From the Director of Admissions: At Some Point It’s Not A Coincidence
In my last director's note, I recounted an "Only at Yale" moment, when I bumped into Henry Kissinger, who was walking through Evans Hall after giving a talk to the Yale community. That incident highlighted to me the convening power of Yale.
Recent events reinforce for me that this encounter was not a fluke. Two weeks ago, Laszlo Bock '99, senior vice president for people operations at Google, gave a talk to students on hiring in the tech sector. Then, this past Friday, Colonel Rich Morales '99 was on campus to speak about his career since graduating from Yale SOM; he is a veteran combat commander who has most recently served at the White House. In his talk, he discussed some of the classmates he's remained close to—including his study group partner, Laszlo Bock. Later that same day, Professor Barry Nalebuff gave a lecture about his co-founding the company Honest Tea. In his talk, he made reference to Austin Ligon '80, co-founder and former CEO of CarMax, as an example of the kind of mission-driven leader we aspire to educate. Before the talk was over, who should walk in and sit down but… Austin Ligon.
These incidents demonstrate the closeness of our alumni and their level of engagement with the school. I didn't even mention that Nalebuff started Honest Tea with his former student Seth Goldman '95, who still runs the company and recently came back to SOM to speak on a panel about social entrepreneurship. The connectedness apparent in these "Only at Yale" moments benefits our students while they're here and after they graduate and become alumni themselves.
Bruce DelMonico
Assistant Dean and Director
Admissions Office
Yale School of Management
135 Prospect Street
Box 208200
New Haven, CT 06520-8200
203.432.5635, Admissions Office
203.432.6380, Visitor Center
fax 203.432.7004
mba.admissions@yale.edu