Wednesday, February 7, 2007

Life before MBA - Fawad

I moved to the UK in 2003 after completing my Bachelors degree in computer engineering from Pakistan. I started working for BP Oil Retail in Milton Keynes and over a 3 year period worked in various roles from manager to systems analyst. I made a lot of friends over the years and took the oppurtunity to travel around europe a bit visiting Spain, France and Italy. The MBA has been an immensley rewarding experience so far and I have met some very talented and unique individuals who I am happy to have as friends. Thanks to everyone in Scafell for making this MBA a great experience.


A picture from Spain:

And a picture from Milton Keynes, with fellow MBA students (left to right - Fawad from Pakistan, Prashant from India, Kinu from Japan, Atul from India)



Life before MBA - Grace

Before came here for MBA, I lived and worked in Beijing in a bank. I love Beijing very much, I enjoy its brilliant culture!

I got both of my bachelor degree and master degree of Money and Banking from Central University of Finance and Economics in Beijing and made friends from all over the country.


Picture with my classmates in University (1993). Third row down from the top, eighth from the left.


Ten Year after Graduation Party 2003 (Classmates came back to our University in Beijing from all over China and the world. It was a pity I couldn’t attend it for being on business in HongKong at that time).

I hope I can have such kind of photos with my MBA classmates in my album in the future. It would be exciting, isn’t it?......



Pictures of the Forbidden City (left), Tian'nnmen (centre), The Temple of Heaven (Right)









Life before MBA - Vincent

Before coming Lancaster, I have worked in two companies, Tripod tech. and BASF Electronic Material Taiwan. As a senior engineer and a representative of Tripod tech., I joined the TPCA (Taiwan Printed Circuit Association) show in Taipei. To get more advanced technological information, I went to the stand of our best ink supplier, Taiwan Taiyo Ink.


Left: Taipei 101: It locates in the heart of the Taipei City, the capital of Taiwan. With the height of 508 meters, it is the highest building in the world. Not only is it a landmark in Taiwan, but also a centre of fashion and shopping.

Below: It was summer time in Kenting, one of the most famous resorts in Taiwan. We, my close friends and I, enjoyed the lovely sunshine, beautiful beach, and, of course, delicious sea foods here. I also tried the parasailing, scuba-diving, Jet-ski in Kenting. If you love water activities, just come here to have some fun.

The Southpark Photo (Left): In 2000, I got my master degree from the National Taiwan University of Science and Technology. After finishing our master thesis, my classmates and I stood in front of the department of Chemical Engineering, which was my major. The funny thing is that four of us formed a stupid group, “The four stupid in South Park”. Therefore, we put on the cute T-shirts and celebrated our graduation. Ha!!!

Life before MBA - Chandni

Before the MBA, I worked at an ITeS company in Mumbai, India. As Head, Knowledge Initiative, I spent a year setting up a new e-business division called the Center for Research Writing Resources. I enjoyed doing all the abstract obscure stuff that was floating around.

Left:The office reception area

Life was good back then when I didn’t need to count pennies and pounds. I would have coffee at The Marriott on Sundays without a worry in the world. Life before MBA had a lot of family in it—Day trips to my sister’s house all the way to town, spending time with my nephew, Harsh…watching TV with my other two sisters, shopping, movies (the 5 multiplexes near my home…I miss u), plays, dinner at Vie lounge (that was a superb farewell!) Sunday mornings at the beach…what a life!

Right: Supastaz-My sisters-Turiya and Karishma

Since coming to UK and being (in a sense) jobless, this new life seems surly different. There are days when the country charm of Lancaster makes me feel like I am living out of this painting or an episode from Travel and Living (Discovery). Then there are days when the wind blows so cold … that’s when I think…what the hell am I doing here!! And finally, there are some days when I actually miss working. How crazy is that?!

Why MBA? It’s funny how I tend to think of it more now than ever! Still searching for that ever elusive perfect answer…

It’s been fun being s student so far…meeting people from different countries and getting back to books. Making few good friends and spending a crazy amount on quality education and toward a brighter future. So let’s hope the sun keeps shining :)

Chandni

A video on our fundraising activities!

Feb 7 is Charity Day at the Lancaster MBA. Each syndicate team has a job to do- help any charity of their choice. We chose The Children's Society. Read more about what they do at www.childrenssociety.org.uk/

We started the day at 10:00am. Of course, we didn't actually start at 10, because a few of us were late!

Got together to plan the morning. Kunal and Ashish brought the donation boxes and poster etc. from the Charity. The pack had some balloons as well...!

Ashish and Kunal were typing out their messages to send back home. Dawn got down to setting up the blog, while some of us started out with the donation boxes and moved toward the MBA Office. We targetted another MBA group in the MBA Foyer (Helvellyn) on our way and then gradually just started asking all the students around. MSc students contributed as well.
You'll see Joseph, Yasmine, Fawad, Luis, and Grace collecting donations and giving each donor a sticker :-)

Dont believe us...See our Video!

New Venture Challenge - Ashish, Fawad, Grace, and Kyriakos


Left to right: Fawad, Ashish, Grace and Kyriakos at Print to Canvas, photo taken by their client.
The team developed a business plan, and gave some advice on the new 'print to..' website: http://www.print2group.com/ Print2Canvas specialises in bespoke interior design products including canvas prints, photographic wallpaper and custom made photo blinds using client's own photos and digital imagery to help transform people's living or work space.

New Venture Challenge - Chandni, Dawn, Joseph and Joong


(Left to right) Chandni, Dawn, Joseph and Joong worked with floorwarming UK - an underfloor heating system company that is looking at moving in to renewable energy systems. They are based in Carlise (very northern end of England, and work all over the country. Here is their website http://www.floorwarming.co.uk/, and here is the photographic proof that we survived the presentation of the business plan that we developed for them :)

http://www.floorwarming.co.uk/

Life before MBA - Dawn

Before I came to Lancaster to do the MBA I lived in Salt Lake City, Utah in the USA. I was a transportation consultant. I loved the outdoor environment in Utah and enjoyed snowboarding in the winter, mountain biking in the summer, and spending time with friends and colleagues year-round. Here are a few images of what it looked like out there.

To the right : Honeycombe canyon in solitude ski resort, Salt Lake County. A great spot to spend time in the winter.

Below - view from gemini bridges - the reward for a 7 mile mountain bike ride climbing up the sandstone formations in southern utah.

Right: Evidence of me doing more traditional american pastimes, watching a baseball game with Amanda, Jon, Lilla, Jonathon, Dave G and Ryan.

Grace gathers donations in the management school


The management school cafe. Grace (left) gathers lots of donations from generous students.

People in Lancaster - donating this morning

Ok - well this one isn't people donating - this is Fawad (left) and Luis (right) working hard blowing up 'The Children's Society' balloons.







To the right: Fawad and Joseph recieve a donation from Angela - one of the MBA office ladies (they keep all us MBA students on the right track). Thanks Angela!




Below: Cana (MBA Career Development Manager) donates to Chandni (right), Yasmine (left) and Joseph. Thanks Cana for the donation, and the help you give us with our MBA.









Above: Vincent enjoys the sunshine and gathers donations from students in Alexandra Square



Joseph from Nigeria wears a coat and gloves to protect him from the cold as he gathers donations from some British students enjoying the sunshine in long-sleeved England football team T-Shirts!


LINK TO OUR JUSTGIVING SITE - PLEASE VISIT

Hello -

Please visit and make a donation - big or small.

http://www.justgiving.com/Scafellforcharity

We have been thrilled with the response we have had this morning of people around the management school - we will add the pictures of the donations to this blog shortly.

Thanks everybody :)

Message from Joseph

My beloved brothers & sisters,

I with other eleven friends from different part of the world in our MBA class are trying to be a blessing to The Children Society in UK, I will be highly honoured if you can touch the lives of these children by contributing to this fund.

Every Two Hundred & Fifty Naira (N250) contribution to this fund is putting smiles & hopes in lives of these children especially the refuges.

God bless Nigeria.

Joseph

New Venture Challenge - Kunal, Yasmine, Luis and Vincent




















Part of our work in Lancaster, the 'New Venture Challenge' has been to work with local businesses in the NW of England to create a business plan for them.
Kunal, Yasmine, Luis and Vincent worked with 'Buy the House' agency.

from right to left: Yasmine(Syrian),Luis(Spanish), Jonathan and Lesely the owners of the Business, Kunnal(Indian),Vincent(Taiwaneese).


http://www.buy-the-house.co.uk/.

.


Message from Yasmine

اسمي ياسمين، من سورية و حاليا أدرس في جامعة لانكستر في بريطانيا , لقد شكلنا ورشة عمل أنا و زملائي للعمل لصالح جمعية خيرية للأطفال و أود أن أدعوكم للتبرع ولو بالقليل. تبرعكم قد يغير مستقبل طفل.
قال تعالى:" مثل الذين ينفقون أموالهم في سبيل الله كمثل حبة أنبتت سبع سنابل في كل سنبلة مئة حبة و الله يضاعف لمن يشاء".
ملاحظة: جميع التبرعات يعود صالحها للأطفال. شكرا لكم.
إليكم لقطات من حياتي اليومية في الجامعة.

Fed up with assignments and lectures...we spent a weekend in Barcelona as a mini-break :-)
From left to right: Aamira (Pakistani), Ahmed (Bahrani), Gareth (British), Max (Georgian), Me!, Miles (Nigerian), Sebastian (German), Labrina (Greek), and Paul (British)

We had a good time celebrating the Indian Republic Day.
From left to right: Mitul (Indian), me!, Atul (Indian) and Labrina (Greek).


With my friend and flatmate, Chandni.



Tough work! In the Management school working on some operations models with my friend Vincent from Taiwan.





On the way to Lake District- a very beautiful place in the North West of England.
From right to left : Dawn (British), Fawad (Pakistani), Luis (Spanish), Chandni (Indian), ME :-) and Kiryakos (Cypriot).

Message from Dawn

Hi Folks –
Greetings from Lancaster – I hope all is well with each of you. Welcome to our website/venture. We (me and my eleven new closest friends from all over the world) are doing a bit of fundraising, and we thought it would be fun to share with our friends from overseas how small the world seems to be when you spend your days in a small room with people from all over the place. What is that like? Well, everybody still argues, and laughs, about the same dumb stuff we all do. We’ve all found it a lot of fun to share ideas and experiences from our lives ‘before Lancaster’ and thought that a cool way to share that fun would be to upload pictures of us all here together, along with pictures of us in our previous lives .

We are also hoping to raise money for a childrens charity here in . We spoke the charity to offer help, they said that fundraising would be the most helpful to them. We have set up the justgiving site so people from across the world can donate. We are also personally fundraising here in Lancaster - it is very funny to watch the different ways people from different cultures persuade people to donate money.


In general support of a ‘one world’, get to know and appreciate others, and feeling the power that the reach across the world can have, please make a donation to the website. Anything at all is appreciated. With world currencies being as they are please give what you are comfortable with rather than feeling that donated amounts are any kind of competition.

Since I’m sending this to the US, I know that finding the time to type in your credit card number is probably more of a burden than giving $5 or $10, but your donation of $5 is a lot more than some people this group is contacting could really afford to give. For the detail-oriented folks who want to make sure they can cover their bills - £1 is a little bit less than $2.
Thanks for joining in the spirit of this. I miss you all much, but it is fun to spend time with these folks! Please forward the link on to others I have missed. I promise I won’t make a habit of this. Keep well everyone, and stay in touch.
Dawn.xxx

Message from Luis

Hola a todos!!
La idea de crear esta página surgió con el fin de poder ayudar a The Children's Society, una organización benéfica inglesa dedicada a ayudar a niños en desventaja o con problemas (discriminación, abusos o problemas legales) que no han encontrado el apoyo necesario en ninguna otra parte ( ofrecen ayuda a mas de 50.000 niños y sus familias cada año). A parte de recolectar fondos aquí en Lancaster, pensamos en crear una página Web para que de esta manera The Children’s Society llegase a los oídos de un mayor número de gente aprovechando la diversidad de nuestro grupo. Nuestra intención es poder hacer algo por ellos como grupo y nos pareció que era una buena idea aprovechar que entre los doce tenemos nueve nacionalidades distintas, así que escribimos en nuestro idioma y se pueden ver fotos nuestras o de cada uno en su país. La página os permite realizar donaciones a los que estéis interesados, al igual que a través de la página Web de la organización. Tenemos pensado que siga funcionando una vez que el curso acabe gracias a gente de la escuela. Para que os hagáis una idea y por poner un ejemplo, si entre todos recaudamos 500 libras cubrimos los costes del número de teléfono de asistencia para refugiados durante cinco días y con 5.000 libras se podrían comprar tres bicicletas adaptadas para niños con minusvalías físicas, pero para más información acerca de la organización podéis utilizar el link.
Eso es todo, para cualquier otra cosa ya sabéis donde estoy y los que tengáis tiempo a ver si me venís a ver, que no estoy tan lejos y a veces hasta hace sol!!

Message from Chandni

To all the people I know and respect,
One of the things they teach us in the MBA program is to question and then practice how efficiently we can deploy our resources for a greater common good.
So here’s our chance: We’re helping the Children’s Society to raise funds for the good work they have been doing, especially with refugee children.
To do so, we’re all extending our circles of influence to reach out.
Make a self-less transaction for a change: buy a child some freedom, some happiness.
£ 2, £5, £10…come on…you all earn well J
I know you will!
Cheers
Chandni

Message from Ashish

Dear all
Namaste! Well I am more than delighted to write to you about something that I and my fellow class mates are doing at Lancaster. As all of you are aware that I am doing my MBA from Lancaster University, a part of the curriculum includes a charity work to be carried throughout the day. At the first place I took it as a competition amongst the other teams of the class but then later I realised that who ever wins by collecting more funds, the benefit is certainly to the society and the needy.
There are a lot of global citizen who need help and who cannot manage it by themselves. Our concentration is centred towards these helpless people. To channel our efforts and help to the right people we contacted a society that has been working with the objective of giving support to the needy children who were left alone when they needed the most support they deserve. The Children's Society is a leading national charity, driven by the belief that every child deserves a good childhood. They provide vital help and understanding for those forgotten children who face the greatest danger, discrimination or disadvantage in their daily lives; children who are unable to find the support they need anywhere else.
Now, we have created this site for all of you to see and contribute just a little of your spare money (you are most welcome if you want to pass a lot of money also). I hereby request all my fellow country people to contribute to the noble cause and make these sad lives full of happiness and bring smile to the faces of the kids who deserve as much as we do. Please don’t be shy to contribute even one pound, i.e. equivalent to around 85 INR, because it’s the spirit of contribution that matters more.
Just for your information, your name would be listed on the contributors list to acknowledge your help. As a final request I would like you to at least take two minutes of your time to write in your comment in the blogs so that we may feel motivated that you support the cause and people may know about your views and ideas.
Love You All, I am proud to be an Indian and I am sure you are too. This pride is derived by the attitude of love and affection that we have for others around us. Keep the attitude in mind while looking at the site.
Have a happy life full of job. God Bless
Ashish

Message from Joong


Message from Kunal

Hello everyone.

I know your effortless generosity and the way you contribute to the good causes.
It gives me immense pleasure and pride to offer you another opportunity to do it again. We at the Lancaster MBA are doing a fundraising event to help the Children Society which is working for the children who are not blessed with the traditional fortunes of life and have been left to spend their childhood at streets, with disabilities or in trouble with the law. To come out of the monotonous impressions of the fundraising exercise, we decided to reach out to all of you irrespective of where you are stationed now .Entrepreneurship does ask us to give back to the society. Perhaps, you all know how a small initiation gets transformed into a huge turnout. You all can prove us right through the small contributions in the denominations of £1 to £10..your choice ..what it takes..Think it this way..A pack of Marlboro..A pint in the evening..An ice cream for your latest girl friend.. the list goes on..come on..i have to cut it short..you better do it now.

Love u all
Kunal

Message from Grace

Grace in Cambridge - December 2006


Message from Fawad

Hello Everyone!
Hope all is well and that you are all in good health. Me and my colleagues (12 of us) here at the Lancaster University MBA are doing some fundraising for our chosen charity, The Children’s Society. This society helps 50,000 children and their families each year providing them with the vital help and support they need against discrimination and disadvantages they face in their daily lives. In order to do this our help in the form of monetary donations are a lifeline to the operations of this charity and the ultimate well being of thousands of children. Me and my colleagues are reaching out to our friends and family for support in this noble cause and request you to make donations to change these children’s lives and bring them the same happiness and joy that we enjoyed in our childhood. Donations, however big or small, are all welcome and will go a long way in helping us make our endeavour successful. So please feel free to donate whatever you can in the knowledge that you are helping make life better for many of the thousands of children in need of our help. Thank you!

Message from Vincent


Our Team

We are:
(Grace) - Wang Daiyin - China
(Vincent) - Chen Wen Sheng - Taiwan
Fawad Ghazanfar - Pakistan
Yasmine Fawaz - Syria
Joseph Jibowu - Nigeria
Luis Fucinous Valeiro - Spain
Ashish Vardhan - India
Dawn Guegan - England
Joong Lim Tae - South Korea
Kunal Sarangi - India
Kyriakos Charilaou - Cyprus
Chandni Kapur - India

Most of the team during a sunny day at the management school, plotting our charity day events.

Left to right:Chandni, Grace, Luis, Fawad, Ashish, Kunal, Vinvent, Joseph, Dawn and Yasmine

Hello from Lancaster

Hello from Lancaster.

We are the scafell syndicate team of the Lancaster MBA. We are 12 people from all over the world, using this site to contact friends, relatives and colleagues across the world, to say hello, keep in touch, and raise money for charity.

Please visit out justgiving site (http://www.justgiving.com/Scafellforcharity )
The website for the charity we are raising money for is here: http://www.childrenssociety.org.uk/

Please make a comment on this site, let us know you have visited to say hello, and give some encouraging words to us as we try our best on the MBA course.

Best wishes - Scafell Syndicate Team.