Taking Advantage of All Yale SOM Has to Offer
Master of Advanced Management student Afiq Nasir ’18 reflects on the importance of taking advantage of all of the cross-Yale opportunities available to SOM students.
It’s been a whirlwind at Yale SOM since arriving in New Haven last fall—from finding my center in a new place to making new friends to exploring the many paths that Yale has to offer. When I completed my MBA in Hitotsubashi ICS, Tokyo, where I focused on global strategy and service management, I wanted to explore new areas of interest before starting on a new career path. I came to SOM to study behavioral economics after getting a taste of it during Global Network Week and how it can help people make better decisions using the right nudges. What came about after was more than I expected.
Part of the Master of Advanced Management experience is the MAM Practicum, where we work with an organization on a project or any issue it wants to tackle. When we were selecting from among the available projects, I knew immediately I wanted to work with the Global Parliament of Mayors, an organization connecting mayors around the world to discuss challenges they faced within their cities. This took me on a new direction away from what I had previously learned toward: anthropology and public policy. I enrolled in classes from the different schools across Yale University to delve further into an interdisciplinary perspective that included urbanization and its effects. I first became interested in this subject during the Big Issues class, when we discussed urbanization and inequality. Along with the opportunity to tackle these issues in the Practicum, Big Issues set me on the path to learn more. I feel that the hands-on approach has given me great experience to bring to bear when I look to be come a management consultant after my time at Yale.
The SOM experience brings you and your amazing peers together to make things happen using all of the resources and facilities Yale has to offer. I joined up with some SOM students to organize debates on current issues, and this became a platform for discussion and understanding conflicting points of views, which is an important step toward bridging the gap and creating empathy. Others have started a multitude of initiatives, from galvanizing volunteers for soup kitchens to organizing a conference on menstruation. The list keeps growing. When I arrived on day one at SOM, they said that our classmates are our biggest assets in SOM. Those words have stayed true, and my classmates continue to inspire me every day with the passion and drive they have for making a positive impact.
