As the academic year draws to a close, many second-year MBAs are stepping back from the clubs, organisations, and initiatives they’ve helped lead across Fuqua, passing responsibility to the next cohort. For many of us, these roles have been more than extracurricular commitments — they’ve been opportunities to contribute to the community while building leadership skills ahead of graduation.
Fuqua is widely recognised as one of the most student-led MBA environments in the United States. Yet its distinctive six-week term structure introduces a unique leadership challenge: how do you sustain and transmit culture in just 18 weeks?
In most organisations, shaping a strong culture takes years of consistent leadership. Here, we have only three academic terms to set direction, build momentum, and hand over the baton across our various clubs and organizations, before stepping aside.
As I have transitioned away from my role as co-president of the Duke MBA Tech Club, I’ve found myself reflecting on how different student leaders across the Fuqua ecosystem have navigated such a compressed timeline. To explore this, I’ve invited peers and friends who were responsible for various parts of the ecosystem, to join me in sharing their perspectives.
Their responses reveal different strategies, but share a common recognition: culture here is not inherited, it is actively constructed through effort and recognition of its value. At the end of this article, I summarize some takeaways as we hand leadership to the Class of 2027.
The official title of my position is technically “Vice President, Student Life,” but I like to think of it more as a CVC role (Chief Vibe Curator) for the Fuqua student body.
One thing about me, above anything else, is a dogmatic belief that vibes are absolutely paramount and something I take incredibly seriously. Whatever needs to be done to ensure the presence and maintenance of good vibes flowing through this program is the CVC’s mission statement. Whether that’s coordinating with different clubs to host Fuqua Fridays, leading a team to plan a formal for 800+ people, connecting faculty and staff to students, or even just playing music in Fox during class breaks, the CVC looks for any opportunity to maximize fun-holder value.
One of the many great things about vibes is that they’re magnetic. Good vibes will gravitate to good vibes, and that’s exactly how I ended up with the teams surrounding me. People who are equally committed to delivering the Fuqua experience: our MBA Association (MBAA) co-presidents Gabby and Ben; my cabinet champions, Leah, Colette, and April; the ladies down in the Office of Student Life, just to name a few, are the real reason we’re able to serve our class.
The Fuqua/Coach K Center on Leadership and Ethics (COLE) Fellowship is unique among Fuqua’s student-run organizations in that there is very little overlap between cohorts. Second-year students in the Daytime MBA program serve as COLE Fellows. We select our replacements in February. Thus, the COLE Fellows from the classes of 2026 and 2027 overlap for only six weeks.
We are a community of coaches who invest in the leadership development of first-year students. We seek to model the standard of leadership we want to see embodied in all Fuqua students. That is the foundation of our culture. We transmit this culture through our interactions with first-year students.
The COLE Fellow assigned to each C-LEAD (or consequential leadership team, a group of students that work closely together through the core curriculum) is often a student’s first exposure to Team Fuqua in action. This example shapes first-years’ understanding of COLE culture. Those who seek to share that culture self-select into it when they apply to become COLE Fellows. We use a lengthy application process that involves written statements, interviews, peer recommendations, and an all-day selection to further screen students. We are incredibly lucky that more qualified students apply than we have seats to accommodate.
Fortunately, within the Consulting Club, we are not starting from scratch each year. We inherited a strong foundation of rigorous preparation and community, deeply aligned with Fuqua’s Paired Principles. Our role in club leadership was not one of transformation, but of stewardship, continuing a legacy of excellence while introducing thoughtful, necessary change. We led with a listening-first mindset, addressed challenges directly, and implemented improvements through clear, unified communication. With second-year volunteers, we leveraged shared experiences to inspire involvement and empowered them to take ownership of new initiatives.
Eighteen weeks is not a long time to build culture, but it is more than enough time to demonstrate it. At its core, our focus was simple: people helping people. We tapped into the innate desire to share knowledge and experience, creating opportunities for second-years (who may not always be older, but carry the critical advantage of experience) to teach, coach, and support first-years.
This was done without expectation, hinging on the belief that it would be paid forward. In our club, culture is formed through action: a willingness to invest time and effort today so that the next generation is stronger tomorrow.
I don’t believe culture should follow a rigid timeline. At Fuqua, the student experience begins the moment you receive your acceptance letter. The MBA application process asks a lot of you, and it’s important to me that ALMA honors that effort from day one. As co-president, my role is to remove barriers and serve as a connector. To me, building culture follows one proverb: “Shared joy is double joy, and shared sorrow is half a sorrow.”
To bridge the gap between classes early, we emphasized connection by establishing the official “ALMA Class of 2027” WhatsApp in February 2025. I invited our club cabinet to join, and together we built a space that was both professional and personal. We fielded pre-MBA recruitment and logistical questions, but we also texted during conferences and shared vacation pictures. By the time the chat officially merged into a space for first- and second-years, the energy to meet more ALMA members was already there. When sign-ups for our ALMA retreat filled within 15 minutes and our big/little mentorship program doubled in size, I knew we had something special.
Beyond the first-year experience, I’ve made it a priority to uplift our second-year students serving in leadership roles across Fuqua — from co-presidents of other organizations to our various fellows. It’s important to recognize the work they’re doing in service of all our community.
It would be amiss for a Fitness Club co-president not to include a sports quote. So, Richie McCaw’s philosophy, leading the famous New Zealand rugby team, of “leaving the jersey in a better place,” resonated with me. I strongly believe that student club presidency is a job of stewardship rather than traditional leadership. Our belief was to focus on being a good custodian and setting the club up for future successes.
We inherited a club that saw less consistent engagement in the previous year. Therefore, our biggest win was to take those standards and try to elevate them, rather than reinvent them. We wanted to create new and more frequent ways for people to engage with fitness, build community, and see FuquaFit as a resource for their overall wellbeing. So, we leveraged the momentum of like-minded initiatives and introduced accessible offerings through local studio partnerships to get students engaged and excited about FuquaFit again.
In this MBA bubble, authority is limited and time is compressed. Therefore, to help us focus our efforts and direction, I led with asking myself the question, “What is, or what can be better because I am here?” and not, “What am I trying to build?”
Ultimately, there are many things you can’t control about the next cohort, or the future of Fuqua. But across these conversations, a few themes stood out to me:
Champions of Team Fuqua who choose to invest a lot of energy into the community, like those featured in this article, are the reason we really believe in Fuquans’ ability to thrive in the long term. Every business school has its own distinct culture, but as you can see, I think we’re pretty proud of ours.
This article was written with minimal AI intervention to capture contributors’ true intent.
The post How We Build Culture in 18 Short Weeks: Perspectives from Student Leaders appeared first on Duke Daytime MBA Student Blog.
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I'd be glad to learn your thoughts on this story : How We Build Culture in 18 Short Weeks: Perspectives from Student Leaders
Fuqua is widely recognised as one of the most student-led MBA environments in the United States. Yet its distinctive six-week term structure introduces a unique leadership challenge: how do you sustain and transmit culture in just 18 weeks?
In most organisations, shaping a strong culture takes years of consistent leadership. Here, we have only three academic terms to set direction, build momentum, and hand over the baton across our various clubs and organizations, before stepping aside.
As I have transitioned away from my role as co-president of the Duke MBA Tech Club, I’ve found myself reflecting on how different student leaders across the Fuqua ecosystem have navigated such a compressed timeline. To explore this, I’ve invited peers and friends who were responsible for various parts of the ecosystem, to join me in sharing their perspectives.
Their responses reveal different strategies, but share a common recognition: culture here is not inherited, it is actively constructed through effort and recognition of its value. At the end of this article, I summarize some takeaways as we hand leadership to the Class of 2027.
Sally Sandoval, Vice President of Student Life
The official title of my position is technically “Vice President, Student Life,” but I like to think of it more as a CVC role (Chief Vibe Curator) for the Fuqua student body.
One thing about me, above anything else, is a dogmatic belief that vibes are absolutely paramount and something I take incredibly seriously. Whatever needs to be done to ensure the presence and maintenance of good vibes flowing through this program is the CVC’s mission statement. Whether that’s coordinating with different clubs to host Fuqua Fridays, leading a team to plan a formal for 800+ people, connecting faculty and staff to students, or even just playing music in Fox during class breaks, the CVC looks for any opportunity to maximize fun-holder value.
One of the many great things about vibes is that they’re magnetic. Good vibes will gravitate to good vibes, and that’s exactly how I ended up with the teams surrounding me. People who are equally committed to delivering the Fuqua experience: our MBA Association (MBAA) co-presidents Gabby and Ben; my cabinet champions, Leah, Colette, and April; the ladies down in the Office of Student Life, just to name a few, are the real reason we’re able to serve our class.
Philip Coale, President of the COLE Fellowship
The Fuqua/Coach K Center on Leadership and Ethics (COLE) Fellowship is unique among Fuqua’s student-run organizations in that there is very little overlap between cohorts. Second-year students in the Daytime MBA program serve as COLE Fellows. We select our replacements in February. Thus, the COLE Fellows from the classes of 2026 and 2027 overlap for only six weeks.
We are a community of coaches who invest in the leadership development of first-year students. We seek to model the standard of leadership we want to see embodied in all Fuqua students. That is the foundation of our culture. We transmit this culture through our interactions with first-year students.
The COLE Fellow assigned to each C-LEAD (or consequential leadership team, a group of students that work closely together through the core curriculum) is often a student’s first exposure to Team Fuqua in action. This example shapes first-years’ understanding of COLE culture. Those who seek to share that culture self-select into it when they apply to become COLE Fellows. We use a lengthy application process that involves written statements, interviews, peer recommendations, and an all-day selection to further screen students. We are incredibly lucky that more qualified students apply than we have seats to accommodate.
AJ Forchette, Co-President of the Duke MBA Consulting Club
Fortunately, within the Consulting Club, we are not starting from scratch each year. We inherited a strong foundation of rigorous preparation and community, deeply aligned with Fuqua’s Paired Principles. Our role in club leadership was not one of transformation, but of stewardship, continuing a legacy of excellence while introducing thoughtful, necessary change. We led with a listening-first mindset, addressed challenges directly, and implemented improvements through clear, unified communication. With second-year volunteers, we leveraged shared experiences to inspire involvement and empowered them to take ownership of new initiatives.
Eighteen weeks is not a long time to build culture, but it is more than enough time to demonstrate it. At its core, our focus was simple: people helping people. We tapped into the innate desire to share knowledge and experience, creating opportunities for second-years (who may not always be older, but carry the critical advantage of experience) to teach, coach, and support first-years.
This was done without expectation, hinging on the belief that it would be paid forward. In our club, culture is formed through action: a willingness to invest time and effort today so that the next generation is stronger tomorrow.
Bianca Valladares, Co-President of American Latinx Management Association (ALMA)
I don’t believe culture should follow a rigid timeline. At Fuqua, the student experience begins the moment you receive your acceptance letter. The MBA application process asks a lot of you, and it’s important to me that ALMA honors that effort from day one. As co-president, my role is to remove barriers and serve as a connector. To me, building culture follows one proverb: “Shared joy is double joy, and shared sorrow is half a sorrow.”
To bridge the gap between classes early, we emphasized connection by establishing the official “ALMA Class of 2027” WhatsApp in February 2025. I invited our club cabinet to join, and together we built a space that was both professional and personal. We fielded pre-MBA recruitment and logistical questions, but we also texted during conferences and shared vacation pictures. By the time the chat officially merged into a space for first- and second-years, the energy to meet more ALMA members was already there. When sign-ups for our ALMA retreat filled within 15 minutes and our big/little mentorship program doubled in size, I knew we had something special.
Beyond the first-year experience, I’ve made it a priority to uplift our second-year students serving in leadership roles across Fuqua — from co-presidents of other organizations to our various fellows. It’s important to recognize the work they’re doing in service of all our community.
Eliot Digby-Jones, Co-President of FuquaFit
It would be amiss for a Fitness Club co-president not to include a sports quote. So, Richie McCaw’s philosophy, leading the famous New Zealand rugby team, of “leaving the jersey in a better place,” resonated with me. I strongly believe that student club presidency is a job of stewardship rather than traditional leadership. Our belief was to focus on being a good custodian and setting the club up for future successes.
We inherited a club that saw less consistent engagement in the previous year. Therefore, our biggest win was to take those standards and try to elevate them, rather than reinvent them. We wanted to create new and more frequent ways for people to engage with fitness, build community, and see FuquaFit as a resource for their overall wellbeing. So, we leveraged the momentum of like-minded initiatives and introduced accessible offerings through local studio partnerships to get students engaged and excited about FuquaFit again.
In this MBA bubble, authority is limited and time is compressed. Therefore, to help us focus our efforts and direction, I led with asking myself the question, “What is, or what can be better because I am here?” and not, “What am I trying to build?”
Ultimately, there are many things you can’t control about the next cohort, or the future of Fuqua. But across these conversations, a few themes stood out to me:
- Culture is reinforced in integrated moments. Connecting beyond club affiliations is what really brings Team Fuqua together within each class. Sally’s team’s success highlighted how a stronger sense of community can drive both appreciation and increased engagement across other club events. Culture is often shaped by how others behave, and we’ve seen this year that when energy is high, attendance is high, and culture gets transferred more effectively! Bianca also emphasised the importance of supporting organisations beyond your own. The lattice structure is what keeps Team Fuqua running at all times, and having a support system from other student leaders keeps the motivation (and empathy) high.
- Early touchpoints shape long-term experiences. ALMA’s approach of introducing their first-years to the community gradually enables that slow relationship-building you don’t have much time for, once class starts. Philip and the COLE team take this theme to the next stage, as they set the foundations of the academic and team experience. As a COLE Fellow, the role is both intimate and ongoing, requiring consistent engagement with first-years to reinforce core values and help navigate the balance between individual ambitions and collective goals.
- A ‘pay it forward’ mentality sustains career communities. First-years engage and rely on career clubs before they consider leadership positions in their second year. The consulting industry is more consistent than others, like tech, where the market is more unpredictable. That being said, encouraging a ‘pay it forward’ mentality is really important across all career clubs — knowledge and strategy sharing is vital. After all, helping any Fuquan get into a good role is a great outcome for our community, in the short and long term!
- Culture extends beyond academics and careers. Fitness is a huge part of wellbeing, yet is often deprioritized in favor of careers and academics. Eliot’s practical approach to building greater (and sustainable) engagement is a strong example of how to embed lasting impact. Ultimately, culture is not only transmitted through core academic and professional activities, but also through the sharing of personal pursuits and everyday habits.
Champions of Team Fuqua who choose to invest a lot of energy into the community, like those featured in this article, are the reason we really believe in Fuquans’ ability to thrive in the long term. Every business school has its own distinct culture, but as you can see, I think we’re pretty proud of ours.
This article was written with minimal AI intervention to capture contributors’ true intent.
The post How We Build Culture in 18 Short Weeks: Perspectives from Student Leaders appeared first on Duke Daytime MBA Student Blog.
More...
How does this impact your International MBA decision?
I'd be glad to learn your thoughts on this story : How We Build Culture in 18 Short Weeks: Perspectives from Student Leaders