How this Harvard thing all began...

The special moment of receiving my award from Governor General Quentin Bryce

My mentor Christine Moody and myself, at the dinner where my scholarship was announced

with Governor General Quentin Bryce and St George MD Martin Barrett (sponsor of my scholarship)

I'm an alumni of QUT's MBA program.  I got so much out of the QUT MBA program that when I completed it, I wondered what else I could do to continue investing in myself.  I found out about an alumni group for QUT women called FEW (Fostering Executive Women).

In addition to entertaining networking events with topical keynote speakers, FEW offers about a dozen mentorships each year to female alumni. Mentees are matched with mentors (most often female) and the six month, loosely structured mentoring agreement offers as much or as little in return as the mentee and mentor are willing to personally invest. Fortunately for me, both my mentor (Chris Moody from brandaudits.com.au) and I were both driven to make the most of the opportunity we had to work together and in the six months we spent talking and problem solving over monthly lunches, I secured my dream job as CEO of the Gainsdale Group and somehow managed to win FEW's coveted international scholarship to Harvard Business School.

Each year FEW awards an international scholarship to one lucky member of their program.  Of course as soon as I heard about the opportunity, it became a clear goal for me. The award was generously sponsored by St George and includes full tuition fees, flights and accommodation for the one week executive program at Harvard.  This year St George and FEW also offered a half-scholarship to Harvard and this was awarded to Marie-Clare Grady.  The opportunity to attend this Executive Program at Harvard is open to women from all around the world.  You can pay your own way there if your application is accepted.  I believe they accept 50 applicants and with the Aussie dollar so strong against the USD at the moment, it's no surprise that I know of at least one other Brisbane woman attending the program too.

So, now the time has almost come.  Two days ago, I made the 21 hour journey to Boston from Brisbane (via LA) and here I am preparing for the exciting week that stands before me at the Harvard Business School Women's Leadership and Innovation Forum. I spent most of yesterday doing prerequisite reading of the case studies for the five day program and that's how I will spend most of today as well. (it's a good way to try out the great restaurants, cafes and parks here in Boston too) Then tomorrow morning I will check out of my hotel and make my way to Harvard Business School for what is no doubt going to be a challenging and very exciting week!  Stay tuned...