the bang cohort

The group you enter into the MNA program with during your first summer is your cohort. Because of the program structure and flexibility, we may all finish the degree at different times, anywhere from 14 months to 4 years from now. But we're all required to be here for 4 weeks this summer taking the same 5 classes. The cool thing about this structure is that you have the opportunity to form a close bond with about 30 people (or 35 in our case) during your first summer, and even though you may not be together all the time for the remainder of the program, those people still become your immediate network... maybe even your rock, so to speak, while you all finish at your own pace later on.

So let me tell you about my group. First of all, they're nothing short of amazing. I never could have imagined how much I would genuinely enjoy being around all of them. After 3 days of orientation, we already felt like we had known eachother for years, and now that we've finished our first week of class, I think we're all wondering why it took so long for us all to finally meet eachother. I suppose it's all in God's plan to bring the right people into your life at the right time. After only 10 days together, it feels like it's been a lifetime. A really hard, sleep-deprived, yet completely awesome lifetime.

We come from all over the country - California to Maryland, Maine to South Carolina and Georgia, the midwest to Texas. We also have a priest from Africa and 4 students on an exchange program from China. (This is the first group on exchange for a dual degree program with Notre Dame and Renmin University in Beijing. Next year, the program will grow to have a larger Chinese contingent coming in 6 weeks ahead of us for some preparatory work, and then joining the MNA program with the 2014 cohort.) We have an age range of 23 to somewhere around 50 years old, with the bulk of us being in our late 20s or early 30s. (I could do a standard deviation on that, but... well, hell no.) We work in a variety of areas like healthcare, higher education, family foundations, community or volunteer service organizations, human trafficking, and even a golf foundation. You'd think it might be hard to find something in common with everyone, but it's been surprisingly really easy. We all care about what we do, and we all have a huge passion to learn... that alone would actually be enough. But it turns out that we genuinely like eachother and want everyone to succeed, too.

A few years ago, the program started a trend of letting the cohorts give themselves a name rather than identifying with a year. The group from last year was called "Bueno." In honor of being the first cohort with members of the new Chinese exchange program, we really wanted to have a Chinese name. After talking it over, we decided to one-up the class before us (bueno = good) and select the Chinese word for "superior," which is "bang." It's pronounced "bahng" rather than bayng like we would normally say here in America, but we often bastardize it for the sake of humor, because inside we're all still 12-year-olds. :) So that's who we are. The Bang Cohort. (And yes, we're getting t-shirts.)

There are a few times in your life when you get thrown into battle with a group of people... when you're younger, you're just sort of stuck with whomever shows up (like in high school). When you're in college, most of you want to be there, but there still seem to be some folks that just don't fit. But this experience is just totally different. We all really want to be here, and more than that, we're all really excited about learning together. This actually reminds me of my experience at the Governor's Honors Program when I was in high school... Even the person who might annoy you the most from time to time is still a person that you could go to lunch with and have a really awesome conversation. And that annoyance is still pretty low on the scale of 1 to "kill me now." Maybe there's something to be said for suffering through dorm life, incredibly late nights, and tough projects together. It's hard, but the degree will be worth it... certainly, the relationships are worth it.

I'm going to take advantage of my free day for a walk around campus, and then it's time to get started with accounting and HR management homework... and probably some laundry, lest we forget that this isn't just a really hard summer camp vacation.

Next time, I'll tell you more about our schedule and what we're learning. Until then, thank you again for checking in on me, and Go Irish!