Study Abroad Blog

Ah yes, College! So, I left off in my bio just as I found myself entering Fresno State. I mentioned I was granted a business scholarship and was a member of the Craig Business Scholars. I believe this is where I will pick up my story.

Chapter 2: Pre-International College Experience…yeah, that works

Ok, so I decided to really devote myself to the Craig Scholars and immediately got involved. I participated in just about every community service event that came our way including Adopt-A-Highway, Big Brothers, Big Sisters, and Habitat for Humanity. I was having such a great time with the other Scholars and felt it only fitting that I step up and be a leader in the group. Once I decided to do this, I ran for Treasurer for my sophomore year and landed the gig. Sophomore year came, I did a lot of the same and decided come the end of the year I would run for Vice President for my junior year. I was elected, again, and just as my junior year got under way things began to change, and little did I know I was on the verge of making one of the biggest and best decisions of my life.

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Howdy all, I just got word from my alumni that I landed one of the two nomination spots for the Jack Kent Cooke scholarship!  What this means is that my application is now on its way to the foundation review committee with all the other national nominees.  Since I didn’t explain before, here is how this competition works:

In order to have your application forwarded to the review committee, you have to receive a nomination from your alumni, which means you have to have graduated from an accredited university where there is an elected Jack Kent Cooke faculty representative.  This representative is who eager beavers, like myself, send our applications to.  From here, the representative is allowed to nominate a maximum of two candidates to have their applications forwarded to the national pool – this is where I currently stand.  

Now for the tough news - they anticipate 1,200 nominations and plan to only award 30 graduate scholarships for the 2007 competition…do the math and you’ll find only about 2.5% of nominees will be super happy campers come June when awards are announced.  Regardless of the turnout, I am honored to have the opportunity to represent my alumni in the national competition and look forward to the potential opportunity to represent the Jack Kent Cooke foundation in my studies, as well as in my life moving forward.  In about four months I’ll learn if the review committee decides to grant me this opportunity!  I suppose that is all for now, and thus concludes my “Quick Update.” 

“Hope is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out.” – Vaclav Havel

After thinking briefly about what I should discuss in my next post, I realized an error of my ways.  I was reviewing my last post about my trip to Mexico and thought, “How rude of me…telling stories without ever really introducing myself!”  How should I expect anyone to care about anything I say if you really have no idea who I am?  Well, now that I have identified this flaw, I plan to correct myself and take a few steps back to provide an overview that should help add some depth to my posts as I begin to share about my international experiences.  I don’t want to constrain myself (or overwhelm/bore anyone), nor do I want to get too detailed, so I’ll spread my introduction out over my next couple posts to hopefully bring us up to speed.  Considering we still have a little over four months before I head to Spain, I hope this will be a beneficial addition to the foundation of this blog as we move forward.

Now, without further adieu, my bio, in a nutshell: Pre-International Experience

I was born 25 years ago on the Central Coast of California in San Luis Obispo and grew up nearby in the small town of Atascadero.  I lived with my family and had what I would consider a pretty normal childhood.  My parents have been married for over 30 years and I have two sisters – one older and one younger.  Life in Atascadero was simple and I’m not sure anyone in my family ever imagined we would ever leave.  However, when I was 13 my dad switched jobs and took a position in the Central Valley of California in Fresno, and we have lived here ever since. 

When we arrived in Fresno, I was just about to start eighth grade and had no friends living within a 150-mile radius.  I was petrified of this big new school, but managed to make the most of it.  I came to realize that with my spare time not being consumed by friends, I actually had time to do homework!  This novel idea of studying turned me from an average student into a “Straight-A” student seemingly overnight.  With my new studious persona, I decided set a goal for myself to graduate from High School as a valedictorian.  Five years later in 2000, I saw that goal through to fruition as I graduated one of thirteen valedictorians from my High School. 

Upon graduation I had every intention of returning to San Luis Obispo to attend Cal Poly where I envisioned a cheery reunion with friends from my childhood.  Nonetheless, after receiving essentially a full-ride business scholarship from Fresno State, I decided I preferred to live rent-free with my parents while getting paid to study, rather than incur massive debt while leaving my family and new friends behind.  This decision was made in part because of the money, but also because, unbeknownst to me prior to the scholarship, I came to learn the Craig School of Business at Fresno State actually has a pretty good undergrad business program with opportunities galore! 

As I began my college adventure, I learned very early on that I was a lucky chap.  The scholarship I had been granted, compliments of the Fresno Merchant’s Association, made me part of one of the most highly visible student organizations within the business school known as the Craig Business Scholars.  The Craig Scholars work very closely with the Dean and Associate Dean and is a group driven on shaping ambassadors of the school who are highly involved in performing community service and networking with local business organizations.  I saw great potential to really get involved in this group and vowed to squeeze out every ounce of opportunity I could manage over my four years at the Craig School.

Looking back, my time in college flew by so quickly, but undoubtedly shaped more of my future than I believe I will ever know.  I don’t want to get too long-winded, so I think I’ll leave my pre-international experience at that and will get to the nitty-gritty of my college experience for my next post.  I look forward to revealing more of myself soon, but for now, that is all.

“A friend is someone who knows all about you, but likes you anyway.” – Anonymous

So here I am again, pretty exhausted, but ready to relax during this three day weekend.  My wife and I just returned from a six-day “vacation” in Mexico.  One of her brothers, or my brother in-law, call him what you want, got married in the tiny town of Cotija, which resides in the state of Michoacán.  When we decided to make the voyage, we figured we might as well make the most of it and planned about three days and two nights in Mexico City to kick things off.

We made an exhaustive list of things to do and see prior to leaving and actually were fortuitous enough to cram most all of our plans into the allotted time.  Our list of objectives included seeing the pyramids in Teotihuacan and the basilica in la villa, taking a tour of the town, and visiting a long-distance co-worker, all while not getting sick from eating any strange food. This much activity in such little time isn’t recommended for the faint of heart, nonetheless, when you only have three days to see a city with a population of 25 million, there simply doesn’t seem to be a better way to do it!

The first destination my wife and I just had to see was Teotihuacan - I don’t know how you can travel to this beautiful city and not make this trip!  We signed up for a small tour arranged by our hotel (Holiday Inn – Zocalo) and while it was unorganized at times, in the end it was well worth the $70…especially considering we dropped about $150 for a tour of Seattle on our honeymoon…but I digress. 

On the tour, we walked over two kilometers and climbed both the pyramid of the Sun and the Moon.  For me, this was quite an achievement, considering we were at a much higher altitude than where we live.  Add to that the fact that I have asthma, had knee surgery about six months ago, and am deathly afraid of heights and you’ve got a great big ball of reasons not to climb a massive pyramid!  Regardless, when I saw school children running up and down the pyramid steps past a man coming down with a cast on his leg, I realized any excuse I would try to conjure up would be moot, so we climbed, and it was incredible!

From here, our tour also included a convenient stop at the square of six churches (la villa) where we got to see the original “Guadalupe” and observe the leaning tower of Pisa-esque façade of the old basilica.  Mexico City has areas that are sinking, which has caused the old basilica to sink at a rate of 1” per year, and it was clearly evident during our visit.

In the evening after we saw the pyramids, my long distance co-worker and a friend picked my wife and I up from our hotel and took us out to a fantastic dinner and drinks.  We didn’t expect to stay out dancing till 2:00am on a Thursday night, but apparently that’s the norm in Mexico City!  After awaking Friday and recovering over breakfast, we headed out to tackle as much of the city as we could before we had to head to Cotija.

We chose to take a Turibus tour of the city, which to me seemed a bargain at about $20.  This provided transportation to 24 different key stops around the city and afforded us the opportunity to see more than I think even we expected.  We got to see Zocalo, the Palacio de Bellas Artes, the Angel de Independencia, and La Reforma, to name a few notable places.

In the end, I feel we accomplished more than would be recommended by most doctors, and I have 424 more digital photographs to add to my personal “tourist collection.”  We enjoyed a great trip, and I’d love to return someday.  Cotija was a charming little town and proved a great place to recover from the hectic pace of Mexico City.  For now, however, it’s time to get back to work and put the finishing touches on my Jack Kent Cooke application and try to get me some funding for my MBA!  

“Strange how much you have to know before you know how little you know.” – Anonymous

I wish I could say I prepared day and night ever since the travel contest concluded so I could put something extra special together for my first blog post; but alas, I did not.  My excuse is that the allure of scholarships (or should I say, scholarship) has gotten the best of me as of late.  After the reality of my acceptance to ESADE finally hit, so followed the realization of the impending tuition bill…or more specifically, the fact that it will somehow have to get paid.  This reality has since lead me on a wild goose chase for scholarships to help me on my journey, and the results have left me a busy man. 
 
Through my research I stumbled across the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation graduate scholarship, and the potential reward it offers is substantial enough that I have dedicated myself to the application for the last four months.  Now that I currently have my eight, yes, eight essays under review, I found a little breathing room to put together this first post!  At any rate, I’ve decided a good way to start would be by quickly addressing likely the only means by which anyone who reads this really knows me – my video!
 
In summation: Yes, that really was my wife in the video, and yes, ESADE really was the # 1 ranked international MBA program in the 2006 Wall Street Journal rankings.  Yes, I really was admitted, and yes, I really plan on attending.  Yes, I really spent a semester studying in Sweden during my undergrad, and yes, I really went on to take summer school in France.  Yes, I do have a quirky sense of humor, and yes, I am glad that the people at InternationalStudent.com get it! 
 
Ok, so now that we got that out of the way, I also thought I should mention that I encourage questions and comments and will gladly try to address them in my future blog posts.  My idea moving forward will be to share some background information on myself that should provide insight into my life and why I’ve decided to pursue my MBA abroad.  Eventually, if all goes to plan, I will be able to continue blogging throughout my adventures in Spain and will hopefully offer an interesting view into my life as an international student.
 
I look forward to sharing more about myself and my experiences in the coming weeks, and in the meantime hopefully I’ll find more time to dedicate to my second post!  I think I’ll end with a quote, because I like quotes, so enjoy!
 
“You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.” – Wayne Gretzky

This is the very first post in the new InternationalStudent.com Study Abroad Blog, which is going to profile the adventures of students who are studying around the world.

To start this off we have Matt Brattin who won our Annual Video Travel Contest and as part of his prize he has been given the opportunity to blog about his time and experiences as he studies in Spain to obtain his MBA. If you want to see Matt’s winning video then you can check this out below:

We hope you enjoy the blog and please sign up to our RSS feeds and post comments about his experiences abroad.

The InternationalStudent.com Team