Throughout the admissions process and during the first couple weeks of classes, I heard a lot about the Team Fuqua mindset that defined our business school.  I often wondered what this term really meant, and I wondered if it was truly accurate or if it was simply a marketing gimmick.  I quickly learned that the emphasis on teamwork permeated every aspect of our MMS experience, from the Triangle Training day to the case assignments to the Duke Basketball Experience.  I believe that this emphasis on successful team dynamics educates students how to be ambitious and competitive without the negative side effects of duplicity and back-stabbing.  Just as I had been taught in sports from a young age, the team is greater than the individual. Fuqua has taught me that this principle holds true in business as well. The recent Businessweek ranking that has Fuqua as the number one business school in the nation was strongly influenced by this team mentality, which is proof that there is real substance to the Team Fuqua spirit to which I was introduced very early in the application process.

I wanted to show you that working in teams is not only productive, but it is also a lot of fun!  In addition to meeting for case assignments, we also get together to enjoy socializing over food, a show, or a sporting event.  We even strive to inject our schoolwork with a bit of flare and excitement from time to time.  For one of our marketing assignments, my team thought it would be fun to make a pharmaceutical parody commercial, since a bit of comic relief goes a long way in managing stress as we approached the end of the term.  I interviewed a couple of my teammates and included our spoof on pharma ads as well, check out the video to see it!