.

Hager Family Fund Award – $10,000
This fund for BC women seeking to pursue their career in Business Administration is a result of the generosity of the Hager Family in partnership with the Sauder School of Business, the University of British Columbia.

Randy Sung Award – $500
This fund for BC women seeking to pursue their career in Business is a result of the generosity of the Randy Sung Education Endowment Fund.

Welcome Webinar – Tuesday June 4th, 8am PST

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You are invited to learn more about what to expect in the MBA program through our upcoming Welcome Webinar:

Tuesday June 4th, 8am-10am (PST)

Online RSVP Required

More information on how to access the webinar will be provided closer to the date.

Topics covered:

Key dates & program schedule overview, tour of Connect online environment, information about the MBA Prep courses, some information for International students, introduction to the Business Career Centre and Professional Development during your MBA program, and review of your actionable items leading up to the program start date. We will also leave plenty of time for you to ask questions and make comments via the chat-room. We look forward to connecting with you online!

Student Roster & Release Survey – please complete by June 17th

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Each year, the MBA & ECM Programs Office creates a student roster that contains a photo and some information about each student.  This is a tool that allows faculty, staff and your fellow classmates to get to know you. This is an example of a roster entry:

Please enter your roster details here by Monday, June 17th so that we have time to compile the roster for the start of the program.
*We will use the photo that you have submitted with your application to the MBA Program. If you would like us to use another photo, please send it to askmba@sauder.ubc.ca

When you enter your details we also ask you for consent to use images and videos of you taken while you are in the program for administrative and promotional purposes, so please answer that question as well.

Any queries on the above can be directed to askmba@sauder.ubc.ca

Advice from Current MBA Students for the incoming class….

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Our question to the current MBA students: Think back to last year, before you started the MBA program: if you could go back and give yourself one piece of advice, what would it be?

Here are their answers (feel free to ask your buddies for more tips & tricks!)

  • Don’t worry too much if you feel overwhelmed at the start. The rest (P3 onwards) will be much better.
  • Get used to using iCal or Google calendar to run your life
  • Interact as much as you can with the second years, we won’t be around for long
  • Don’t worry too much about grades. Focus on networking with people. You will get an internship/job 90% because of networking and 10% because of your grades
  • Although the program is busy, get involved in as many extra-curricular activities as possible – you won’t regret it.
  • Your Grades will be no greater than 85 even if you study better than God. So focus more on Networking.
  • Make friends with the BCC and MBA office. You’ll need them much more than you think.
  • Make sure to take the time to stay connected with friends and family. Finding time can be challenging but will pay huge dividends.
  • You won’t have time to do everything you want to do (especially during P1/P2), so make sure you know all your options before making any commitments.
  • Attend as many sessions by guest speakers as possible. They provide a breath of fresh air and are often inspiring.
  • Time management is key. If you can do that, you’ll sail through it and don’t worry too much about grades.
  • Make sure to see friends and loved ones in June/July, you won’t see them much after that. You will acquire a great new set of friends/family though so it’s not all doom & gloom.
  • Take the courses that you think are useful and don’t care about grades. Most of employers don’t even ask to provide transcripts.
  • Bring a windows laptop in order to use many excel features you’ll need. Not impossible to get by with Macs but can be painful.
  • Talk to all professors one on one at least once. You will learn more from talking to them personally than you would in class.
  • Start networking early, and take the initiative to build up your career. Talk to the BCC, your profs and your cohorts…you’ll be glad you did. Absorb as much as you can and expose yourself to as many diverse components as possible. Finally, remember to take time out with your loved ones, friends or just chill by yourself.
  • If you haven’t done so yet, LEARN AS MUCH AS YOU CAN ABOUT EXCEL!
  • Take advantage of the Dean’s Fund and go on trips to interact with as many outside companies and schools as possible.  You’d be surprised how much your education stands up outside of Vancouver.
  • Meet people, get out of your comfort zone and don’t be afraid to make a fool of yourself – everyone is just as nervous as you!
  • Go to MBA Prep even if you know everything just to start meeting people.
  • Be rid of your pride and judgement, you learn so much from every single of your classmates!
  • As much as you can manage – take 1 day off a week to do something for yourself that you enjoy, even at the start. Some weeks it won’t be possible, but even 4 hours can save your sanity and will actually make you MORE productive in the time you do work. Go for a hike with friends, a bike ride, a nice meal…something to balance out all the work!
  • If it’s been a while since you’ve done a lot of number crunching, take the time to refresh your skills!
  • Get to know all your classmates- you never know who has what skills, work experience or network that you’ll want to get connected to.  In the years to come no one is going to care what your grades were, they’re going to care about and remember how you treated others.
  • Learn to cook if you don’t already know how to.
  • Recognize you will not be able to do everything, prioritize ruthlessly, and try to remind yourself of the big picture (e.g. choose a networking event over taking some assignment worth 0.01% of a grade from “good enough” to “amazing”).
  • Once you learn how to cook (see advice above), buy a freezer and fill it with portion-sized healthy food before school starts so you don’t eat fast food all year

MBA Prep – August 12 – 23rd

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The MBA Prep Program is an intensive non-credit series of courses that cover key  concepts of the MBA curriculum and prepares incoming students for the demanding nature of the MBA Program experience.  Unless you demonstrate a thorough grounding in these concepts, you are expected to enrol in the MBA Prep Program.

The fast pace of the FT MBA Program course necessitates that all students have an adequate level of understanding in: quantitative methods; finance; introductory financial accounting; business statistics.

Below are links to course outlines, self-tests and answer keys for each of these disciplines. Unless you know for certain that you are enrolling in the MBA Prep Courses, you must take these tests and self-grade your test to determine whether or not you will need upgrading or refreshers in any or all of these subjects.  It is imperative that you download and complete these tests as soon as possible so that you can make arrangements to be sufficiently prepared prior to the start of the MBA program.

We expect all students to have either enrolled in the MBA Prep Courses or to have completed the assessment tests and self-checked with the answer key by July 12, 2013.

For each subject in which you receive a grade of less than 68% you will be expected to register for that course.  However, students with scores above 68% are also strongly encouraged to complete the MBA Prep Program. Experience has shown that students who complete the program perform better in their MBA studies.

Dates, Instructors, Outlines, Self-tests & Answer Keys (all courses will run between 8am-5:30pm, Monday – Friday)

There is a separate cost for MBA Prep – the total cost for the entire 10-day Prep program is $640. You can also register for courses separately at a cost of $80/day. Registration & payment online.

All of this information is also found on your Connect site in the Prep & Orientation section. If you have any questions please contact askmba@sauder.ubc.ca