Post from May 2011!
“If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again”-Thomas H. Palmer.
Bet you all didn’t know who that quote originated from. Well, I didn’t either, but it came to mind when first hearing about the International Residency Program to Vietnam. Originally, my fellow classmates and I, that are headed to Vietnam in May, knew only about a steel company looking to enter into a joint venture in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Little did we know that plans had changed and factors in working with emerging markets are a little uncertain (when I say a little, I mean A LOT).
Then there’s real estate. In our first meeting with Professsor Nam Pham, we learned about our new project, which includes researching the real estate market in Vietnam and surrounding areas, but also looking at its capital markets. While we faced a huge setback, the 24 of us have hit the ground running.
To get an idea of who I am……
My name is Kendra Singh and I am a first year MBA at GW. I have a background in sales in the healthcare industry. I decided to go back to school to focus on Marketing and International Business, with hopes of getting back into the healthcare industry. I’m originally from Columbus, Ohio (which some of my fellow students like to poke fun at). Either way, this project really excites me because I think Asia is a great place to learn about business. Although I do not know much about capital markets and real estate in a foreign country, I came to school for the opportunity to be challenged and learn. As of right now, I am working in two different groups within our project. One group focusing on investment funds in Vietnam and the other analyzing the overall real estate supply and demand. Professor Pham says I’m ‘hedging my bets’, but I am really just interested in both!
Over the course of this project, I am hoping we can get the professor to guest blog, but for now I will share some great quotes from him. One being, “I oops a lot” and the other “I scream because I’m short.” The context is not needed, its just plain funny. I have a feeling there will be many more along the way, but already I think a lot of us can tell , on this assignment, we will be learning and laughing a lot. More of the latter, I hope.
Goals of the Vietnam group: Learn, Laugh, Eat, Pray, Visas, and Vietnamese.
My fellow bloggers for Rio, Istanbul, Sweden, Ghana, and Serbia….looking forward to hearing yours!
A Fancy Wrinkle 