By: Sinhuja Kodivalasa, Guest Writer

Getting a Business degree does not mean to be confined to classes and projects alone. It is the networking and hands on experience that accounts for the best experience. The ideal way to engage on campus is through being a part of various clubs. To enhance an interest in any particular field of business or in sports, clubs are the best means to do so. Sharing of knowledge and having a great experience is doubled amongst people with similar interests.

As customary, the club day this year took place at the TEC on the 6^th of February, Friday from 3:00 PM until 5:00 PM. Many Professional clubs along with various regional and sports clubs were present to showcase their club’s agenda for the Spring 2015 trimester. Starting with the professional clubs there were a total of 13 clubs in this category. Each club presented its function and upcoming events, some of the focal points being:

The Thunderbird Management Consulting Association has a series of events planned for this trimester. As Marissa Burkett, first-year MBA student who is part of the leadership team stated, “This time we are planning to have students visit companies such as Deloitte, etc. to have real life experience in a consulting working environment. This is called ‘Consulting Company Treks’ initiative. Apart from this we also have the ‘Clash of Consultants’ which has the deadline of February 18to receive applications.”

Thunderbird Finance Association has planned to have a special initiative this trimester. “We are having the ‘Stock market Challenge’ this year. But instead of the traditional way of just making the students play the simulation we will have a prep class prior to it. This provides the students with the basic knowledge to excel in the simulation,” stated Roger Sequeira, first-year MBA student.

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The Thunderbird Supply Chain Association has big plans. Jonathan Harmon, MBA ’15, and Jonathan Beckley, MBA ’15, part of the leadership team said, “We believe that Thunderbird’s merger with the best school in the U.S. for Supply Chain has opened up a lot of opportunities for students in this field. We are trying to coordinate with the ASU club and organize many more events. We also plan to promote certifications such as CSCP and encourage students to participate in the National APICS case competition.”

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The SHRM club has changed its name to ‘Society for Human Resource Management’ with their agenda being ‘Great vision without Great people is irrelevant’. While talking to the leadership team, Candice Sparkes, first-year MBA student, stated that the club’s vision was to amend the way HR is conceived as not only a traditional human management jobs, but also to lay emphasis on the strategic aspect of the job.

Apart from this there are many other professional clubs organizing various speaker sessions and case competitions. There are many workshops which are planned to be held later in this trimester. There were some of the newer clubs like TEDx and Thunderbird analytics from last trimester with their new agendas.

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The regional clubs or the country clubs were present with their casual, energetic vibe. Many of them had a variety of candies or snacks from their home country. Some club leaders were dressed in their cultural attire, like Ana Carolina Carrillo, MBA ’15, from the Latin America Club was dressed in traditional Mexican garb.

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The Japanese and Greater China clubs were the most crowded booths. The Japan club had popular instant photo with the Japanese traditional attire. Takahiro Ito and Yuya Ota,  first-year MBA students, were at the counter writing students names in Japanese script. The Greater China club had games and were awarding the winners with small goodies. Students were seen having fun at various country tables.

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The Sports and lifestyle clubs were the liveliest side of the entire TEC. With many old clubs returning and few new clubs starting this trimester, we might see many great sporting events this season.

The new Thunder Hiking club in collaboration with the Thunder Running club, have decided to organize treks every Sunday. They have decided to explore various locations of the Grand Canyon state. As a part of this, they had been to their first hike to the North Mountain on Sunday, February 8.

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The season of Rugby is all set to start. The very first match is set to be on February 14, ASU at Thunderbird. Followed by six other matches, with the final one (if qualified) being the MBA Rugby World Cup (at Duke). This is going to be an interesting season for rugby fans.

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The usual major sports clubs were present, some of them being Football, Golf, Tennis, and Table Tennis clubs. Apart from these the Thunder polo, Ultimate Frisbee and Pub Trivia were some of the other interesting sporting clubs.

The allocation procedure started immediately at 5:00 PM on Friday, February 6. After Club Day, the window is between February 6-11. Then the allocation process will be completed and the results will be announced by TSG the following week (February 16-20). It is to be announced which clubs will get the required allocation and remain as full functioning clubs after the allocation procedure.