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Drucker School Orientation: An Incoming Student's Perspective

Published on Wednesday, September 09, 2009

From August 27-30, Drucker students connected with future classmates, advisors, staff, professors, and alumni at the Drucker School’s 4-day orientation for incoming students.  The “Effective Management and Ethical Leadership Orientation” was designed to provide an in-depth overview of the Drucker experience for MBA, Financial Engineering, and dual degree students and to begin the process of developing the skills that will be used throughout the entire program.

Incoming Drucker MBA student Luis Carlos Pelaez gives the following account of his experience at Drucker Orientation 2009:

The first four days of my new life as a member of the Drucker School’s centennial class were slated for one thing: orientation. So what exactly would the next four days entail? As I was soon to discover, a whirlwind of activities awaited. The first three days featured speakers, a crash course on communication, and meaningful networking activities.  The events went off like clockwork, which is a clear testament to the quality education and benefits the school strives to deliver to students.  Each event was more than just a simple opportunity to learn the names of my classmates. Orientation activities were structured in a way that provided time to learn about other students’ dreams, extracurricular pursuits, and individual motivations for choosing the Drucker School.  These are the details that form the foundation for lifelong friendships.

The final day of orientation featured a business case competition for all of the new students. I recognized that this competition was carefully designed as the capstone of our orientation experience. My teammates and I had a diverse array of background experiences to factor into our case strategy. This was a golden opportunity to apply the leadership lessons we learned from our first speaker, Bob Stone, who served for six years at the White House leading Vice President Al Gore’s effort to reinvent government. Using the knowledge he provided in concert with the workshop methodologies from the previous days, we were able to recognize our team’s inherent strengths. We then applied fundamental principles of management to properly allocate our workloads. The business case competition demonstrated the immediate applicability of the lessons we are learning every day at the Drucker School, and how we will be able to carry them with us into the workforce.

Prior to joining the program, I wondered about the nature of a liberal arts MBA degree, and about the specifics of Peter Drucker’s legacy for the school.  What was so outstanding about this particular school that made Drucker choose to associate himself with it? Orientation provided answers, but more importantly it provided an appreciation for this type of question and the innumerable others that students like me will inevitably ask.  It also showed me how important it was for other students to have a classroom experience laden with implicit and explicit notions of ethics and integrity.  To quote Peter Drucker, “it is not just about making the right decision but also about doing good.”

These four days invigorated me and challenged me to demand more of myself during my time in the program. I now know that I am in the company of others who understand the nuances of business and appreciate the difficulties found in managing people as human beings. Finally, orientation provided insight into the Drucker School’s unique and ideal status as a beacon for the study of the art of management in today’s turbulent times.