Student Diary: Alex Botelho
Product Manager
Air Products and Chemicals
Product Manager
Air Products and Chemicals
Alex travels 90 minutes by car to Philadelphia, which includes the time it takes him to pickup his car pool participants. He lives in Macungie, PA, with his wife and two children.
| Week One | |
|---|---|
| Thursday | |
| 12:00 p.m. | Meetings at work. |
| 5:30 p.m. | Pick up flowers for my wife for our 10th wedding anniversary. |
| 6:00 p.m. | Dinner with the family, and then the kids read to us until 9. I tell my son that it's his turn to keep mommy happy while I'm at school this weekend (the kids alternate this responsibility each weekend). |
| 9:30 p.m. | Study. |
| 11:00 p.m. | Pack. |
| 12:00 a.m. | Go to bed. |
| Friday | |
| 6:30 a.m. | Leave the house to pick up a classmate at his residence. |
| 8:30 a.m. | Arrive at campus, check for messages at WEMBA office. |
| 9:30 a.m. | Class until 12:30 p.m. |
| 12:30 p.m. | Group presents on potential international trip locations for next year. |
| 2:30 p.m. | Afternoon classes until 6:45 p.m. |
| 7:00 p.m. | Dinner and then back to the hotel to do last minute studying for tomorrow's exam. |
| 8:30 p.m. | Call home, and then study until midnight. |
| Saturday | |
| 7:00 a.m. | Wake up, gather books, and head out for breakfast. |
| 8:30 a.m. | Get to final exam location. |
| 9:00 a.m. | Exam goes until 11:30 a.m. |
| 12:00 p.m. | Lunch, another set of presentations by other groups for international seminar. |
| 1:00 p.m. | Leadership class until 4 p.m. |
| 5:00 p.m. | Take a nap. |
| 7:00 p.m. | My wife arrives for a visit, and we have a great dinner. |
| Sunday | |
| 11:00 a.m. | Brunch in town with my wife before going home. At home, watch some football with my father-in-law and chat. |
| 6:00 p.m. | Dinner with the family. |
| 7:00 p.m. | Excuse myself to get caught up with work e-mails before Monday morning. |
| 8:00 p.m. | Read with the kids. |
| 9:00 p.m. | Read for school until 11:00 p.m. |
| Monday | |
| 8:00 a.m. | Busy day at work… |
| 6:00 p.m. | Get home, have dinner as a family. |
| 9:00 p.m. | Study by doing reading and problem sets until midnight. |
| Tuesday | |
| 8:00 a.m. | Series of conference calls today for work in preparation of a project in Taiwan early next year, but I have a chance to review some of the potential electives for next year during lunch. |
| 6:00 p.m. | Get home, spend time with family. |
| 8:30 p.m. | Open up materials for new Operations Management class and read. |
| 11:30 p.m. | Go to bed. |
| Wednesday | |
| 8:00 a.m. | Early morning work conference call to Taiwan wraps up by 7:30 a.m. Take over responsibility for some tasks from a co-worker who recently took a new position to ensure that Taiwan project stays on schedule. |
| 12:00 p.m. | Review the options for the international seminar trip on Wharton's WebCafé and vote on my preferred region. |
| 5:30 p.m. | Home. |
| 7:00 p.m. | Work with kids on story telling. |
| 8:00 p.m. | Finish reading for Operations Management class and attempt pre-class questions. |
| 11:30 p.m. | Jump back on work e-mail until midnight as I won't get much school work done tomorrow. |
| Week Two | |
| Thursday | |
| 8:00 a.m. | Fun Day at work today! Our General Manager takes our business team golfing as a thank-you for beating forecast this year. Our team finishes third, which is not bad considering that I haven't really had a chance to play and practice this year. Our Korean colleagues join us for golf, and we eat dinner together at a local Japanese restaurant. |
| 10:00 p.m. | Home, no school work tonight. |
| Friday | |
| 8:00 a.m. | Staff meeting all day. |
| 5:30 p.m. | Home, chat with the wife about weekend plans. |
| 7:00 p.m. | Read with the kids. |
| 9:00 p.m. | Finish the Operations Management pre-class questions and start reading second book for Macroeconomics class. |
| 12:00 a.m. | Go to bed. |
| Saturday | |
| 9:00 a.m. | Celebration tailgate at Lehigh University until noon. |
| 1:00 p.m. | Kids' soccer games. |
| 2:00 p.m. | Cut lawn. |
| 3:00 p.m. | Go with neighbor to rent a power-seeder, since I managed to neglect my lawn to its near demise this summer. |
| 4:00 p.m. | Seed most of the lawn by 6:30 p.m., but will have to finish the rest Sunday. |
| 9:00 p.m. | Squeeze in two hours of Macroeconomics reading. |
| Sunday | |
| 9:00 a.m. | Work on yard for nearly six hours. |
| 3:00 p.m. | Work on Applied Statistics. |
| 6:00 p.m. | Have dinner, read with kids. |
| 9:00 p.m. | Read Macroeconomics book. |
| 11:00 p.m. | Go to bed. |
| Monday | |
| 1:30 p.m. | Conference call with WEMBA staff on International Seminar final regional selection lasts about 30 minutes. |
| 7:00 p.m. | Conference call to Taiwan that doesn't finish until 11 PM. No school work tonight. |
| Tuesday | |
| 6:00 p.m. | Get home, but wife and kids are still out with post-school activities |
| 7:00 p.m. | Work with kids on story telling. |
| 8:30 p.m. | Work to finish Applied Statistics reading. |
| 10:30 p.m. | Read Macroeconomics book until midnight. |
| Wednesday | |
| 8:00 a.m. | At manufacturing facility with customer visits and production meetings. |
| 7:30 p.m. | Play and read with kids. |
| 9:30 p.m. | Finish Macroeconomics book. |
| 12:00 a.m. | Sleep. |
| Thursday | |
| 6:30 p.m. | Wife goes out for ladies' neighborhood get together. Help son practice for his spelling quiz. Let kids watch some TV. |
| 8:00 p.m. | Kids read to me. |
| 9:00 p.m. | Get kids ready for bed. Tell daughter it's her turn to "watch over mommy" while I'm at school. |
| 10:00 p.m. | Finalize my preferred electives because selections are due this weekend. |
| 11:00 p.m. | Pack books and clothes for the weekend to minimize morning scramble. |
| 11:30 p.m. | Go to bed. |