Small, small world

Today was the day of the OpMan defenses, and I headed to Ateneo with Jen Ong and her Povedan friend Arianne in tow (a Xavierian friend, Casey, SC president/valedictorian/Jen's fellow freak of nature also joined us there). Knowing Jen's dilemma over which fallback school to choose (Ateneo versus UP) in the unlikely event she doesn't get a scholarship to Singapore, I had invited her to come witness Atenean Managment majors in action. The result? I think UP is beginning to look even better to her. ;p

Before the defenses kicked off, all of the panelists watched a benchmark group present and be judged by 2 SOM teachers (1 of whom happened to be Pau's brother Jacob). The grade the group got would be the standard by which we would assess the groups assigned to us. Unfortunately, the benchmark group was terrible, and they got creamed by their panelists. Jen, Arianne and Casey were dismayed, and I could see them picturing themselves in Diliman already.

The 3 groups I judged were pretty disappointing as well, to say the least. 2 took on garments-related businesses while 1 was into jelly production. I had read their papers beforehand (asked my brother to pick them up from the SOM office a few days ago), and I was prepared to slaughter all 3 groups for what were business concepts with inaccurate demand forecasts, poor capacity planning, and many, many unaccounted expenses. Indeed, it was so easy to poke holes in their projects that I didn't even have to be bitchy during the Q&A portions. I just matter-of-factly pointed out all their oversights and errors and let it dawn on them that they failed to foresee a lot of vital factors. It also helped that my co-panelist was also from the garments industry, so I didn't want the massacre to be too bloody. As it was, between the 2 of us, it was a mercy killing. After all 3 presentations, my co-panelist and I discussed the fates of the unfortunate groups, and we agreed that giving out Fs would be too harsh (especially considering most of their mistakes could have been avoided with proper guidance and supervision from their teachers; I believe in never punishing students for teacher lapses). I don't know what grades my partner gave but I doled out 1 C+ and 2 Ds. Trust me, that was extremely generous.

Incidentally, 2 out of the 3 groups had some of my brother's batchmates from Xavier, including their then SC president. To their credit, the predominantly Xavierian group held their own while we were grilling them. But it was still a shoddy project. Jen couldn't believe Ateneans could be so... mediocre. I told her it's one of the disadvantages of studying in such a small, sheltered environment: the students are detached from the real world and tend to forget practical matters that apply beyond the confines of Ateneo.

Also incidentally, the Xavier boy group's OpMan teacher was Jacob, who by the way looks a helluva lot like Pau. :p Jen and I were expecting him to be as softspoken and nice too, but after we saw him gun down the benchmark group, we decided he's a bit meaner. Either it's a male thing, or it's because he teaches college kids, not high school kids.

AND also incidentally, my co-panelist was a batchmate of mine from Ateneo, and someone I didn't particularly like very much back then. So to my surprise, we tag-teamed pretty well and had the same observations and comments on the presentations. I guess my EQ has improved somewhat since college. :p And heck, I'm too old to be harboring petty grudges...

...except when the grudges are justified, as in the case of a former orgmate I ran into. He was on the panel of a different set of groups, so thankfully I didn't have to interact with him much. But it wasn't pleasant to see him, and being forced to smile and say hi to him. I hate fake civility, but again, maturity dictated propriety. That's another problem with coming from such a small academic community: the chances of running into people you dislike are much higher.

But then again, the chances of running into people you like are high too. My former OpMan and Stats teacher, Adrian Ramos-- Sir Aids to us-- was also a panelist today. I didn't know he was back from the US, where he took his MBA at Kellogg. Now he's helping out with their family business (he's of the National Bookstore Ramoses), indentured slave as I am. Sir Aids was one of our favorite teachers back then because he really made himself available to us (even when we texted or called at 2 in the morning!) while we were working on our own OpMan projects. Naturally, we did far, faaaaar better than any of the groups I saw today.

My afternoon at Ateneo-- dear, beautiful, tiny, snowglobe-of-a-school Ateneo-- reminded me that college was so very long ago, yet I can never really fully escape from its cramped confines... nor do I necessarily want to.

But yeah, Jen, after today, I wouldn't blame you if you chose UP. :p