Duke MMS Student Blog
10. Fuqua Fridays
The best way to ring in the weekend is with Fuqua Friday. The event is a mixer that happens every—you guessed it—Friday, with a variety of appetizers, beer, and wine open to all Fuqua students, employees and their families. It’s an opportunity to connect with the MBA students, meet professors and their families outside of the classroom environment, or just relax with your friends.
9. Ride the Bull at Shooters
Whatever your views about dance clubs are, as a Duke student you have to visit Shooters at least once in your lifetime. It’s where you’ll find most of your classmates late Friday or Saturday nights. Shooters is Duke’s college bar with a mechanical bull. Pro tip: Remember to carry your Duke ID, and if you have a big group going you can call the Shooters bus to come pick you up. If you get bored of Shooters, there’s always Top of the Hill.
8. Triangle Training
Triangle Training is a day-long event, held 22 miles west of Fuqua a week after you start the program. You spend the day participating in fun leadership and team building activities, which provide opportunities to get to know yourself and your classmates better. It culminates with “The Wall.” The wall is 14 feet tall, with no ropes, no ladders or anything else to hold and you have to get all 150 students in the program of varying athletic abilities across it together as a team. It’s a rite of passage for every Fuqua student whether MMS or MBA.
7. Explore Durham
Durham is brimming with a variety of restaurants, cafes, and breweries. My personal favorites include the Fullsteam Brewery (started by a Fuqua alumnus), Alivia’s (best cocktails in town), Pizzeria Toro, Ponysaurus Brewing, Motorco, M Sushi, and Metro 8 Steakhouse.
6. Duke Basketball, Campout & Beat UNC
Duke Basketball and Coach K are national icons and an integral part of your Fuqua experience. Specifically, three events:
- Duke Basketball Experience: A fun day spent training at the Cameron Indoor Stadium and team building
- Campout: A weekend of music, games, food, partying and camping out for a chance to win season tickets to Duke Basketball
- The Duke vs UNC game: It is tough to put into words the game day atmosphere for this rivalry on Duke’s campus. Everyone is dressed up to support the Blue Devils and cheering for them. There’s also a tradition of burning benches if Duke defeats UNC.
5. Distinguished Speaker Series (DSS)
DSS brings some very high profile corporate leaders to Fuqua. They share their views and insights about the current corporate environment and tell us about their corporate strategies. Some of the past speakers include Tim Cook (CEO of Apple), Doug McMillon (CEO of Walmart), Mary Barra (CEO of GM), and many more. Attending these sessions can be quite an enriching experience.
4. Finding Your Favorite Space at Fuqua
Fuqua has plenty of beautiful, peaceful spots in and around it—the window seat at Ford Library, the tall tables at the Fox Center, the umbrella tables outside on the patio, the Kirby Winter Garden or maybe even the team rooms. There are plenty of spaces that can become your haven to get work done, send out those emails, finish up those cases, study for an exam, or even just unwind after a tiring day.
3. Team Outings
The majority of your time at Fuqua will be spent working with your teams of five on cases or giving presentations. And these teams are handpicked to be diverse across countries, academic backgrounds, cultures, and interests. I still find it hard to believe how in a matter of a few months we’ve gone from being total strangers to forming friendships that will last a lifetime. It’s the nights going bowling together, staying at Fuqua late at night working on the strategy class presentation, or the moments horsing around in the team rooms between cases.
2. Festivals
MMS students attend a plethora of festivals from around the world with equal fanfare—whether it’s dressing up for Halloween, the Thai Full Moon party, Indian Diwali, Christmas, the Super Bowl and much more.
1. Team Fuqua
I’m sure you’ve heard of the Team Fuqua culture by now. Where it originated, I’m not sure. All I know is, there’s an entirely different atmosphere here, with a huge focus on teams and working together to achieve common goals. Everyone has their own stories of when they first got to experience the culture, whether it might be reaching out to an MBA alum or working with your own classmates.
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