EMBA Kickoff: Let the Adventure Begin

Hello Class of 2020 EMBA Students,

We hope you are all enjoying the last of your summer and that you are ready to jump feet-first into life in the Rice MBA Program. It’s going to be a fabulous two years!

As all of you know by now, we are having a mandatory Executive MBA Kick-Off July 21st. We have had many of you asking about the details of the event, so let us try and shed some light onto what the day will look like.

First and foremost, we are extremely excited to welcome you all. This year’s theme, Let the Adventure Begin with Rice Business will give you an opportunity to meet our dean’s, learn about and meet your new classmates, as well as meet and become familiar with all of the Program staff and the entire building before you arrive for Launch in just a couple of weeks. We also want to make sure you will be as successful as possible by taking care of items such as computer configuration, your Student ID, setting up your printer settings, and providing you with tips from current students.

Saturday's detailed schedule is attached. Please note that all sessions are mandatory.

Dress Code: Please dress business casual for Kickoff on Saturday, July 21.

What to bring: Please bring your laptop with you. On Saturday, you will have the chance to finish configuring your computer as well as get any help with accessing systems that you will need to be successful during your MBA. Other than that, we just ask that you come with an open and positive attitude; it’s going to be a great day! Note: this is not the time to start your computer configuration. Please use the instructions on the checklist to complete the computer configuration before arriving.

Reception: We will end with an amazing Around the World reception on Friday evening with foods and wine and beer from four different continents. Since this is the first time meeting your classmates officially, we ask that significant others do not attend this event as there will be other occasions throughout the year for your spouses to attend.

Parking: Please park in the Central Campus Garage (just below the Jones School) – don’t pull a ticket, someone should be at the gate to let you in. We will provide you with your parking proxy card at check-in which you will be able to use to exit the garage by waving the card at the exit machine (do not insert your card!). Parking for the reception on Saturday is in the West Lot 4 (please see the following map for reference). Building 74 is the Glasscock School of Continuing Studies (a.k.a. The Anderson Clarke Center). Please note that your parking proxy card can also be used for this lot (do not insert your card, simply wave it in front of the machine).

We look forward to meeting you all soon!

Honor Code

What should I be doing now?

Please head over to Canvas and see what pre-work you have for your courses. You have a significant amount of reading for Executive Forum, please start now. It is important that you read and have a good understanding of the cases that you are assigned.

You should be able to see your Canvas sites within 24 hours of course registration so long as the professor has published the site. However, courses do not always automatically appear on your Dashboard when you log in. Click on the Courses tab along the left side of Canvas, then click on the All Courses link. From this page, you can click on the star next to a site for it to appear on the Dashboard or unclick on the star to remove a site from the Dashboard.

You should still be working your way through the MBA Quantitative Toolkit and your Onboarding Checklist. Please complete these assignments ASAP.

We will continue to reach out to you by email and by phone to collect past due assignments. You need to have all assignments completed by the start of Executive Forum.

Rice Facts

Rice Stadium

Rice Stadium opened in 1950, with a capacity of 70,000 seats.  Since then, it has served as the site for some truly remarkable moments in history.  Rice acted as a temporary intermediary in the transfer of land between Humble Oil and Refining Company and NASA for the creation of NASA's Manned Spacecraft Center (now called Johnson Space Center) in 1962. President John F. Kennedy then made a speech at Rice Stadium reiterating that the United States intended to reach the moon before the end of the decade of the 1960s, and "to become the world's leading space-faring nation". The relationship of NASA with Rice University and the city of Houston has remained strong to the present day.

A little over a decade afterward, the stadium hosted Super Bowl VIII in 1974.  This happened to be the first time that the Super Bowl site was not the site of a NFL franchise.  This was also the first Super Bowl not to be held in either the Los Angeles, Miami, or New Orleans areas.