Frog to Dragon: HEC MBA & Tsinghua MBA Blog
The quest for wisdom, from France to China, of an HEC MBA & Tsinghua MBA dual degree student (class of 2011)
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My apologies on the previous post were clealy short lived and I left my blog unattended for a while (again).  Commencement ceremony of the HEC MBA As planned, I graduated from the Tsinghua MBA in late June and from the HEC MBA in October. The latter is due to the fact that Dual-Degree candidates are awarded through the September jury at HEC, once all credits are verified. Just a formality really. I still managed to attend to both my graduation ceremonies: at HEC on June 17th and at Tsinghua on June 28th. Square hats, photos (many of them) and commencement speech, at HEC with François-Henri Pinault CEO of PPR, and at Tsinghua with Annie Wu who founded the first Joint-Venture in China. I’m still fascinated by China and have decided to stay for a bit to improve on my Mandarin. I’ve registered to the HSK Level 5 in December, yay! (Not bad for someone who could barely talk to taxi drivers 15 months ago.)
Tags: HEC events First I would like to apologize for leaving my blog for such long period (over 3 months!) without any updates. Of course I could say I was busy and then recovering but it doesn’t justify much… During my second semester at Tsinghua, on top of classes, I have been busying myself with the MIT China Lab program and my Tsinghua graduation thesis.
Tags: Academics, Travels Chinese new year is the most important public celebration in the Chinese calendar. It is also a holiday opportunity which allows everyone to return to their families in the respective regions. And class started again yesterday with, in particular, one class which may well be one of the most interesting of my MBA experience and which tells me that coming to Tsinghua for double degree was really the right choice.
Tags: Academics This week was the last week of class at HEC for the students of my intake. On one hand there are those who have found a job and who are ready to enjoy the holidays before starting their new post-MBA life, on the other hand there are those who are still looking for a job end getting a bit anxious. These days there are many farewell celebrations at HEC to wave goodbye to studies and Paris. 16 months have gone past at such an incredible speed. My situation is different because, as a double degree student, my curriculum spans accros 2 full years and will end in June 2011. As a consequence, there’s a gap between my current mindset and the one of my classmates following the normal cursus. Indeed, even though I’m conscious that my studies are coming to an end, I’m not yet fully ready to face the professional world…
Tags: Life on campus, Students I arrived in China last Saturday and I’m in Japan since today, on holiday, until the Tsinghua registration on August 25th.  Wudaokou station by night In the length of 5 days, I managed to open a bank account, visit 14 flats in the Wudaokou area and finally sign a lease for me to move in when I get back on August 24th. I also met about 15 of my new Tsinghua classmates, and then I couldn’t help but think of when we did the same thing with HEC admits, a year ago. What can I say about these 5 days… It felt like being ran over by a truck! But the internet connectivity in China is so damn slow!
Tags: Travels  Walking out of HEC I can’t believe it’s already been a month since my previous post. Before I go and start the second chapter of my MBA experience, I wanted to reflect back on what I have learned and what I’ll take away from it. 3 classes I enjoyed:
Tags: Academics, HEC events, Life on campus, Logistics, Students, TEC Summer has arrived. After a little struggle (15°C on June 21st) heat has settled on campus, as well as the football world cup :) Now, PP1 is almost done for me. I still have a couple of classes next week but I’ll be on vacation right after. During PP1, we had the options of doing a long internship (5 months) of study electives. I was more interested by classes (and vacations) and I made a scrupulous selection based on my own interests and feedback from previous intakes.  Happy participants of the theatre elective In addition, as I was not accepted to the Luxury track (very selective) I tried to pick classes that would be most useful after my MBA, while being unique and hard to get at Tsinghua, as I will still have the chance to study electives there in September. As a result, I took the following classes: The quality of each class was variable, but I was generally very satisfied by my electives.
Tags: Academics, Life on campus  Social and Sustainable Business Conference I should have mentionned it a while ago. Indeed, the HEC MBA students organise two major events every year. One is of course MBAT, which I already mentionned many times. I’m all the more guilty of not mentionning it earlier on this blog that I participated a lot in the organisation of this event, which is part of the Visions of Leadership cycle. This year, on May 28th and May 29th, we will welcome around 50 speakers and 400 participants who will discuss sustainability in its economic, social and environmental forms. Pretty cool huh! :)
Tags: Academics, HEC events, Students  MBAT closing party After a very quick start and 3 days of intense activities, this year’s MBAT resulted in a resounding success. It was successful because so many participating schools came. Competing in events against 11 other schools with high energy and people cheering from all sides was a fantastic blast. We were also proud to show the other schools that all HEC MBA students could organise, support and play in this big event. But it was a success most importantly because, for the 20th anniversary of MBAT, WE WON. The HEC MBA had never won the tournament but this year every students were determined to be the best in the even organisation but also in sports. We trained and worked really hard for this, and it paid! As for me, I participated in the pétanque and dodgeball competition and we won the title for both. So I’m really happy to have brought my personnal contribution to our overall success! :) CONGRATULATION HEC! WE WON!
Tags: HEC events, MBAT, Students Today MBAT starts with sport competitions and parties which will span across 3 days. Some statistics:
All HEC MBA students will be participating in the organisation of this event that we are very proud to host. This year is also special because it’s going to be the 20th anniversary of MBAT so we’re determined to show a united front in terms of welcoming our guests in the best way while also winning the competition. GAME ON!
Tags: HEC events, MBAT, Students |