Diverse Celebrations

By Yufei Han, MBA Class of 2016

As a diverse program, Smeal MBAs celebrate holidays and new years for many countries. Especially between the two calendar years, we have a busy holiday season. Soon after the Diwali festival, we celebrated Christmas and enjoyed winter break. After everyone coming back from winter break, we started to prepare for Lunar New Year celebration.

Continue reading

Life as a Woman in the MBA Program

By Lauren Rizzo, MBA Class of 2015

All my life, I have surrounded myself with strong, impassioned, empowered women. My mother was a staunch supporter and protester in the second wave feminist movement and our home was always filled with conversations about equality and justice and a keen awareness of the deeply embedded societal pressures which converged to make the world I lived in. When I decided to return to school to acquire an MBA, I found myself looking at the gender breakdown of many MBA programs. I had a college friend Continue reading

Diwali Celebration 2013 at Smeal

By Neha Bareja, MBA Class of 2015

Diwali is undoubtedly the biggest and brightest of all Indian festivals. It is a festival of lights, and celebration of life and goodness. Smeal celebrated Diwali in a big way last year. It was a pleasure for me to be part of the organizing committee and also to participate in several events that were organized that day.

The events consisted of dance, music, scrumptious Indian food, fashion show and the sari tying contest. I was elated to see how people from different countries with diverse backgrounds and cultures all came together to celebrate the festival. Continue reading

Minority MBA Hosts Jeopardy: Black History Edition

By Tiffani Guerre, MBA Class of 2015

Last night, the Minority MBA Association partnered up with 2 diversity undergraduate organizations NABA (National Association for Black Accountants) and MWF (Multicultural Women’s Forum) to host the event Jeopardy: Black History Edition. We threw this event to educate the Penn State community about Black History facts that they might not have learned before. In the MBA program, there are a lot of diverse students and we wanted to educate them about some history they might not have learned about previously. Questions consisted of topics that ranged from music, movie, inventions, history, Penn State history, etc.  Continue reading

Service Immersion with Rosetta Foundation

By Jiawei Gu, MBA Class of 2014

Actually I (Jiawei) have been registered as a Rosetta Foundation volunteer since beginning 2013. Although this is an organization based in Ireland, it is not difficult to register! Just go to their website: http://www.therosettafoundation.org/ and follow the instructions, you could become a volunteer within one week! Continue reading

Service Immersion

By Simon Hsu, MBA Class of 2013

Pine Ridge, a Native American reservation in South Dakota, is one of the poorest places in the United States. It is a place in which unemployment is 90%, and alcoholism rates are over 80% and average income around $6,000 annually. (Sources: http://tcnjperspective.com/2010/11/06/pine-ridge-poverty/; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pine_Ridge_Indian_Reservation.) The local dance school in State College had a fundraising performance for this area. My classmates and I joined Continue reading

Lunar New Year Buzz and Celebration Event

By Effie Li, MBA Class of 2014

Lunar New Year is also called Spring Festival and is celebrated widely in many Asian countries such as China, Vietnam, Malaysia and Singapore. As a diversified program, Smeal MBA held a Lunar New Year celebration event in late February. Before that, we also organized a cultural buzz to briefly explain the meaning of this festival and to introduce Chinese traditional culture to both the current students and also prospective students who joined our buzz that day. Continue reading

Next stop is the White House?

By Mike Bassani, MBA Class of 2013

When I first arrived at Smeal I was thrilled with the diversity amongst the classes. Both the first and second year MBAs had varying and diverse backgrounds. I think most B-schools have a very strong diversity in academics and professional development, but here we have a very strong cultural component as well. It’s really allowed me to grow as a person and leader because understanding and working through any cultural differences is a huge advantage as I prepare for my summer internship (@Nike). Continue reading

Lunar New Year Celebration!

Sigh. Celebrating the New Year with my friends while on vacation was so much fun. But now it’s January, we’re back in school, it  just snowed for seven days straight, and there’s nothing to look forward to until Spring Break…

Wait, what? Lunar New Year? What’s that? Are we going to have a celebration for it? Well of course we are! Continue reading