Category Archives: Berkeley MBA

All about my two years as a full-time MBA student in Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley.

[Photos] Alcatraz Island

As I said in last post, our super-supportive second year MBA students offered guided tour to the famous Alcatraz island on Saturday August 15th.

I knew the name of Alcatraz island even when I was in China, because of the 1996 action film The Rock (IMDB link and Wikipedia link) starring Sean Connery, Nicolas Cage, and Ed Harris, directed by Michael Bay (director of  Pearl Harbor and Transformers).  The Rock is one of the best and most well-known action films, and then was very popular in China.

The trip is great.  The most impressive thing is the tagline in the cell house:

Break the rules and you go to prison, break the prison rules and you go to Alcatraz.

This is so cool.

Alcatraz island on the Google Map:


View Larger Map

Photos…

Continue reading →

[Photos] San Francisco Farmers Market

Although the Orientation for our new MBA students will officially begin on Monday August 17, but our super-supportive second year students kindly offer guided tour to San Francisco’s Farmers Market and Alcatraz island on Saturday August 15th.

Here is my tour to the SF Farmers Market.   Thank you, Ari, Jacqueline, Akhil, Sagy and all other involved second year students!  I appreciate your efforts to make all this happen.

Continue reading →

Hello, Berkeley

Finally I started my two years life as an Berkeley MBA student.

It took me 11 hours to fly directly from Shanghai Pudong airport to San Francisco airport.  Eleven hours, not too far away from my perspective.  Could I imitate the famous words “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” from Neil Armstrong by saying: “That’s one small step for a flight, one giant leap for me.”  🙂

After a couple of hectic days, I settled down in Albany, CA.  It is not very close from the UC Berkeley campus, but I can take a very convenient bus to commute.  So far everything is pretty much fine.

I took a shot of a slight bay view at Albany.

Hello, Berkeley, and Albany.

Slight Bay View at Albany

Travis Darrow: a Social Connector

Before I got known Mr. Travis Darrow, I was proud of my fame of “resourceful/social hub” in my friends circle.  But now I think I am wrong.  I am definitely not the best living example of social hub.

Travis is the most social guy that I have ever met.

I just met Travis in June 11 evening at Shanghai, in the UC Berkeley Haas School of Business party featuring Dean Lyons.  Then I got known Travis is a very active Berkeley alumnus based in Hong Kong.  It was truly enjoyable talking with Travis in the event.

Then the next day I found Travis’ entry on LinkedIn and Facebook.  This guy has 500+  connections on LinkedIn, and 1500+ friends on Facebook.  Oh my god.  🙂

Then I read recommendation words like this:

As the #1 volunteer for UC Berkeley in Hong Kong, Travis is at the hub of so much activity. Travis knows everyone; he is responsive and creative; Travis never hesitates to help fellow alumni.

Travis has been an enthusiastic and professional member of the steering committee of the Berkeley Club of Hong Kong since 2001. Thanks to Travis’ continual and inspiring efforts, loyalty and dedication, the Berkeley Club membership and event participation has grown enormously, which has resulted in countless benefits for the campus.

Oh, then I realized that Mr. Travis must be the “social connector“:

Continue reading →