Commencement Speech, Spring 2010- Honored and Scared

Posted on May 12, 2010 by Bulbul Ahammed

I was sitting in a workshop on the afternoon of April 23. It was a Friday.  All I could think about was how I would survive two more days of the workshop. My mind kept escaping to planning for the following weekend.  In the midst of my chaotic thought, suddenly Renata, my MBA classmate, popped up in the chat box: “congratulations, so you are speaking at graduation!” I was pretty sure that was not a question. “How do you know”, I asked. “Check your inbox”, Renata replied. Yep, here is the email from the Student Affairs Director Ashley Arrocha stating “’I am pleased to announce that your commencement speaker(s) will be the duo, Jonas Abel and Bulbul Ahammed.” It took me a while to settle down after absorbing this news.  I really enjoyed the moment. I wrote an email to my buddy Jonas, with whom I would speak as a duo in our graduation. The graduating class of 2010 elected us to speak on their behalf. Once the workshop was over, I called my wife, Laura, first.  She was super excited and assured me I would be fine despite my anxiousness of thinking about the real speaking part.  I am still surprised, and most of all, honored and thankful. This group of students is the most amazing group of people I have ever met. They are amazingly hardworking and great classmates and friends.  I would also like to take the opportunity to thank my MBA class for their enormous support and enthusiasm during the last two years of my service in representing them to the student council.

I am honored, but scared, excited, but lost, thinking of speaking in front of a thousand people. Jonas will be there at the stage as well, which is great, and that should help me not feeling my heart near to the throat during the speech. On May 22 in front of Historic Colton Hall I, along with Jonas, will open up to you and share our thoughts and enthusiasm.

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Class of 2010 Scholarship Challenge

Posted on April 27, 2010 by Bulbul Ahammed

I first heard about the “Class of 2010 Scholarship Challenge” in a meeting with the advancement office staff more than a month ago. I became very excited about the idea and thought it was a great opportunity for us, the graduating class of 2010, to leave a legacy upon graduation. Other than merit scholarships, there are quite a few scholarships out there offered at MIIS; though not significantly enough. I greatly benefited from receiving the “McGowan” scholarship and a few of my classmates benefited from other scholarships like HSBS and Less Zambo. I immediately agreed to support this challenge, because I realized how important and beneficial it can be. I strongly encourage my classmates and others to be a part of this challenge, too. This class is the largest in the history of MIIS and the most amazing group of people I have ever met. I am sure they are going to take this challenge seriously and will contribute to the greater good for incoming students. In addition to contributing toward the scholarship fund, this challenge program has an underlying purpose: to increase the alumni participation in post-graduate phase of the school. This type of student engagement is regarded as the best way to measure alumni satisfaction with their alma mater, and therefore one of the key metrics used for national rankings and also by foundations and individuals considering gifts to an institution [1]. Therefore, the giving in this fund is going to help us in the long run as well by the improvement in ranking of our degree provider institution, MIIS.

[1] http://www.miis.edu/giving/challenge

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… Reading with Bill McKibben

Posted on April 14, 2010 by Bulbul Ahammed

April 2, 2010

Bill McKibben, a writer, an activist and the founder of 350.org[1], spoke at the Monterey Institute on April 2 in an event titled “A Reading by Bill McKibben”. Thanks to the MIIS Advancement office, I was introduced to McKibben prior to the event and had a chance to briefly say hello. Bill touched upon UN involvement, the recent climate change summit in Denmark, and of course, the movement that 350 initiated and organized on October 24, 2009; which motivated people from all over the world (from the Himalayan peaks to the Great Barrier Reef to your community) to assemble and send a clear message to world leaders: “the solutions to climate change must be equitable, they must be grounded in science, and they must meet the scale of the crisis2.”

I barely remember few speakers I’ve heard so far who feel as much passion as Bill feels about the subject matter of his interest. It was obvious how strongly he believes in his work and his dreams to build a planet with a tolerable carbon limit. I believe that makes him and the 350 movement different from others; because Bill has a target which is reachable and he conveys a clear message to the peoples of this planet as his target audience.  McKibben believes it is political will that is needed most to achieve the target.

But what made me the most excited and emotional was Bill bringing up the fact about how vulnerable Bangladesh’s existence is due to climate change and briefly told his story of visiting Bangladesh 4-5 years ago. As he had severely suffered from Dengue fever while in Bangladesh, he joked with the audience “I highly recommend not getting dengue”. He continued “and I believe it is completely unfair, with 150 million people in Bangladesh, as much as half of the US population; when the UN tried to measure how much carbon dioxide Bangladesh emits, it was impossible to get a number, it’s a rounding error in the calculation”. It was a good reinforcement for the audience when he mentioned how 4% of the world population is emitting 25% of the total carbon dioxide.

I am touched, and even emotional, as I am writing this blog now. I am feeling the passion- the passion for a safe and secure planet. I am appreciative on behalf of my country men and would like to thank Bill for the movement, for bringing up the issues and concerns to the world. As he described Bangladesh to the audience, as a wonderful, fertile land that feeds its people, it made me cry and feel grateful to that fellow American as I got to listen to stories about my country sitting tens of thousands of miles away.

We, as global citizens, have to act now.  As McKibben said, ”this is the hardest challenge that humans have ever faced, the level of transition we have to make is enormous… It’s a time limited problem, we don’t have an unlimited number of years to solve this.  It is a great thing that a global movement is underway and I am extra ordinarily thankful to the people here at Monterey for making that happen”.

[1] 350.org is an international campaign dedicated to building a movement to unite the world around solutions to the climate crisis–the solutions that science and justice demand- http://www.350.org/mission

2 http://www.350.org/mission

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An Amazing Evening with Matt Flannery, the CEO of KIVA and Fisher MBA Students!

Posted on March 26, 2010 by Bulbul Ahammed

March 13, 2010

MBA students and professors enjoyed the Fisher Fiesta Evening, an annual MBA event titled “How do Microfinance and Business Development Alleviate Poverty” at MIIS held on Saturday, Mar 13. Matt Flannery, the cofounder and CEO of KIVA, was the keynote speaker for the event. KIVA, based in San Francisco, is the first online microfinance platform and is now one of the leaders in the industry. I, along with fellow MBAs, greatly enjoyed Matt’s talk, especially the success stories and challenges of microfinance. One of the funniest stories he told was about a lender posting a picture of his cat instead of himself on the KIVA website; leading the borrower to believe a cat was her lender and therefore, she did not need to repay the loan to a cat. The Fiesta reception after the speaker session was scheduled at Montrio Bistro, one of the nicest restaurants in the downtown Monterey. We all enjoyed the ambience of this fine restaurant.

I introduced myself to Mr. Matt Flannery and was surprised when he asked me immediately after why foreign exchange regulation is so rigid in Bangladesh. We then briefly discussed the impact of the microcredit and Grameen Bank in Bangladesh.

I was surprised and excited because I did not expect the KIVA CEO to ask me about the foreign exchange regulation in Bangladesh. Thank God I have some knowledge about the topic because of my past job with the Central Bank of Bangladesh and because some of my colleagues and friends are still working for the central bank, I agreed to find reference and information for Matt, if required in the future as Matt mentioned that KIVA is rapidly expanding in Africa & South America and would like to expand even in Bangladesh, the land of microcredit, if possible.

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