@font-face { font-family: “Cambria”; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: “Times New Roman”; }div.Section1 { page: Section1; }

It was going to happen once while in China. As a first time traveler on my own, I was bound to get ripped off. It was abundantly clear the second I left the train and went through Hong Kong customs that I was back in China. Unlike Shanghai, however, no one spoke much English at all. Also, I had not properly done my research about how to get to the Airport and where to maybe grab some food. I was carrying around a large piece of luggage (yes, I over packed) and I looked confused. Perfect target. A cab driver came running up to me. I figured a cab might be easier than trying to figure out the busses. I had arrived in Shenzhen about five hours before my flight was going to leave. I thought I’d grab dinner somewhere near the airport and then head over there to avoid the fast food trap of the airport.

The cab driver asked a cop to assure me that he was in fact a cab driver. The cop nodded and said it’s ok. This guy agreed to take me to an ATM and then Bao’an where I could get some food, supposedly near the airport. The second we got to his car, I realized it was a “private cab” which means no meter and therefore, they charge you whatever they want and it was a bit nerve-wracking. He already grabbed my luggage and tossed it in the back and I didn’t know how to back out. We stopped about ¼ mile from the train station at an ATM. I asked for my luggage because I needed to grab something from it. I went inside with all my things and when I came back out, I told him I was just going to look around this area. He kept following me until I would give him 50 Yuan (about $8 USD). This is quite a lot. To put it in perspective, the bus that eventually took me to the airport only cost 20 Yuan. To feel safe, I just gave him the money and walked away. I tried to get another legit cab to take me to Bao’An but they had no idea what I was asking. They all spoke Cantonese and I was attempting to communicate in terrible Mandarin.

Finally, as I was almost going to cry, a nice man who spoke a little English asked where I was going, and after 45 minutes of this craziness, I decided to just head to the airport early. So, he walked me back to the train terminal where I could take an airport shuttle. This was not a short walk and I was weary after all this other stuff. He chatted with me as best he could and I tried a little Mandarin with him. He got me on the right bus and was very friendly. I still don’t know what he was doing walking around town but he got me to the right place. I wish I knew his name, I cannot thank him enough. The kindness of this stranger may have prevented me from making other dangerous mistakes.

April 23-25 (Pictures to be posted retroactively—Sorry!)

Day One:

Oliver’s Super Sandwiches- Central

An egg, bacon, salmon and tomato sandwich with some tea. It was easy to see the British influence in Hong Kong upon eating this first meal. The hustle and bustle of being in Central district was apparent, noses buried in newspapers and everyone eating lunch in a hurry.

Leo- My tour guide

A friend of mine from Pepperdine went to undergrad in Hong Kong. She was nice enough to contact a friend who would be able to take me around. We met in Kowloon and began exploring. It was a cloudy, drizzly afternoon, so we mainly stuck to indoors at first. We went to the Museum of Art and the Avenue of the Stars. I realized just how out of touch I was with Asian culture, forgetting that the film industry expands and has influenced far reaching corners, such as Hong Kong. Other than Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan, I didn’t recognize a single name. We took the Star Ferry back to Hong Kong Island and walked. We walked for probably three hours, exploring Central and Soho and other tucked away markets. He treated me to some kind of famous tea that was quite yummy before we headed to dinner.

Seafood Dinner- Causeway Bay

Let’s eat where the locals eat. Hong Kong is very international, and therefore, many areas, such as Soho, allow you to forget that this is China. Leo took me to a great hole in the wall (no English name) that sold raw seafood and had meals. The tables were plastic and the chairs were deck chair style plastic stools. As an East Coaster, I’m familiar with grungy crab shacks. It felt reminiscent to that. We ordered some crab cooked in a Chinese sherry, garlic prawns, fried squid (similar to calamari but seasoned very differently), and scallops. This was an amazing feast. Leo and I chatted about my interest in moving somewhere in China and about his experiences traveling in the US. He was great company and I was lucky to have his local expertise. I could never have found food like this on my own.

Day Two:

A Red Bean Bun and Mango Juice and off we go!

I grabbed a quick breakfast from a cute bakery near Central station before hopping the train to Tong Chung. (Check). Unlike dense buns in Shanghai, this was a buttery roll filled with sweet red bean paste. It was a delicious way to start the morning.

Monastery Restaurant- Big Buddha

Built in the 1980s, Hong Kong received some relics from Mainland Buddhist monks and also combined some of their relics to create this amazing monastery and museum. They also crafted a 60’ tall Buddha who sits at the top of 220 stairs. The whole area is a testament to faith, calm, and tourism. Souvenir shops litter the grounds mingling in a bizarre way with the picturesque landscape. While there, I purchased a ticket to a meal in the monastery restaurant. The food was pretty lovely, especially after all the walking, and while I sat there awkwardly by myself, a sweet family chatted me up. We shared rice and tea and their nice chit chat just made me all that less awkward.

The Boy that Flirted with Me- Train from Tong Chung to Central

An adorable boy sat across from me on the subway train. His shy eyes and flirty looks had me at hello, as they say. This one-year old Chinese boy was the cutest kid I think I’ve ever seen. His parents and I chatted during this long train ride, and the kid played coy and would wave and then hide his head. It was just one of those silly yet memorable interactions.

A Little Bit of Easter and some free beer- The Peak on Hong Kong Island

It’s difficult for me to turn down unique gelato. Upon reaching the best lookout point in Hong Kong on a perfectly clear day, there was a mall at the top (somewhat of a let down to see the skyline marred with this tribute to consumerism). However, this gelato place had some awesome flavors like Black Sesame and Easter Egg, which was essentially a Cadbury Cream Egg broken into vanilla gelato. I grab a small cup and took a picture. While I was taking the picture, some nice Aussie girls asked if I wanted some help with the picture. I explained that it was just my dorky attempt to capture this gelato moment, and they gave me a real Cadbury egg to enjoy with my Easter gelato. We were walking to same direction, so I walked along with them.  It was long before I had met their whole group of eight folks, all of them from different places like Australia, Japan, England, etc. One even handed me a beer to enjoy on our hike. It was one of those awesome inclusive moments and they were super rad. One girl in particular, Karen, was very helpful and advised me to check out Wan Chai this evening…which I did.

Lebanese Food & Mojitos- Wan Chai

Wan Chai is an odd area. It’s littered with Go-Go bars and strip clubs and hourly hotel rooms, mixed with chill cocktail lounges and hipster style bars. The crowd is more local then Soho, which has a distinctly international feel. I grabbed a yummy Lebanese falafel wrap and headed to one of the bars that Karen recommended called Mes Amis. I had a refreshing mojito and ended up chatting for two hours with the traveling businessman sitting next to me. He had learned Mandarin back in the 80s and we discussed how valid it has been in his career and we talked about traveling and relationships. And after a couple drinks, we parted ways without exchanging information. I guess, despite the convenience of Facebook, some conversations are just for that moment.

Day Three:

Dim Sum @ Luk Yu Tea House – Central District

It’s not a visit to Hong Kong with out the iconic city staple, Dim Sum. I read about this traditional place called Luk Yu. When I was in the hotel lobby checking out, I ended up chatting with a confused Aussie couple (the Aussie’s were good to me this trip). They had just arrived in Hong Kong and were figuring things out. I told them my plans for the day and they asked if they could come with. Of course! So, we went out for Dim Sum. The tea was light and fragrant like rose. It was some of the most drinkable tea I had in all of China. The shrimp dumplings and gourd stuffed with chicken was delicious. It was just nice to have company and eat some dim sum before I left town. We headed over to Mong Kok to do some cheap shopping before I headed to Shenzhen for my flight to Guilin.

Conclusion:

It’s great being on your own, but it’s better when the spontaneity of the day unites you with new friends and interesting experiences.

Alright, Grandma. You win. I will attend a seder in China. For those who don’t know, tonight was the first night of the Jewish holiday, Passover.  This is the story of Moses and the Jewish people’s flight from Egypt that eventually led to the 10 commandments. This story is retold every year on Passover. This is one of my favorite holidays and I was sad to miss it in the US, however, I figured it would be difficult to find a seder in Shanghai.

Apparently, I was wrong. My grandma, adamant that there would be Jews in Shanghai, found me a seder at the historic Ohel Rachel, one of the two oldest synagogues in Shanghai from 1920. Chinese citizens are not allowed, as religion is still monitored in China, however, ex-pats could enjoy the holiday together. So, at 25 tables of 10, people from all over the world dined together, many living now far from their families or visiting, like I was, for a couple weeks or months.

The people at my table were from the US, England, Spain, and Israel. All of them were there to teach English or work, myself being the exception. It was wonderful to learn their perspective on doing business in China or how they liked living in Shanghai as well as sharing the unique experience of a Shanghai seder. The Rabbis went around the room, helping each table navigate our way through the haggadah, and Chinese (Zhongguo Ren) helped serve and assist us in our seder rituals, like the washing of the hands.

The best things about this experience, besides the fun, lively 4-cups of biblical wine conversations, was practicing my Mandarin around people who also were once familiar with the lack of confidence I was experiencing with my Mandarin skills. They helped me navigate some of my pronunciation mistakes and gave me some pointers as to how to begin learning the characters. It was easier for me to speak around them, because I felt there was no judgment.

Unlike in the cab ride there. This cab ride was horrible, frustrating and terrifying. The cab driver not only said he knew where he was going, then kept asking me for the cross-street, which I didn’t know, but he also tried a short-cut through a parking lot that got us stuck for 5 minutes (which I had to pay for!). In a chaotic manner, I kept repeating the street address and telling him what neighborhood I believed it to be in. He eventually had to call his cab service to ask for directions. It cost me twice as much as the cab ride home, if that is any indicator.  Getting around Shanghai was extremely nerve-wracking, but after my dinner conversations, I actually feel a little bit better about it.

If you are Jewish, or just fascinated by Western religion in an Eastern country, try to visit Ohel Rachel. This building stands as a testament to the perseverance of this community and a reminder that Shanghai was very good to the Jews during World War 2.  Even at Graziadio’s Hannukah party back in December, it brought me great pleasure discussing my culture with the Chinese students. The Chinese have great respect for tradition and many would argue, at the end of the day, that Judaism is a culture more than a religion, with deeply ingrained cultures that supersede nationality or even religious devotion.  This ability to understand familial relationships and obligations as well as the traditions that reinforce the fabric of our society, this is what doing business in China is about. Finding that common bond. And it may just be in a very unexpected way, that in a sea of Jews, in a 90 year old synagogue, in the middle of downtown Shanghai, you can discover that similarity and revel in its simplicity.

I am an avid reader. I have been since I was a little girl and a stack of books sat perpetually on the nightstand. I’ve always prided myself in my strong communication skills and my ability to find the right words to describe almost any situation. The second I got on the plane to China, I realized how my greatest strengths would do me no good in China. And that is terrifying.

I’m surrounded by words I just can’t read. Having studied Mandarin for the past four months, I was focused primarily on pinyin writing, with phonetic English letters and tonal accent marks. The characters are still completely foreign to me even though my speaking vocabulary is slowly growing.  Luckily I know the character for woman, so at least I won’t walk into the wrong restroom.

Beyond that, I feel like a child again. I’m sure part of this terrifying lack of language is due to my relatively little international travel experience. This is only my second time traveling outside of North America. Even then, my first trip was to Israel and I was familiar with Hebrew because I’m Jewish.  Even when I read some French or Spanish, the letters are familiar and I can sound it out or attempt to decipher it’s meaning due to the romantic language similarity. This is something completely different though, and I hope it doesn’t completely unnerve me.

A huge part of doing international business, the theme of my one-week intensive in China, is becoming comfortable with being in another culture. At the basest of instincts, that starts with language. It is difficult to be confident in your ignorance and, in fact, that is exactly what seems to work best. I believe that upon arrival, my greatest asset will be humility. It is more important to adapt through humor and honesty then to struggle and make much bigger mistakes. I’ll let you know how it goes, as I begin two weeks of complete illiteracy.

I purchased my kindle in August right when the new version was released. I had anticipated using it for all of my textbooks. I figured this would save me money and save my back! It saved me some money, enough to get my money back on this investment of $179. It also definitely saved my back…or the hassle from turning my car into a locker, since we don’t have those at Graziadio.

Some positive outcomes:

- Great way to write notes in the book or highlight key passages and they then get saved as a document that you can open our your computer and take notes right from that.

- I forgot to buy a book in advance of a class and quickly found out during the first class and instantly had it!

-I got my daily dose of New York Times to my kindle (or any other periodical you would want)

- It was easy to Kindle for Mac and my physical kindle open, so I could be on two pages at once, for doing homework.

- I saved an average of $10-30 per book off of the full price cost of the print book.

- It can read some books to you in the car, with an auto-reading feature. Though the voice isn’t the most soothing…and don’t try to have finance or accounting read outloud!

Some negative issues:

- No re-selling. Once you bought it, it’s yours. So when calculating cost savings, if it was a book you don’t intend to keep, don’t buy it on kindle. It will be more expensive in the long run. However, if you write in the margins, you lose money on a physical book too, so it just depends on how you study.

- NO PAGE NUMBERS! Nothing was more frustrating then being told to turn to a page number and having no idea where it was. It was also harder to skim and just find what you are looking for, because the pages look slightly different in kindle.

- You can’t get everything on kindle yet. Textbooks are the least common book offered on a kindle. I found 75% of mine this year, but I still ended up with physical books. For any kind of workbook, like my Mandarin textbook, I definitely needed the book.

Overall decision: I would still buy the kindle but the page number thing NEEDS to be figured out. That would be my biggest gripe. I still miss books but appreciate all the added benefits of owning a kindle. I will continue to buy kindle books next year.

It’s times like this, I pride myself in my writing ability even as I struggle through my quant class.

QUALIFICATIONS

Extensive club involvement

Ø  Director of External Relations- Consulting Club

Ø  Race Committee- Challenge4Charity

Ø  Event Assistant- Entrepreneurship Society

Ø  NAWMBA & VCLL member

Cross-program experiences

Ø  Mandarin Course at West LA Campus

Ø  Dispute Resolution coursework at Straus Institute

Ø  Attending Shanghai one-week intensive in April

Ø  Participated in 3 Case Competitions

Ø  Attended Jewish Leadership Conference

WHY THIS MATTERS

These qualifications are required to meet my objectives for next year:

INTEGRATION 

Who do I hope to integrate:

Ø FEMBA & EMBA

Ø Alumni (GAN)

Ø Other on-campus graduate programs & clubs

Ø Our OWN international & 5-year students!

TRANSPARENCY 

Achieving this would mean:

Ø Designing systems for all clubs to follow

Ø Eliminating overlapped programming

Ø Sharing best practices with all clubs

ACTION PLAN FOR 2011-2012 

With YOUR experiences in mind, I have devised key actionable items that I could implement next year as VICE PRESIDENT:

- Work with Emerging Leader, Scott Yamamoto, to increase ALL incoming student awareness of all options, including conferences, clubs, competitions, etc.

- Work closely with each club & career services to ensure that they are supported by their alumni networks, including FEMBA, EMBA, and other MS programs. This includes bringing up attendance through co-sponsored events.

- Require FEMBA kick-off meetings by all clubs as well as two centrally located, possibly off-campus programs.

- Work with clubs to ensure members get to know each other better and stay engaged all year. This will include once-a-semester social programming by each club.

- Assist all clubs in designing more hands-on, experiential events that build our students’ skill sets.  This includes co-financing special events between MGBS and the club finances.

- Work closely with Director of Communications-elect to ensure that the intent of each event is clear to the student body.

- Integrate existing school club experiences to include: Law School Club events (like Consulting & Entrepreneurship), Seaver Club events (like Sports Business), and FEMBA mixers.

- Clarify club reimbursement policies by working closely with Carrie Gilchrist & Treasurer-elect to ensure a smoother process.

This past weekend, I participated in the Sony Marketing Strategy Case Competition. Unlike past competitions, you show up as an individual and are placed on a team with people from schools all across the country. On my team, we had one of last year’s winners from University of Wisconsin, a girl from Drexel, a guy from UT-Dallas, and a guy from Arizona State who is actually living in Japan full time and taking classes online. It was an eclectic mix with a variety of skill sets. I was pretty excited to be on a team with someone with so much insight from last year’s competition.

We met our teams on Friday night at a fantastic reception (where I won a 32” Sony Internet TV!!) and tried to get a sense of each other’s skill sets. My Pepperdine coach recommended that I spend as much time listening and assessing as possible. To be honest, I’m more of a talker sometimes and I was trying desperately to follow her advice, especially after taking my mediation class where we spent a lot of time talking about the importance of active listening.

Saturday morning at 7:30am, we received our case and began the 6 hour whirlwind of case preparation. Often times, it made sense to defer to the “expert” who had won last year, and I was interested to see how other schools taught marketing case analysis. It definitely wasn’t the way I would have done it but I was enjoying the process. I had a strong dynamic with the other girl on the team and we were both on the same page a lot of the time. One guy wasn’t feeling well and was plagued by jet lag (the guy from Japan) and his voice was quelled because of it.

Overall, throughout the day, at some point we started answering the wrong case question. We were only slightly off base, but it made a huge difference ultimately. When attempting to craft the “story,” during our run through of the end presentation, our mistake became apparent and it was too late. I had been listening so closely to everyone’s opinions that the big picture was lost on me until too late. At some point, we had been on the right track, but I had neglected to establish trusting relationships where I could take a step back, assert my opinion, and try to drive the ship a bit more.

The team was great. I actually came out of the presentation feeling like we had wowed the judges, even with one of the strongest powerpoint presentations I had generated thus far in my case competition life. I felt that we had a strong Q&A session and we were high-fives and smiles the rest of the day. It was clear, in the end, that I had hidden my voice in fear of shaking up the group dynamic and also deferring to an expert.

The truth is, the case from last year and this year were very different and no one was the expert. This was an observational flaw on my part and, having never been part of a strongly tactical marketing case before, it was hard to feel confident in my opinions. I definitely learned a lot and felt that I walked away with some great new friends and contacts across the country. The value of listening was not lost on me, because I felt that I know these people much better than if I had come in and conducted the conversation like I sometimes tend to do. Fast group dynamics are no picnic, and more than anything, trust is the hardest to build so quickly. It was amazing how much that impacted performance. Oh well..there’s always next year :)

“Freely ye received, freely give”

This is the Pepperdine motto, tied closely to its religious roots and yet, completely non-religious, non-denominational at the same time. In our educational pursuits, receiving freely of other’s time, energy, dedication to our learning, and collaborative, sometimes selfless, efforts; we are reminded of this motto, of the energy we freely received. With that in mind, it feels like it is part of the MBA responsibility to give back, freely accepting our responsibility to our Pepperdine community and the surrounding public.

One such obvious occasion is clearly portrayed by Challenge 4 Charity. This MBA-student led organization raises money and accumulates volunteer hours for three local charities: Special Olympics Santa Clarita, UCLA Mattel Children’s Hospital, and Children’s Lifesaving Foundation. Pepperdine’s chapter has been working all year in the pursuit of giving, culminating in the “Run the Waves 5k” on Zuma Beach on March 12th. The best part about being a part of this event is that, unlike a normal charity where the overhead takes a huge chunk out of the proceeds, because the staff is 100% volunteers, there is little fundraising that does not benefit these charities.

In an effort to raise awareness for this special part of the Pepperdine experience, I urge students and faculty to volunteer, run the race, give to Challenge4Charity, or attend future events. It is clear that upon being alumni of Pepperdine, corporate social responsibility and community involvement are important parts of the learned psyche going forward. It starts here and it starts with small moments where you can experience the joy of giving. At a recent panel, an alumni spoke to the networking experience and said “Give to give, don’t give to get.” This resonated for me as a member of the Pepperdine community because even in our human interactions, to maintain strong relationships, we are taught to give to give and respect the cycle of reciprocity that comes from these interactions.