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Last Sunday, we lost one of the most inspiring professors in Haas - Bill Sonnenschein.

When we just arrived to Haas, we could sign up for two modules in the pre-school summer camp. One was math/finance/accounting introduction, and the second was Communication Workshop. We didn’t really know what exactly to expect from that second workshop, but I decided to take it anyway in what turned out to be one of the best experiences I could have before Haas.

Bill was the professor leading this workshop and he immediately captured us with his unique approach to communication, public speaking and people in general. The workshop was full of activities that allowed us to get to know each other better, while improving our ability to communicate regardless to our country of origin.

Bill was also our professor in the Leadership Communication course during fall A, and here too he managed to create a learning experience that was unlike any I’ve had before. He built a wonderful team of GSIs (Graduate Students Instructors), which were second-year students that practically led the class and I don’t think there is even a single person in class that didn’t become a better public speaker by the end of the semester.

Bill spent the last few months in Madagascar as a communication consultant for the government there. He was extremely excited about this opportunity and told us lots of great stories in class. unfortunately, after only few hours of intense gastric illness, Bill passed away last Sunday in the small village of Maronsetra on the East coast of Madagascar.

We will all miss him at Haas, his great sense of humor, his unconventional way of thinking, his ringtone (Hendrix’s solo in All Along the Watchtower) and most of all his genuine passion for people and for experiencing life to the maximum.

On our first day at Haas, we were assigned to our study groups. Each study group has 5 students, pre-assigned by the school, which try to achieve a mix of locations, backgrounds and interests within each group. I am (of course) part of the best group ever together with Gary, Bill, Jenny and Kazu.

Dinner
Last week, Kazu got summer internship offers from big investment banks and he and his wife, Mayu, invited our group along with other friends who helped him with his applications (Fiona, Anaal, Jesse and Anup) to a Japanese dinner at their house in the UC Village.

The food was awesome! It felt like an exclusive Japanese restaurant with top-quality ingredients, lovely looking dishes and high quality Sake which was bought on a tour to the local Saki factory that very same day. The table was full of goodies and people were not sure where to start although it didn’t take long for everyone to develop a silly smile of happiness. It was that good.

Entertainment
After dinner, Kazu and Mayu played on the Accordion (Kazu) and the Piano (Both). It was the first time I actually attended a party where there was formal musical entertainment, and it was such a great idea. Specially since both Kazu and Mayu are really top-class (and I mean, really…they can play!).

Naturally, all of us had to try the accordion too, which turned out to be
1. heavy and 2. pretty easy to learn.

Last week we had our Fall A finals (in Stats, Micro and OB). To celebrate the end of a sleepless week, Our group of close friends from the Village gathered together to an afternoon tour at Scharffen Berger chocolate factory here at Berkeley.

We started at the factory’s cafe with a great lunch and even better deserts.

We then moved to a very entertaining session about the factory’s history. Scharffen Berger’s history is not that long actually, as the factory is 11 years old. They specialize in dark chocolate on various percentage categories (less percent means more sugar!). We also learned about some of the internals of the chocolate making process, the machines, the different ways to grow it etc. We also learned that we prefer the cheap, unbranded milk chocolate over the expensive quality dark one.

The event concluded with an actual tour in the factory, which was a bit disappointing, as no chocolate was involved. No chocolate rivers, candy bar trees or even big bowls filled with steamy, thick cacao. Just many many iron machines. Nevertheless, it was still lots of fun, the company was great as usual, and it was exactly what we needed after final’s craziness.

I thought after two weeks of pre-school camps, I had quite a good idea of what this is all about. I was wrong. Big time. On Monday the real thing started with O-Week (Orientation Week). This amazing week was organized mostly by second year students and was an unforgettable experience both professionally and socially.

Cohorts
The first day started by announcing the cohort and study group of each of us. This is quite important so I’ll probably dedicate a post to that. For now I’ll just say that I’m an Oski (which is naturally the best cohort) and have a really great study group.

Speakers and sponsors
During the week we had some remarkable guest speakers (listed by order of appearance):

• Richard Lyons - our new dean who came back to Haas after serving as Chief Learning Officer for Goldman Sachs
• Bob Haas - Former CEO of Levi Strauss
• Priya Haji - Haas Alumnus 2003, CEO and Co-Founder of World Of Good
• Tom Kelley - Haas Alumnus 1983, General Manager of IDEO
• Bill Jasper - Haas Alumnus, CEO of Dolby Labs.
• Barbara J. Desoer - Haas Alumnus 1977, President of Mortgage, Home Equity, and Insurance Services, Bank of America Corporation

This was a unique opportunity to meet managers who leads organizations of billions of dollars and ask them any question we could think of. In addition to these amazing speakers, we solved a Dolby Labs business case in marketing and worked with Adobe, Deloitte Consulting and Chevron on finding innovative solutions to real challenges they are currently facing.

Outdoors
Today (Thursday) was all outdoors. First half of the day was dedicated for community work. We drove to the Alameda Point Collaborative, a unique neighborhood in alameda where amazing activities for the community are being done. Some of us went gardening, some went landscaping, and my group was helping at a unique bicycle shop that runs some wonderful projects within the neighborhood.

The second half of the day was dedicated for the cohort olympics. All four cohorts raced each other in games such as volleyball, ultimate frisbee, soccer, Beiruth (yes, it is a game) and more. Whenever possible, beer was added to the game as a requirement. Each cohort was also required to come up with a cheer, a poster and a skit. Since Oski was last year’s winner of the olympics we were under quite a pressure to repeat this achievement, and I’m proud to say we did!

Alcohol
Everywhere and all over the place. Every day ends with an event that includes alcohol. Whether it is a reception, a night out at the Bear’s Lair (the campus pub) ot a consumption function, beer and wine are available (usually for free) and in large quantities. not to mention the olympics which included beer all day long. And to conclude the week tomorrow (Friday) night the entire class is going on a bar trip where we will tour San Francisco’s finest bars one after the other.

All in all, everything is more than amazing so far. Next week school starts, and it’s a whole new opera then.

This monday, pre-school camps started. There are two modules - Math/Finance/Accounting and Communication Skills, both intended to allow students who need to strengthen these topics to get the required starting level before classes begin.

Actually, about 70% of the class registered to at least one of the modules, since it’s a great way to both make sure you still remember stuff - even if you already learned it at a university level - and also a wonderful opportunity to socialize with your new classmates before the real pressure starts as the semester begins.

If these two days are representative of the next two years, I can already say that the MBA experience is going to be just as good as promised:
First, and most important - the people in our class are the most wonderful group I could think of - with tons of experience, diversity in backgrounds and an amazingly open spirit. I met so many exciting new people, and with such classmates this experience simply can’t be less than remarkable.

Second, the professors are really great. I met two so far, and both were very accessible, welcoming questions (even silly ones) and really funny. And that’s before mentioning their teaching skills, which were far beyond what I’ve met so far at most of my teachers.

Third, the social experience is extremely vivid and fun. A night before school started the incoming class got together at Jupiter - a really nice Berkeley pub, and yesterday we had a BBQ on a lovely garden in the UC Village, which is a neighborhood of lovely houses owned by the university and used for housing graduate students with families.

With all the excitment around, it’s easy to forget (or repress) that there’s also some studying to do, but after today’s calculus class (which dealt mostly with differential math…yay…), reality came right at me - it’s really happening, and it will require a completely new set of mind.