Johnson Outdoor Experience

It's Sunday, and the action hasn't stopped yet. Friday morning, the vast majority of Johnson School students loaded onto four charter buses at 8:30, bound for Casowasco, a summer camp on the shore of Lake Wasco, one of the smaller of New York's Finger Lakes, about an hour north of Ithaca.

Since early in the spring, the Johnson Outdoor Experience (JOE, like the name) had already been touted as the best and most important orientation event. But as we arrived, our first-year faces showed sleepy and skeptical as a group of 25 or so second-years and Accelerated MBA students jumped and moshed their way onto the great front lawn chanting "JOE, JOE, JOE." Who created these monsters, we wondered? And were we going to join their ranks? If so, what would the indoctrination look like? Would we too be offered happy pills and matching t-shirts, and end this blue-skyed summer day as ranting buffoons? Luckily not. What actually happened was that the excitement and enthusiasm of these second-years began to rub off on us. Some first-years even talked in low tones about maybe taking on the role of JOE facilitator next year.

After a rousing rendition of the Cornell alma mater with dean Joe Thomas, we were split into groups consisting of about 10-15. I won't bore the reader with descriptions of the morning and early afternoon's teambuilding activities. Suffice it to say that, between crossing imaginary rivers of acid, falling into each other's arms, and narrowly avoiding the death grip of a giant imaginary spider's jaws, I got to know many of my teammates better, and even had a bit of fun in the process.

But for me, the best and most important parts of the weekend in the woods were the free times set aside just for talking, roasting marshmallows, swimming, and sharing a bunk or tent with new classmates. As promised in my first posting, I'm going to highlight as many interesting conversations and individuals as I can, in hopes of painting an eventual picture of the diversity of the class.

I spent much of the the evening discussing love, marriage, and business with two new Asian friends -- Satoshi from Japan and Yong Seuk from Korea. We discussed the difficulty of living in a new country and learning to function in a different language (I commiserated as much as I could with stories from my recent time in Argentina). I learned that the drinking culture common among businessmen in both of those countries stems from the introversion common among their people. Satoshi told me that meetings in Tokyo are often quiet affairs where executives and team members shy away from sharing their ideas. The real work often happens outside the office -- at the bar, when a few drinks helps them open up and trade ideas that would have seemed crazy a few hours earlier.

At breakfast, I discussed water management, the Indian IT sector, and other topics with an Accelerated MBA student named Priyanka. This young woman from Mumbai has just completed her one year masters in electrical engineering at Cornell. Along the way, she decided that an MBA would come in handy in her goal of helping NGOs improve infrastructure for transporting water and other resources in rural India, so she has just entered the one-year Accelerated MBA program. Two degrees from Cornell in two years is impressive, I thought. With her IT and NGO work experience, I figured she must be well above the average age of an MBA student; AMBA students tend to average about four years older than the two-year class. Not so. Priyanka is 24, and primed to take her learning back to make a difference in India.

At lunch and on the way home, I sat with a fellow first-year Park Fellow named Kevin. I learned a lot about his experience in the military -- he was stationed in Germany for three years, spending one of those in Iraq, mostly helping destroy stockpiles of Iraqi weapons built up by Saddam Hussein's regime. I also found out about Kevin's experience at West Point, where he used his negotiation skills and persistence to help West Point's color guard become a regular at Yankee Stadium, home of Kevin's favorite team. He even carried the flag during two games of the World Series. Kevin impressed the folks at West Point so much that he even was asked to join their admissions team after he ended his formal military service.

It would be impossible to relate all of the conversations I had over the weekend; indeed, these were only a few.

When I got home from the weekend on Saturday afternoon, I collapsed into bed for about an hour before getting dressed to the nines for the Park Leadership Fellows inaugural event. I got to meet the Park family -- our benefactors -- great and generous people who smiled on their class of 26 like watching their own child score the winning goal in a soccer game. And I got my first little dose of public speaking, where I shared the details of where I've been and where I hope to go. I kept my future aspirations humble -- I said I wanted to use my study of Sustainable Global Enterprise to start a world-changing company. Now I just have to get through the core...