The Bearable Lightness of being part of a Class

BOCCONI ALUMNI CLASS LEADERS TALK ABOUT THE SPIRIT OF SHARING AN EXPERIENCE LIKE THE MBA

A SDA Bocconi MBA is the experience of a lifetime that bonds you with your class colleagues for ever: you spend more than a year of intensive study elbow to elbow with your peers while continuing to do your job. Sara Carnevale Schianca now works at the Corporate & Investment Banking Division of Intesa Sanpaolo. She graduated from the Full-Time MBA of SDA Bocconi School of Management 20 years ago, in 1997. Since then, every other year, she reunites with members of her class, each time in a different country of the world. "We met in London, Barcelona, Istanbul, Rio de Janeiro. And for our 20-year reunion, we'll do oura meeting on the Greek island of Santorini”. The MBA class of 1997 also created a book of memoirs that keeps growing from reunion to reunion. But what makes Sara, BAA Class Leader, a role she shares her colleague Anna Kryomann, maintain such strong contacts with her past life at the business school?
 
"It is a bond, a strong sense of belonging, but also a lightness of being", says Sara. "It is also something more concrete, like knowing that you can count on each other. You can ask people you trust for a professional opinion". It's a kind of collaborative networking, Claudio Giardia, CEO of the consulting firm Nofrill and Dragonfly president, agrees, but "also a way to compare the career results of each one of us." Claudio attended the very first evening version of the Executive MBA (EMBAS 0). “We have met with colleagues through the years. For instance, I recall a reunion organized with Alberto Grando, who in class had literally stolen our attention.”
 
But there is another element: "With respect to BAA Areas, Chapters or Topics, we do not share simply the fact of being alumni, but have known each other a long time." As Marco Piacentini, who sits on the BAA Board in representation of all class leaders and leads the class of EMBAS10. "I act as broker between the interests and wishes of my class, and the information and ideas that come from BAA. So I have to keep track of my former class mates, but also make sure that every class leader knows how to behave in turn with his/her group and transmit the values and contents of the BAA, Bocconi Alumni Association.". Entrepreneur and specialist in business turnarounds with his company Chimar, Marco stresses the complexity of his role: "We must match the needs and expectations of alumni who may be forty years apart. What binds classes is a feeling of deep emotion; our task is to combine their desire to keep in touch with the institution's need to maintain relations with former students: to bring together, therefore, SDA Bocconi and its alumni. "

Source: ViaSarfatti25