Naama Stauber

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• The classes might be set, but every week at the GSB is different. I tend to over-commit because it's just too difficult to say "no" to all the academic, social and career opportunities the GSB life has to offer.
• Our first overnight Women in Management (WIM) retreat, which was a great success.
• Surfing in Santa Cruz
• eBay CEO John Donahoe's talk in Leadership Perspectives. Learning directly from leaders who share their personal values, role-models, and challenges allows me to reflect on my own leadership style, values, and aspirations.

• Global class with Prof. Condoleezza Rice gave me a new perspective on the challenges of global business and on the role of different international organizations. The pick of this experience was role-playing the US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, during a simulation of the UN's handling of the Iran nuclear crisis. I couldn't believe I had the opportunity to learn from such a world-class leader.
• First year had many social high-lights among them the White Party charity auction and gala, a major charity fundraising event for the Stanford GSB that raised more than $175K last year. GSB classmates and alums donate items for auction. People spend a lot of time and money on designing some of the most experiential adventures I've heard of. Last year's highlights included Operation Encore, The Rice-Cake Prom, and Mansion Murder Mystery.
• My first year at the GSB opened my mind to a world of endless opportunities. I was constantly challenged by faculty and classmates to push myself further and enjoyed embracing so many of the opportunities the school has to offer. I learned that I have an amazing support network that I'm committed to giving back to, and that this is my time to dream big and to pursue my dreams.

• I really enjoy the Leadership Perspectives class. This is such a unique opportunity to hear the stories of great leaders in person and to reflect on how key take aways apply to my own life. What are my passions and strengths? How do I balance work and my personal life and live a meaningful life according to my values?
• I love the second-year social life. Most of us live in houses and we have lots of small group dinners and intimate gatherings with friends. My favorite social event of the year was WIM (Women in Management) retreat. I love working with the rest of the WIM leadership team. The weekend was fun and relaxing and had a good balance of activities to connect MBA1 and MBA2 women and discuss relevant issues of women in business
• Interpersonal Dynamics (Touchy Feely) class, is great in helping me discover how to be effective when influencing others. It's a unique, once-in -a-lifetime opportunity to get candid feedback and learn how to relate and connect to others in a meaningful way. I'm looking forward to continue my learning this quarter and throughout my life. This is truly one of the most transformative experiences I've gone through at the GSB.

Today's  biggest accomplishment: WIM retreat turned out to be a great success. More than 90% turnout. Amazing discussions and a lot of girls bonding. Our vision of connecting GSB women within and across classes is coming to life.
Today's biggest challenge: Fighting the waves in my very first surfing class, which was given to me as a birthday gift by a classmate.
Most fun: Catching up with friends over cooking and eating Asian dinner.

Today's biggest accomplishment: Establishing connections with the engineering school liaison and setting joint events. There's great offerings on both sides but it's not always simple to find the right venue.
Today's biggest challenge: This is a repeating challenge at the GSB, navigating between all the activities and places I want to be at. And making sure I set my priorities right :) (which often means, not enough sleeping!).
Most fun: Oktoberfest FOAM.

Today's biggest accomplishment: GSB High Tech Club welcome BBQ. Amazing turn out, great conversations with lots of MBA1s who are passionate about technology and who have done amazing things in their lives.
Today's biggest challenge: Leading my squad in leadership lab and trying to help them learn key lessons on team dynamics and efficiency by observing their performance in the lab.
Most fun: Talk 12 - I love getting to know my classmates better and sharing that experience in the MBA lounge with 200+ friends.

Today's biggest accomplishment: Leadership coaching session with one of my squad mates. I enjoy the challenge of helping others develop and learn and bringing class and clinic concepts to life
Today's biggest challenge: Staying awake after working so late on my M&A homework
Most fun: PMP LPF, great time relaxing before the weekend with my classmates and their families

12:00 AM Saturday Night Enjoying the company of more than 100 MBA1 and MBA2 women in a bonfire at the WIM (Women in Management) club annual retreat in The Chaminade Resort & Spa in Santa Cruz.

The WIM team (I'm chairing the social committee), spent hours planning and executing the retreat. It was such a pleasure seeing how GSB girls enjoyed and bonded over the weekend and got to discuss the challenges and triumphs of being women in the business world.

8:30 AM Sunday Wake up at the Chaminade resort.

9:00 AM Meet all the MBA women for delicious breakfast of muffins and orange juice in the hotel lobby, take final pictures and get ready to hit the road.

WIM Club leadership.

10:00 AM-12:00 PM Getting a surfing lesson from my classmate Yi Liu in Santa Cruz. It's not as easy as it seems but it was great fun.

12:00 Noon-12:30 PM Heading back to the beach and returning the gear.

12:30-1:00 PM Taking a walk on the lovely Santa Cruz beach with my classmate Rosaria Mannino.

1:00-1:45 PM Having lunch at Charlie Hong Kong, organic Asian street cuisine.

1:45-3:00 PM Driving back to Palo Alto.

3:00-5:00 PM Writing in my journals and doing homework for Interpersonal Dynamics (Touchy Feely) class in my backyard with my housemate Jessica Li.

5:00-6:00 PM Going for an afternoon run with a friend. A great thing about the GSB is that everyone has such high health awareness so you'll always find a partner for a run/walk/tennis/etc.

6:30-7:00 PM Going over way too many emails and getting ready for dinner.

7:00-8:15 PM Cooking dinner with my housemates Martha and Jessica and my classmates Shaka and Perla. The GSB Social committee is subsidizing SGD (Small Group Dinners); we even have a website where we can register for hosting. These SGDs are taking place almost every evening.

8:30-10:30 PM Having a lovely Asian cuisine dinner.

11:00 PM- 1:00 AM Wrapping up homework, reading some cases, and going over emails.

1:00 AM Going to sleep.

8:15 AM Wake up

8:40 AM Commute to school.

9:00-9:50 AM Guitar lesson with Prof. Charles Ferguson at the Stanford Music Department.

10:00-10:50 AM Golf class at the Stanford Driving Range. I love Stanford's athletic department, endless options for picking up new sports or enhancing your current abilities. Highly recommended!

11:00-11:10 AM Getting Jamba juice breakfast at Tresidder Memorial Union on campus.

11:20-12:00 Noon Helping a friend get ready for an interview.

12:00-12:30 PM Getting lunch at Raul's cart (every Tuesday outside of Arbuckle cafeteria) with friends.

12:30-1:30 PM GSB High-Tech club meeting with Chris Bockman and the engineering school liaison. Strategizing ways to enhance cooperation this year, planning mixers and joint events for the quarter.

1:30-2:30 PM Go to Bass Center to catch up on emails. The GSB blast mailing list offers a constant stream of information: job opportunities, special lectures, social events and more. It's hard to keep up, but at any given time, you can find something interesting to do through Blast.

2:30-4:00 PM Meeting with my DSI (Design for Service Innovation) team in the Design School Co-Lab at the GSB.

Last spring I took the DSI class at the Design School, where we aimed to find a product or a service that would help young adults with chronic illness in transition stages in their lives.

Over the summer we made progress with the assistance of our Profs. (meeting with VCs, health care consultants, etc.) and we plan to keep working on prototyping and bringing this product to market this year.

4:15-5:15 PM Getting ready for Wednesday's leadership lab. Reading my squad members' debriefs, lab content and role-plays.

5:15-6:00 PM Chilling and catching up with my housemates.

6:00 PM Commuting back to school.

6:30-8:00 PM Leadership Perspectives class. This week's speaker was Father Greg Boyle, who founded Homeboy Industries in Los Angeles.

Homeboy Industries assists at-risk and former gang members to become contributing members of society through job placement, training, and education.

Learning concepts of principled leadership, getting to hear the personal views of great leaders, and weekly discussions with my study group, help me think introspectively about my own values, leadership style and long-term aspirations.

8:00-8:15 PM Spending time after class talking to the Homeboy members who came to class with Father Boyle and hearing their inspiring stories.

8:15-9:15 PM Stopping by the Veterans Club Welcome BBQ, hosted by GSB alums. The Veterans club is a warm and welcoming environment for veterans of all nations, fostering professional and personal development. Its alums are very engaged and supportive and it's fun to have a place where you can share experiences of military service.

9:15 PM Commuting home.

9:45-12:00 Midnight Picking up my friend Chloe and driving to FOAM (Friends of Arjay Miller) party. Every Tuesdays, there's another themed party somewhere in the neighborhood, and it's a great opportunity to relax and enjoy the company of good friends. Today was Oktoberfest FOAM. The highlight of FOAM parties is the Vegas FOAM, where the entire class, dressed up in 70's costumes, flies to Las Vegas to party together.

8:15 AM Wake up

8:45 AM Commute to school.

9:00 AM Library, last preps for leadership lab.

9:30 AM Prep meeting with the current segment leader in my leadership squad.

10:00-11:45 AM Leadership lab. Key lessons from watching last week's performance and role-playing layoff case with my squad.

The Leadership lab provides experiental learning focused on a set of broad managerial perspectives. MBA2 leadership fellows (like myself) lead a squad of MBA1s through lab and personal coaching sessions.

12 Noon-12:45 PM Getting advise from a friend about a company I'm interested in and giving him advice on his upcoming trip to New Zealand.

1:00-2:00 PM Catching up with Abraham over lunch at Izzy's Bagels.

2:30-3:30 PM Meeting with the Israel entrepreneurship GST (global study trip) leadership team to plan our kick-off event and next steps. At the end of March, we'll be traveling to Israel with 30 of our classmates accompanied by faculty adviser Prof. Carole Robin.

With three of my Israeli classmates, I'm leading the first GST ever to partner with the CES (Center for Entrepreneurial Studies).

Our trip aims to examine the Israeli entrepreneurial scene, and understand the history, culture and geo-political context that allowed it to become the start-up nation that it is today.

Run into Mark and Lior at the Arbuckle Dining Pavilion.

3:30-4:00 PM Catching up with friends at Coupa.

4:00-5:15 PM Studying at home, writing leadership lab debriefs and planning Thanksgiving break.

5:15-5:45 PM Some guitar practice.

6:00-8:30 PM GSB High-Tech Club Welcome BBQ at the Facebook house. My fellow High-Tech club co-presidents and VPs hosted MBA1s to introduce them to the club's agenda and to share upcoming activities.

9:00-10:00 PM Talk 12. Every week a GSB community member shares his or her life story with the class. Half an hour story and another half an hour for Q&A. This is one of the most amazing traditions our school has, a great opportunity to share and get closer to your classmates.

10:00-11:00 PM Commuting home and doing some late night shopping at Safeway.

11:00 PM -1:00 AM Reading cases for tomorrow and talking to my family in Israel via Skype.

1:30 AM Going to sleep.

7:45 AM Wake up and quickly rush to school to get coffee before the 8:30 AM class.

8:15 AM Coupa Cafe line is full with my classmates, Friday morning classes aren't easy :)

8:30-11:45 AM Mergers and Acquisitions class with Safra Catz, Oracle Corp. president, and Prof. Ron Kasznik. This is a fascinating class, bringing M&A principles to life, with Safra's wealth of industry knowledge and practical experience at Oracle and in the High-Tech industry.

12:00 Noon- 1:00 PM Leadership Fellows Luncheon. Festive lunch with the full cohort of leadership fellows (66) and our leadership coaches. Reviewing the program to date, sharing experiences and fun stories.

1:00-3:00 PM Leadership Fellows Clinic. Meeting with my clinic of five fellows and my leadership coach to discuss our experiences and challenges and further develop our skills and competencies as fellows and coaches.

3:00-3:30 PM Coffee at Coupa with the co-leaders of JBSA (Jewish Business Students Association) to discuss quarter planning and to get ready for the end of the EAP (Exclusive Academic Period), when MBA1s could join clubs.

3:30-4:45 PM At the Bass Center, working on my journal for Interpersonal Dynamics, trying to catch up on homework and emails before the weekend.

4:45-5:30 PM Leadership coaching session with a member of my MBA1 squad. During the first quarter, each MBA1 has a few leadership opportunities in the leadership lab. After the lab, we continue the learning in coaching session.

5:30-6:00 PM PMP (Public Management Program) LPF (Liquid Preference Functions). Every Friday afternoon a different club/program hosts a social gathering with SOs and kids at the GSB. This week's was an especially playful one, with table-tennis, basketball hoop, and more.

Kelly trying to dunk a fellow student.

Monica (left) and Merp (right).

6:00 PM Drive home and get ready for Shabbat dinner. Every Friday I celebrate the Jewish Shabbat over dinner and services with friends.

7:30-11:00 PM Shabbat services and dinner.

11:00-12:00 Midnight Catch up with my housemates.

12:00 Midnight Go to Sleep.

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