From the Dean’s Desk: Welcome UCLA Anderson MBA Class of 2021!
This post is part of our “From the Dean’s Desk” series, where we hear directly from our UCLA Anderson leaders across the school.
Wow! That is my first and overwhelming reaction to meeting you on the first day for the entire Class of 2021! What a truly amazing, impressive group of people.
This is a thrilling time for you, but also a time of some apprehension (“How will I manage everything?” has been a popular refrain in my initial conversations with many of you). It is absolutely OK to feel a bit unsettled—in fact, I would be worried if you didn’t feel at least a little bit of angst!
While I may not have the answer to the meaning of life (you’ll have to meet with me to find out for sure!), I hope you will indulge me as I offer some thoughts. While you all begin this experience with an array of goals in mind, I encourage each of you to think about how you will make this a transformational experience. Yes, you will learn a lot in the classroom, explore new careers and make scores of new friends and develop a network for life. But my hope is that you’ll go deeper than that—that you will take some time to think about yourself as a person and a leader. Reflect on those things that you would like to do better, and then be deliberate about what you get involved with here so you can work on those attributes. Make sure you invest your time in ways that will pay dividends. Be brave and get out of your comfort zone—take a class that will challenge you, get involved in a case competition, and/or run for a leadership position (especially if you have never run for something before!). If you aren’t uncomfortable fairly often, you aren’t stretching yourself enough! After all, truly life-changing growth often comes from discomfort, or even failure.
Please know that your full-time MBA staff is here to help you—never in my career have I worked with people who care so much about what they do every day. We are your partners in this venture and we can’t wait to see the amazing things you will do in the next two years, and for a lifetime after that!
Welcome to UCLA Anderson!
— Rob
Rob Weiler
Associate Dean, Full-Time MBA Program
UCLA Anderson School of Management
Today’s post is from Rob Weiler, Associate Dean of the Full-Time MBA Program. Rob oversees everything from Admissions to Career Services to Student Affairs. Rob is a UCLA Anderson MBA alum (Class of 1991), spending his post-MBA career working in Finance prior to returning to UCLA Anderson where he has been for over 10 years.
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