Student Bonding: How One Elite MBA Program Makes Those Vital Connections Happen

Northwestern Kellogg MBA students on a trip to Martha’s Vineyard. Courtesy photo

BECOMING A KWEST LEADER

Diversity and inclusion training are also core pieces of the trip planning experience, according to Chugh. “The training helped us learn how to make everyone feel included in conversations. We made sure that there was gender, sexual, and racial diversity in each group,” she says.

Cristiana Matsubayashi

While it’s not a requirement to become a KWEST leader in students’ second year, Reagan believes it’s a great opportunity to practice leadership and collaboration. “It takes 10 months of planning to organize KWEST trips,” she says. “This is a large responsibility, but many leaders take this on with the main motivation to welcome the incoming class to Kellogg in the same way that they were welcomed by the previous class. It’s a Kellogg tradition to foster meaningful connection and build community.”

Chugh recommends first year students to help plan a KWEST trip in their second year, as she feels it’s an amazing way to give back to the community and build connections with first year students. Plus, she says she loves being a resource for incoming students and being able to help them with advice on things like recruiting and time management. “As a leader, KWEST gives us the opportunity to thoughtfully curate a program that ensures that people will meet friends that they’ll be spending the next two years with. I think it sets a great tone for the start of the school year and helps everyone feel more confident and secure in starting the journey together,” says Chugh.

Chugh planned her group’s Martha’s Vineyard trip with four other leaders. To plan the most effectively, she assigned each leader a role. “We decided that one of us would be the communications lead, one would be the finances lead, one would be the diversity and inclusion lead, and so on. Given how busy the school year gets and how busy the summer is, this structure helped us work together as a team and make sure that all payments, bookings, and reservations were done on time,” she explains.

While the school works with a travel provider to book activities, hotels, and flights, Chugh says that student leaders were given the tools to develop a full itinerary by themselves, such as where they’d eat food, what activities they’d do, and how much free time they’d have. “It was an interesting leadership exercise to plan a full itinerary for 20 students.”

AN INCLUSIVE CULTURE

Garza De La Puente brought his wife on his KWEST trip this August, which was to Portland, Maine. The ability for him and his wife to go to university events together was important when deciding on which business school to attend, especially as they now have a child. “Being able to include my wife in Kellogg’s community was one of the top deciding factors when choosing Northwestern.”

For Garza De La Puente, he had high expectations of the KWEST experience. His brother graduated from Kellogg 10 years ago and said that KWEST was the best part of Kellogg. “This set the bar pretty high,” he says. “But it turned out to be true. It was an amazing experience, and helped to set a foundation of community.”

BUILDING CONNECTIONS AS AN INTERNATIONAL STUDENT

Matsubayashi joined the Camp KWEST trip, which involved staying for two days in a summer camp setting near Evanston, and then two days in Milwaukee. She chose this trip because, as an international student, she felt that it would be the perfect way to experience American culture.

At first, she was nervous about the experience; she’d heard from her Brazilian friends who’d studied at top tier American schools how hard it is to enter an American circle of friends. However, she was pleasantly surprised at how the trip went. “This experience allowed me to make deep connections with many Americans who are now my friends. They’re already helping me to navigate American culture,” she says.

As the only Latina in the group, she says that KWEST made her get out of her comfort zone. But the initial discomfort paid off. “Everyone was so nice that it made me feel comfortable in starting my Kellogg experience as an international student,” she says. “For me, participating in KWEST prior to starting class helped me to begin my MBA with an open mind.”

THE POWER OF COLLABORATION

According to Chugh, KWEST sets a great example for Kellogg’s collaborative, inclusive culture. “I think KWEST gives you an opportunity early on in the Kellogg life cycle to be empathetic towards other people’s experiences and have deeper conversations that force you to get out of your comfort zone in order to meet a shared goal,” she says.

“Kellogg in general is a very collaborative school,” she continues. “Whether that’s group projects in the classroom or different types of clubs and leadership, you end up working closely with a lot of different types of people towards a shared goal.

“The value of the connections I’m getting from Kellogg isn’t just going to last two years, but it’s going to last a lifetime because of those connections I made,” adds Matsubayashi.

Kellogg MBA students at Camp Wandawega in Elkhorn, Wisconsin. Courtesy photo

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