Apr
I Follow You – OneMBA13 European Residency
Posted by Marjukka Le Noble in Student life
I have just returned from OneMBA13 European residency. We spent the first part of the week in Amsterdam and the second in Istanbul. We had a full week of lectures from academics and representatives of different businesses, both from the Netherlands and Turkey. As always the days were long and busy and as a social person I mostly spend the nights by networking with the global group (thanks Lee I have learned to use the correct word 
). You would think that I am tired after the week, but no way! I am just so full of energy and good mood. This residency gave me so much new insights, knowledge, friends and positive energy that I feel like my feet are 10 cm from the ground. Well, with the exception that the first time in my life I cannot wear heels, as a considerable part of the networking happened at the dance floor
There are two things that especially impressed me in this residency. The first one is Turkey – after the visit to Istanbul and hearing about the Turkish economy, the role Turkey is playing in between Europe, Asia and Middle-East and its amazing culture, has made me a big fan of Turkey and especially Istanbul and it feels like I understand the whole world again in a bit better way. It is so healthy for me to see that my move from Finland to Netherlands was just a small step and there are so many opportunities to take bigger leaps in the world. It seems that during this program I have created a passion for emerging economies and unique challenges and opportunities they offer. This process started already in our US residency when we discussed of the role of the BRIC countries and especially China in the world economy. I can truly say the world has opened for me in a different way that I ever would have expected to see it. I cannot even imagine how I see the world after the next residencies in South-Africa, Mexico, Brazil, India and China.
The second important aspect of these residencies are the people I am privileged to study with. We are 107 students from five different schools and from four different continents. Every single person in the group is different but we share the same amazing experience of OneMBA. It creates very special connection between us and I dont think there are many places on earth where you can have such a rich experience of people, backgrounds and sharing. I have heard so many amazing stories from people during the last week, some of those stories brought tears in my eyes, some made me laugh and all of them made me feel more connected with the group and most importantly gave me feeling of having a trusted friend almost in every corner of the world.
In the RSM group we have found a bit of a theme song and last week I heard that song about thousand times. Therefore this week all I hear in my ears is: I follow, I, I follow you and I really need to laugh and think how lucky I am to be part of this experience!
