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Courtesy: TSG

Courtesy: TSG

The First Tuesday event is a culture where alumni from Thunderbird meet and socialize with each other in exotic locations in their respective cities on the First Tuesday of every month. There are three Thunderbird chapters in Arizona: Phoenix Chapter, Scottsdale Chapter and Tucson Chapter.

I have attended most of the First Tuesday Events organized by the Phoenix Chapter. This time, the First Tuesday was organized at the Thunderbird Pub and the event was organized so that the newly joined students of Spring 2014 could meet Thunderbird alumni. This was aptly called: the Graduate Mixer.

The event was scheduled at 5 PM. Alumni started coming much earlier to the Pub before 5 and were talking to each other. As the clock struck five, many students dressed in business formals/casuals came to the Pub. Within 10 minutes, the Pub was bubbling with students from all batches. I could see the usual attendees of First Tuesday from the Fall 2012 batch speaking to a few alumni. I could also see students from my batch of Fall 2013 and new students from the Spring 2014 batch.

I went around The Pub speaking to everyone available and had a great time. All of us had wonderful discussions with the Alumni and the topics of discussion were usually centered on the internship search, H1B visa, module abroad experience, the recent HLC decision, and how to make the most out of alumni network. For the newcomers, the alumni explained the First Tuesday and the importance of attending the same. Numerous of business card exchanges took place and many new contacts were made.

Finally I met Michael Cottrell, the Chapter Leader from the Thunderbird Phoenix chapter. who is the brain behind First Tuesdays in Phoenix. He is very warm and kind and makes it a point to meet every student and alumni during these First Tuesday events. He was very happy with the result of this event and said that the number of student turnout for this graduate mixer was much higher than the last graduate mixer event. Well, its definitely good news that the students are participating in these networking events!