My graduation speech

I am sure you all recognize me from the flag ceremony and needless to say I now feel a profound sense of shame at what I said, but I am proud to say that I am Italian and I think the first Italian to receive this award.

No seriously I am Italian. I was born and raised in Calabria, Italy, despite this really stupid accent that makes people believe I am a deluded psychopath pretending to be Prince Charles or something…

Well let’s see since I was born and raised in one country, speak English with the accent of another country and have friends from 32 different countries that means I can only be a T’bird.

So whilst we are on the subject I have been asking myself what makes a typical Thunderbird?

I would argue it’s the dream. When we arrived here, one common dream we all had was that our MBA was going to be different from the rest and that’s why we chose Thunderbird. One in which we would learn how to link sustainability with profit, ethics with international trade, in the true spirit of Thunderbird’s founding father. This dream would then take us from Dubai to Bejing to Buenos Aires to practice what we had learned and allow us to share our own version of this dream.

I am sure that you agree that it’s not all been easy, there was one evening at the end of the first trimester after the revision class with Professor Tuzzolino when he asked if Euler, a Swiss mathematician, was oily, aliphatic or adiabatic, I wondered if I was truly delusional and if I was in business school, medical school or a mental asylum.

We have all started separate journeys, but with one dream in mind and there have been plenty of times, like during the Sustainable Innovation Summit, when I felt extremely proud of being here amongst people who were making their best contribution towards a more just, more equal and prosperous world. Ernst Holmes famously said “it is only the dream that is nourished that grows”.

This dream is made of all of our combined desires, wishes and visions of a world where the relationships we built here on campus mirror the relationships we will build in the world outside Thunderbird. Everyone I have met here has brought something that has enriched me: I know understand the world better than I could have before Thunderbird. I for one have felt that all of the people I have come across at Thunderbird have not been afraid to open their heart and let me share that dream: the best gift one could wish for.

So what is the dream and what is Thunderbird if not ourselves? What we have shared will stay with us no matter what. In a way, we have a duty to ourselves, to the strong friendships we have made, to the learnings that we have made through our Winterims, Summerims, and the time we have wasted at the pub… to stand proud and keep this dream alive. We will walk out of this hall knowing that we cannot forgo our dream to support one another and work for more just, more equal and prosperous world.

As I accept my award, I would like publicly humiliate some amongst us who I have got to know better and who have taught me a great deal about life: Bree Olivari, Nick Bono, Gyna Castillo, Tara Spadoni, Laurence Koffy and Cindy Yaeger.

I would also like to thank Dave Newell, my partner, whose business acumen, encouragement and love have illuminated my journey all the way to my graduation.

And I will close with a word of wisdom:

Your families are extremely proud of you.

You can't imagine the sense of relief they are experiencing.

This would be a most opportune time to ask for money.

imminent

It truly is imminent.

This coming Friday my whole MBA experience will be over. The graduation ceremony: a flash of people, diplomas, gowns and then hopefully silence. This will be the first time that I will have had since last August in which to take stock and look at the future. And the challenge will be having an answer ready for all of you - "so what are you going to do next?", "do you plan to move permanently?", "what's your new job like?". Everyone of you will deserve an answer and yet I know that some of my thoughts are not clearly yet formulated.

The closer I get to this date, the more I wonder whether I want what I am planning for myself and London does not seem such a bad place...

BKY

Just a few days to go before I finish my MBA and the 22nd of August will see my graduation...and an unusual post for you to ponder.

BKY is not a new fast food chain in America, but rather the the acronym for Barton Kyle Yount, the general, who in 1946 founded Thunderbird. The spirit of Thunderbird is summed up by the motto "borders frequented by trade, seldom need soldiers". The school was founded with the scope of creating greater understanding of business in an international context and its ideals today are more relevant than ever: sustainable prosperity, strong ethical behavior in business and a promotion of cultural understanding amongst nations.

Why am I mentioning BKY? The Barton Kyle Yount award is conferred every year to the student who most exemplifies Yount’s ideals of scholarship, accomplishment and character, and is asked to be the keynote student speaker at graduation. The student is selected as a result of a ballot by the Professors at Thunderbird.

I was nominated for the award last week and I am now the 2008 Barton Kyle Yount Scholar. My year at Thunderbird could not have ended on a higher note.

T'pants

buggeroff

I will be graduating in two weeks and it seems like a lifetime since I have left London. I will be coming back just a year later but with a new life ahead of me. It's exciting and scary at once. Packing things up for good and opening the doors to a new life. In the process I have gained a new boss - he is so great! He is from Wales and has already twice told me to buggeroff and pissoff! It's all done in good humour and we have a good chuckle almost every day!

wildlife and salsa

As we are weeding the tomatoes, Dave reminds me to be careful. "Dennise says that there is a snattle rake in between the rocks". I am amazed at the amount of wildlife that is all around big American cities. Here in Phoenix there are coyotes at the border of the city. Same story in Denver in addition to mountain lions, rattle snakes and prairie dogs.

Prairie dogs are really funny - they live in a hole and spend hours peering out of their holes like meerkats. How do I know? The field in front of Dave's house is full of them!

And this time I will get to eat more tomatoes - the best I have had this side of the Atlantic.

P.S. If you get a chance ask Dave to make you salsa...it's bloody marvellous!