After a wonderful first day of sightseeing in Mumbai, my classmates and I had the opportunity to connect with members of the Mumbai Badger Alumni Chapter. There is something surreal about standing on a rooftop overlooking Mumbai’s iconic Marine Drive while connecting with Badgers who graduated in a range of years from 1960 to 2019. The experience reminded me about the strength of the Badger network.
It is truly remarkable that alumni chapters organize events such as this one to connect Badgers across the globe. Not only that, but former Badgers at all stages of their careers – whether retired or just starting out – choose to take time out of their day to come and connect with current students. While I imagine that many schools have alumni chapters, I doubt there are any that are as authentic as the University of Wisconsin’s.
The authenticity came out in the effortless conversations, but also while competing in the trivia contest organized for the night. Teams made up of diverse groups connected and worked together to win, but it was a fun, warm competition, with many questions that were drowned out by laughter. We were a diverse crowd but brought together by the shared experience of having studied at the University of Wisconsin, which was really special. I left the event with several new connections, plans to get coffee next time people were in Madison, and a strong reminder that I made the right choice of MBA schools.
This article is part of the series describing the Marketing Centers’ International Trip to India in January 2020. The international trip is the culmination of a two-credit course with the overall learning objective of expanding student knowledge of marketing and other facets of running a multi-national brand in high interest markets beyond the U.S. While on site we visit the marketing offices of several companies and receive engaging case studies on the local consumer, company operations and the challenges of ‘local’ marketing outside the U.S. Students walk away from the trip with a different perspective that prepares them further for working in global marketing and general management.
The 2020 course and international trip focused primarily on US based multi-national companies in India.
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