There’s a core of activities that is shared by all Fletcher students regardless of degree program, but the precise features of daily life do differ a bit.  Here, first-year MIB student, Vincent, tells us about his early months in the program.

I can’t believe it’s only been three months since I started at the Fletcher School.  I began the MIB program in mid-August with a Strategy pre-session, and it already feels like a lifetime ago.  So much has happened since then — I’ve met so many amazing people, and I’ve learned so much.  For the purposes of the blog, I’ll tell you about my experiences to date and my expectations for what lies ahead.

My experiences at Fletcher up to now have all been extremely positive.  As an MIB student, I have to take three core courses this semester, and each one of those classes has opened a door for me on the world of business.  I have a background in the private sector, and my first few months of learning have complemented and built upon my experience. In two of our business classes, “Foundations in Financial Accounting and Corporate Finance” and “Financial Statement Analysis,” we are really learning the practical side of how a business works.  Theory is always there, but it’s more about making decisions and understanding what is going on.

My other core course is called “Global Political Economy,” and it’s excellent.  What I didn’t know about the interactions and history of state players and external forces in trade negotiations could fill a book.  I thoroughly enjoy this class and the perspective it’s giving me on international affairs and business.  This is exactly the kind of course that separated Fletcher from the other schools I considered.

Now, what do I expect for the coming months?  Well, it’s exam time soon enough, so there will be a lot of studying.  But the strangest aspect of all is that, two months from now, I’ll be doing four totally new courses.  I know I’ll be taking a region-specific course in French, and probably a course on international negotiation.  Thankfully, I’m now well adjusted to the world of academia so I no longer have a “deer in the headlights” look about me as I walk the Hall of Flags.  It’s certainly been quite a change to go from the working world into school.  There’s no hiding out in meetings here.  The more you put into Fletcher — pre-work and team projects — the more you get out of it.

Lastly, it sounds cliché, but there is a real community here.  There isn’t a day that goes by when my 30 MIB classmates aren’t cracking jokes or talking about their many incredible adventures in far-flung reaches of the globe — the range of their experiences is immense.  The things I’m learning from my MIB and MALD classmates could fill a couple of courses!  This has been the biggest and best surprise of all.

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It’s amazing that only two weeks ago we were still grooving along at a relaxed pace, finishing summer projects, booking fall travel, and planning our work for the year.  Then, PRESTO!  New students arrive. Continuing students arrive.  Relaxed pace disappears!

Since last Tuesday, there has hardly been a time when we haven’t had a current student or prospective student in the Admissions Office asking questions, checking in for an interview or information session, or just stopping by to say hey.  Fletcher life is in full buzz.  My office shares a wall with our Hall of Flags, and I can hear the waves of students chatting as they go from class to class.  The School’s speaker series have helped students fill some early-semester “free” time; pizza lunches, the semester’s first meeting for student organizations, and welcome back events complete the schedule.

There’s always excitement and expectation at the start of a new academic year.  I hear professors say that working with new students and feeling the annual potential is what revs them up year after year.  That’s true for us, too, in our ultra-cyclical admissions work, though I would also say that our goal to do the same work better keeps life interesting.

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I asked Ian Pilarczyk, the associate director of Fletcher’s LL.M. program, to send me an update on how the year went.  Here, he reflects on a few lovely days in France, during the program’s “capstone.”

From May 5th to 10th the LL.M. program held its inaugural Talloires Capstone at the Tufts European Center in Talloires, France. The swine flu had been the lead news item for the past few weeks, which was not the most auspicious beginning to our trip.  On the plus side, it resulted in Logan, Heathrow, and Geneva airports all being unusually quiet, and in much less competition for space in the overhead bins!  We were virtually the only tourists in the usually-bustling resort town of Talloires — even more striking on a holiday weekend that coincided with Victory in Europe Day — which just added to the spirit of tranquility.

The Tufts European Center is located in a former priory, dating from the 11th century, nestled against the backdrop of the Alps and Lake Annecy in Talloires, France.  Talloires had been described to me in enthusiastic terms, and as an admirer of Paul Cezanne I was familiar with his 1896 masterpiece, “Lac d’Annecy.”  I have always been struck how reproductions of Cezanne’s painting cannot do justice to the rich blue hues he used in that work; I was likewise struck that, despite the superlatives I had heard, the area’s beauty almost defies description.  It is eminently fitting that the Talloires Declaration, an attempt to facilitate environmental sustainability in higher education, was formulated there at the behest of Tufts University in 1990.  Talloires and Lake Annecy are, in a word, bucolic.

The Talloires Capstone was designed as a time for reflection coupled with opportunities for discussion, networking, celebrating, and relaxing.  Our proximity to Geneva allowed us to tap into Fletcher’s rich network of alumni and friends working in international organizations.  We invited eight distinguished guests to join us, including Gian Luca Burci, Legal Counsel to the World Health Organization (who had many interesting things to say about the developing pandemic) and Alejandro Jara, Deputy Director General of the World Trade Organization.  The opportunity our students had to engage in informal discussion with experts — from the European Court of Human Rights, Paris II, the Swiss-Africa Business Roundtable, the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner, and other agencies — was one of the defining characteristics of the Capstone experience.

During one of the free-time blocks in the afternoon on the last day, a group of hardy students went paragliding; they described it in glowing terms as a life-long memory.  I was reminded of a poem by Canadian poet F.R. Scott, “Three Days in October,” that he wrote as he watched a trio of students parachuting down on McGill’s campus during its sesquicentennial celebrations; he described them as moving “with swinging skill/and speaking no language/save the language of motion.”  His poem’s conclusion provides the most fitting end to this blog, as it captures my feelings as I watched Fletcher’s LL.M. students (from a safe distance):

As they floated down

we were all lifted up.

Many thanks to the sixteen students in our inaugural class for being such an inspired, and inspiring, class.  I look forward to welcoming them into Fletcher’s alumni family.  Onward and upward!

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I received  a welcome but surprising call from one of our students the other day.  Anne is sweltering away in Houston, while I’m enjoying the Boston area’s cool but lovely summer.  She didn’t really call to discuss the weather, though.  Her true intention was to let me know about a trip that she and fellow students in the International Business Club are planning.  Billed as the First International Business Trip, they’re going to Dubai!

The trip will take place over spring break next March, and will be open to all Fletcher students, whether or not they are focusing on business.  To meet the multiple needs of differently focused students, the club is planning meetings with both business execs and policy makers, so Dubai’s extraordinary growth can be viewed through a private or public sector lens.

If you’re one of our incoming students, you’ll be able to gather details at the Student Organization Fair in September.  I’ll make a mental note to ask the students to send travel tales to the blog while they’re away.

I should also note that, though this is the first student-led trip of this sort, international business has been an integral part of Fletcher’s curriculum for, roughly, forever.  In recent years, though, particularly with the addition of the MIB program, the group of students with a business focus has grown in size and energy.  A plus for everyone in the community!

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Along the way, I’ve written about (or, at least, mentioned) lots of different student activities, but somehow haven’t much touched on one of the oldest and most established of them:  The Fletcher Forum of World Affairs.  The Forum, Fletcher’s student-run scholarly journal, has been producing two new issues each year since 1975, and it’s a draw for our many students with an interest in research, writing, journalism, and the business of journalism, among other areas.

On the Forum’s site, you can see both the current issue and archives going back to 2000, as well as a special issue dedicated to the spring 2008 Fletcher conference on Edward R. Murrow and public diplomacy.

Fletcher is also the home of Murrow’s library, giving him an unusually current place in our community.

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When I sit down to write for the blog, I tend not to worry about whether I’m repeating something readers could find elsewhere on the Fletcher web site.  I figure that we all choose what to read, and I’m happy to offer up anything that seems relevant, even if you could track it down with a few additional clicks.

But for those of you who don’t want to wait for me to post information about the Fletcher community, here are a few spots where you can do your own news gathering.

First, there are some fresh internship-related blogs at Fletcher Reflections.

Next, for the Facebook crowed, is the Fletcher Facebook page.

And last, all you Twitterers can follow us there, too.

Of course, none of those other sites will provide application tips in the fall!  So continue to check the Admissions Blog for the information that will help you submit the strongest possible Fletcher application.

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Last week I put out the call via the student email list.  I asked students keeping a blog this summer to send me a link.  In true Fletcher fashion, the first responses popped into my inbox mere minutes later.  The blogs included on even this short list provide a great picture of the scope of students’ activities:  Some are project oriented, others travel oriented, and still others are academic.  I asked the students (all of whom will be back at Fletcher in the coming year) to provide any detail they thought would be useful.  Here’s what I’ve collected so far:

Hana Ryba Cervenka
Greetings from Malawi!  I am one of four Fletcher students doing an internship with Advancing Girls’ Education (AGE) in Malawi this summer.  The organization itself is an outgrowth of Fletcher, started by PhD-student Xanthe Ackerman some years back.  We are keeping a blog featuring stories of what we do, see, hear, and experience.  Quite a bit about food on there, too!  And Christin, the photographer among us, is posting photos.  The four interns are Christin McConnell, Anna Wolf, Rebecca Perlmutter, and me.

Beka Feathers
I’m interning for the National Democratic Institute, and my blog is (mostly) about the work I’m doing there.

Joshua Haynes

Joshua, who is spending the summer in Niger, was the last to send the link to his blog.  He said the delay was because he was putting the final touches on the design, and it is quite nice looking!  The site also includes entries from some of his previous travels.

Emily Huston
I am writing for Somalilandpress.com during my summer internship in Hargeisa, Somaliland.  My first two articles are up.

Ben Mazzotta (PhD student)
Mine is neither a travelogue nor descriptive of student life.  I was writing about cyber risk until about March, and then I did post a couple of entries about my May trip to the University of Duhok, Iraq.

Patrick Meier (PhD student)
I blog about crisis mapping, conflict early warning, civil resistance, digital activism and complex systems.

Erika (Kika) Tabacniks
I am writing a blog and posting some videos about my experience in New Delhi, India. I am living with two other Fletcherites, Ted Mathys and Brian Heilman, so there are pictures and posts about our lives here.  Jenny Marron, also from Fletcher, will join us for the remaining two months. The blog is written in Portuguese, but I plan to translate it soon.

For those who can not only ler em português but can also entender português, Erika also provides a link to her youtube videos.

Jessica Varat
I’m keeping a blog for my internship in Peru, working with the Peruvian Forensic Anthropology Team through the Advocacy Project.  I’m based in Lima, but traveling around a bit as well.  I write mostly about the team, but also add news from Peru, when I can.

Note that there are several other Fletcher students among the Advocacy Project bloggers.

Finally, not exactly a student blog, but an event blog written by students.  In late May, Fletcher’s Center for Emerging Market Enterprises partnered with the Kenya School of Monetary Studies, Central Bank of Kenya to co-host the conference “M-Banking 2009:  Balancing Innovation and Regulation.”  There was a conference blog, and in addition, Joshua Goldstein included info in his own blog.

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By alphabetic coincidence, today’s list of book picks includes two on economic issues — but also two books perfect for airplane reading.

Laurent Jacque suggests When Genius Failed:  The Rise and Fall of Long-Term Capital Management, by Roger Lowenstein.

Michael Klein also points us toward books that can help us understand the current economy.  He wrote:  “I hesitate a bit to recommend anything on the financial crisis, since it is such a fluid situation, but a good background to it can be gained by reading  Financial Shock: Global Panic and Government Bailouts — How We Got Here and What Must Be Done to Fix It, by Mark Zandi.  Also, at this time when finance is seen as a problem, it is useful to remember how well-functioning financial markets can help, so I also recommend Saving Capitalism from the Capitalists by Raghuram G. Rajan and Luigi Zingales.”

Julie Schaffner offers the first of the airplane-worthy picks for today:  Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder, which tells the story of Paul Farmer.  (Dr. Farmer also has local roots.)

Peter Uvin, who also offered picks last year, offers an engaging summer read, What is the What, by Dave Eggers.

Finally, alphabetically last but not least, Alexandros Yannis makes two suggestions:  Democracy: A History, by John Dunn, and Postwar: A History of Europe since 1945, by Tony Judt.

As I said in the first picks post, there’s something here for everyone, even if you want to rest your brain this summer.  (Though I also hasten to add that NOTHING is required and brain-resters need not worry.)  I’d love to hear your reaction to the list.  Post your comments — which books have you read?  Any that you particularly recommend to fellow students?  Chime in!

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Doing a little pre-Fletcher reading doesn’t mean you need to lock yourself in the library.  Some of the professors’ picks are beach-worthy!  No matter where (or whether) you decide to read, here’s Part II of the professors’ suggestion list.

Michael Glennon offers an array of choices, from a variety of time periods and genres.  Something for every reader!  He lists:

1.    Groupthink, by Irving Janus.
2.    The Arrogance of Power, by J. William Fulbright
3.    The Metaphysical Club, by Louis Menand
4.    Memoirs: 1925-1950, by George F. Kennan
5.    West with the Night, by Beryl Markham
6.    Age of Extremes, by Eric Hobsbawm
7.    Imperium, by Robert Harris

I’m going to try to pick up West with the Night for my daughter — looks like her kind of book, and I might well borrow it back from her.

Donald Gonson not only makes suggestions but provides context for the choices:  “I have two books that might be good for your summer reading list.  One is The New Financial Order: Risk in the 21st Century by Robert J. Shiller.  The focus of corporate governance is increasingly about management of risk these days.  Corporate failure to manage risk has not only put the existence of business institutions in jeopardy, but has threatened the entire global financial system!  With his usual prescience — he wrote widely read and widely admired books about the dot.com and housing bubbles before they burst — Shiller looks at the challenge of managing risk in the modern world.  Other books focus on the specific issues of the current market meltdowns, but this book is useful in that it provides a broader context for our current difficulties.  (It also suggests extremely relevant reforms which could have mitigated our current crisis, if only….)

“The other book I recommend is Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond.  This is a fascinating look at the evolution of societies, politically and economically, from earliest days.  In fact, the book could well have been subtitled “Early History as a Study in Political Economy,” although that would have been a surprise for two reasons:  Diamond is an anthropologist, and the book is too much fun for such a sober title.  It presents a great analysis of the rise of the rule of law and of the economic forces that shape the law (both very relevant to the study of corporate governance).”

The last picks for today come from Hurst Hannum.  His first suggestion is Farhad Manjoo’s True Enough: Learning to Live in a Post-Fact Society.  His second suggestion is possibly the most intriguing of this year’s list.  He chooses The Plague by Albert Camus.  Certainly a book you can slip in your bag and that will engage you while you wait for your vacation flight.

The final selections, from professors whose last names start with I through Z, will appear next week.  Stay tuned!

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Just before classes ended, I sent a note to the faculty asking for summer reading suggestions for incoming students.  (I like to think that this list will be useful for our newest Fletcher students, as well as anyone still reading the blog who will attend a different grad school.)  I’ve collected suggestions before, and ran short lists last summer, and in 2007.  This year I modified my request slightly:  Instead of asking the professors to suggest books that incoming students could read to prepare, I asked them instead for the books they might pass along to a family member who wanted to learn about their area of expertise.  I hoped it would result in some “lighter” reading, and I think it did.

Of course, suggesting that you do preparatory reading contradicts the students’ advice, posted recently.  I’ll just need to leave it to you to decide whether you should follow the advice to relax and recharge, or read one of the books listed below.

One final note:  I only asked the profs for their picks.  I didn’t ask them to elaborate on their choices.  I regret that now, though I think the simplicity of the assignment led to the high number of responses.  I’ll include any comments they happened to send.

So, with no further discussion, here (alphabetically by the professors’ last names) are the first of the book picks.

First, Richard Blackhurst, who teaches the mid-career folk in the GMAP program, suggests Paul Krugman’s Pop Internationalism.  He notes:  “The students will, of course, recognize Paul Krugman’s name. However, this collection of economic essays pre-dates his much more political New York Times weekly columns, and is both very entertaining, accessible, and directly relevant to many — if not all — of the economics and political science courses they will take at Tufts.”

Antonia Chayes gives a little shout-out to her daughter, when she says, “I would add  first and foremost, Sarah Chayes, The Punishment of Virtue: Inside Afghanistan After the Taliban.”  Prof. Chayes also suggests Tom Ricks’s new book on Iraq, The Gamble:  General David Petraeus and the American Military Adventure in Iraq, 2006-2008, as well as A Long Way Gone:  Memoirs of a Boy Soldier, Ishmael Beah’s memoir on child soldiers in Sierra Leone.

Leila Fawaz sends her choice of reading in an area of great interest to many of our students:  Juan Cole’s Engaging the Muslim World.

And last (for today), Brian Ganson suggests Kings of Peace, Pawns of War: The Untold Story of Peace-Making by Harriet Martin (with a foreward by Kofi Annan), and Making Social Science Matter:  Why Social Inquiry Fails and How It Can Succeed Again by Bent Flyvbjerg (translated by Steven Sampson).

That should keep you all busy for the week.    More to come soon!

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