What to Keep in Your Back Pocket Here in Charlotte

I kept four things readily accessible in the back left pocket of my jeans this week – my Wake Forest campus key card, my Wake Forest copy card, my bank card, and a Yoforia gift card. When I realized mid-week that I subconsciously transferred all four cards through every pair of jeans I wore over a couple of days, it dawned on me – this was, in fact, an exam week, and I was going to need copies of accounting practice problems just as much as an already-paid-for pomegranate frozen yogurt. And I was ready.

This week required a lot of each of us here in the Charlotte program; it was the first time since we started the program in August that the stakes were raised – we were responsible for two midterm exams, a Quant Methods individual assignment, and a rough draft of a team accounting project. Not to mention, of course, our full-time jobs. If you weren’t 100% enrolled emotionally in the business school experience, you were going to be. Real fast.

The thing is, we weren’t alone – we came through for ourselves, yes; but, we came through for each other, which speaks to one of the things I love about Charlotte’s program – the people; this Class of 2013 team. We made copies for each other. We camped out in the copy room for hours talking and working through practice problems. We called. We texted. We e-mailed out study guides to everyone at 2 o’clock in the morning before the test (and by ‘we’, I mean, Morris).

Again, we weren’t alone in this experience. This past Friday, the end of exam week, Harris Teeter’s President Fred Morganthall came to the Charlotte campus to speak about his experiences and the Harris Teeter ‘story’. Organized by a second-year Charlotte student, Bryan Sprayberry ’12, the event provided insight that extended far beyond the retail world. One such insight by Mr. Morganthall - you’ve got to have the right people –your own people familiar with the company’s culture, community, goals - in place for a new store to do well in a new market. If that’s the case, then, Charlotte’s Class of 2013 – the right people to know in this new adventure - we kept each other in our back pockets this week.