Looking to make an impact as a London Business School student? Interested in forming friendships with peers who have similar interests? If so, you will find an abundance of opportunities from treks to students-led events and everything in between. LBS clubs create cutting-edge experiences and our active alumni and professional interest networks will keep you connected far beyond your student years.
With more than 75 clubs, over 1,000 club events each year and over 150 student leaders there are a lot of ways for students to refine their leadership and organisational management experience, explore interests, and make friendships that will last a lifetime. I sat down with Kathryn Larin (MBA 2021), Shira Giat (MiFFT 2020) and Serena Grillo (MAM 2020) for a webinar event to learn about their involvement in the clubs and LBS community.
How would you describe the LBS community?
“I learnt as much from my classmates as I did my professors”, Serena Grillo (MAM2020)
All three echoed how collaborative, open and supportive they felt the community is. From before you even set foot on campus, both students and staff are open to give their time when answering prospects’ questions. Kathryn, who is an ambassador, explains that she speaks to prospective students daily, supporting them through the application process; something she enjoys doing as it replicates the support she was given. Serena used the word ‘welcoming’ when describing the community. She attended our online and in person events during her application process and found she was easily able to connect with students and faculty who supported her every step of the way and continued to throughout her study year. Shira highlighted that the network opportunities are endless. The ability to learn from other people’s professional experiences, and the diversity of your peers, enhances the learning experience which makes the discussions in class and outside class very fruitful.
Which clubs did you choose to be involved with?
Kathryn explained that her background knowledge was in investment, however she wanted to explore something new and decided to immerse herself in the entrepreneurship world. She had little knowledge about the trends or how the venture capital model worked, therefore by joining the entrepreneurship club and attending the events she found this to be useful exposure and through these events she connected with a class mate who was organising the Hackathon. If you’ve never heard of a Hackathon, that’s not surprising. It’s an event that promotes finding new solutions to problems, while showcasing the best in team collaboration. Coders, designers and business minds come together to build, pitch and win funding with their original ideas.
For Shira the private equity and venture capital club was her club of choice due to its relevance to her studies and career aspirations. The club organises many speaker events; for example, Shira attended an investing in e-sports event which featured Adam White -CEO of Edge to discuss investing in the gaming industry – which is even trendier now that we are locked at home. Shira added that the club also organises high quality modelling workshops which supported her in further developing her modelling skills. In addition they organise case competitions like the Harvard Global Case competition. The event brings together students with finance and business backgrounds from across the world to compete on a finance case involving strategic management. She explained that the best teams are selected to present their ideas in front of a panel of judges competing with schools from all around the world. Shira found this to be a brilliant experience which combined a great learning experience with a lot of fun and she is proud to have been one of the finalists in the competition!
Serena knew early on that she wanted to be involved in the Tech and Media Club as this is a passion which has decided to pursue as a career. She joined the club as she wanted to input more to support the first ever MAM class, and with it being the first technical programme, she found that students needed further support when it came to applying to tech jobs and further developing their technical skills to compete in the job market. She wanted to represent her MAM class and their interests and also learn from others from the club.
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