The mission of the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve Toys for Tots Program is to collect new and unwrapped toys during October, November, and December each year, and distribute those toys as Christmas gifts to needy children in the community in which the campaign is conducted.

The UConn MBA program/School of Business has received the Commander's Award for 2004 and 2005 in recognition of the school's support of this program.

We hope you can help us with the program this year!!

As you are doing your holiday shopping, please pick up a few toys for the less-privileged kids who won't necessarily have piles of presents under the tree this year.

The boxes for Toys for Tots are in the School of Business North and South Atriums and the UConn Co-op. The program ends and boxes will be collected on December 14th, right before students leave for winter break.

It has not yet been determined where the toys will go this year. The location will be chosen based on the number of toys we collect and needs of participating areas. Last year, the toys collected from UConn were delivered to West Glocester Rhode Island School for needy children in Glocester and Foster, Rhode Island and to The Town of Windham CT Social Services Department who distributed to the very poor children in Willimantic. They were very appreciative and we hope that we can sponsor them again this year.

by Jess Berman, MBA 2008

Last year at this time, I would disagree with you if you told me I would spend my MBA summer internship experience at Pitney Bowes. I did not have negative feelings toward the company, but I knew nothing about it, nor did I have any desire to involve myself in the thrilling world of postage meters.

However, some time during the spring semester, when I heard Pitney Bowes was recruiting from UConn, I randomly decided to take a look at the company's annual report. After doing some research, my understanding and interest drastically changed. I realized that Pitney Bowes has invested in many innovative initiatives that I was interested in, such as location intelligence software, multi-channel marketing services and business strategy consulting, to name a few.

As a marketing and finance concentration, I wanted an internship that would expose me to both disciplines. I also wanted to try working at a large, growing company with an international presence. I found all of these traits at Pitney Bowes and ultimately accepted a position as a MBA Marketing Intern in the Mail Services division.

Mail Services is a fairly new, rapidly growing business unit. It manages Pitney Bowes' domestic presort and international mail initiatives. It is also heavily involved in acquisitions. I spent the summer working for the Director of Marketing on two core projects – a customer loyalty management program and internal communications platform. She gave me the freedom to drive and own initiatives that would ultimately have a significant impact on Mail Services' short- and long-term marketing objectives. Simultaneously, I gained exposure to the M&A environment by taking part in discussions related to existing and potential acquisitions, evaluating synergies, and assessing risk.

The work was both challenging and engaging; however, the best part of the experience was getting the opportunity to meet with many senior leaders on a weekly basis. Ultimately, these meetings led to an offer for me to remain working for the company on a part-time basis upon completion of my internship, directly consulting for Corporate Marketing on Pitney Bowes interactive marketing strategy.

Forgive me for sounding cheesy, but the major takeaway from my experience is rather simple: you never know where you'll end up or where an opportunity will take you. It's only fair if you explore and research your options and remain open to new possibilities.

Good luck with the job/internship search!!

by Akshaya Mirji, MBA 2009

I had a great opportunity to attend the 2007 National Association of Women MBAs (NAWMBA) Conference and Career Fair held on November 2nd and 3rd at the University of Maryland. The event included keynote speakers and panel discussions, and it was a huge success with 1400 attendees. It was a platform of opportunity for all women MBAs for networking and making connections. The conference theme "Take the Lead" was more than befitting as the keynote speakers were all top level women executives. Each of them with their own success stories and were pioneers in their fields.

Among the keynote speakers were Louise L. Francesconi, President of Raytheon Missile Systems and Vice President of Raytheon Company; Irene Chang Britt, Vice President and General Manager, Sauces and Beverages of Campbell Soup Company; and Lisa M. Tondreau, Partner and Vice President-Healthcare Industry, IBM Global Business Services. They were all enthusiastic in sharing with us the secrets of being successful women at the executive level, and they were a great inspiration to all those women who want to excel in their careers.

The panel discussions were for industries like Pharmacy, Bio, Medical, Consulting, Consumer Products and Services, Financial Services and Technology. Each of the panels comprised of women who are all leaders in their own respective companies.

A number of workshops were offered at the event: Creating your Brand as an Emerging Leader, Building Women into the Leadership Pipeline, Maximizing your Internship, and How to pitch to an Investor. With such diverse topics, you bet the workshops were informative and enlightening. Among the other workshops were Women in International Careers, Entrepreneurship, Negotiation Tips and Strategies for Women, Corporate Social
Responsibility, Creating New Ventures within an Organization, Brand Building in the Digital
Age, and Commerce in the Global Economy - to name a few!

The session I liked the most was "Creating a Career Development Plan". It was conducted by Erica Hamilton, Founder and Managing Director, CDG Perspectives. She discussed about how to plan for your career, how to execute your plans, and how to work on strategies to achieve success. Simple but valuable tips!

In addition to these events, there was a Career Fair with more than 75 companies participating, most of them were Fortune 500 companies such as Google, Intel, IBM, 3M, Bank of America, Target, Wal-Mart, Walt Disney, American Airlines, and Sun Microsystems.

With all these sessions and the Career Fair, it was in all a very exciting experience for me. I would highly recommend all the women MBAs out there to attend the NAWMBA conference next year. It will be held in Stamford on October 24-25, and I am sure to be there. Will you?

Mark your calendars, and I will see you all at the NAWMBA Conference next year!

by Margaret Feeney, MBA 2009

The Pampered Students

How many opportunities do MBAs have to participate in a one-on-one question and answer session with a CEO of a multi-million dollar corporation? I doubt very many. But that is exactly what six women MBAs from the UConn School of Business experienced on November 14th with a presentation by the CEO of The Pampered Chef, Doris Christopher.

Mrs. Christopher was the winner of the 2007 Connecticut Family Business of the Year Award for creating The Pampered Chef; an exclusive line of innovative kitchen products that is marketed primarily using the direct-sales method. Before speaking at the awards ceremony, Mrs. Christopher was able to provide advice to other aspiring entrepreneurs.

Sitting in a small gathering room at the Nathan Hale Inn, these students heard upfront and personal stories from Mrs. Christopher and her husband as they retold their story of starting a company in their basement, seeing it grow into a multi-million dollar business, and eventually selling it to Warren Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway.

What the members of the crowd were able to walk away with was an intimate knowledge of what "taking a chance" really means, and how the success for any start-up can be summed up in one word: passion. Mrs. Christopher spoke of her motivation for beginning a direct-sales company and her need for her own financial security. She explained that The Pampered Chef could attribute much of its success to taking an outdated direct-sales model and improving it to promote a quality product.

The participating students learned that if you pair an exceptional product with outstanding customer service, you really can create a recipe for an award winning, profitable business.

by Alexandra Stein, MBA 2008

The SMC has had an exciting semester, taking on many new projects. We have initiated a Wiki space for brainstorming Strategic Marketing ideas. It can be found at http://uconnsmc.pbwiki.com/. We welcome you to log on and help our efforts of improving the brand equity of the UConn MBA program by entering your ideas and thoughts. Here, you can also see our current initiatives and the designated project manager. If you have interest in the work they are doing, please let them know you would like to help.

We continue to need your help in writing personalized note cards that we send to prospective students. Pre-addressed envelopes and blank note cards can be found in the Graduate Reading Room. We have even included several template letters for you to model your letter on. Once you have completed a note, place it in the bottom shelf and the SMC reps will take care of mailing them out. Please take a few minutes each week to write a letter or two. These letters help to differentiate our program to students as they make their MBA program decision. Through them, we exemplify the strong UConn MBA community.

by Michael Descy, MBA 2005

The latest UConn SBA Alumni & Friends networking event was a rousing success. In case you have not heard of them, the Alumni & Friends group hosts a series of networking events for UConn students and alums at some of the hip, trendy bars in Hartford and in Stamford. These events attract a wide-ranging mix of SBA alums from various years some just out of school, some quite established—in a number of different industries.

The latest event was held at Spris, an upscale Italian restaurant and martini bar, across from the UConn Financial Accelerator, right on Hartford's Constitution Plaza. When I got there, I found Nathan Ives from the UConn Foundation setting up the UConn banner. I helped him set out name tags for everyone who RSVP'd at www.uconnalumni.com, and introduced myself to the alums and current business school students who walked in the door.

At 5:30pm, the local after-work crowd from Travelers, United Healthcare, and The Hartford started to file into the bar. Everyone picked up a nametag, purchased a beer or one of Spris's great martinis, and soon chatting began. Soon thereafter the food arrived -- A&F offers a free buffet which included different types of pizza and my favorite appetizer, fried calamari. At around 6:00, the crowd had swelled to almost fifty, and included a wide variety of friendly, interesting people.

Among the first attendees I met was a group of people from Team Husky at Travelers, which is a UConn affinity group led by alums. I also met an independent financial planner, consultants in IT and finance, a recruiter specializing in accounting, and several account executives at local companies. At past events, I met a number of prominent people in the business world: from vice presidents at the local insurance companies, accounting firms, and banks, to directors at international consulting firms, to local entrepreneurs with a UConn connection. There is always ample opportunity to make new connections, reconnect with former classmates, and to learn a lot about industries and opportunities.

When I left at 9:00, there were still about eight people hanging out at the bar, swapping stories and having a great time.


Michael Descy (2005 Hartford MBA) is the vice president of the UConn SBA Alumni & Friends group, and started the networking series in 2006 to help connect business school alums to each other, and to UConn.