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September 21, 2005
First entry...
Hey, ya'll! My name is Kaneisha, and I'm a fourth-year Black Studies major at Pomona College. In some ways, I'm quite an unconventional applicant since I'm applying straight out of undergrad, looking at a number of schools abroad, and self-identify as a working class woman of color. However, in many ways I'm a lot like the thousands of other people working on their B-school applications. I hope that through this blog, I can provide some sort of belonging for those other applicants whose ethnic, social, or educational backgrounds, identities, and/or social locations set them outside of the MBA-applicant box, and for those of you who feel like you and I are polar opposites, I hope that through these months, you will see that we will share many of the same struggles and hopefully celebrate in some shared successes. I'm really excited to be able to share this exciting, nervewracking, exhausting, and fulfilling process of applying to B-school with you. Welcome to a little piece of my world.
I made the decision to apply to Business school really recently. I was sitting around at home this summer, bored and feeling extremely underworked when a local young person was gunned down by a police officer. He was a student at my younger sister's high school, and his killing sparked not only a sense of rage and despair in the community but a series of town hall meetings with local civic and non-profit organizations and community leaders.
At one of the meetings, a group of students from my neighborhood had made a documentary about our neighborhood, and I was so inspired by their hard work and belief in our community that I decided to start volunteering with the non-profit organization that had overseen the making of the film. I showed up at the youth recreation center one day (literally less than a mile from my house), and was put to work immediately. My job during the short but amazing three weeks I was there was to solicit donations for a huge back-to-school hip hop concert featuring local artists that was happening in just six weeks. In merely three weeks using a $500 grant from my school, I was able to put my programming, fundraising, and flat-out shameless begging skills to work and was able to accumulate food, drinks, and prizes for 500 people. I was also able to get enough donations to expand their computer lab from 15 work stations to 25. As I did some research on fundraising and non-profit development and management, I wondered how I could take my reawakened love for programming, organizing, managing, leading, initiating, and fundraising to the next level. A short but concerted Google search revealed to me that my place in post-graduate education is in Business school.
And thus, began the journey.
Posted by blogadmin at September 21, 2005 05:49 AM
Comments
im so proud of you kaneisha d! i feel like that came out sounding a little condescending, but of course you know better. you will rule whichever business school you choose to attend. "these strawberries cost 150 d's!" God bless!
Posted by: Susan Mihalik at September 26, 2005 04:28 PM
Yeeeeeeeeeeeeah Kaneisha!
Posted by: Tricia at September 27, 2005 02:40 AM
Great first entry! I wish you the best of luck in your business school aspirations. I also have my sights on business school. I've been out of undergrad for 2 years now. Since working I've found I really don't like my current job and the career path that I am on. I've discovered that business, especially marketing and entrepreneurship are more my cup o' tea. I can't wait to continue to hear about your journey!
Posted by: Kristen at September 27, 2005 01:16 PM
welcome, Kaneisha!
We are looking forward to following your journey.
Posted by: K.D. at September 29, 2005 04:13 PM
Kaneisha, how amazing!! I'm definitely following this journey. I miss you and when you come to NYC, hit me up. Good luck on your senior year and represent for Black Studies!
Posted by: Jacque at October 6, 2005 03:15 AM