Jennifer Solomon
1st Year MBA Student
“WE SURVIVED THE CORE.” The four words I heard the most throughout the night after our final case competition, which was the conclusion of our first semester at Kelley. There were tons of cheers, hugs, and smiling faces between first and second-year students, all of whom were decked out in their ugliest of holiday sweaters.
The Core is designed to stretch your capacity to learn, network, manage your time, and define who you are and where you are headed. With a finite number of hours in the day, and a personal limit for how many consecutive hours can be spent in a cohort room, it was apparent very early on that the key to success would involve checking your ego at the door and learning to rely on others for help, feedback, and moral support.
The idea of Kelley being a collaborative program is not a new notion but truly came to life in the past four months. I had classmates who spent late nights at school to help me study in subjects that I was struggling in and our Blue Cohort morning “breakfast club” of early risers who I’m convinced came early in part to do homework, but in part just to spend time together. There were countless group projects with my amazing core team that included late nights and plenty of Mother Bear’s pizza and trips to conferences and company visits where lifelong friendships were born. It’s quite evident that the people of Kelley are the reason why I was successful in completing The Core, and I couldn’t be more grateful and honored to have shared this experience with so many intelligent and talented classmates.