I still remember the day I received an invitation to interview for the Michigan State Full-Time MBA program. I did extensive research to learn more about the program and prepare for my interview, and at that time, I noticed there was a Broad MBA student resource group called the Multicultural MBA Association. As an international student from Taiwan, I dug into more information about the goals and events of the club, and I decided that I would love to join and interact with peers from diverse backgrounds.
Pei-Chi Chen (MBA ’23)
Soon after I interviewed, I was excited to learn that I had been admitted to the Full-Time MBA program. Once I arrived on campus, I was eager to meet my fellow first-year students as well as the second-year students. I went to the MBA student resource group fair to talk to other students and to understand more about the different resource groups. The Multicultural MBA Association table instantly caught my attention. They had various snacks from different countries that I had never seen before. I began to talk with the club’s executive board members about their purpose and upcoming events; they all sounded wonderful and enriching, so I joined the Broad Multicultural MBA Association without hesitation.
The first event I attended through the MMBAA was a “Meet Your Peers” event in which students from different countries were invited to introduce their own cultures. I was so honored to be asked to share the cultural uniqueness of my country. This was the first time I had been given the opportunity to introduce beautiful Taiwan by presenting in front of peers from different countries. I chose to show images of famous night markets and special Taiwanese food. I felt my peers were truly interested in my presentation, and I also loved learning about many different cultures from my fellow students.
In November, the MMBAA held a special event for the Diwali celebration that really broadened my horizons. I didn’t know anything about the Diwali festival until then, and I was able to learn about the importance of this festival in India. I was so intrigued by this event, I decided to take part in the dance performance and to learn the traditional dances. When I started to practice performing dancing for this event, I sourced detailed information about Diwali online and found out that this festival is as important as Chinese New Year, a significant festival in Taiwan. After knowing this, I worked very hard to practice dancing for this event because I knew the Diwali celebration was vital to my peers from India. There were six dances to be performed, and I performed three of them. I appreciated that my peers from India lent me their traditional clothes for the performance.
At the Diwali celebration event, I also experienced the lighting ceremony and India’s food. I’m so glad that I joined the Multicultural MBA Association during my MBA journey at Broad, enhancing my global perspective by participating in wonderful events and learning from peers with different amazing backgrounds.
