Visitation Day - Spring Edition

KGI Campus in Claremont, CA

It was a bright and beautiful sunny day this past Friday, March 2, 2012, as KGI opened its doors to prospective students, parents, and alumni to experience the second visitation day of the year.  The day began with light refreshments followed by opening remarks made by President Sheldon Schuster.  As President Schuster gave his opening address he touched upon a very important aspect of the KGI philosophy; teamwork.  "This isn't an institution where you look to your left and to your right and one of you will be gone by the end...Here you look to your left and your right and say if you don't succeed, then I don't succeed," said President Schuster.  He couldn't have been more true.  KGI instills a team based mentality, the helps its current students and graduates work effectively, productively, and most importantly together; therein lies true success.

After the conclusion of the President Schuster's opening remarks, the graduate admissions assistants gave campus tours to all of the prospective students.  The tours provided a great opportunity to see the major highlights of the KGI facilities like the 535 East Conference Room, the newly revamped 137 Lecture Hall, and the TMP area.

Following the tours, the future first year students attended MBS and PPC program curriculum overviews.  LuAnn Bangsund, the MBS Program Director, and Ian Phillips and Joon Kim, PPC Faculty and Administrative Directors, spoke with the prospective students.  Both overviews provided great insight for what to expect during their experience at KGI, from class schedules, to work load, to extracurricular activities.  The day continued with lunch with faculty, where future students were provided an optimal opportunity to speak directly to professors about their careers, research projects, and courses offered at KGI.

Visitation Day concluded with a mock lecture given by Dr. Steve Casper titled "Introduction to Entrepreneurship: Genentech and the Race to Clone Human Insulin." This lecture gave the visitors a great idea of what to expect in a KGI classroom, as well as prevalent information on applied entrepreneurship and commercializing biologically applicable products. 

This was the second visitation day of the year, and much like the first it was a great success.  Through the teamwork of the KGI staff, faculty, and students we at the admissions team were able to put together a very memorable experience.  It was one that stimulated interaction between future and current students as well as provided an accurate outlook for what to expect here at KGI.  To all of the prospective students that attended, thank you and we hope you had a wonderful time.  Also congratulations to those who've been accepted into our programs thus far, it was great meeting you and we at admissions can't wait to see you this coming fall!