Happiness, success and sadness

Where has the time gone? It's amazing how quickly three weeks can go by around here. And yet so much has happened in three weeks!

We successfully hosted another JMB weekend (see my last post for a description) and it was a great time as predicted. I met some wonderful prospective students and I hope to see all of them during Destination Johnson weekend (the admitted students weekend) in April!

The Women's Management Council (WMC) also hosted a professional trek to NYC last Friday and for our inaugural trek, it was a success! We visited three companies throughout the day (UBS, Colgate-Palmolive and Accenture) and then capped off the trip with a reception that included many more companies in an informal setting at the Cornell Club. Although it was a long day that started with a 5am bus, it was a good time. Below is a picture of me, Tiffany (my fellow Trek chair) and Adrienne (WMC president extraordinaire) at the reception.

Last weekend also brought the long-awaited (at least to me) Diwali celebration. I had practiced, along with my fellow dancers, for two weeks prior to the event, and it was so exciting to see all of the hard work pay off. I had such an amazing time, just as I was expecting to! There were several dances of varying natures, an explanation of what Diwali is about, a fashion show, and then an all-out dance party to finish the night off. I don't think I have ever smiled and laughed as much as I did that night. I wish it could have lasted longer! Below are some pictures of the fun, specifically our Bollywood dance. I'm the one in the orange, Marina is in the purple, Toral is in the black shirt and cute reddish skirt, Margaux on the right in the red and Mythily is on the right in the pink. What fun!

Sadness. That's the emotion that tempered many of us at the Johnson School last weekend when we found out that a fellow classmate of ours, Chad Russolillo, was involved in a horrific head-on car accident on Friday morning. It had been the first night/morning that we had some typical wintry weather around Ithaca, with a mixture of rain and snow falling through the night. There wasn't much accumulation, but it was enough to make the roads slick. I was on the early bus to NYC for the Women's Management Council trek when we came upon the accident scene. Our bus was delayed for a few hours while the rescue workers diligently rescued our classmate Chad, although we had no idea at the time that it was him. He is currently recovering bravely in a hospital near Binghamton and I'm so glad that he's all right. I know that I speak for everyone at Johnson when I say "Hope to see you around Sage Hall soon!" Another great shock also hit the student body when we found out on Sunday that Professor Robert Frank had had a heart attack last Saturday. Thankfully he is also recovering nicely and we also look forward to seeing him around Sage Hall soon!

A Day in the Life

One thing people learn pretty quickly about the Johnson School is that we're a pretty energetic enthusiastic, and yes friendly, bunch of people. Today, about 40 prospective students will get first-hand experience of this as they enter Ithaca for our annual Johnson Means Business weekend. Johnson Means Business is a recruiting weekend centered around diversity and it always brings a wonderful bunch of interested people to Ithaca to experience what we're all about and to help make the hefty decision of where to attend business school.

As you would guess if you've been keeping up with my blogs, I will be involved (I'm a sucker for helping out!). I'm hosting two prospectives and am very excited to meet them this afternoon/evening when they arrive here in town. There are a lot of great events planned for the weekend including breakfasts/receptions sponsored by Johnson & Johnson and Lehman Brothers, dinner with the Dean, career panel discussions and info sessions, dinners at students' houses and a super-fun party at Olivia's tomorrow night. Everyone always manages to have a great time and some of my current classmates attended the same event last year or the year before. I can't wait for the fun to begin!

Tempering my enthusiasm for JMB is the fact that I have three big assignments due early next week. This, of course, spells a weekend that will be filled with group meetings and work sessions when I'm not playing hostess to my awesome prospectives. That's the thing about business school - there's always something that you could/should be doing.

But again it's not all work. One of the other things I will be doing this weekend is attending dance practice for the Indian Diwali celebration that will be taking place here at Sage Hall on Saturday, November 17th. I missed the event last year but I heard it was so much fun that I wanted to be included. Some of my fellow classmates have choreographed several dances that we will be performing and there is also a fashion show. It's great to be able to help out while also having the opportunity to get closer with some of my classmates, both new and old.