Hola desde Yale! Hello from Yale!
My name is Andrea and I am a first year MBA student at Yale SOM. I am a proud bulldog. My heart is equally Peruvian as it is Canadian. I was born and raised in Peru but moved to Canada for high school. You may wonder what I miss the most; the answer would be both the world renowned Peruvian cuisine and the warm climate. Canada is a little cold!
I received my undergraduate degree at the University of Pennsylvania where I majored in engineering. After graduation, I returned to Toronto. My work experience for the last five years was in financial services in corporate development and consulting in Canadian banking. My goal for coming to business school was to expand my global perspective and make a transition from strategy to finance.
Why did I pick Yale SOM? First and foremost, it was the people. Even before I was admitted, I felt welcomed by the tight-knit community. All the students had exciting stories to share with me: about the Yale SOM community, the unique core curriculum structure, and extra-curriculars amongst others. Second, although Yale SOM is a smaller MBA program, it has a vast array of options for international experiences. I was very keen on doing the Global Social Enterprise – a class where students from Yale work with social enterprises in emerging markets. Prior to business school, I started an organization that provides non-profit consulting services to disadvantaged socio-economic groups in Toronto. I wanted to continue making an impact but in a more global scale.
Given as I am Canadian, I celebrated Thanksgiving in October. Thanksgiving was a great time to celebrate with my new friends at Yale SOM. For Thanksgiving, I decided to host my friends at my apartment in East Rock for dinner. The menu was an apple cider brined turkey, panettone stuffing yam pie with streusel and marshmallows… Alright, I can’t continue because I’m getting hungry! It was a mission for which all my friends pitched in. My friend Harvey took me shopping for all the groceries and my friend Tomas found panettone out of season. They were such good sports! The dinner menu was mouth-watering and we had no leftovers.
During this holiday season I have much to be thankful for. I am thankful for all the friends I have made thus far who supported me with my transition to business school. Some friends have spent countless hours having fun study parties with me. Learning the effect of taxes on consumer and producer surplus can be more fun in a group! But some other friends have also helped get over being home sick. Aside from my family, I also miss my pug Noah whom I couldn’t bring to New Haven. Over Thanksgiving, I was doggie sitting Franklin – the cutest French bulldog. The funny thing is that Franklin loves to eat turkey! Franklin also got a little piece of the delicious turkey.
Everyone is welcome to follow my blog where I will share my experiences at Yale! I’ll be sharing my perspectives on being a career switcher, an international student (although that is not rare at Yale SOM), an avid chef, and probably the “official” dog sitter of my first year class.
