Cohort Manifesto, Essay Example

When I reflect on what my cohort status means to me, I am struck by an interesting  contradiction.  On one level, and not unexpectedly, I am in the Concordia MBA Program to attend to my own learning, ambitions, and development in business leadership.  Having experience in the world of business, I have come to see just how deficient I am in certain areas.  Successful as a buyer and in leading my team to meet goals, I nonetheless ignored opportunities for growth, as well as a better understanding of what a manager may actually be.  At the same time, I also perceive that a cohort environment, one seemingly not addressing my individual interests, is the most effective avenue in attaining the development I seek.   The contradiction, then, is in fact sensible and attractive to me.  Business is never strictly an individual affair, after all, and in growing as a cohort in the Concordia program, I can most effectively realize my individual potentials.

My expectations for my self in this regard are both ambitious and direct, yet not entirely formed.  Without a doubt, extending my education is a definite aspiration, and one to which my nature is keenly directed.  My father, needing to provide for his family, had been unable to pursue the education he so valued, and this esteem for knowledge was very much passed onto me.  In the world of my youth, advanced education was beyond the reach of the men of the family, and I grew up with a visceral desire to move in the direction my father and grandfather had been denied.  I do not think this inherent regard for study and academic attainment will ever leave me, so powerful was this influence, and I am glad of the motivation.  Then, and equally importantly, I expect to learn in different ways, and to that end I can hold to no concrete expectations.  More exactly, interacting and cooperating in the cohort environment with others will, I trust, broaden my perspectives and allow me to develop skills not necessarily achieved through study.   Such a process, moreover, is intrinsically exponential; as I gain insight, so too do I hope to be a valuable component in the diversity of the entire MBA experience.

Regarding the culture of this experience, I have a single expectation, in that I seek to encounter one of a wide variety of background and interests.  To my mind, all education is a matter of coming to comprehend what was not known before; a truly diverse culture, then, must expose me to thinking and belief systems likely unknown to me, and consequently expand my innate understanding of both the world and of business.  As I must be myself with my cohorts, it is my sincere hope that their similarly “overt” presences will generate new appreciations for what every person and background can bring to the whole.  I am, in fact, obligated to present myself in so complete a manner, as are they.  To restrain individuality in such a setting is to curtail potentials for all kinds of learning, and I fully expect my cohort peers to share this welcoming of diversity.  There is, in my eyes, no vulnerability in such an approach, for I expect as well that a cohort environment at this level is marked by innate professionalism and mutual respect.

Lastly, I consider my mission.  It is completion, inasmuch as any educational process of such a scope may be completed.  Concordia has changed my life, in providing me with both direction and learning; the MBA, and particularly the cohort element of it, will refine these developments and better enable me to take on the project management work to which I aspire.  I have good reason for this confidence; thus far, what I have gained from my work at Concordia has been an ample reward for my efforts.  I believe, nonetheless, that true advancement only arrives through the conviction that more is possible.  As noted, there was a time when I perceived myself fully capable to lead in business, and realizing that this was not entirely the reality is an immensely valuable form of education in itself.  There is measurable learning I wish to master in the MBA, as there is the intent to further my understanding of how people, including myself, can most effectively and harmoniously create a positive, successful business environment.  To move forward to these states of being is, ultimately, my mission, and I am eager to immerse myself into the process.