By Nash Wills, Staff Writer
The seasons are finally changing, Christmas time and the holidays are just around the corner and with all of this festivity comes graduation day. It is always a seminal and bittersweet time during which soon-to-be-graduates are simultaneously excited and nostalgic. In the short amount of time that I have spent at Thunderbird, I can already perceive just how fast time flies here at school and I know that before I can even blink, graduation will be upon me too. Is there a lesson to be learned in that? Should one focus more on studies or the job search while at school? Being that I have three more semesters left at Thunderbird, I thought that I would sit down with some students who are in their final semesters in order to gain some practical insight on how to better take advantage of my time here at school.
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For most students, graduation is both a sad and exciting time. Sad in that both a place and a group of people that they have come to know and love must now be left behind. Exciting in that they are starting a new chapter in their lives and have the opportunity to put their skills that they have learned at Thunderbird to the test in the real business world. For Carlos Melendez, MS ’15, “coming to T-Bird really changed my life. Graduation came so fast, it seems like yesterday when I first arrived on campus having no idea what to expect. It will be hard to get a job, but if you put yourself out there you will reach your goal. Enjoy your time here, after you leave it’s real life!” Pia Oestlien, MA ’14, MBA ’15 and Calvin Burns, MA ’14, MBA ’15 had similar sentiments: Pia stated that, “having been here for 2.5 years and received the MA and soon the MBA, I’ve learned a lot. While I’m sad to leave Thunderbird and say goodbye to all my friends, I’m ready and excited for what comes next. Most of all, I’m incredibly grateful for the opportunity to attend this school and meet such amazing people. It was truly the first time I felt like I was where I needed to be. Thunderbird will always be a home for me.” And Calvin, “It will be sad to leave this amazing, global community and place of knowledge but I am excited to see what the world will bring and to put my skills into action!” I really liked how David Roman MBA, ’15 put it: “It is my honor to call Thunderbird my school, T-birds my tribe; the World my home. Let any good legacy we built here be dawn to the lives we live now.”
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Likewise, Luca Lin MS ’15 had only positive things to say about his experiences at Thunderbird: “At Thunderbird I might be learning the same academic knowledge as I did in my undergraduate business school, but Thunderbird’s emphasis on practicality and the platform to network have really helped me to mature professionally and have enabled me to apply my skills in the real business world.” When asking for advice on how to spend time wisely at school,
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Leah Funk, MS ’15, replied that one should “definitely not focus all your time on the job search. You can get caught up and forget to live and participate in the awesome things around you. Especially when some of your friends here will be moving far away. Enjoy what time we have left together!” Similarly, Brendon Biegel, MBA ’15 reminded current students that “if you start to find yourself overwhelmed, stop and remember just how far you’ve come.” For anyone who is about to graduate though, Jose Balmori’s, MBA ’15, advice is probably the best: “you should be livin’ la vida loca.”