By guest blogger Katie O’Connor, MMS student in the Class of 2015.
Each student in the MMS program took a unique path by which they arrived at Fuqua—mine started two years ago in the PhD program here and took a big detour this summer when I decided to switch gears and enroll in the MMS program. Over the past two years at the school, I’ve accumulated a number of experiences that I like to term “#TeamFuqua” moments. You’ll hear that phrase a lot around Fuqua and you’ll also notice it can take on a number of different meanings depending on who is saying it and what the context is. One of these meanings is community, and the strongest of these #TeamFuqua moments that I’ve experienced, occurred shortly after the MMS started earlier this year.
Two days before Summer Term midterm exams began, I received a phone call around 10:00 p.m. from my mother; my father had suddenly passed away from a heart attack. If you haven’t lost a parent, receiving this news can be hard to relate to. I’ll just say that it is paralyzing. I couldn’t make sense of the words I had just heard. I called my friend Ben, another Fuqua student who had started in the PhD program with me. He helped me get things ready for the days ahead—everything from washing dishes to helping me pick the clothes that I needed. Then he sat with me until my uncle arrived at 6:00 a.m. to drive me home to Indiana.
During all of this, my boyfriend, Venki (another Fuquan), contacted my MMS team members and case competition team to make sure they were aware of the situation. Ben and my team helped contact the program staff and professors on my behalf. My teammates offered me words of encouragement and assured me that they would collect class handouts and notes for as long as I needed. They did everything they could to ensure that I would not have to worry about missing assignments while I grieved with my family. All of this was above and beyond any amount of support I could have imagined.
Then the most unexpected thing happened.
As I drove back to Indy with my uncle, my phone began to explode as my text, email, and Facebook inboxes filled with kind and encouraging words from my classmates. I had only known these people for three short weeks; many I had only spoken to once or twice during that time, yet they still reached out to extend their condolences. Our only common bond in all of this was Fuqua.
My classmates offered their thoughts and prayers. They offered help with meals, shoulders to cry on, help gathering class notes, and everything in between. During the most difficult period of my life, I received message after message from my new classmates saying that they were behind me and would support me in whatever way they could.
That is when I really began to understand what #TeamFuqua meant. It’s more than late nights working on a case in the team rooms. It’s more than helping each other through recruitment. It’s more personal than that. I had just lost the most influential person in my life. I was shocked. I didn’t know what life was going to look like going forward, but I did know that when I returned to Durham I had an entire community to support me and help me back on my feet.