I'm sorry for the delay in continuing with the run-down of my weekend in Stanford. Here's the next portion...
Saturday:
I spent the first part of Saturday at the Stanford BBSA conference and it was a treat...except for the 9:00am start time. After staying out until 3:00am the night before, it was almost impossible to get up early enough to make the conference on time, but I was somehow able to drag myself up and make it there only about 15 minutes late. The conference was totally planned by a group of BBSA students and they did a great job of lining up some interesting panels. There were panels on the Technology industry, Black leadership, the Marketing/Advertising industry, and investment in public works initiatives and a riveting keynote speech by a Class of '77 alum who had started her own international marketing consultancy. One of the highlights of the conference was the inclusion of Ward Connelly on the Black leaderhip panel, which had me like "WTF!?!??!!?" when I first heard about it. I went into his panel with many preconceived notions about him because of his views, but, by the time the panel had finished, I couldn't help but respect the man for being willing to come into a hostile environment and sticking with his views. One thing that disappointed me about the conference was the lack of alumni support. I believe that there were only 8-10 BBSA alumni in attendance, which shocked me because I thought more would have come out and represented such they are memebers of such a small group. Overall the BBSA conference was very well planned and executed and was well worth arriving in Palo Alto a day early.
That night, the BBSA and HBSA sponsored a dinner for some of the Black and Latino Admitted applicants at the home of a member of the Class of 2004. During this dinner, I was able to spend more time kickin' it with my future classmates of color and getting the perspectives of current students to gain insight to what I'd have to look forward to in the Fall. Plus, I can't front on a good meal when i don't have to pay for it (yeah, I know that's ghetto, but I'm about to go into a LOT of debt, so I've got to be smart with mine). After dinner, we rolled over to a bar where the GSB had rented out the top floor and was hosted a Welcome LPF for the Admitted students. I met a bunch of my classmates there and the socializing, drinking, and getting to know each other started. I was amazed at the variety of people that I saw in the room. There were people of a variety of races, nationalities, ages, and backgrounds crammed into a space that was too small for us and everybody was just focused on meeting the folks with whom they'd be spending the next two years in school. I even got a chance to thank Derrick Bolton (Director of Admissions) for allowing me to become "the admissions mistake" for my class and setting me out on the road to "big baller" status. Following the LPF, a few of us rolled over to another spot that was part bar, part hip-hop club, and part pool hall...unfortunately, the male to female ratio was not benefical, so it basically became all wack very quickly. We closed out the night by hitting up a GSB party at some random guy's house that was basically made up of a bunch of people packed into a house and/or out in the pool out back (in 40 degree weather..what the hell were those cats thinking???). By the time I got back to my host's room, it was 3:00am...again...and I crashed hard on his floor.
Dang, I've still got two more days to talk about and I've already written a novel. At least you guys are getting a real sense of how much fun I had out there. I'll put a description of Sunday and Monday up soon.