It was, honestly, a bit inspiring. My classmates are not the stone-cold rob-drones I always feared B-school people to be; in fact they are warm, engaging, and diverse. What I found inspiring, however, was the focus on change and globalization, esspecially as, towards the end, we talked about identity, whether national, individual, or corporate.
Having grown up overseas, before the fall of the Berlin Wall, and feeling like an alien in the US ever since, I raised my hand when we were asked to self-identify as global citizens. This would have been a different experience ten years ago, before I had really begun to figure out how I felt about those experiences and identify the strengths I could draw from them. Essentially, I felt lost, alone, and confused before I realized that I felt that way in large part because I was not raised in this country, and after that, I realized that as a perpetual outsider, I have very specific talents when it comes to interacting with and managing groups.
In this class, we were told that these strengths are what we bring to the table as "global citizens". To see the world outside of the local lens, and to adapt to change. "It's not small thing to move to another country," she said, and she is right. We moved to Germany when I was thirteen, and moved back to the US when I was seventeen (and spent nine months in California, which I might add is practically another country in itself). Ten years ago, I would have been taking this statement in from the outside as something new; as I am now, I heard it as affirming something I already know about myself.
It was good to hear that these ephemeral experiences may have significant value in a career path known for quants and efficiency experts.
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