Belgium, Keerbergen, Vijfstraten, living room, next to a glass of red wine:

Dear reader,

During the week I felt the urge to write another blog, unfortunately numerous deadlines prevented me from doing so. Fortunately I managed to squeeze in a moment of peace, however I will keep it quite short, so let us get started!
My last blog was an introduction to the second semester. By now this second semester is reaching full speed towards the in-company projects, but let us leave these in-company projects in peace for now, and look back at the past weeks.
As you may or may not know, dear reader, Aramis went on a ski trip. Hereby I mean a large group went to Chatel in France, while others took the time to sit back and relax in Belgium or go back to their home country. Personally I decided a ski trip was exactly what I needed after a hectic exam period. This trip was most definitely one of the absolute highlights of my year at Vlerick so far. Conditions were perfect: the sun was shining all day, the snow was great, there was an open bar policy, theme parties proved an interesting experience not to be forgotten anytime soon, and my speeding ticket —obtained in Switzerland— had not arrived yet. However, I have not mentioned the main ingredient: my classmates.
The previous weeks had been quite labour intensive and we could all use a holiday. I am happy to say everyone was in excellent spirits, snowboarding, skiing and having fun all day. Once again it hs been proven that you could take an Aramis out of Vlerick, but Vlerick not out of an Aramis. During the holiday numerous business plans and operational measures were discussed to turn our hotel into a lean operating cash cow. I believe you get the picture don’t you? A holiday to truly remember!

However dark clouds appeared on the horizon. A much dreaded update mail from our lovely program manager Laura, informed me — by means of several upper cuts and hard lefts— that no less than 7 to 8 deadlines were awaiting our return. Dolce far niente was over, it was time to get the show back on the road. I must admit this first week has been quite tiresome. Our class has spent several late nights in the breakout rooms already, working hard on corporate finance or conducting interviews for leadership. Despite these deadlines our ever growing management capabilities made it possible to organize a second Shooternight (with a nice profit), make numerous arrangements for our Future Scope event, and the Cleantech Challenge.
This blog is of course written for your pleasure dear reader and to give you an insight into the daily life of a MGM student, but I also write these blogs for my classmates, and if you will forgive me, I hereby want to give them a final encouragement to make it through the crazy week that is coming up. Go for it Aramis, let’s make these last weeks of classes some of the best out of our entire year! I know all of you are finishing tasks or preparing for job interviews, and somehow you manage to still have a lot of fun: respect!

Dear reader, I hope you enjoyed this short blog about our ski trip and I look forward to seeing you at our events such as: Future Scope the 21st of March or our Glamour party the 22nd.

Kind regards,

Q.S.

Press Praeses MGM Aramis 2012

5th of February, Belgium, Keerbergen,

Hello dear reader, it has been a while has it not? A lot has happened since I wrote my last blog for you. France got downgraded, Facebook plans an IPO, Cairo faces turbulent times again, and Niels Albert became world champion cyclocross. However all these events are rendered meaningless compared to the major event that occurred in January: new fixed seats in class! I said farewell to my old neighbours and greeted my new ones. Due to the first letter of my first name I have a front row seat, meaning a higher coffee consumption to avoid dozing off after a night of hard work for the numerous assignments. Or do you suspect me of having gone out too late? Surely not!
My previous blog was titled: “remember remember the hectic month of december”. How naive I was, dear reader, it has gotten only more hectic. Both professionally and personally. (One should not underestimate the impact of sitting together with a close group so much of the time.) During this week my entrepreneurship team and I were working hard on our business plan, which I am glad to tell you is finished. When we were looking up market figures and discussing price setting, I could not help but notice how far we have already evolved since we first stepped through the doors of our school on a sunny september morning. Words and concepts such as bootstrapping, wacc, ebitda, bottleneck, and nwc have become as common as any. I cannot help but feel a sense of accomplishment when we critically asses the throughput rate at the take away pasta place that has seen its profits skyrocket, since we have been spending numerous evenings on campus.
However, dear reader, this evolution also fills me with some sadness. I realised this week that time is passing by too fast. The exams were over before I new it. Different core courses are popping up every day, including negotiation skills, a course I really looked forward to. Although we still have some months to go, I am already dreading the day our in-company projects start. Of course I am excited to step into that adventure —and blogging to you about it— but I would give all my Dexia shares for some more time with our group. I refuse to think about the day when we graduate and we go our separate ways, leaving on holiday or stepping on a plane to Bukarest.
Now hey, let us not become all gloom and doom when there is so much to look forward to. I am skipping over some exams that are coming up and fast forwarding to the skitrip, the grand ball, Future scope 2012 organised by the Aramis class, and last but not least, the trip to Budapest.
If I am any good at writing, dear reader, you should have guessed that I am still very much enjoying my time at Vlerick Leuven campus, and I plan to continue doing so for the entire second semester, and If you will permit me, I will gladly continue writing to you about my experiences.

Kind regards,

Q.S.

Praeses press, MGM Aramis 2012

During the last months, we all required a lot of empathy. For the ice tea peach for kids we had to think what we would buy or not buy if we were a parent. Creating a story, drawing a storyboard for the commercial, (re-)design the ice tea bottle,.. just a lot of creative activities for this assignment. All in all, creating an adventure from a cheesy cartoon and sugary drink is equal to a weekend of fun.

Afterwards we were challenged to think and understand the working process of a company in the B2B industry. Making a distribution company sexy is a difficult task. Still BD and our professor were glad with the end result we delivered. Although there are not immediately implementing, the sexy joggers to deliver your ads, or all the apps we designed. They are really taking our advice into account. So if you get, within a few months your weekly leaflets in a different format, there is a big chance that it is a M3 idea.

After thinking sexy, we had a task that was almost the opposite, working for a women’s magazine. Not all our boys were fond of this assignment. Reading magazines that write about baking cookies, taking a relaxing bath while reading the newest novel, aren’t activities that we do during our spare time. So a new task, a new challenge, a new winning team. ^^

Although the past month was very busy, with lots of assignments, we still had some free time to let off steam. MFM organized a boat party including theme clothing. We got baptized by the alumni of M3, including nasty drinks and lots of embarrassing moments. And Porthos did a rubik’s cube party. One event that really stood out for me is the M3 cantus. It was the nicest event  so far, a colleague said. I can only nod when I hear this, cause even though I was physically in the room, I’m afraid I can’t remember everything any longer.

Vlerick has to add three words to their slogan: “Work hard, play hard”, since the Ghent campus is totally into the Music for life atmosphere, we added some words:

“Work hard, play hard and contribute hard”

During this week, we have our Vlerick for life week, all the students and Vlerick employees are joining forces to collect as much money as possible., Bake, bike, network, book pile, candy, game night, meatballs, breakfast, pancakes, party…. It’s all for life.

All the activities and parties are fun to do. However, sometimes I really feel like the rabbit of Alice in wonderland, the one that yells: “I’m late / I’m late / For a very important date. / No time to say Hello. / Goodbye. / I’m late, I’m late, I’m late.” I’m always walking with my journal which includes a thousand of to do post its. I hardly have to time follow the news, to buy some decent food, to do anything at all except working for class.  So I was surprised that it is just 2 weeks of class in 2011, only two weeks of rushing and then I can find the time to do absolutely nothing, or maybe not.

It’s mid-December and at Vlerick that means: papers, case studies, papers, assignments… did I mention, papers?

Procrastination is the act of pushing off deadlines and replacing it with often trivial activities. We find ourselves catching up on the latest episodes of ‘The Big Bang Theory’ when we should be writing our paper, or checking Facebook at every conceivable moment. Well, you are not alone. Procrastination is like a disease and we progress through it in six distinct stages:

Stage I: Accumulation. Symptoms start to show but can be easily cured.

“I have plenty of time. Don’t worry, I can manage!”

Stage II: Aggravation. Warning signs continue to show but the disease can still be eliminated.

“I should start on the financial model but I need to go shopping. Christmas is just around the corner.”

Stage III Spread. If appropriate steps are not taken, the disease will disperse to other parts of the body.

“It’s a group project right? Someone else will start. Leaders are overrated, we need more followers!”

Stage IV Relocation. Susceptibility to serious infections begins.

“Who needs sleep? This will be good training for when I become an investment banker!”

Stage V Manifestation. A recognizable disease manifests and a full diagnosis can be made.

“I just need one more day!”

Stage VI Maturation. The disease develops into a chronic condition.

“I will never procrastinate again!” Right.

Good luck with your deadlines, fellow procrastinators! Remember, time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.

/ Lyndon (former biomedical researcher)

December 6^th, Belgium, Leuven, Vlerick Campus, Breakout Room 11.

Me: When is the deadline to state your company for HRM?

Colleague: The 13^th.

Me: Oops that is a bit earlier than expected.

Colleague: And don’t forget about Ops. Management.

Me: No that’s almost finished. Did you do anything yet for corporate finance?

Colleague: Well,…

Other colleague walks in: Hey Quentin can we meet for CSR?

Welcome, dear reader, to the month of December at Vlerick. When I talk about December I suspect you get a warm, fuzzy feeling inside. You think about presents, too much food at granny’s house, the new Cava uncle Vernon bought for the Christmas party, or perhaps the wonderful dance moves your boss will display at the end of the year reception. However for a Vlerick student pressure is on. Time flies at a scarcely believable pace and deadlines are fast approaching. Breaks and lunchtimes are spent in Breakout rooms preparing cases for Macc, dividing work for CSR or writing emails for In-company projects. The previous week we enjoyed the “Meet the Entrepreneurs” event. An entire day was spent in Ghent giving presentations about the subjects for the business plan assignment, and listening to interesting entrepreneurs who decided to take the plunge, and go their own way. I must say that hearing their stories increased my desire to one day become an entrepreneur myself. Unfortunately there is no time for daydreaming about the island next to Branson’s I will one day be able to buy, when my business has become a multinational. No dear reader, I have to read papers from other groups for the course of Operations Management, find a team for HR, and try to find out whether my friends still remember me.

Do not despair about my stress level dear reader for I am someone who lives by a quote made famous in the movie The Shining: “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy”, and I am glad to say my classmates feel the same. Therefore the praesidium of MGM Aramis (the Leuven class of the Master in General Management) has some nice events in store for us, such as: a shots night, a quiz, and a lovely Christmas dinner.

Dear reader, I am afraid you have already reached the end of this blog. Why, you may ask? Well, when I post this blog I will send one more email for an In-company project abroad, and leave for the Old Market for tonight is shooter night. Hopefully in a few years time I will be able to look back with classmates at an alumni event or lounging on the beach of my island, and say: “remember remember the hectic month of December”.

Dear reader I wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Q.S.

Press praeses MGM Aramis 2011-2012

How many Masters students does it take to screw in a light bulb?
At Vlerick, the answer seems to be around four to six (roughly the size of our assigned groups).

The fact is that working in groups is a reality of business life, and so it is no surprise that business school is filled with, well, group work. By now, I’m sure we’ve all faced our fair share of this and gotten some insights into the inner workings of a team. Based on my experience, here are the five most common personality types found at Vlerick.

The Expert

He knows exactly what to do and how to do it in as little time as possible. His strength lies in his previous knowledge and quick thinking, but sometimes he lacks the communication skills to get his point across. He may not be the most innovative, but whenever the group hits a roadblock, the expert always has the solution.

“Knowledge is power.” – Sir Francis Bacon

“The intelligent man is one who has successfully fulfilled many accomplishments, and is yet willing to learn more.” – Ed Parker

The Lazy One

He calls himself efficient, but everyone thinks he’s just lazy. If you knew someone you used the excused, “my dog ate my homework,” it was him. He has a tendency to show up late for meetings, even though he lives less than ten minutes away from Vlerick. He talks the talk, but hardly walks the walk.

“Progress is made by lazy men looking for easier ways to do things” – Robert Heinlein

“It’s true hard work never killed anybody, but I figure, why take the chance?” – Ronald Reagan

The Dependable One

He may not have the highest IQ in the group, but he’s the most reliable. He is persistent and has excellent work ethic.  He’s often the glue that holds the group together and works well with everyone. He can focus on any task and have it finished, signed and submitted on Marjolein’s table by 9 am.

“Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine per cent perspiration” – Thomas Edison

“The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack of will.” – Vince Lombardi

The Quiet One

When he opens his mouth, he surprises everyone with his ideas and business acumen. He contributes little but adds a lot. You never know what’s going on inside his head, and that’s a little disconcerting for some group members.

“I’m pretty loud and outspoken-but so often subtlety, the quiet voice, actually communicates.” – Frank Luntz

“A superior man is modest in his speech, but exceeds in his actions.” – Confucius

The ‘Steve Jobs’

He wears a black turtleneck, a pair of blue jeans and New Balance sneakers (or so he thinks). He’s responsible for many of the ideas in the group and very convincing in his arguments. He’s outspoken and a little stubborn, but everyone looks up to him. Although it seems everyone is a ‘leader’ at Vlerick, if there is one true leader in the group it is him.

“Do you want to spend the rest of your life selling sugared water or do you want a chance to change the world?” – Steve Jobs

“Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it.” – Dwight D. Eisenhower

Working in teams teaches as us many valuable lessons. Although at times it feels inefficient, we can leverage each other’s strengths to soften out the weaknesses. With that in mind, I want to leave you with one last quote for your next group meeting:

“When dealing with people, remember you are not dealing with creatures of logic but creatures of emotion.” – Dale Carnegie

Dear reader,

Do you still remember the hushed whispers about the Aramis social skills week show creeping through the hallways at the Vlerick campuses? Well, lets not keep you in suspense any longer. Here is the tale of MGM Aramis Social Skills Week.

October 10th, Belgium, Leuven, Naamsestraat in front STUK, Earlier than I want to remember:

Me: “You’re going to need a bigger car”.

Film enthusiasts amongst you will recognise this slightly modified sentence from the movie Jaws. Although the sentence has changed somewhat, the fear on my face and that of Roy Schneider, when he took a good look at that shark, were quite similar. Not to worry dear reader, as far as I know no sharks have been spotted in that part of Leuven. However, my monster was much more frightening: an enormous amount of bags of crisps!

It appeared that the ‘snacks and beverages committee’ -with this blogger as an active member- had made a “slight” overestimation on the amount of crisps an average Aramister and Aramises can consume in five days time. Strangely enough this wasn’t the case for the spirited beverages… Fortunately we had some engineers to come up with models on how to fit everything into Olivier’s van.

Well dear reader, we have been standing in the cold long enough. Let us hop on the bus to Merelbeke!

After a sleepy bus ride we arrived at our destination: domain Ten Berg. A little castle with surrounding park and sports facilities, where many heroic football games would be held and where the foundations were laid for the ladies volleyball team. Once everyone put away their luggage, the bags of crisps had been spread all over the kitchen, and I was busy loosing my first sock, we could get started.

We were welcomed by our coaches (Prof. Dr. F. Wang, K. Bellens, I. De Clippeleer, J. Verbrigghe and W. Vroonen) and went outside for some warming up exercises. Not only where these exercises a lot of fun and perfect icebreakers for people who hadn’t had the opportunity to get to know each other better, but they were also an excellent way to loose your voice almost immediately after we had arrived.

Lunch came and went, already several matches of samba volleyball had been played and my sock was officially missing, when it was time for our first rope exercise. Some teams did a great job, others ended up in the bushes, but we all agreed that the debriefing with the feedback and guidance of the coaches gave us very useful and interesting insights into group dynamics, brainstorming and on how to cooperate effectively and efficiently.

After dinner, we had a movie on how to successfully give a presentation, and then dear readers, it was time for our first soiree/party of the week. It was a memorable evening with good music, good people, and a smoke machine that set off the fire alarm: good times!

Day 2:

Perhaps some of us had a bit too much fun the previous evening, but after a quick breakfast and Professor Wang’s music tunes before class, we were all set for another day of  social skills training. The morning was full of role playing and matches of samba volleyball.   In the afternoon we learned about our interaction styles, and played the ‘survival in the desert’ game. Some groups managed to survive, others were toast (literally).

That evening we had the privilege to receive professor/DJ Frank Wang as our resident deejay for the first part of the evening. The smoke machine was carefully stored away, but we compensated with several rounds of limbo dancing.

Day 3:

Another early morning and quick breakfast on day 3. Some people’s communicational capabilities were reduced to whispering or just plain nodding, but nonetheless we had to make an effort to produce a minimal amount of sound, preferably even words, because in the morning we had our presentations coming up: another very useful session with much appreciated feedback from classmates and coaches.

That day I lost a second sock, but I had more important things on my mind. Yes, dear reader, even the loss of a sock had to make way for the second rope exercise. My team was determined to do a better job than last time (we had some problems with bushes standing in our way), and we had not only our honour to defend, but also that of our coach Inge. She said to us that the groups which performed less the first time, did a better job the second time round, and we proved her right with a beautiful second place.

That evening the entire class came together in the meeting room to listen to classmates that had volunteered for a function in the praesidium. We heard several good speeches, and after former praeses of Theology Bruno interrogated all praeses and vice-praeses candidates, the snacks and beverages committee had the pleasure to announce a special promotion for that night: tequila boom boom! Dear reader, I will not go into any details, but it was a night to remember!

Day 4:

Deprivation of sleep was becoming more and more common, but we had no time to rest. Day 4 was our last day and thus the day we would perform our show for staff, family and friends. So after the morning sessions on constructive feedback, we got started with the final preparations for the show. Dances were rehearsed, guitars were tuned, and the IT and organisational department did an amazing job of installing all equipment, and making sure the show would run smoothly.

Finally, the moment had arrived dear reader, the crowd had taken their seat, the lights went out: showtime!

I had the pleasure to watch a truly hilarious show filled with movies and live acts.  As the rest of my classmates and spectators, I was blown away by Katrien and Sebastien’s brilliant 4 chord song, the man bites dog video, the fantastic “May I kiss you” movie with program manager Laura as the star, and many more videos and acts. I really enjoyed dancing and singing with my fellow men in ties and playing the bass for the U2 cover One with our own Aretha Franklin: Katrien, Russian guitar heroes: Ilia and David, acoustic guitar wizard: Kevin, and last but not least the exceptional violinist: Sofie.

I can highly recommend you, dear reader, to have a look at the DVD that will be released soon. We not only received praise from our coaches, family and friends, but also our custom sweaters that program director prof. Boute brought with him.

I don’t think I will forget that day. Everyone walking around in their sweaters, happy as can be with a smooth and great show. Of course this called for another party! Laurent made one last effort to fire up the smoke machine, but hey you can’t have everything, right?

October 21st, Belgium, Leuven, in front of STUK, around noon:

Dad: “How was it”? Me: “great”. Dad: “What did you do”? Me: “A lot”. Dad: “You look tired”. Me: “Yeah”.

This, dear reader, is the traditional conversation my father and I have after I come home from a holiday or school trip. I was exhausted, and had the blues. Don’t you worry, dear reader, it was a good kind of blues. The kind of blues you get when you come back from a wonderful week, with an amazing atmosphere and great people. A week where we really but our credo “Work hard! Play hard!” into practice.

I hereby want to thank our coaches (Prof. Dr. F. Wang, K. Bellens, I. De Clippeleer, J. Verbrigghe and W. Vroonen) for the great sessions and fun atmosphere, program manager Laura for taking care of all practicalities, program director prof. Boute for bringing our sweaters and everyone that came to our show. However, most of all I want to thank my classmates for giving me a social skills week to truly remember!

Q.S.

Press Praeses MGM Aramis 2011-2012

It’s already been two months since the kick-off the opening of the academic year and already a lot has happened.

Music talks, Kinepolis experience, Ice tea adventures everything except long hours of cocooning at home.

But before I talk some more about our M3 life, let me introduce myself. I’m one of the 47 students that studies marketing at Vlerick, this academic year. I’m always fond of crazy ideas, parties until the sun rises and singing in the rain. I studied sociology and didn’t want to enter the fully mature working life yet. So I decided to try out the admission test and here we are, at the blog of vlerick’s marketing class.

The first day really felt like the first of September, kind of stressed out about the fact that I didn’t know anyone, didn’t know what to wear, cause what do they mean with “business casual” ?! However all this drama for nothing cause in the end I survived the first day quite easy. I got to know a few and I was glad that it seemed a nice bunch of people, except the fact that we’re with 30 girls and only 17 boys, I wonder how that will turn out.

The first weeks were okay, got to know everyone better, learned 46 names out of my head, quite difficult if there are 3 Wouters, 2 Lorenzos, 2 Eveliens and a few other girls whose names start with an ‘E’, but as the slogan of Vlerick says: “we manage”.

After the introduction courses we went on a seminar to the hip town of Merelbeke. We did rope exercises, built small villages, the boys loved it probably because it reminded them of “playmobile”. We partied and karaoked every night, got to know some alumni, each other and ourselves more.   The week after, we vote our praesidium and it turned out that the leader of the gang (the M3 gang) will be Wim.

Already at the end of September we had our first exams of introduction courses. It’s quite strange to already study in September, as from the previous years the only thing that I was used to do, at the end of September, was to go to uni. After the exams the first real assignment started, a research about music and consumer behavior. Interviewing people about this topic and analysing the acquired data were the main tasks. The day we reached the deadline to hand everything in, the praesidium organized their first event, a city game of Gent. The international M3’ers got to know Gent some more and we (the praesidium) got to know some juicy secrets from everyone. It was that night that Swa got to know almost everyone of our class and that we found our logo, a duck. The duck that was first part of a ING billboard located on the Vlaanderenstraat. Because we loved the duck so much, we decided to adopt him as our class mascot and made a logo out of it.

Most of the time, a new module goes together with a new assignment. This was also the case for “marketing strategy”. For this course we had the opportunity to take a look at Kinepolis, from a different angle. During this task a lot of us stayed at Vlerick in the weekend and got to know the building better than their own student place. Now we also know the reason why you get a badge, in the beginning of the year, which enables you to enter the school 24hours a day. It’s not a fancy gadget, there’s a reason for it.

After handing in the manager report and seeing each groups presentation, we followed another slogan of Vlerick which says: “Work hard, play hard”. Now it was time for playing, the party swot from M3 organized a pub crawl. Soon after this, M3 also organized a quiz for all the master students, MBA’ers and alumni. It was a tremendous success, the whole AB Inbev lounge was completely filled with eager quizzers who were dying to win. Eventually ‘the king and its servants’, a group of MFM won the quiz.

We’re constantly triggered by new opportunities like business games, establishing a sales class, organizing Dutch course for the foreigners, alumni events, company presentations and many many more.

More adventures that happen at the M3 class follow soon. If you can’t get enough of it and you want a fast update of things that are happening at M.2.1 follow us at twitter: VlerickM3

September 2^nd, 10 a.m., Belgium, Keerbergen, Vijfstraten 12b, first bedroom on the right:

I am standing in front of my closet thinking: “what on earth do they mean with business casual”? After a quick google, I manage to put something together.

Why, dear reader, is a recently graduated archaeologist looking for business casual clothing?  Well, because the second of september is not just any other day. It is D-day: the kick off of MGM Aramis 2011-2012. The day I will meet my new classmates at Vlerick who will become my closest companions for the coming year.

Nervously I took my fixed seat and looked around at the 48 other faces in class (in those days we were still missing Olga, but that’s another story). I had my first conversations with my neighbours, and turned my attention to program director Professor Boute and program manager Laura Rampelberg. D-day had officially begun!

October 7^th, Belgium, Leuven, Old Market, terrace in front of café Apero:

Me: “Was anyone able to solve question 2”? Classmate: “Yeah, I think two or three people”. Other classmate: “Pff, what kind of question was that”!

Dear readers, you have just read the main topic of conversation on a sunny afternoon on the seventh of october: question 2 of the financial accounting exam. It was the last exam of our introductory courses, and a large bunch of Aramisters and Aramisses were relaxing and enjoying the sun after a week of studying indoors.

A month had gone by since I took my fixed seat, and marveled at my fancy name tag (not to mention the free coffee). It had also been a month since I saw some of my best friends, but I knew I was well underway of making many more.

In this month we learned about prroofits and squeeezing. Fast game gave us insights into the world of accounting. We became aware of debiting and crediting. Questionnaires helped us to determine whether we were co-operators, fact finders, creators or planners. We came to grasp confidence intervals and regression analysis (Well, at least some of us did.). We welcomed newcomer Olga in our midst. However what matters most is that MGM Aramis was starting to come together both as a class and as a group.

I cannot recall the total time we spent there, but I do know that we didn’t have all day to just sit around and do nothing. No dear reader, we were on a tight schedule! Now why would a bunch of students want to do anything else than drink Leuven’s finest after a week of exams? Simple: we had filming to do. Not just any kind of filming, but filming for our grand show at social skills week. By now, dear reader, you will have heard hushed whispers of the legendary Leuven show, but I am afraid that you will have to wait for the next Aramis blog to know the full story!

Q.S.

Press Praeses MGM Aramis 2011-2012

November marks the beginning of the third month of school at Vlerick, and the last several weeks have been filled with opportunities to meet other fellow students, as well as to get accustomed to life at a business school. This was a particularly novel experience for me, having previously delved in the realms of academic biomedical research. I had carefully chosen to study finance at Vlerick earlier this spring, and was eager to start classes and meet my colleagues all summer long. It seemed like only yesterday that I arrived at Brussels airport, carrying two overweight luggages and a carry-on bag so heavy I felt like my back was going to break. As an international student, it was a little more difficult to find a place to stay in Ghent, whereas my Belgian counterparts had almost all summer to find their “kot.” Many had even studied at Ghent University previously and had already settled in. Nonetheless, I managed. As Vlerick likes to put, “don’t worry, you can manage.”

The start of September was a time for those students, like myself, who had not previously studied finance to catch up on the basics. For others, it was review. What made September a little different was that, it was, and will be, the only time in the next ten months that Vlerick’s infamous 90% attendance rule did not apply. Nevertheless, almost everyone attended classes and we were busy not only studying, but also getting to know the 59 other students who we would be working closely with for the remainder of the academic year. To further facilitate this, Vlerick hosted an opening seminar for the MFM programme, in which we spent three days in a nearby town, Lokeren, to get to know each other even better. Though formally dubbed, “Professional Management Skills II,” informally, it was a fun three-day outing with newfound friends. It was a busy three-days filled with morning and evening activities. The highlight for most of us must have been the annual “MFM Show.” We had all of September to put together a show, filled with live music and funny videos, and present them to our class, as well as professors who kindly attended the event. We saw how a typical MFM Crib looked like, found out that the Hendriken had bought our school, followed one student’s quest to find the elusive Bloomberg terminal, heard some live soulful acoustic performances, and so much more. Laughter was in the air and I applaud everyone who contributed, making it one of the most memorable evenings thus far.

Of course, school is not without exams, and we had six exams for our intro courses in the beginning of October (five of which were back-to-back, but we managed as we always do). Shortly after, the core courses started and things really started to pick up. Instantly, we were assigned to more group projects than I could count with one hand, and morning and afternoon sessions were filled with lectures. Our projects range from competing in Vlerick’s Investment Research Challenge (IRC) to creating a business plan. The eager ones among us even use coffee and lunch breaks as opportunities to meet with our groups and start planning. They warned us that life at Vlerick wasn’t going to be a walk in the park, and they are starting to deliver on their promise.

However, in business school fashion, what is work without any play?! Life at Vlerick is also filled with many social evening events. We had a chance to meet many Vlerick alumni who shared their stories with us, both life during their time at Vlerick, and the exciting opportunities that await us in the end. Moreover, there have also been many corporate events and company presentations. Most recently, we had our Financial and Consulting Fair, which had companies from Belgium and abroad, who were looking to attract the talented students that attend this school. When there isn’t something going on in the evening, the Lounge is filled with people anyways; whether it’s Masters students, MBA students, professors, visiting scholars, company representative, you name it. And amidst everyone, Swa, everyone’s favourite bartender, stands faithfully behind the bar waiting to serve you a cold glass of Belgian beer. This is yet another opportunity to network, or to just have a drink with your friends, and it is one of the things I like most about Vlerick.

The road ahead is filled with challenges, but it is looking to be an exciting and rewarding year. I will of course report back with updates and I hope that you enjoy reading about life at Vlerick!