Student take part in MBA-mazing Race

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Do you know where in New Orleans the fountain dedicated to Sophie Gumbel is? How about where to find the “meteorite” on Tulane’s campus?

As part of the challenge, students had to find the fountain dedicated to Sophie Gumbel and create a photo homage to the opening of "Friends."
As part of the challenge, MBAs had to find the fountain dedicated to Sophie Gumbel and create a photo homage to the opening of "Friends."

Locating those obscure landmarks were two of the challenges this year’s incoming MBA class took on as part of Team Engagement Challenge (TECh), an Amazing Race-style team-building exercise held as part of orientation.

While the competition resembled a traditional scavenger hunt — perform seven difficult tasks in two hours — TECh was actually designed to acquaint students with Tulane and New Orleans while at the same time requiring them to use their creativity, networking skills and social media savvy. Their challenges included tasks like locating sculptures and artwork on Tulane’s campus as well finding a former K&B Drugs on the edge of campus and conducting interviews with business owners on Maple Street. Instead of collecting things along the way, the students proved they had solved their challenges by uploading photos and videos to a special Facebook page and competing for the highest number of likes.

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Students were asked to locate the Doll House, the smallest house in New Orleans with its own postal address.

“As future executives, MBA students need to be connected to the community, so this was a way to help  jump-start that process,” said John Clarke, associate dean for graduate education. “New Orleans is a microcosm of the world, so we want students to be aware of and be a part of the local community. By developing their understanding of how things work here, they can develop an understanding of how things work in the rest of the world.”

According to event organizer Morgan Molthrop, co-owner of tour and corporate events firm Custom New Orleans, the Freeman School is the first business school in the nation to “gamify” team-building activities with social media.

“Tulane should be very proud of being the first program with the vision to step up their game, so to speak,” Molthrop said. “These MBA students nailed the technology and showed tremendous enthusiasm. It’s no wonder New Orleans is becoming known as the entrepreneurial capital of the U.S.”

To see more photos from the Team Engagement Challenge, visit the Freeman School's Flickr page.