December 2006 Archives

One of the student organizations that I am involved in is the Wisconsin MBA Wine Club, which has monthly events aimed at educating its members about wine and accompanying cuisines. The first event we had was an introduction to wine with Patrick Fegan, director of the Chicago Wine School. This event gave members like me who knows little about a lesson on how to taste wine and an opportunity to sample some of the different varietals. The second event was a tour and tasting of Wollersheim Winery, which is Wisconsin’s largest winery.

Last Wednesday we had our third event, a wine and cheese tasting. This event was co-sponsored with Slow Foods, a local organization which supports local farmers and artisan producers of cheese, sausage, wine, and beer.

This event was a great opportunity to mingle with first and second years and meet members of the community. We sampled five wines and cheeses. All the wines and cheeses were excellent but my favorite was the last pairing, Hook’s 10 Year Cheddar, which can only be purchased at Madison’s farmer’s market, and a 2004 syrah from Mas des Aveylans. The link below lists the other wines and cheeses tasted during the event and additional information about the wine club:

http://www.uwmbawineclub.com/Events_3_Wines.asp

OK, well all the First Year MBAs in ACFIN survived Coach K’s midterm exam, which is good because now they can look forward to taking Professor Mello’s class next semester. One of the things that people are buzzing about around here is the trip to Chile.

Recently, members of ACFIN, as well as Director Cindie Horner were given the opportunity to participate in a study abroad program in Chile during the upcoming winter break. Initial interest in the trip was strong and the twelve students participating are thoroughly excited about the complementary experience this trip will add to their MBA. The students, through the efforts of Pat Hammes have several meetings with businesses throughout Chile. In Santiago alone, they will be meeting with Central Bank, CINVER, Celfin, Microsoft, and Proctor & Gamble. In addition to these “business meetings”, the students will have the opportunity to meet with the US Ambassador, the Dean of Business at UAI (Adolfo Ibáñez University), and Hernan Larrain (a Chilean senator).

For leisure, the students have organized various activities in and around Vina Del Mar, which will allow them to take advantage of what summer has to offer in the coastal town. For example, they will tour Veramonte Vineyard, which is the largest contiguous vineyard in Chile. This area of Chile has been compared to being just as good, if not better than Napa Valley. They will then return to Santiago, where they will be visiting AmCham, Endeavor, and Agrosuper.

More to come…..

ACFIN first-year students, second-year students, undergraduate research assistants, and the program directors joined together last Friday afternoon to celebrate another semester. We gathered in the rec center at Union South for pizza, beer, and games. There were heated ping-pong competitions, foosball matches, not so impressive bowling scores and high stakes pool. It was fun to have everyone together and to meet the spouses and children of classmates.

The second-year students enjoyed a chance to casually brag about the results of our latest primary research studies and our job offers and signing bonuses to the first-years. It was fun reminiscing about the Valuation and Capital Structure courses they will be taking in the second semester with Professor Mello. We can appreciate the first-year student’s stress about the upcoming integrated project presentations and the Data Analysis and Finance final exams. We are stressed about completing pitch books for Mergers & Acquisitions class and our consulting projects for sponsors such as 3M. But it was cool procrastinating on all of that to spend time hanging out with the ACFIN group.

We are near the end of another semester. It’s a hectic time with classes concluding this Thursday. There are lots of projects and exams to get through. But soon we will be enjoying our five-week winter break. Many of us will disperse around the country and world. A large group has decided to spend part of winter break traveling around Chile with Director Cindie Horner. An extended winter break is definitely a nice bonus of being back in school.