Wharton Journal

Issue date: 10/5/09 Section: Insider

Q: What advice would you give to new MBA students about making the most out of their time at Wharton?

A: View Wharton as a place with unlimited opportunities to explore new things.  Here, you can completely reinvent yourself, transform yourself into a different person. Some of you might be thinking “I wish I could start my life all over again – then I would be an entrepreneur, not a banker,” or “I wish I’d learned public speaking, or how to act, or a new language.”  Well, these two years provide you with this opportunity.   You could have never skated before coming to Wharton and end up being President of the Hockey club, like Nicole Lim.  Or you could be completely new to comedy and end up giving a stand-up routine in front of hundreds of your classmates, like Shockyou Shiozaki or Mark Julien (apologies to the others I’ve missed).  You could be an American who’s never set foot outside the US, and you can climb Cotopaxi, trek in Antarctica, go on a Global Immersion Program to South-East Asia.  

Because Wharton’s so large, we have a club for pretty much any extra-curricular activity you can think of.   More importantly than that, the community here is extremely supportive – people here really want you to succeed, and are willing to give up their own time to help you do so with coaching and mentorship.  This allows you to push yourself outside your comfort zone, take risks and try something for the first time.  You could make your life much easier by just focusing on the things you’re good at here – but you could have done those things without coming to Wharton.  By contrast, there are many activities on offer here that you may not have the chance to do ever again after these two years are up.  

The same idea of exploration applies to the people you hang out with.  As an international student, it’s often challenging to move to a new country where you don’t know anyone and comforting to find friends from your home country – but you’d have similar people anyway had you not come here.  The same applies to New York bankers and traders, English nerds, or whatever your own background happens to be.  The diversity of the student body opens you up to whole new perspectives.  Just in my last class, when I was teaching capital structure, Samuel Otu told me in his country (Ghana), there are “thin capitalization requirements” that limit the tax deductibility of debt, which is something I’d never heard of before.  

Q: Which member of the Wharton faculty would you least like to be alone in a GSR with and why?

A: Since I’m untenured I probably shouldn’t answer that in a public forum... (Some readers might make a guess).  Instead I’ll engage in British diplomacy (i.e. a cowardly cop-out) and answer the opposite question of who I wouldn’t mind chatting to in a GSR.  I have tremendous respect for Anjani, Peggy and Kembrel and all they do for the MBA program. Within Finance, Franklin Allen and Itay Goldstein are very good mentors to me.  Outside my department, Gavin Cassar and Americus Reed are always a good laugh; I also hear great things about new guy Adam Grant and am meeting him (and hopefully his magic tricks) in a few weeks.

Q: Will you be performing in this year’s Rainbow Pub? It would be awesome to see you shake your groove thang! If not, how come?

A: I’m afraid not. First, I’m a very shy and reclusive person so am too timid to do something like that. Second, from past Rainbow Pubs I understand that Anjani Jain, Bob Stein and Bruce Allen make far hotter chicks than me. I’m also told that JT Sizemore makes a pretty attractive woman…

Q: Will you be attending Walnut Walk this weekend and if so, what will you be wearing?

A: 0 for 2 I’m afraid – I’m already committed that evening.  Contrary to popular belief, I actually have a life outside Wharton!  I did so two years ago when I first got here, and wore suit, tie, boxers – plus academic hat.

Q: If you could teach any course you wanted, what would it be?

A:DRNKNG 621. Accelerated.

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