September 2024 has been challenging, exciting and nerve wracking, all at the same time! While all of us said goodbye to the month of August, I was also saying bye to my two-year old and the rest of my family back in India. As agonising as leaving them behind was, I knew that it was going to be a huge leap for us as a family, opening up possibilities that we had only dreamt of till then. Thankfully, I haven’t had a chance to wallow in loneliness or “mom-guilt”. Walking and biking through the cobblestoned streets and along the grassy banks of the River Cam has been literally a breath of fresh air!
A suggestion from the Cambridge Judge Careers Team’s pre-arrival newsletters also gave me the opportunity to participate and volunteer at the Cambridge Tech Week 2024 even before the MBA started. What an eye opener that was!
The kind of tech that has come out of the University of Cambridge’s research and the possibility of global impact has floored me. While AI did take centre stage at CamTechWeek, what impressed me was how human innovation leveraged AI and other tech in fields as diverse as agriculture, cattle health, education and exam marking, male infertility, healthcare, microbiology, city planning and infrastructure, etc. From a veteran’s perspective, seeing businesses, researchers, and investors network and work together in such different domains has reinforced the principle of cross-function collaboration in any mission, venture or task.
Meeting my colleagues from the Cambridge MBA and starting to learn from their diverse experiences has been a highlight of this month. We’re already making the best use of our one year at Cambridge by exploring each other’s colleges and the Cambridge ecosystem. Week 1 of MBA Orientation also saw us experiencing a lovely, candlelight welcome dinner at Magdalene (interestingly, pronounced ‘maudlin’) College, exploring the city on a scavenger hunt and punting on the River Cam.
While I do miss my baby girl and my family, I am excited about the roads ahead of me that this charming city and the Cambridge Judge Business School have opened up.
Joanna Philip was awarded the Cambridge MBA Scholarship for Military Veterans, for more details on scholarship opportunities and our fees and funding, please visit our webpages here>
For our Class of 2024 profile and our MBA admissions strategy for wider diversity and inclusion, please visit our Class profile pages here>