David Nicola (Daytime '13)

Jack Beuttell (Daytime '14)

Via email, they provided the following joint responses to my questions:

1. In 3 words, describe the entrepreneurial community at Fuqua/Duke.

Duke is active, stimulating, advancing.

2. What is P4E and why did you decide to participate in it?

P4E is a curriculum-based program that facilitates the launch of new ventures. The program features three classes that begin with identifying opportunities and progress through business model development and operating plan development. We were going to be working on our entrepreneurial project regardless of other classwork, and P4E gave us some space to really focus on the project, while getting some valuable input from the professor, guest speakers, and our peers.

3. Describe how you started your P4E project. How did you two link up to create your venture?

We met at a social entrepreneurship event in 2012, and realized we had common interests in sustainable agriculture, conservation, finance, and real estate. We met for several months to brainstorm ideas and test the waters before teaming up officially in the beginning of 2013. We developed an idea to launch and support beginning organic farmers in the North Carolina region. Our business — VentureFarming — is a for-profit incubator for organic farmers who are just starting out.

4. How has P4E helped shape your entrepreneurial pursuits?

P4E provides structure for the development of a new venture. A lot of students come in looking for a formula, but there is none for starting a new business, and you won’t find one in P4E. What you will find is a framework for thinking about the key issues that new ventures face and how to attack them. More importantly, you are held accountable to certain deadlines and deliverables, which force thought and discussion on important topics. That always yields progress.

5. What has most surprised you in trying to create a new business?

Every business is unique, and every sector operates differently. For example, one investor may be an expert in biotechnology, but have difficulty understanding web technology. We face this problem all the time, since very few investors understand the agriculture space. As a result, some conversations are more challenging than we expect them to be. This highlights the importance of domain expertise, for both the entrepreneur and his/her investors. In order to have a real shot at starting a new business, you have to know that industry forwards and backwards, and you should align yourself with other entrepreneurs and investors that think the same way — otherwise you may be wasting your time.

6. What has been the most fun part of P4E?

The most fun part of P4E is when we practice our pitches. We watch our classmates pitch, and we pretend to be potential investors. During the role play, we ask hard questions and act like we know what we’re talking about. The real treat is seeing how our peers react to difficult questions, and we pick up tricks on how to respond to a difficult question or how to win the investor over through persuasive tactics. It’s a tactical and practical activity.

7. Would you recommend P4E to other students?

Absolutely. P4E has been very helpful for us. It may not be for everyone, but for the person that is starting a new venture and needs to allocate some class time to adequately explore the opportunity, P4E is a great alternative.

8. List and briefly describe the entrepreneurial activities/opportunities that you’ve participated in or taken advantage of at Fuqua/Duke.

In the last two years, we have participated in a variety of entrepreneurship-related activities. We held cabinet positions on:

• CASE i3 Initiative on Impact Investing
• Net Impact
• Entrepreneurship and Venture Capital Club

We’ve also taken classes at Fuqua with an entrepreneurial focus, on top of the MBA core courses and electives.

It’s been pretty busy from a pitch perspective. We pitched our business idea in the Grand Finale of the Duke Start-up Challenge’s Business Plan and Elevator Pitch competitions. We presented at a Duke Colloquium event — the Social Entrepreneurship Dynamo with famed Kiva founder, Jessica Jackley (learn more about Jessica). The event was a learning opportunity where students could not only be inspired by a social entrepreneur, but also get her feedback on how to proceed with an entrepreneurial venture. See some photos and videos of the event. Duke Colloquium events like this one, are opportunities to bring humanities into the professions and are useful to us in better communicating our entrepreneurial ideas.

We were also clients of the Duke Start-Up Ventures Law Clinic. We won the 2012 CASE Seed Prize for social entrepreneurs. We represented Duke at Walmart’s Better Living Business Plan Challenge, and we also helped found DukeENVENT, a pan-university initiative on environmental entrepreneurship.

There are also dozens of other entrepreneurship-related events we have attended to learn and to network, and probably more events and opportunities that we have had to turn down as a function of capacity.

1. 

   In Barcelona, Spain.

   My family was unable to travel much when I was young, so I’ve made up for it by traveling to 17 countries in the past 9 years.

2. I was born in Jamaica, though my non-accent makes it hard to believe.
3. A surprise to many, Ann is not my middle name. In fact my entire name is Deidre-Ann Yanique Nelson, but I’m most commonly referred to as DA or D.
4. I’m an introvert.
5. My mother, father and younger sister mean the absolute world to me!
6. I really love to eat. No, seriously, I love food and am so fortunate to have access to a wide variety of world cuisines. I especially love all types of fruits — except for one: Durian get’s no love from me.
   

   Fruit in Taipei … I did NOT eat the Durian.

7. I’ve performed ballet and jazz routines in New York’s Madison Square Garden.
8. After taking an AP Art History class in high school, I discovered my two favorite artists, Caravaggio (Baroque/Renaissance) and Salvidor Dali (Surrealism). Yes, their art is crazy and possibly creepy, but that’s probably why I love it.
9. My drive from New York to Durham when I started my MBA at Duke is the longest road-trip I’ve ever been on — a whopping 7 hours!
10. I enjoy jigsaw puzzles and sleuth TV. Correlation? I think so.
11. I adore accessory shopping, particularly for hats, necklaces and scarves since they are a huge part of my personal style. I’m ashamed to reveal the number of these items I have, but am convinced its not Hoarders level yet.
    

    New York City -- home, sweet home.

12. If the socks I’m wearing are not colorful or interesting, I’m having a “grumpy day.”
13. At the age of 14, I attended an all-girls summer camp program in upstate New York called Camp Rising Sun. That experience forever changed my life by exposing me to an amazing group of empowering women who live all over the world, and helped me realize how vast the world is.
14. I enjoy photography because of the multiple views it allows me: how I perceive an image, how the lens perceives it, and through other’s reactions.
15. In the spring of 2009, when I lost my grandmother to a treatable health condition, I knew that I wanted to spend the rest of my career in a health-related industry.
16. I was once a Captain of my JROTC High School Army battalion.
17. I’ve lived in New York City for the majority of my life, but only went to the Empire State Building in December of 2011. The Statue of Liberty is still on the to-do list.
18. Since we are talking about food — I also have grown a love for tea! From blossoming to loose leaf, I’m a bit serious about the whole affair and at Fuqua I’m usually never without one of my various tea tumblers.
19. Strange food requirements: I save all my pink and purple Skittles until the very end. I also save the innermost parts of pastries and sandwiches to be my last bite.
20. As of two years ago, my Electronica music files now outnumber all other music types.
21. Oddly enough, I am always wearing a watch … unless I’m in the water.
22. While working in London, I decided to pick a soccer team to follow. To this day I’m a big Arsenal fan and mostly follow the English Premier League.
23. I enjoy watching movies, and if I am going to watch a movie, it better be funny since I’d rather be laughing than crying or scared.
24. I cannot play any musical instruments, but hope one day I’ll have time to learn how to play the cello or violin.
25. My favorite time of day is sunrise, when everything seems possible!

This past spring, I participated in the Global Consulting Practicum in Social Entrepreneurship (GCP) led by Fuqua’s Center for the Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship. GCP is now a part of the overall Fuqua Client Consulting Practicum (FCCP) which provides opportunities for student teams to consult with both commercial and social sector clients in the US and abroad.

With my practicum team.

Through the program, I was able to consult on a product development and market entry strategy for a social enterprise, and earn course credits at the same time. My client was Shane Immelman, current CEO of Kommunity Groups, a South African based education development and uplifting organization. With a small staff (around 20 people), they were operating several businesses, including the successful LapDesk or TutuDesk initiative, which provides portable desks to school children in South-Saharan Africa.

In order to participate in the practicum, I completed an application, was selected, and then put into a 5-person team. We took classes once a week in the evening, during Fall Term II (specifically from November – March) to help us learn consulting frameworks, understand consulting engagement, and complete initial research for our clients. From March 2 – 16, we spent two weeks on-site with our client in Johannesburg. Our classes continued after the trip until April, focused on a series of working sessions and presentations on our findings.

From the cultural visits to interacting with the people of South Africa, the experience was definitely life changing. Here, I’m at the Apartheid Museum -- an unbelievably touching and humbling experience.

As is true in the professional world, there were plenty of challenges leading up to our March departure. This included an intense MBA curriculum (hello operations and the infamous cranberries case*), interviews for summer internships, health issues, conflicting team schedules, and client engagement challenges. As March approached, my team learned to become very flexible as we had significant changes to the scope and context of our project.

But then visiting Johannesburg was a phenomenal experience that added tremendous context to the project. History came alive as my team and I traveled around for our consulting assignment and interacted with local citizens. This was my first one-to-one exposure working with a social entrepreneur and it was inspiring. The Kommunity Groups team had a lot of energy, relentless passion, and blinding hope in their mission and impact, even when faced with stark challenges. In the end, my team was able to observe a ton, and we provided several short- and long-term recommendations to help the business finish their product and think through a profitable market entry strategy.

With a couple of my teammates in front of the World Cup stadium in Johannesburg.

While we worked really hard in South Africa, there was also plenty of bonding time — from visiting the Apartheid Museum and the World Cup stadium, to a weekend Safari in Pilanesberg. Forget NatGeo, this was the real thing! Though I was getting over a miserable cold, it didn’t take away from just how fortunate I felt to be experiencing so much, so quickly.

The practicum allowed me to understand the impact consultants can have on an organization. The experience also provided interpersonal growth and new peer relationships. My team was awesome and we really leveraged each other’s skills and interests to solve a challenging issue for a client doing very meaningful work. In my opinion, whether you pursue a consulting career in the end or not, opportunities like this are invaluable.

* The cranberries case is commonly covered during our operations course. It is a live simulation case, and teams of students make “live” management decisions that impact the profitability of the factory. Teams compete to win the case.

It has been a very hectic October. Now several months into my second-year, the full-time job search is on for the Class of 2013. As my first-year classmates are still learning about industries and companies with Week in Cities trips and are contemplating summer internships; second-year students are reflecting on their summer internships and planning for jobs that align with long-term career goals. For many of us, that’s why we came to business school after all.

With the job search in full swing, there have been many opportunities for us to network and interview with recruiters, as well as gain additional knowledge on companies of interest. According to Fuqua’s Career Management Center, over the past few weeks, well over 100+ companies came to Fuqua to interview second years for full-time positions. Some of the companies include Deloitte, McKinsey, The Boston Consulting Group, Bain, Johnson & Johnson, Apple, Accenture, Goldman Sachs, Samsung, Kraft, Genentech, John Deere, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Medtronic, Amazon, and Microsoft.

Between Sept. 24 and Oct. 31, more than 80 companies sponsored corporate presentations.

Corporate presentations include a formal presentation followed by a Q&A and a networking reception. I’ve found these sessions helpful during the recruiting season because they provide in-depth information on the companies, as well as a chance to network with employees (many of whom are Fuqua alumni). For me this part of the process has been invaluable to putting a face, personality, and personal touch on the many organizations out there.

Doing an on-campus job search is stressful and competitive, but also it also highlights the Team Fuqua spirit. There have been many times throughout the year that I really relied on my classmates for their advice, help, or even compassion given the ups and downs of searching for the “right job.” In many cases, classmates and friends are interviewing for the same job, but Fuquans tend to help each other prepare for these interviews. I’ve seen classmates who are interested in consulting, work on case interview questions together in team rooms or in the Fox Center for several hours. Other classmates have made time to share their summer experiences and provided personal contacts, or held a mock-interview session.

The Career Management Center estimates that more than 150 interviews will take place on campus during the fall.

Whether you have 2 interviews or 10, it takes a lot of time to get yourself prepared to answer behavioral questions, walk through your resume, walk through a case and still have questions to ask at then end. If you total the time its taken to perfect one’s resume, speak with countless employees, attend presentations, attend Fuqua-related career sessions, search the web, and practice on your own, I’d average that one interview takes at least 40 hours of preparation.

Only time will tell where everyone ends up (including the fate from recruiting off-campus). In the meantime, I along with my Class of 2013 classmates are keeping our suits dry cleaned, staying focused, flying to and fro for interviews, oh and … we’re still going to class and running clubs at Fuqua. There’s a lot going on, but I know it’ll be worth it.

I’m back. I’m back in Durham. Back at Fuqua. Back for my second year (SY).

Monica VanBuskirk (right) and I co-led the health care excursion to CAARE Inc.

I’m shocked and almost overwhelmed to see time move this quickly. But I also know that I have only one more year to be purposeful and focused, or see my time in business school disappear. Although I was not at all rested from my internship experience in California, I was actually excited to get to school on a Saturday for Day in Durham. This year, instead of being a participant, I was co-leader of the health care track. Day in Durham has become an annual tradition, organized by Fuqua’s Net Impact Club and Center for the Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship (CASE). It’s a way to show first year (FY) students some of the amazing social and environmental impact organizations in Durham. It’s also a way to connect students to a variety of community service activities that exist around us.

Some of my new FY classmates!

Connecting with First Years in Durham

After initial introductions, free T-shirts, a shared breakfast and a very inspiring talk by Kevin Trapani, President & CEO of The Redwoods Group (an insurance provider dedicated to protecting YMCAs, Jewish Community Centers, and nonprofit resident camps), it was time to break up into smaller teams and head out on one of 5 different Day in Durham excursions.

Many of the FY students who joined me on the health care excursion are also in the Health Sector Management (HSM) program, while others were just interested in learning about health opportunities in Durham. For me, meeting the FY students in this way was so sentimental and adorable. To see all of them starting the program, getting acclimated and being curious about how this all works — it was absolutely reflective of how I felt last year.

On tour of CAARE, Inc.

My group visited CAARE Inc., a non-profit organization that promotes a holistic and community approach to health. Dr. Sharon Elliott-Bynum gave us a tour of the facilities and updated us on all the great projects that are happening. This organization grew out of a kitchen conversation between sisters, and now includes housing for veterans, a food pantry, acupuncture and fitness classes, spiritual services and counseling, as well as dental care and medical treatment amongst a host of other services.

The experience was unbelievably inspirational. I enjoyed learning about the organization and listening to the questions and suggestions made by my new classmates — the Class of 2014. It was certainly a reality check on the circle of life, and I cannot wait to reconnect with all my SY classmates as well as to further make connections and friendships with those in the FY.

My Second Year Challenge: Finding Purpose & Focus

The school year is off to a fast and dynamic start, but there are times when I need to pause. Participating in Day in Durham was such a pause for me, as well as attending a special memorial service in honor of my classmate Jessica Caroe, who recently passed away. These events, my summer experience, and the re-orientation program known as C-Lead 2 have been a reminder to me — a reminder that the life I want to live will help improve society, make a positive impact on those around me, and will make me a leader of consequence. The foundation is definitely there, and now I hope to further use my time in graduate school to get me closer to where I hope to be.

With my HSM teammates.

The business school application process forces you to think about what you are passionate about and where in society you’d like to make a personal contribution. It allowed me to articulate a nascent desire to participate in the ongoing discussion of healthcare, and since I applied to Fuqua, I’ve been able to delve into this area even more, thinking about questions like: Is access to quality healthcare a human right? Should governments be expected to provide health services to its citizens? Is it fair that those who can pay more for medicines and services subsidize the care of those unable to pay? My list of philosophical and practical questions goes on.

The bottom line — it’s an exciting time to be involved with or interested in the health sector. The strength of the Health Sector Management Program at Fuqua, the innovation occurring in the Research Triangle area of North Carolina, and Duke’s world-class medical center were big reasons I decided to come to Fuqua. Last year, I had the opportunity to attend various interesting and in-depth events focused on the health sector, which helped me to get up to speed on all the changes happening in the industry. Fuqua’s student clubs were also a great resource, specifically the Healthcare Club (HCC). To gain some additional insight, I spoke with one of last year’s Co-Presidents of the HCC, Scott Frommer, and here’s what he had to say:

Scott Frommer (Daytime '12) former Co-President of the Healthcare Club.

What unique opportunities exist within the Health Sector Management Program (HSM) at Fuqua?

For starters, one of the strengths of the HSM program is that approximately 70 to 100 Daytime students self-select into it every year, and as a result, they get a healthcare tailored MBA. All the students have a diverse background, which creates rich discussions in the classroom. HSM faculty are exclusively committed to healthcare and health research, which differentiates HSM from many other healthcare-oriented programs. There’s something extra-valuable about learning from a teacher whose passion, network, research focus, and in many cases, industry experience, are closely aligned with my interests.

Through HSM, we have an opportunity to interact with incredible alumni and industry leaders — for example, George Abercrombie, former CEO of Roche in the U.S., co-taught my Pharma Strategy class. Also, companies often seek assistance from HSM students throughout the school year to assist with real-world business problems. Examples include GSK, Genentech, LabCorp and others. The nearby Research Triangle Park area is full of med-tech and health service start-ups as well as established pharmaceutical and healthcare players making it easy to interact with important industry players.

Through the Duke University Hospital Practicum, students gain exposure to the provider setting and its challenges. There’s also an opportunity to take advantage of courses and programming at other graduate schools as well as to co-mingle with other graduate student populations from the Law School, Pratt School of Engineering, Global Health Institute, Duke Medical School, MMCi, etc.

Lastly, I think the breadth of courses is a key strength — we have courses that focus on biotechnology, medical devices, pharmaceuticals, law, providers, healthcare information technology, healthcare marketing, etc.

How does the Healthcare Club (HCC) augment HSM offerings?

The club’s goal is to educate members on career opportunities and industry trends in all facets of the health sector; prepare members for professional success in the health care industry through corporate-sponsored events; enhance members’ healthcare network through a variety of fun social events; and aggregate communication of on-campus and off-campus health care opportunities.

HCC provides a forum for students to get to know each other and keep abreast of healthcare-related activities occurring both within and outside of Fuqua. To accomplish these goals, the HCC works very closely with the HSM program, and we are grateful for their support. We are able to partner with alumni and provide networking and mentorship opportunities that directly relate to career-related exploration and interview preparation. Finally HCC organizes Week-in-Cities trips to New York, New Jersey, Boston, San Francisco, Los Angeles, the Midwest and even China to allow Fuqua students to connect with employers and alumni in various regions.

How does the student-driven culture of Fuqua affect HSM/HCC?

At Fuqua, students often have “the final say” and are able to influence future direction. This definitely holds true for the HSM program and the Healthcare Club. The HSM office frequently interacts with students to understand what is working well and what areas could benefit from improvement. Members of the HSM office routinely attend HCC Cabinet Meetings.

Furthermore, students are able to customize the club’s offerings in response to feedback from its members. For example, we created a Global Health Cabinet this year due to the increased interest in this field. The club’s cabinet (student leaders) also sponsored several dinners, better integrated Fuqua into global health activities on Duke’s campus, and raised awareness of a NC-based Global Health Case Competition. Another example was our impact on the HSM Alumni Mentorship program. We were able to double the number of student-alumni pairings from 20 to 40, based on positive experiences that some second-year students had and their desire to see the program grow. All HCC programming is 100% dictated by students.

The HCC sponsors an annual Health Care Conference which serves as a flagship event for the club. This year’s conference theme was Alzheimer’s & Brain Health: A Better Understanding. We brought together industry professionals, academics and a multi-disciplinary student population from Fuqua as well as other leading business schools to learn about this topic from a variety of perspectives, including pharmaceuticals, nursing homes / payors, policy makers, and medical technology innovators. In keeping with this theme, we hosted a corporate-sponsored case competition in which seven visiting teams competed in Durham. We also sponsored a Lunch n’ Learn event with the Alzheimer’s Association and organized a Career Fair attended by most of HCC’s sponsors.

Last year, attending Fuqua’s admitted student weekend, called Blue Devil Weekend (BDW), helped me to decide that Duke was the right program for me. For those of you visiting Durham this weekend, I hope you’ll find some of this helpful:

1. Go to the admit weekend! It’s essential that you visit or visit again. Would you buy a house without stepping into it and feeling it out? Would you trust the neighborhood is a good one if you haven’t walked around it? Business school is a huge investment – continue to do your homework so it’s an investment made wisely!
2. Be prepared to feel wonderfully overwhelmed. Of course you’ve prepared for what this would be. That’s what crazy type-A’s do. Still as it comes together it feels surreal. Enjoy this feeling! You’ve worked hard. You’ve been selected. On many levels it’s a celebration of who you are and who you will become.
3. Talk to people – not for the words coming out of their mouth, but for the totality of their responses. Read their body language. How “real” do their answers feel? Do you feel comfortable with these people? They will become your alumni base and they will be your fellow classmates. Now that I’m almost through one year, I can’t stress how integral the people in my classes have been to my overall learning and experience. It’s true each school has a personality and culture – just like every firm, every family, every country, etc.
4. Try to lock in your housing if you have a strong preference. Make a mental note of where you want to live and who you may want to live with. Housing is a hot commodity and finding the right housing community for you is important. I locked in my housing a few weeks after BDW which relieved a bunch of logistical stress. In the end, it doesn’t matter too much where you choose to live since B-school is such an active experience, but it’s nice to claim a sub-community.
5. Ask yourself, can you love the imperfections? On the margin there are things you’ll wish were different about a school or its location. Think back to the reasons you applied to certain schools. Think about where you want to be in 2 years. Can this school get you there?

Lots of luck to all of you who are in decision mode. I look forward to meeting many of you if you’re coming to Fuqua for BDW. Maybe you’ll fall for Durham and Duke the way I did – either way you’re on the start of an incredible journey … get ready!

Association of Women in Business (AWIB) Conference

As a cabinet member of AWIB, I spent a good chunk of time over the past few months working on the annual AWIB conference. This year we focused on a theme that I think is essential in all diversity efforts – partnership! Our conference was titled The Numbers Game: Personal Strategies for Collective Success and from keynote speakers to panel discussions, topics centered on what women and men can do as business leaders to effect real change in the workplace and the larger society.

Don Browne's opening keynote session at the AWIB conference.

I gained a lot through the opportunity to work with our keynote speaker Don Browne. Don has an incredible career in the media industry and has served as a mentor to many amazing women (Ann Curry, Katie Couric, and Soledad O’Brien to name a few!).

In B-school lingo we talk a lot about “Team Fuqua,” and I definitely felt it through the level of teamwork required to pull off such a large scale conference. We had a great team. Equally important, students and alumni showed up to learn and support the event. And finally, a huge shout out to the men who took the time to take this topic and discussions seriously enough to participate in the event!

Easter Carnival at Fuqua.

The Adrian Allen Easter Carnival

Each year BLMBAO (the Black and Latino MBA Organization) partners with Fuqua staff member Tony Jenkins who works in the Building Management Office, to put on an Easter Carnival for families in the Durham community. The carnival honors Tony’s late son who was fatally shot in 1994 and the event seeks to provide some Easter fun and friendship for the community. This year’s event took place on April 7 and featured a yummy lunch, inflatable bounce houses (can any kid, or possibly adult, say no to these colorful things?), face painting, and free T-shirts.

Easter egg hunt mad dash!

The best part for me however, was the Easter egg hunt that took place on the Fuqua lawn. We showered the lawn with plastic eggs filled with candy and then separated the bigger children (ages 7+) from little ones (ages 7 and below). It was amazing to see all those little kids running like crazy to find and secure their eggs. MBA students have nothing on a child’s quest for candy!

Leadership & Business Conferences

Carl Stern's keynote address during the Asia Business Conference.

Perhaps even better than putting on a conference is just attending them. During the past two weekends I sat in on the BLMBAO Leadership Conference: “Leveraging: Activating Our Collective Assets to Effect Change.” I really enjoyed the keynote speaker, Christina Norman, and in particular took away this lesson: “You will make mistakes, be open to learning from them, own the narrative of your failure.” Heading into internship season and full-time job seeking, its good to know that failure has its place.

Similarly, the Asia Business Conference: Innovation and the Future of Asia was a great event. In total overbooked fashion, I ran from the Easter Carnival straight into the conference. Listening to their first keynote, Carl Stern (Vice Chairman of Investment Banking at Goldman Sachs) was especially interesting to me since Goldman Sachs is my former employer. My worlds definitely collided in that moment. I also heard from Renee Hartmann, a Fuqua grad and entrepreneur who is focused on the growth of the luxury market in China. Just listening to the growth story of Asia and its continued expansion is remarkable and has me very pumped for the China GATE (Global Academic Travel Experience) that’s in a few weeks!

I was reminded of MadLibs during my winter elective, Managerial Improvisation. This one-week intensive workshop mixes traditional improvisational exercises with case studies and discussions that touched on leadership skills, team building, conflict management, listening skills, and fostering creativity/creative cultures. My instructor, Bob Kulhan, is CEO of Business Improvisations and performs all over the world. The course is a unique offering at business schools, with Fuqua pioneering the way. Bob has been integral in the course’s development, and he’s an awesome person!

While I was very excited to take the class, I was also apprehensive. Would I really build the courage to get on stage and play improv games with my peers, in front of my peers? In the end, my expectations of the class and my personal abilities were far exceeded. At the end of the week, I was tired but totally energized. All parts of my mind were activated, and I honestly haven’t felt so comfortable in my skin in a long time. The links to unbounded creativity, innovation, and interpersonal responsibility in business and life came full circle for me. Bottom line – everyone should take this class! My 10-person team of first and second-years gelled really well, and the experience will last with me for a while. Not only did I meet new people (woo hoo New Year’s resolutions), but I took personal risks and grew a great deal.

In honor of my recent experience, and reminiscent of my childhood creativity – here’s what I’ve been up to since New Year’s Day, in a bit of a MadLib style:

My improv team called itself “Jump in the Meat Pool.” We certainly jumped into the deep end of the experience and mixed a lot of analogies along the way. My team was a collection of the some of the coolest people I’ve met at Fuqua and they made me work really hard.

At the end the course, a Jam Improv performance of all teams (open to the Duke community) was held in Geneen Auditorium. We had fun, but we also were treated to an improv performance by our instructors who are all professional performers (some with Second City in Chicago).

January wasn’t all about improv though, there was also a lot of random fun. I was able to squeeze in a home game against Virginia. As always, Cameron Stadium was packed and intense. It was a close game, but Duke beat out Virginia. Go Duke!!!

Finally, in keeping with my resolution, I took part in a volunteer activity at Duke on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.

In collaboration with the organization Stop Hunger Now and volunteers from Durham Rotary, North Carolina Central University, and Duke, we packaged more than one million meals for needy school children. Here’s a story about the event.

It was a packed house of volunteers and a lot of fun! And a similar event will take place at Fuqua in February.

But NOT this year!

This year I’m making B-school specific resolutions, and I’m making them the S.M.A.R.T. way. Making personal changes or goals to change is a challenge, but there are several frameworks to help. One of my favorites is the concept of S.M.A.R.T goals, which requires a goal to be highly Specific, Measurable, somewhat Attainable, Realistic, and attached to a Time frame. The idea is that all these characteristics increase the likelihood that the goal gets accomplished and that change happens. So without further ado:

Deidre-Ann’s Fuqua Resolution List of 2012:

1. Meet 3 new people each week – The class of 2012 is leaving soon. I still have folks to meet in my own class of 2013, and the class of 2014 is on its way! Meeting people should be easy, but I don’t just want to meet people, my true aim here is to have memorable conversations. I’ve come up with a creative way to check myself on this, but the sub-goal will be to spend at least one hour of MEANINGFUL time with amazing classmates and professors. 
2. Find a volunteer opportunity in Durham and commit to staying involved for the whole year – Durham is my temporary home, and I want to give back for all it’s giving me. Business school time moves super fast, but I need to slow it down! When I finalize the commitment, I’ll be sure to share it, but I think I’ll focus on healthcare and patient interaction (WHY a healthcare career matters to me).
3. Remain physically active and NOT just by going to the gym – This is a year for really leaning out of my comfort zone. The gym is great, but what about tennis, golf, ballet, squash, Bikram yoga, modern dance, basketball, indoor rock climbing, skiing, biking, running, and swimming? That equals 12 activities, one per each month of the year. 
4. Amplify my spiritual beliefs – As I mentioned, this is a year of growth and change. It’ll be impossible for me to go it alone. My sub-goal here is to read one piece of interesting Christian literature a week, go to church at least once a month, and connect with other Christian Fuquans.
5. Have more fun (read: more applied risk taking) – During the first term, I was going for balance. This term, balance is out the window. I will always choose the birthday parties, the trivia nights, the extra 30 minutes in the team room goofing off and chatting, and “one more” drink whenever possible.  I’ll be traveling to South Africa and China on GCP and GATE trips this semester, so I’ll need to be purposeful about the activities I choose or I’ll miss out on a ton. A sub-goal here is to become a better story teller. As someone once said, “we are our stories,” and you need to lead a full and rich life in order to have some good ones.

Wish me luck … and keep me in check!

PS: Check out our Irrationality Guru’s advice (that would be Duke’s famous Behavioral Economist Professor Dan Ariely) on how to make New Year’s Resolutions stick!