Lunch with the Dean

So, first of all, I've been asked to set the record straight. The students who showed up, respectively, at 7:31 a.m. and 7:39 a.m. on seating chart day were actually there as a joke. My fellow b-school-mates are not quite as dorky as I may have led you to believe in my previous blog post. (Though it is true that a substantial number of the good seats were taken by the time I arrived at 9 a.m.)

Moving along.

Today I was lucky enough to have lunch with the dean after he spoke in our class. Besides being a great opportunity to talk about Darden with the dean, there were two things that really stood out to me. First of all, he knew the lady serving us by name, but even more importantly, he told our entire table about the four ladies (all of whom he named) who stayed over night to ensure that the snowstorm would not keep them from serving breakfast to all of the executive education students. I found it incredible that the leader of the school would take the time to honour this woman whose role is so often taken for granted. Of course, Darden does have the most amazing serving staff I've ever met.*

Secondly, and more selfishly, I was impressed that the dean knew MY name. After lunch, he came over to shake my hand and wish me best wishes as I move to Boston.

Anyway, I could go on about the merits of the Darden dean, but I'm running late for dinner. All I want to finish with is a link to his new year's blog post on integrity, which I strongly encourage you to check out!

*Anyone who goes to Darden knows Theresa, the cashier/server who is always, always smiling. Today, when I saw her at lunch, I told her how much I appreciate how much she smiles, and she told me that one of her supervisors once told her that her uniform wasn't complete until she smiled. It's amazing what a difference it makes! She won the Friend of the Students Award this year.