Does "workplace bullying" evoke MBA stereotypes? Yes, says expert Stacy Blackman, who offers strategies to demonstrate your 21st century leadership soft skills.Earlier this month, The Guardian took a fairly in-depth look at workplace bullying and asked readers to share their stories. The results ranged from being excluded from workplace cliques to being punished by management for reporting harassment.
In the past few years, itâs become clear that bullying isn't just the stuff of middle school playgrounds but a serious workplace problem. According to a CareerBuilder survey, as reported in the Guardian, "bullying included being falsely accused of mistakes, being subjected to the silent treatment, being the subject of unfair gossip or assaults on your reputation, having professional performance belittled or diminished in front of peers, and having someone steal credit for your work.â
So what does this have to do with you and your MBA applications? Qualities associated with bulliesâaggression, power, employing unscrupulous methods to seize or stay in controlâhappen to be some of the same stereotypes that people associate with MBAs. The stereotypes, even if true, wonât get you very far with the admissions committee. Candidates who come off as overly boastful and not self-awareâclassic bully qualitiesâwill raise red flags and may end up getting passed over.
Here are a few things you can do in your MBA applications and interviews to ensure that you donât appear like a potential workplace bully:
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Speak diplomatically about co-workers and bosses. Some of the questions posed in application essays and interviews are designed to see how you deal with setbacks. You might get asked to talk about a failed project, or about a boss or co-worker you had trouble working with. To ensure that you donât seem like someone who assaults the reputation of co-workers or blames others for mistakes, itâs important to make sure that the focus of these stories is on you. You can acknowledge the role of others in the failure, but concentrate primarily on what you could have done differently and what you learned from the experience.
Share credit for success. One of the hallmarks of workplace bullying is taking credit for others' work. To make sure that you donât come across as someone who does this, itâs important to acknowledge the role of your teammates when discussing accomplishments and success stories. This isnât to say that you need to go into great detail about the help you received from teammatesâ after all, the application is about you. But if you can talk about someone you paired well with or a team you led that went above and beyond, then the admissions committee will see that you are comfortable with shared success and are a good team playerâother important qualities for gaining admission.
Highlight your emotional intelligence. Admissions committees are not only interested in knowing that youâre able to get results. Theyâll want to understand how you get results. While a workplace bully browbeats subordinates and co-workers into producing results, more effective leaders take the time to understand their colleaguesâ motivations and ensure that everyone has a stake in the outcome. Share with the committee examples that illustrate the latter.
Beware the group interview. Several top MBA programsâWharton and the University of Michiganâs Ross School of Business among themâinvite candidates to participate in a group interview. Succeeding in this setting can be a tricky balancing act. You want your ideas and opinions to be heard, yet if you constantly speak over the rest of the group, youâll come off as a bully. Try to demonstrate your listening skills and make sure that you comment on othersâ ideas as opposed to steering the discussion your own way.
Many MBA candidates who seem like workplace bullies probably arenât bullies at all. They just take an overly aggressive approach on their applications, believing that this is what the admissions committee wants to see. However, before approaching your applications, itâs a good idea to take a look at the bullying behaviors listed at the beginning of this blog post and honestly assess if youâve ever engaged in similar actions. If so, reassessing your management style and workplace behavior should be a fundamental part of your MBA application process.
Speak diplomatically about co-workers and bosses. Some of the questions posed in application essays and interviews are designed to see how you deal with setbacks. You might get asked to talk about a failed project, or about a boss or co-worker you had trouble working with. To ensure that you donât seem like someone who assaults the reputation of co-workers or blames others for mistakes, itâs important to make sure that the focus of these stories is on you. You can acknowledge the role of others in the failure, but concentrate primarily on what you could have done differently and what you learned from the experience.
Share credit for success. One of the hallmarks of workplace bullying is taking credit for others' work. To make sure that you donât come across as someone who does this, itâs important to acknowledge the role of your teammates when discussing accomplishments and success stories. This isnât to say that you need to go into great detail about the help you received from teammatesâ after all, the application is about you. But if you can talk about someone you paired well with or a team you led that went above and beyond, then the admissions committee will see that you are comfortable with shared success and are a good team playerâother important qualities for gaining admission.
Highlight your emotional intelligence. Admissions committees are not only interested in knowing that youâre able to get results. Theyâll want to understand how you get results. While a workplace bully browbeats subordinates and co-workers into producing results, more effective leaders take the time to understand their colleaguesâ motivations and ensure that everyone has a stake in the outcome. Share with the committee examples that illustrate the latter.
Beware the group interview. Several top MBA programsâWharton and the University of Michiganâs Ross School of Business among themâinvite candidates to participate in a group interview. Succeeding in this setting can be a tricky balancing act. You want your ideas and opinions to be heard, yet if you constantly speak over the rest of the group, youâll come off as a bully. Try to demonstrate your listening skills and make sure that you comment on othersâ ideas as opposed to steering the discussion your own way.
Many MBA candidates who seem like workplace bullies probably arenât bullies at all. They just take an overly aggressive approach on their applications, believing that this is what the admissions committee wants to see. However, before approaching your applications, itâs a good idea to take a look at the bullying behaviors listed at the beginning of this blog post and honestly assess if youâve ever engaged in similar actions. If so, reassessing your management style and workplace behavior should be a fundamental part of your MBA application process.
In the small town in Virginia, from where I hail, when you say, âI go to the Wharton School,â you always get the polite response of, âThatâs nice, business is cool, what are you studying?â
In the city of Philadelphia, where I reside most of my year and now call home, when you say, âI go to the Wharton School,â you tend to get the response, âNice! Where did you do your undergrad?â
In the city of Melbourne, where I am studying on exchange for a semester, when I say, âI go to the Wharton Schoolâ I have only gotten the response, âWow! Isnât that a really hard and good uni?â
To which I can finally respond with all the statistics I have learned about rank, average student test scores, average student incoming GPA and employment statistics from being a Wharton Ambassador. The more I share statistics like the fact that 94 percent of graduates have job offers when they leave Wharton, or that the average SAT score for a Wharton student is 1466, the more proud I become of what Whartonâs name and its marvelous network has accomplished.
It is such a great feeling to go to another country and have them recognize the name Wharton.
To look in my first textbook for the University of Melbourne Business School, cracked open before semester begins, and see Howard E. Mitchell, an ex-Wharton professor who has helped with the research within.
[caption id="attachment_26374" align="alignright" width="400"]
Wharton junior Melanie Smith enjoying her exchange semester abroad in Australia[/caption]
To have professors who are colleagues with Wharton professors. Such as past Wharton MBA professor Karen Jehn, who is currently a management professor at Melbourne, or Michael Smith, current econometrics professor at Melbourne and past guest professor at Wharton.
To see potential for Wharton graduates to expand their companies here in the city of Melbourne.
After getting away from the United States and the competition to always be the âbestâ business school and to have people recognize where I go to school, I have come to a realization:
Jiyu and friends Sara (from Sweden) and Nicole (from Emory University) near the legendary West Lake in Hangzhou.[/caption]
The diversity of my class mirrored the assortment of nationalities in my cohort at Wharton, but we were a relatively small group of students. The common challenge we shared of navigating this foreign landscape bonded us together in a way that transcended the institutional association of a school.
Thatâs not to say that our academic endeavors werenât enriching. In class, we engaged in many discussions about global business customs. I especially recall one afternoon lecture regarding professional ethics. The assigned case study told the fictional story of a man who encountered a tempting bribe opportunity, which led to a series of felonies, ranging from arson to slander to prostitution. Every member of the class then had to rank each crime by order of severity. The disparity in responses between the Asian students and the Western students surprised me. For example, the American students identified the act of arson as one of the worst because it is, from a legal and economic perspective, the most damaging. But the Chinese students believed that the arson was in part justified because the perpetrator committed it in defense of a loved one and was trying to avoid a greater evil. The two groups had different foundations for their moral beliefs that translated into how they viewed business and law. That lesson highlighted the importance of understanding cultural values when interpreting a situation.
Outside the Guanghua building, my classmates and I traveled across China to witness both its tremendous modernization and its ancient artifacts. We tasted beer in the old Tsingtao factory, ate savory dim sum in Guangzhou and cruised the legendary West Lake in Hangzhou. When the sun went down, we mingled with other expatriates in the cityâs bars and clubs.
When classes ended in December and it was time for me to return to the States, my heart felt heavy with the realization that I would be saying goodbye to many of these people for good. While I did befriend a handful of Penn students and other Americans, some of my classmates came from Sweden, UAE and Belgium. I would continue my studies at Penn, while they would go back to their home countries to pursue graduate degrees or start families. For a moment in time and space, our paths had crossed but now they would diverge again.
[caption id="attachment_26402" align="alignright" width="450"]
A group photo from an Operations and Supply Chain class that Jiyu took with both international and local Chinese students.[/caption]
A year later, Iâm happy to say that I still keep in touch with a handful of my international exchange class. The experience we shared together that fall established an impervious and lasting bond. With the help of Facebook and the ever-popular Chinese texting app WeChat, Iâve been able to communicate with my friends around the world. And this summer I had the unbelievable opportunity to reunite with two of my classmates in New York City.
Hannah was a local Peking University student whom I met through the programâs buddy system. She came from Taiwan, an island not so far from my hometown of Fuzhou. Hannah was fascinated with American culture, and I was drawn to her outgoing personality. She showed me the life of a Chinese college student, and I told her of my victories and struggles in the pursuit of cultural self-identification, trying to reconcile my Chinese heritage with my American lifestyle. Back in July, Hannah came to New York as part of a fashion marketing summer intensive course. I met her in the East Village one evening for ice cream, and as we chatted, I felt as if no time had passed between us.
A few weeks later, my friend Michael came to New York to visit a cousin who lived in Brooklyn. Michael is a commerce student at Queens University in Ontario, Canada. During our semester abroad, I discovered that he and I share the same intellectual curiosity about philosophy and religion. We still have random conversations about zombies and polygamy over online chat.
Itâs amazing how globally connected our society is today. While Iâm very excited about my educational and professional prospects in the U.S., I long for another opportunity to live abroad and meet people overseas. Nothing can replicate the experience I had as an exchange student in Beijing, but if I can meet just one other person who inspires me and challenges me the way my fall 2013 class did, the international airfare will be so worthwhile.
Carlos Vega, Câ03, WGâ14[/caption]
Vega noticed some differences between this yearâs manifestation and last yearâs. For starters, the founders put up a basketball net inside 2401 last year; this year, no net. In 2014, more startups participatedâ18 companies and more than 50 people. This year, current MBA students were given priority for the space (although young alumni companies such as Tesorio, 
My purpose in writing this post is to clarify a common misconception regarding the forging, maintaining and utilizing of professional contacts. I often hear students speak with pessimism about not having family contacts in their industry of interest or being reluctant to cold call firms. In my freshman year at Wharton, I forged, maintained and utilized connections that I've used since.
You may know someone through family or friends. In that case, consider yourself short-term lucky. That person may be your key to a summer internship after freshman year, but one cannot rely solely on such contacts for the long term.
It is essential that students begin reaching out to complete strangers as first-semester freshmen. In doing so, it is unnecessary to have a specific goal in mind; in fact, industry leaders often feel honored when students seek general advice and show interest in their work. Just as you are excited to establish contact with the CEO of a Fortune 500 company, he or she may be just as eager to talk to you. Many of the worldâs most brilliant minds come to speak at Penn because they want to inspire the next generation of leadersâsome of whom may become their own successors.
A great way to forge contacts is to become involved in campus clubs and organizations that plan speaker events and visits to companies. During Wharton Clubbing Night, find out which organizations have committees devoted to event planning and corporate outreach. As a member of the Wharton Management Club, I worked on a committee that brought in the worldâs leading entrepreneurs, executives, architects and restaurateurs. Iâm also a member of the Wharton Real Estate Club âTreksâ Committee, through which I plan trips to leading developers, property managers and real estate investment firms all around the country.
Now letâs talk about maintaining contacts. My biggest piece of advice is that one can never revise an email too many times. The manner in which you follow up with people will significantly influence their perception of you. Try to gauge peoplesâ personalities and make your emails fit them. For instance, if someone is clearly very busy and down-to-business, to-the-point emails will be better received. On the contrary, longer, more passionate emails work better when corresponding with passionate, energetic individuals. How to follow up is a judgment call youâll have to make, but two things are for certain: follow up with people and express gratitude.
So imagine that youâve established a relationship with the CEO of your dreams. You may be thinking a lot about how that contact can help you, but you will have greater success if you change your mindset. Do extensive research on a particular aspect of that CEOâs career that is most interesting to you. Study his or her background like you will be tested on it. Upon doing this, you will have everything you need to make the conversation about them, not you. Once you are knowledgeable about this personâs background, it is appropriate to ask for any help he or she may be able to provide in finding early work opportunities similar to those that served as the building blocks of their own career. Ask for help securing a âlearning experienceâ rather than a âjob.â Say how much you admire their path rather than how eager you are to shape your own.
Always remember that you have the power to establish invaluable relationships. You never know where they will take you. At Wharton, there is no upward boundary to achievement outside the classroom. Consider your professional network the ladder to the sky.
Editorâs note: This post originally appeared on the 
Penn undergrads Kevin Cong, Wendy Cheng, Alice Shen, Zhenhao Li and Kevin Wu ran the Student Federal Credit Union at the University of Pennsylvania this summer.[/caption]
In Pennâs case, undergrads man the tellers at its location on 34th and Walnut streets. They make decisions on loans, and ensure the bank meets regulatory strictures and maintain in good standing with the National Credit Union Administration. As many as 80 students work at the bank during the school year, servicing as many as 1,300 customers.
âWeâve run it pretty successfully as of now,â reports sophomore Alice Shen, who served on the skeletal staff of five between school years as summer manager. âBeing completely student run doesnât detract from it in any way.â
As a freshman in search of extracurricular activities, Shen was turned on to the credit union by a friend who told her she could gain real-world experience. She spent her first semesterâlike everyoneâs first semester at the bankâas an intern and teller. She worked three hours a week, not including the one-hour weekly staff meeting she attended. In her second semester she moved up to become a loan analyst. Now into her second school year, Shen will serve on the committee level as assistant director of collections and a loan officer.
Shen pauses when asked what she has learned from the experience because itâs been a complete eye-opener for her about banking. She has come to grasp how and why a bank invests, how it analyzes fee structures, as well as how banks face the varying challenges brought to it each day by customers.
Students can move from day-to-day positions to higher leadership roles in finance, credit, operations, marketing, information systems and the credit unionâs other divisions. The top of the organization is comprised of a CEO and a chairman of the boardârespectively, Wharton seniors Mihir Jain and Akshay Almelkarâas well as a chief financial officer, chief operating officer, several vice presidents and four core committees (credit, operations, general ledger and supervisory). This leadership oversees the day-to-day existence of the bank along with the long-term projects needed to maintain the bankâs financial viability. Shen appreciated that these senior bank leaders, and Penn upperclassman, make themselves available to provide advice and mentorship.
From the 
Photo credits: Raj Bharti[/caption]
The Land of the Rising Sun is full of contrasts. While technology is advancing at the speed of a bullet train, life can still be as serene as a Zen garden. A 
Members of the Wharton Alumni Relations Council and alumni speakers met before Alumni Colloquia kicked off. Maria Baum, WGâ94 (in white dress) and Shahbaz Alam, W'07 (in gray suit and pink shirt) are front and center.[/caption]
They walk on career paths currently in completely separate career spheres, at different points of personal and professional development. Maria Baum, WGâ94, had been a star derivatives trader on Wall Street when she and her husband decided to retire in their 30s. They moved to the Hamptons, then became serial entrepreneurs to the point where Baumâs busier than she ever was in Manhattan. Shahbaz Alam, Wâ07, worked his way through jobs at Penn and PwC to join the Professional Services arm of Amazon Web Services. Despite their differences, both brought the message to current Wharton undergraduate students that a career outside of finance or consulting is not only possibleâbut attractive.
Baumâs alternative career path began after 10 years as a Wall Street derivatives trader. She and her husband felt they wanted more from life.
âUsually, one of you talks the other off the cliff,â she quipped.
In this case, they both took the leap in 2004 and moved to the beach.
Retirement, as Baum tells it, lasted two weeks.
âI was definitely not a have-lunch, play-tennis person,â she admitted.
This realization launched a series of endeavors, from private wealth investing to real estate, financial services recruitment to restaurateur, venture capitalism to philanthropy. (For her philanthropy work, see the 
Saloni Gupta was introduced to microfinance through her high schoolâs social impact club in San Jose, Calif., and as she remembers it, she was so enthused with the idea that she went to her parents to donate some money. âGive how much money to whom?â was their response to paraphrase it. They declined. Gupta felt strongly enough about loaning to entrepreneurs around the world to raise her own moneyâdipping into her savings, as well as earning cash through her own handicrafts business. She recalls her first investment wellâa microloan to a woman in Ghana, who used it to buy flour for her bakery.
Since 2010, Gupta has made over 400 loans through the same microfinance platform, Kiva. Sheâs never added any more money into her âpotâ; when repayments come in from the lendees, she always just gives out new loansâin increments of a few dollars up to $1,000.
âIt creates this perpetual cycle of giving,â she says.
Since, Gupta has also gotten more involved with Kiva beyond just being a lender. Her next step began, like her first step into microfinance, with her taking the initiative. As a 16-year-old junior in high school in 2010, she decided to drop in on a Kiva event in San Francisco, and she so impressed the staff that they offered her an internship. She continued working with Kiva through her senior year, focusing on helping to bring the organizationâs microfinance concept into more classrooms and communities. Kiva institutionalized microfinance educational materials for teaching curricula, club toolkits and educational videosâprograms that Gupta had helped expand as an intern.
The programs helped to form the basis of whatâs now called Kiva U. Gupta serves on the Kiva U advisory board, along with other students and teachers from around the country. Since coming to Wharton in 2011, she has informally assisted Kiva in piloting the program, promoting it through media outreach and community speaking events. The result is a formal platform that allows school and neighborhood based microfinance clubs to communicate with one another and with Kiva. Since its launch in August 2013, Kiva U has expanded to nearly 60 high schools and 67 college campuses across the U.S.âand in the process has become a teaching tool for social science, personal finance and self-reliance. The effort adds up to a total of 21,000 members and 66,000 microloans worth $4.8 million. This does not include an additional $450,000 contribution made by Citi Community Development and Microfinance to support Kiva U itself.
Now a senior at Wharton and president of Pennâs Microfinance Club, Gupta does not say that her work is done.
âItâs something that Iâve been passionate about for a long time,â she says.
After graduation, she will take a job in New York City with Centerview Partners, an M&A advisory firm, but she will learn the business of finance with the long-term goal of working in microfinance. Sheâll build off her experiences at Kiva (where she still serves on the advisory board) and off her social impact knowledge gained at Wharton (such as from the Strategies for Economic Inclusion course taught by Marks-Darivoff Family Professor 
Melanie's Management 100 team[/caption]
It is something that is normal. Everyone works together and helps each other; the scary-competitive vibe that Wharton gives is manageable since everyone is helping each other.
All of this is to say group work has become the integral fabric in my suit that is being tailored while at Wharton. (For those of you in the Class of 2017 and older, you may get this 
Prof. Aron Katsenelinboigen. Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons.[/caption]
Or with Marc Blitz, who during Ancient and Medieval Political Philosophy said, âEquality is relative. No one likes it when the mayor cuts to the front of the line at the best restaurant in town. But, then again, no one wants to be seated behind a group of bovine philistines at the opera.â
Or with Drew Faustâs course American Civilization: The South, which painted such a vivid picture of Reconstruction that I felt as if I had lived through it.
Just as Aron Katsenelinboigen had done with Soviet Economic History when he was a professor in the Economics Department
Not to mention the biology, physics, and inorganic and organic chemistry professors, who let me cobble together a senior year premed concentration, that landed me not at Price Waterhouse, but at Penn Med, grateful for the fantastic liberal arts education that I had not known was waiting for me.
At Wharton.
âThis is something uncomfortable to do; we are shorter on courage than we are on genius. There is no shortage of good ideas, but people play it too safe with their ideas,â he said.
With a lifetime of experience and a wealth of knowledge to share, Thiel fits easily into the ranks of model entrepreneurs upon which aspiring innovators model themselves. He can also serve simply as an inspiration to anyone who has to start thinking about what they have to offer to the world.
Thiel came to campus on Sept. 22 as part of 
Ays Sharaev[/caption]
AYS SHARAEV: We have two venture funds and one private equity (PE). Weâre trying to invest globally (Russia, Europe, U.S., Israel and Asia). I am a partner of the general partner (GP), and we also act as limited partner (LP) in some of our funds.
WM: What is the business climate like in Russia, given all thatâs happened?
SHARAEV: Decent. There are still many opportunities. Especially today. We are now in a process of establishing a fourth venture fund, which will be fully dedicated only on the Russian region.
WM: Do you find companies/investors outside of Russia are less likely to work with you given the geopolitics?
SHARAEV: Frankly, I do not feel any difference in attitude toward us from companies or VCs or PEs. We are not too big to be concerned by politics, especially geopolitics. All our Western and Asian partners are experienced people with common sense. They do understand what is going on, so they are very patient with us.
WM: Why commute to the Wharton EMBA program every other week?
SHARAEV: Because Wharton was always my dream. I didnât want to be associated with other schools. Only Wharton.
Today, I canât be out of business for two years, and my life and business are mainly in Russia. For that reason, I think the EMBA is the best solution for me. Small class. Experienced people. And a lot of fun, especially when balancing between work, study and family.
WM: Do you have a secret habit or practice that helps you survive the long commute?
SHARAEV: Just live in the airport or plane like those places are usual parts of your life (work, study, eat, sleep, watch TV, send emails, etc.).
Photo credit: Brandon Hoffman[/caption]
The students met with local business leaders and government officials from a broad range of organizations, including the Brazilian Central Bank, the Rio 2016 Olympic Organizing Committee and Peru-based private equity firm Nexus Group.
Prominent alumni gave their time too, such as Federico Weil, WGâ00, president and CEO of residential builder TGLT; José Raimundo Morales Dasso, WGâ70, vice chairman of Credicorp, Peruâs largest financial services holding company; and Marcos Galperin, Wâ94, co-founder and CEO of e-commerce giant Mercado Libre Inc. The alumni provided insight into markets and Latin Americaâs current favorable growth environment.
One GIP highlight was a tour of the Natura Cosméticos factory in São Paulo. The students were surprised that the company provided so many employee amenities onsiteâmore akin to a high-tech Google campus.
While this cohortâs journey was specific to one region, the lessons learned about navigating a foreign culture can be applied anywhere in the world. Second-year MBA student Brandon Hoffman, a California native whose prior experience includes teaching English to children in China, embraced the exposure to another part of the world.
âI could see how the cultures of the various countries strongly correlated to the success and trends of its economy. If you want to do business overseas, you really need to go there, interact with the locals and learn the culture,â Hoffman says.
Exposing students to a different culture is the purpose of GIP, an elective management course that combines challenging coursework, lectures and a rigorous journey abroad.
âThe goal of GIP is to provide students with a high-level survey of the economic, cultural and geopolitical drivers affecting regions important to the global economy,â says Amy Miller, the associate director of Whartonâs Global Immersion Programs.
The School consistently seeks emerging areas of the global economy for future GIPs. For the upcoming academic year, students can participate in GIPs to India, the Middle East, Southeast Asia, China/Korea and South America.
âMichael Milne, WGâ86
Illustration credit: Gwen Kerval[/caption]
Three days after serving eight years in the U.S. Army, Mike Daschle, WGâ14, started his Wharton career with a desire to focus on real estate development. This âdrastic culture changeâ was one reason the then-MBA student opted to participate in the Wharton Executive Coaching and Feedback Program (ECFP).
âI recognized it was a very unique opportunity to have a personal coach who could guide me through a very transitional period in my life,â says Daschle, who graduated from West Point and served in Iraq in 2006 and Afghanistan in 2008 and 2009.
He and his coach focused on more boldly and effectively communicating Daschleâs passion for his desired career, while also paying attention to time management and stress-reduction skills. The program involved role-playing and at-home exercises, including creating a list of character traits that Daschle admired and discussing how such traits are exhibited.
Rolled out in 2012 as part of the new MBA curriculum, the program has drawn many more students than originally anticipated, reports its director, Lynn Krage, who screened the 50 or so executive coaches matched up with students. The initial student demand forecast was 350, Krage says; instead, more than 500 students signed up that first year. This year, nearly 600 enrolled.
In late March 2014, 25 full-time MBA students and their partners had the privilege to visit the World Trade Center development site and the 9/11 Memorial. Hosted by leaders at Silverstein Properties Inc., the real estate company that has been redeveloping the site for the past 12 years, the tour represented a unique opportunity for members of the Wharton Veterans Club whose lives were significantly changed following the events of Sept. 11, 2001.
The diverse Wharton Veterans Club consists of former service members of the U.S. Army, Marine Corps, Navy and Air Force, along with the Australian Defense Force and Korean and Israeli militaries. Most members of the club began their service after 9/11 and have experience serving in the Middle East, Iraq, Afghanistan and Asia as helicopter pilots, intelligence officers, SEALs, Special Forces Rangers, F-22 pilots, infantry, submariners and engineers. The majority of the group had never visited the 9/11 Memorial or the World Trade Center before.
Our tour started at the first tower built following the September 11 attack: World Trade Center 7. Mike Marcucci, the producer of the film 16 Acres, the documentary about rebuilding at Ground Zero, hosted our group and shared details of the redevelopment. The trip quickly proved to also be a special behind-the-scenes event from a security, real estate and business perspective.
We visited the expansive marketing center, where potential tenants and visitors to the new World Trade Center are shown the history and the vision for the future of the site, including information about the security measures and architecture behind each of the new buildings. From there, we had an incredible view, inaccessible to the public, of the memorial pools at the 9/11 Memorial Park and much of the construction taking place.
âWe have seen the videos of that dreadful morning hundreds of times, but standing there, looking into the footprints of the original twin towers at the 9/11 Memorial, is a surreal moment that no one ever forgets. I know I wonât,â says second-year MBA student Grant Moody, a U.S. Marine who pursued an internship in consulting this summer.
The 9/11 Memorial Park opened on the tragic attackâs 10th anniversary. Its two magnificent pools sit in the original locations of the North and South tower foundations. New construction, built over 16 acres of lower Manhattan, surrounds it.
âThe names at the 9/11 Memorial came alive for me because we know so many of their stories,â Moody recounts. âThe business executive leaving a voicemail for his wife and kids from the 88th floor. The young analyst going back up the stairs in the tower to help his friends. The firemen who raced up the twin towers to help evacuate the injured. These arenât simply anonymous names. Their stories will live forever at that memorial.â
Those stories were made even more real for us when we met someone who lived through them. Michael Moore, the life safety director of Silverstein Properties, escorted us for part of our day and told the remarkable story about his time as a New York fireman. He witnessed the 9/11 attacks and participated in recovery efforts at Ground Zero. He is now responsible for the safety of the new towers going up on the site and their tenants.
Meeting Moore was the highlight for second-year MBA student John Withers, a former U.S. Army Special Operations helicopter pilot.
âHis efforts, and those of his team and all the volunteers, were truly heroic as they worked to save lives, including some of his closest friends. Heâs a national hero, and it was our honor to be able to listen to his story,â Withers says.
During our visit with Silverstein Properties, we donned construction vests, hard hats and boots as we made our way across the construction site. We visited the new office space at Tower 4 and took in the 360-degree view of New York City from the 68th floor. Outside on a terrace, we glimpsed an up-close view of Tower 1, more commonly referred to as the âFreedom Tower.â
What was most poignant about this visit to hallowed ground was the realization of how much our lives changed on that day in 2001. We paused to remember our friends and fellow comrades who paid the ultimate sacrifice and reflected on our resilience. It was a powerful day to be remembered by all who attended.
Amy Daschle, WGâ14, served five years as a U.S. Army engineer in Iraq and Afghanistan and two years as a sales and marketing manager at PepsiCo prior to Wharton. Since graduating, she works in strategy consulting in Philadelphia. She was a recipient of the Class of 2014 Core Value Leadership Award. She wrote this essay while still a student in the Wharton MBA Program.
Photo credit: Phil Flynn[/caption]
Ever since I was a young boy, I have had this unwavering confidence that I could do anything I imagined. I have always believed in myself. But ever since I was a baby, I was neglected by my father. When I was 9 years old, I lost my mother to a tragedy. No matter how much I believed in myself, I was losing every bit of support. I was just an innocent kid trying to reach success; it seemed as if success was not trying to reach me.
Fortunately, a family friend led me and my siblings to an institution called the Milton Hershey School that is devoted to helping underprivileged children. My ambition mixed with the opportunities that this place provided allowed me to achieve my most significant accomplishment to dateâgetting accepted into the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
Everyone, no matter what his or her circumstances, deserves to have an equal opportunity to achieve success. My goal is to help create a world where that will become a possibility. Wharton is the perfect place to achieve this dream.
I am very excited to be immersed in an environment full of amazing students and to learn from all of the collective intelligence my peers have gained from their experiences before Penn. It will be thrilling to experience this journey with my classmates and the upperclassmen. I look forward to an opportunity to step away from the spotlight and leadership roles for once in my life and learn from other people who have so much to teach.
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