A team of eleven graduate students from the F.W. Olin Graduate School of Business at Babson College participated in the 2009 Duke MBA Games. The Duke MBA Games is a fundraising effort organized by Duke University's Fuqua School of Business to support Special Olympics North Carolina. This was the third year Babson participated in the event, which was held on the weekend of March 27th to 29th, 2009. It was the 21st anniversary of the Games.
Special Olympics provides year-round sports training and athletic competition in a variety of Olympic-type sports for children and adults with intellectual disabilities. Athletes are offered continuing opportunities to develop physical fitness, demonstrate courage, experience joy and participate in a sharing of gifts, skills and friendship with their families, other Special Olympics athletes and the community.
Back Row (L to R): Mark Itskovitz M’09, Mark Sutton M’09, Yaohui Guo M’09, Rahul Sahni M’09, Gili Drori M’09, Dhairav Dalal M’09, Tre (Athlete), Shana Sylvester M’10, Eric Burns M’09, Front Row (L to R): Sarah Carroll M’09, Molly McDonald M’10, Kristin (Athlete), Jennifer Harber M’10
The students held fund raising initiatives to raise money for Special Olympics including a raffle sale, with prizes including lunch with Babson College President Len Schlesinger, Boston Celtics premium tickets, VIP parking, one-on-one tutoring donated by Babson MBA students Akshay Kolte and Mark DiPaola, dinner at Chinese restaurant Tian Fu in Wellesley, Wachusetts Mt. ski lift tickets, Babson gear clothing from the Babson Bookstore and many more prizes. The team also received generous donations from individual professors, staff, students, the Office of the President, Graduate Student Council, Office of the Graduate Dean, Bernon Center, MBA Center for Career Development, the Arthur M. Blank Center for Entrepreneurship and Delta Airlines. Babson's team proudly donated over $2,100 to the Special Olympics.
The MBA Games is a weekend of fundraising and fun involving teams of students from some of the top business schools in the United States. Once students arrive at Duke's campus in North Carolina, each team is joined by athletes from the Special Olympics for a weekend of light-hearted sports and games. These events include the Swimsuit Relay where participants have to swim a pool while wearing a business suit, Briefcase Hurling, Tug-of-War, and the Dizzy Bat Race, among others. The Babson team placed in the top three of the school cheer-off, the opening event of the weekend.
The team attributes their success to team work, collaboration, entrepreneurial thought and action, skills they of course honed while at Babson College. The team was comprised of four first-year students and seven second-year students from the two-year MBA program. For the team, the high point of the weekend was interacting with athletes from Special Olympics. It was also a fun opportunity to get involved with a great and worthwhile social cause and spread the Babson brand. They look forward to raising more awareness and funds for the 2010 games.
