Harvard

This month begins my first Harvard class. I've been accepted to their Business Analytics Program, a joint professional certificate program between Harvard Business School, the John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), and the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS). Everyone has been super supportive of this endeavor and has asked many questions!

The program is six online core courses and two seminars, with several immersions that occur on-campus in Boston. The curriculum explores current topics in business analytics, such as quantitative methods, business and financial statistics, emerging ideas and technologies, big data, and data visualization. As with all Harvard education, the course load is very rigorous, and I’m already impressed by the sheer volume of reading each week. It can be completed in 9 months if you are on the fast track, but I’m aiming for a bit more balance and going for 12 months.

But I am super excited to learn more about digital analytics and transformation. And have a bunch of nerdy critical thinking discussions with my exceptionally talented and impressive cohort! I’m feeling very young and a bit inexperienced in comparison to these CEOs and founders of successful enterprises across many industries. I’m the first student from the design sector (that I know of), so I’m interested to bring design-thinking to the case study method and challenge some traditional business canon.

It will be a challenge, but I’m honored to have been accepted, and excited to dig in.

And, the best part of going back to school - new school supplies!

Surprisingly loving this cheap binder from Amazon. And the “Meeting Book” from Rhodia has always been a favorite. Pens are PaperMate Flair, Normann Copenhagen felt pen, and Caran D’ache metal ballpoint.