Wow! It's been a long time since I last wrote! Actually it's been 5 months!!!! Many things have happened since then. This is just a brief summary.

I finally graduated!!!!! I'm officially an MBA!!!!

The last three weeks of the MBA were even crazier than usual. First, we had to close the academic year, which meant tons of work, final exams, final papers, projects… I actually had my last final two days before graduation! Second, we had all the "Post-Term" events, from a wonderful boat cruise, to endless parties and gatherings. Third, we had the “close-friends events”, which were basically small lunches, dinners and coffees. Fourth, those of us from outside New York had our families visiting to celebrate our graduation, which meant a great deal of entertaining (I got my parents, father-in-law and brother-in-law here!). Finally, we had the graduation ceremonies.

The NYU Commencement Ceremony usually takes place in Washington Square Park, but this year we celebrated in Yankee Stadium. I found especially touching two moments:

• 
  
  Michael J. Fox (Actor) and Indra Nooyi (Chairman and CEO, PepsiCo, Inc.) were named Doctor Honoris Causa.
• My very good friend Amir Kaspi received a diploma in representation of the MBA students and waved to us.
  
  

It was an amazing ceremony!

The Stern School of Business Graduate Convocation Ceremony was held at Radio City Music Hall. This year’s guest speaker was Kenneth D. Lewis, Chairman, CEO and President of Bank of America. After his speech, our Dean, Thomas F. Cooley presented to Amy J. Radin, Executive VP, Global Direct Banking Head of Citi’s Global Consumer Group, the Nichols Award.

The Nichols Award honors the memory of C. Walter Nichols, a generous benefactor of the Stern School. The Award was established in 1961 and is conferred annually on a leader who exemplifies the qualities of integrity, enterprise and service, three traits that characterized the distinguished business career of Dr. Nichols, and three traits we hold in high regard here at Stern.

Ms. Radin has been an amazing benefactor of the Stern Consulting Corps (SCC) program since her brother Paul J. Friedman (Stern MBA’87) perished in the 9/11 attacks. Ms. Radin began her career at American Express, where she held a variety of positions in general management, customer loyalty, new product development and channel management. She was named a "Woman to Watch" in the US Banker "Most Powerful Women in Banking" Ranking (2007) and aBusinessWeek "Top 25 Champion of Innovation" (2006).

I had the pleasure to meet Ms. Radin after I was awarded the Paul J. Friedman Small Acts of Kindness Memorial Fellowship for my participation in the SCC. As I said in previous posts, the SCC is an amazing and unique learning experience. I was thrilled to know that the client, Step Up Women's Network, successfully implemented our recommendations not only in New York City, but also in Los Angeles and Chicago. It was an honor for me to receive this award and to be able to help carry on Paul’s legacy.

After Ms. Radin’s speech (which I found very thoughtful and touching), we heard some remarks on behalf of the Board of Oversees, and of alumni. Then, our classmate, Tira Grey, gave a great speech summarizing our two-year experience. Anne Jacoby did the same thing on behalf of the graduating part-time students. Then, Lorne Lucree, President of the Stern Student Corporation and an amazing guy, presented the Professor and Administrator of the Year Awards, to Aswath Damodaran and Jeremy Carrine, respectively. Finally, we were all called by name to the stage to receive our diplomas and shake hands with the Dean. From my point of view, it was another great ceremony!

It has been my pleasure to be able to do this MBA, and to have been selected to be one of the MBA Exceptional Students to write a weekly post in the MBA Admissions website. I hope it was helpful for prospective students and allowed them to get a better picture of what Stern has to offer; which is a lot!

One of my resolutions for 2007-08 was to raise my GPA, and I'm glad to report that I did it! My last semester was the best of my MBA, I took more credits than ever (18 credits) and got A (and some A-) in all my classes! A great way to finish my MBA!