JEREMYCWILSON.COM

2010 Kellogg KWEST Mystery Trip Revealed

Just about everyone agrees that the relationships you build are one of the most important parts of business school. Whether you build those relationships in the classroom or in outside activities, it’s often the case that many of your classmates will eventually become close friends and sometimes your colleagues.  One of the best ways to do that at Kellogg is on the pre-orientation KWEST trip, where in my case I went on Mystery Trip (click here for my previous post on Mystery Trip). And just this past Saturday after weeks of waiting in suspense, 24 classmates and I finally reached our Mystery Destination.  

At long last, more than three months after applying for the trip and six weeks after finding out that I would be part of the Mystery Trip, I finally embarked on my KWEST journey last Saturday.  Along with about twenty of my classmates from the class of 2012, five second year Kellogg students took us across the globe to the country of Jordan. 

And what a fabulous experience!  We traveled to the Mediterranean basin to float  in the Dead Sea.  We hiked through the rich archaeological remains of Petra.  We did community service on the beaches and snorkled in the Red Sea.  And we spent the night in the desert right outside of the city of Amman where we rode camels and went on jeep tours of the mountains.

But perhaps more important than the once in a lifetime cultural and social activities we engaged in, we also began the process of making friends with 25 future classmates, many of which will be in our sections and could become our best friends over the next two years.   It’s a great feeling to to know that our Mystery Team has that before ever taking a step on Kellogg’s campus for class. 

In my view, this notion of teamwork is incredibly important and is an essential part of our experience at Kellogg.  That’s because more often than not, teams, whether in the business or legal world, tend to have enormous potential and can lay the foundation to tackle the world’s biggest problems. So I suspect activities like this will be the norm at Kellogg, where the concept of teamwork was originated, and where today it is still more important than anything else. 

However, although the trip has been an absolute blast,  in just a day or two, I’ll have to switch gears pretty quickly. Tonight, I still need to finish packing for my flight that leaves in about six hours. Monday is the first day of orientation at Kellogg.  And tomorrow I need to start studying on the plane ride home since I have my Accounting 430 final exam on the second day after I return from the trip.  

But I plan to write more detail about the actual tactivities, so check back over the next few days for more detailed information.   I also look forward to writing regularly about orientation once the activities begin on Monday.  

Stay tuned!