Blue Devil Weekend

I left work on Friday a bit early and headed down the road to the Washington Duke Inn to check in for Blue Devil Weekend. After grabbing registration packets and goodie bags for Liane and me, I walked over to the activities fair at the Fox Center. I chatted with members of the Business Technology Club, the Entrepreneurship Club, the Golf Club, and Fuqua West. All conversations were pretty light and informational.

Liane got off work and joined me for the BDW Kick-Off session with welcome speakers and lots of cheering. Then, it was time for Fuqua Friday -- a relaxed mixer-type event that happens in the Fox Center every Friday of the year, complete with food (usually pizza or wings) and free beer and wine. This one was a little more special than usual, so we actually had a full dinner (delicious pork bbq). Oddly enough, we were assigned to sit at a table with a girl who is also from Durham. In fact, it turns out that she lives just down the street from me in my neighborhood! Weird. After dinner, people loaded the buses for a night out in Durham (yippee). Fuqua had rented out the G-Loft, which is right next to George's Garage, so that was the hotspot for the evening. G-Loft got quite packed, though, so it was a bit loud for my taste. My buddy Kevin joined Liane and me for a couple of drinks at G-Loft and Sirens Lounge before we departed from the Fuqua crowd to hit up Chapel Hill, where we met up with an old friend that was in town. Even though we left Chapel Hill earlier than most of our friends, we still didn't end up falling asleep until about 2:30 AM. Needless to say, we were NOT looking forward to getting up at 7:00 AM to head over to Duke for the day.

When the alarm went off at 7:00 AM Saturday morning, Liane and I were not happy. But, we consoled ourselves with the idea of fresh waffles, eggs, and bacon at the free breakfast at the Washington Duke Inn. Fuqua was going to do it up right, no? No. The breakfast entailed little more than some fresh fruit, pastries, and orange juice. I'm sorry, but we wouldn't have woken up so early for that. We were already there, though, so we grabbed some grub and sat down at one of the tables. We were joined by a nice couple from Georgia, a girl from Vermont/San Francisco, and another nice couple from Hawaii. The couple from Hawaii had the most interesting story, as they had just up and moved from Honolulu to Durham the day before, sight unseen. Their belongings were being shipped, and their car was on a boat somewhere. Talk about gutsy!

We all headed over to Fuqua for the 9:00 AM Dean welcome, then it was class time. The first class I sat through was marketing. The professor was an assistant professor, but he was still on point and engaging. Meanwhile, Liane was at the Partners' reception. She then joined me for the second class: financial accounting. This professor has been awarded "Outstanding Teacher" awards from Business Week and the like, and it showed. She was awesome. Both Liane and I were VERY impressed by the quality of the professors at Fuqua, at least that of the two we saw.

By the time classes ended, it was lunch time, so we all headed back into the Fox Center for some delicious sandwiches. Each table had one current student who was there to talk about a different aspect of life at Fuqua, such as your first year, life in Durham, life as a partner, and various career paths. Liane and I joined in two different conversations: "life as a first year" and "entrepreneurship." The former wasn't very informative, as much of the conversation revolved around Durham logistics, which we're already pretty comfortable with. The latter was better, with the dude at that table giving us great information on which electives I should take, how I should pass out of as many core classes as possible, and the opportunities available for entrepreneurs at Fuqua.

After lunch, it was back into the big auditorium for sessions on financial aid and the Career Management Center, both of which were mildly informative. Then, it was back into the classrooms for career panels and "life outside the classroom" panels. First, we went to a General Management career panel, as neither of us really knew what General Management really was, at least in terms of the career path you take to get into a GM position. It was interesting to learn about these very structured functional rotations that various companies offer to get you trained in several disciplines in preparation for becoming a GM.

At this point in the day, both Liane and I were dragging from the lack of sleep the night before, so she headed out to Starbucks while I went to the Marketing career panel. Currently, I think I want to get into Product Management after graduation, which falls under the large marketing umbrella, so I wanted to find out what other opportunities there are that are similar. Overall, the career panels were just a "medium" on both the informational and stimulating scales.

Liane returned with Starbucks, and we contemplated ditching out on the "life outside the classroom" panels in favor of a long nap, but we decided against it, as we only had another hour or so until there was a 1.5 hour break (when we could really take a nap). We went to two different leadership-related panels, which were also just somewhat interesting. However, it does sound like there are tons of opportunities to get great leadership training and experience at Fuqua, which would certainly be useful in any future career.

Finally, it was nap time, which we took full advantage of.

The closing dinner was again nice, and this is where my opinion of Fuqua really perked up, as both Liane and I really hit it off with the people who were at our table: a couple from DC, a dude from Romania, and a dude from Philly. We ended up hanging out with the couple from DC, the dude from Romania, and the afore-mentioned couple from Hawaii for the remainder of the night at the closing party. Speaking of the closing party, it was held at the Nasher Museum of Art on the Duke campus. The venue itself was wide open, which turned into a bad thing once the music started playing and everybody had to yell to hear each other. Plus, the music itself was bouncing off all of the walls and mixing with the yells, so it was quite cacophonous. Grant Hill's private collection was on display, which was cool.

Highlights: the professors, the food, the gorgeous weather we had this weekend (although we weren't really outside to enjoy it), and definitely the fellow admits

Lowlights: the Friday night -> Saturday morning turnaround, the acoustics in the party venues

As for how BDW has affected my upcoming decision between Duke and UCLA, I have to say that it didn't really sway me one way or the other. I could definitely see myself there next year, but it wasn't like I felt like I absolutely had to go there. A-Days II, coming up in 3 weeks, will hopefully clear up my decision one way or the other.