It was a little over 5 years ago that I completed my MBA along with my 20 classmates in San Francisco State University's inaugural 'accelerated' MBA program. It was a new program, led by Dr. Joe Messina, a friendly but clearly thoughtful and intelligent guy. I applied to the program in mid-2000 while I worked for bebe Stores. I was accepted that Fall and classes began early January 2001. The program was an all-day Saturday cohort style; meaning all students would be in the same courses together at the same time. We had two classes per mini-semester, each nearly 4 hours long. It was a pretty intense way of learning but it was the most logical means of getting all the requisite coursework in a condensed timeframe. We lost a few people along the way, I believe we started with 29 individuals but it went faster than I expected. I learned a lot from the program, made some good friends, and would do it over again.
A couple of months ago I got the e-mail inviting us for a 5 year reunion at the new downtown SFSU space at 835 Market Street. It's a really nice facility with a lot of history. One of my favorite professors, Dr. John Dopp, is now the head of the entire Business Graduate School for SFSU. I really like John and congratulate him on this role. It's a huge amount of work but it has to be rewarding. While there were some fundamental concepts on which John and I didn't see eye to eye, I think we had a mutual respect and understanding of one another's position.
I believe there were 8 of the 21 graduates of the first cohort who showed up and it was really neat to see everyone. Many people are with their same employers though most in different roles. Some people are married and have kids now, or more kids, and everyone looked and seemed well.
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