[students’ journal] November
27 November 2015What is it like to be a student at BBS? Here is where they have their say on campus life, tips of Bologna, and much more. Written by and for the Students.
Read here the other posts published.
Bologna, the first touch!
As a fresh student, my Bolognese experience starts less than two month ago. In this respect, I want to share with you some of my experience on the facts of how the city host newcomers, the first evidence ,which I call it, the first touch!
In different aspects, the atmosphere of both Social and University should be important for all student and educated people who pursue their academic grows and development abroad their country. Let me express my experience about the Bologna in one world: Wonderland!
The dominant feeling atmosphere when walking and experiencing the city through the downtown from the first day was the impression of a live city. Bologna is a unique mix of rich culture of Italian citizens energized with student’s life. Just think about the uniqueness of this composition! This beautiful city is famous for its layouts as a whole, respect to individual buildings and monuments in other famous cities. When the Bologna touches you, you will be considered as a part of this unification.
As a photographer, I would like to show you this connection with the first shots through the single window of my temporary accommodation at Palace hotel in the city center. The header picture is sets of photos in different days of my arrivals. The main subject selected is one of the towers, which are the symbols of the Bologna for centuries. The sole tower reflects all sentiments of me through the first shiny day of arrival, outstanding supports of MBA team, vivid nights, rainy skies and the last but not least the glorious perspective…
I believe on a famous quotation of a master who told, “we travel with our thoughts to great lands”, but I also believe that this wonderland, The Bologna, lead me for great thoughts!
Alireza Vafa – Iran
Global MBA Innovation Management – class 2015/2016
November 13, 2015
Where I wanted to be
I was born in Atlanta (USA) but I have been living in Bologna for almost all my life. Bologna is my home and Italy is the country I feel I belong to. There is no other place I’d rather live and assert myself but when I got my Bachelor in Law in 2013, that statement sounded at least weird. Saying that you wanted to stay here and trying to do your best to promote your country was perceived like giving up all your ambitions and dreams. I honestly never believed that.
I think that if You really want to make it You must invest all you to get your goal, I’m talking about the whole package: money, time and many other things you can’t even imagine.
I’ve always wanted to join a Company but at the same time, I knew that if you are not an engineer or something like that, it’s not that easy doing that. You need to find a key to enter the labour market; I found mine with the Master in Organization & Human Resources Management.
I have always been interested in people, I played basketball for several years and I had the luck to understand very soon the importance of every single component in a successful group, as well as the beauty of achieving something important together and the difficulties You meet when You lose it all.
At the same time I knew I was not ready, maybe I had a good legal background but for sure it wasn’t enough. Thanks to the Master everything became clearer: I had the opportunity to meet beautiful colleagues, professors and managers that through an intense semester of study and activities helped me out in having the right approach once I entered the real life, the labour market.
In my opinion the main problem of our university system is that often Master’s Degrees are nothing but a repetition of Bachelors, attending a Business School is something different because a Master wants to create a figure that is already useful to the enterprises without letting them the task of shaping a generic graduated in something they are interested in.
When I started my internship, in the same Company I’m still working right now, one year and a half later, it was like I already had a toolbox that made me able to bring my contribution. The Master in Organization & Human Resources Management gave me that toolbox. Of course it was just a start, because You’ll never stop to learn and make experience, but I can say without any regret that if a couple of years ago I had decided to not apply to the Master I wouldn’t be here with a lot of perspectives ahead of me, exactly where I wanted to be when I decided to chase my dreams in Italy.
Tommaso Marcus Nassetti – Italy
Master in Organization & Human Resources Management – class 2014/2015
November 6, 2015
Home away from home
Some years ago, there was a student of English philology with no thoughts of Italy as a place to move to. Everything changed in the autumn 2012 when I set my foot in Bologna for the student exchange experience. It was a big new world: people, language, culture, food, atmosphere… I was fascinated by everything and in a few months I knew that Bologna would be in my heart forever.
That spring, in a pool of tears, I went back to Lithuania to continue my studies. Years passed, I travelled around looking for new experiences and new places to fall in love with, but the city of tortellini and portici remained as my home away from home. It felt as if I grew up in there, thus I was always craving to come back.
After graduation, I found myself in a crossroads, a chapter of my life seemed to be over and I had no idea what I wanted to write in the next one. The thing I did know for sure was that I didn’t want what I had and a big change was needed. At that moment, I found marketing was a perfect field to try myself out. It seemed to be challenging enough to keep me entertained. Once the course of study was decided, I had to choose the location but that was a piece of cake!
The Master in BBS was a great opportunity not only to revisit the place I was terribly missing but also an opportunity to change my life again. Of course, it was a great step and, as all great things in life, extremely frightening. I knew that this time in Italy won’t be the same and I was afraid to ruin my perfect fantasy. But my desire was stronger than the fear, I returned to the city that stole my heart and it was the best decision I could have made.
The Master in Marketing, Communication and New Media was an adventure with capital A. At the beginning it seemed that I was not ready for all that but, surprisingly, my opinion changed really fast and I realized that there’s nothing impossible; with time classmates became friends, teachers, colleagues and digital marketing; my future.
I arrived to Bologna, as on my first time, a girl with no clue about her future but I left with new dreams, new goals and convinced, more than ever, that Italy is the place I am meant to be in. And no, I didn’t stay in my beloved Bologna, it was just a preparation for my upcoming journey. I’m in Rome now, a city that had already been crossed out of my list of places to live in. But life is unexpected; sometimes you find best things in the places that at first sight didn’t seem worth considering. At least that’s what happened to me.
With my poor Italian knowledge and bartender’s experience I was struggling to get a perfect internship. However, I was still hoping to move to Milan to find my bright future as a bunch of my classmates.
On an extremely hot day in July, I was invited for an interview with an agency in Rome. Without considering it too seriously, I agreed to take the interview just to diversify my search process and thank God I did. Just one interview was enough for me to understand that I wanted to be a part of their business. I felt that it perfectly fitted my needs, competences and my personality itself, thus the following month was a torture. Three more interviews (including a few via Skype with terrible connection) and, on top, the great Italian August vacations… I though I’d turn gray waiting for an answer. But, finally, I was rewarded by this awesome opportunity I’m enjoying now. I’m growing everyday and I am happy to do that at Neomobile, ‘cause… well, it just feels right.
Of course, after philology studies I didn’t expect to be analyzing data but how can you know if something is right for you if you have never tried it? Day by day I’m learning to love this Eternal city with its many virtues and flaws and, at the moment, I am where I want to be. Later, who knows… maybe I’ll be back to Bologna looking for new answers 😀
Kristina Dagilyte – Lithuania
Master in Marketing, Communication and New Media – class 2014/2015
