Karim Boguspayev was elected by fellow Lancaster MBAs to organize fun extra-curricular activities to balance out their intense study commitments. He was awarded the Lancaster high potential scholarship, an award presented to candidates who can demonstrate exceptional leadership qualities from their career and personal life to date, and this MBA certainly knows how to balance work and fun!
“You have to mix study with time for friends, family, fun and relaxation”, says Karim, and there have already been several memorable events throughout the year. He shares his favourites with us.
What are the main activities that you’ve been involved with during the year?
The two main sports we’ve been really involved in are football and cricket. We have our own Lancaster MBA football and Cricket teams that compete with other MBA teams in the UK and in Europe. I’m captain of the football team and we played at the Manchester Business School MBA tournament earlier in the year. We also made it to the semi-finals at the HEC Paris MBAT in the spring.
The Lancaster MBA Football Team at the MBAT Paris Tournament
Our cricket team competed at Cranfield University’s MBA cricket league and won the tournament. The sports events are a good opportunity to meet with MBAs from other teams and network with them.
Our biggest event is usually the Christmas party followed by the annual MBA ball held in Windermere at the beautiful lake district. We also organize other relaxed activities like bowling or short trips. For these we welcome other postgraduate students so that MBAs get a chance to mix with non-MBA students. We’ve just had the Gradfest, an outdoor festival with live music and food, and despite the weather it was great! After a few months of poor weather in the UK, you just stop noticing the rain and enjoy yourself regardless.
The Lancaster MBA Ball
We also had a charity day where teams were assigned to different one-day projects with charity organizations. The one we did was with the Wildlife Trust in Bolton.
The Lancaster MBA Charity Day
Did you think Lancaster would be this fun?
Lancaster exceeded my expectations both in terms of the education and the experience of life as an MBA in general. I’m very interested in sports so it’s been great to be able to get involved in them both inside and outside the classroom. One of my consulting projects was with the Football League UK. The group manages around 72 football clubs and it was almost my dream come true to work with them even though I didn’t get the chance to meet anyone famous.
I joined the Lancaster MBA because I wanted a chance to develop soft skills as well as gain expertise in management and being in charge of these social activities helps me put some of the things we learn into practice.
Do you have any more social activities planned?
We’re planning a big outdoor party in a week or two and a big closing party in September. We also have alumni networking sessions on July 19. We held one in London three weeks ago and it was successful. Lots of employers came.
What will you be doing over summer?
I’m doing a project with Reebok as a summer consultant. I’m very happy about this because of my interest in sports. It’s great because the projects are assigned by interest and the company may also choose MBAs based on their skills and experiences.
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