It’s been more than 11 years since I left Uni. First day back to school was like the first day at school again, I felt excited, nervous, happy, worried, relax and tense. When I walked towards the school’s entrance, I was greeted by many very well positioned welcome signs. They directed me to the Sainsbury’s building where I was given a warm welcome by Linden Selby. She gave me a precious souvenir from the school – a nice magnetic name tag, with my name, the title of the programme, graduation year and the logo of the two schools. The tag signified that I am now a family member of the two business schools. This was the moment when everything finally sank in: “I am now embarking on a life changing experience. Nobody knows how it is going work out at the end, but one thing for sure – it is going to be great!!”

With the name tag nicely secured on my suit jacket, I started walking towards the lecture theatre area where I spent most of the time during the orientation week. While walking up the stairs, the sense of excitement was building up rapidly. I could hear the sound of people chatting got louder and louder every step of the way. When I opened the door and entered the refreshment area, I was greeted by my new classmates and the first lesson began (although the school didn’t explicitly say it): How to effectively remember the name and face of the person you have just met and the conversation you had with that person, then multiply this by 75? No matter what level you are, this does really sharpen your social skills. The good news was that everyone genuinely wanted to get to know each other well. So it was a great atmosphere.

The first week of lectures was amazing! I attended a class visit a few months back and the experience was great. However people couldn’t help but thinking that the school might have arranged the best lectures for the visits, but they are wrong! All the lectures were equally as good. The applause from the class at the end of each lecture clearly reflected this. It was an amazing experience, I have learnt a lot and I felt very inspired to apply the learning at work.

One of the advantages of being an EMBA Global is that we have an average of 11 years of global work experience, so we can relate to the topics and discussions in class. More importantly, people who are here want to be here, so everyone was very engaged. We were asking constructive questions, giving insightful comments and challenging assumptions professionally. Despite the rigorous schedule and extra curriculum activities, no one fell asleep in class despite the lack of it!

Among all the core courses in the first term, “Executive Leadership” and “Leadership and Organisational Change” were my favourites, where as “Financial Accounting” was my least favourite (no offense Professor, I am just telling the truth). However the first week of class changed my perception to Financial Accounting. The professor turned this seemingly boring, dull and complex subject into a very interesting and easily understandable subject. Well… come to think it, it shouldn’t be a surprise, right? Now Financial Accounting is one of my favourite, in spite of the heavy homework

The orientation week went pass really quickly. It was the last day before I knew it. It has been a fun week. It has been great! I have learnt a lot. I have met a lot of nice people. So I am looking forward to the next class week in New York. See you there!