‘Although there have been many challenges in 2020, it has been a special year. I got engaged to my partner while living in and visiting beautiful cities and places I wouldn’t normally have the opportunity to be immersed in. Our relationship and our friendships have been strengthened as we have come to appreciate the people in our lives during tough times. I have been able to keep in touch with other Cambridge MBA friends from my class in the Bay Area and abroad through technology’, Gavin Chen shares some a private moment of hope as we head into 2021.
As we now face firmly towards the end of the year, we are sharing some extra special moments that our MBA alumni have lived through in 2020. In a year defined by separation and anxiety for all, we are sharing magic and hope from across our global CJBS community.
From the birth of new companies to new babies being born. 2020 has seen some remarkable moments in the lives and careers of our Cambridge MBA family.
In September Gavin Chen (MBA 2017) got engaged to his longtime partner Cindy with a surprise proposal at Delicate Arch in Utah, USA.
‘I’m looking forward to 2021. Our world has shown remarkable ingenuity, resilience, and unity as we seek vaccines and treatments to help end COVID-19 as a pandemic threat, and those breakthroughs will hopefully return our society to an improved “Version 2.0” sense of normalcy. Cindy and I look forward to planning our wedding(s), continuing to strengthen our bonds with each other and our friends, and continuing to make an impact personally and professionally’.
For 2018 alumnae Aimee Sommerville Assam 2020 meant that her big day had to be redesigned at the last minute.
‘Two weeks before our March 2020 wedding, we realised that for the safety of all we had to cancel our large wedding in Minnesota. We moved our wedding a week earlier and held a private ceremony in my parents’ living room, facilitated by my father, with just our parents in attendance.
While not our original plan, or even plan Z, the small, personal, and intimate ceremony was still incredibly special and full of love. We hope to celebrate with family and friends in 2021, or perhaps 2022, but looking back now, we can’t have dreamed of a better wedding day.’
For others the pandemic meant a simple postponement to 2021, in hope of course, for better times and larger gatherings, safely.
Cambridge MBA couple Isabella Sa Freire and Thales de Paula, both MBA 2017, met during their Cambridge MBA interviews the year before taking their MBA, and got engaged in 2019.
‘2020 has helped us put things into perspective and understand that as tough as postponing our wedding may be, it is a minor challenge when compared to the health, livelihood and emotional difficulties many have faced.
For 2021, we are looking forward to having the simple things in life once again – shared meals with friends, adventures to new destinations, and most of all, celebrating our love.’
For 2018 alumnae Alison Wycinowski it meant holding a substitute wedding in their London garden this Summer and postponing the big day, again, until 2021.
‘Our neighbours threw us a ‘fake’ wedding, with Elvis to officiate! Their 5-year-old walked me down the aisle, we ate cake, drank champagne and watched a video of friends and family sending their well wishes. It was magical.
We also embarked on the painstaking process of buying our first home. Like all great things, it was excruciating and hard won, and so rewarding in the end. While we are not able to be with our loved ones and families this year, I am excited to be spending the holiday season with Giles and our dog in our new home’.
Follow more heartfelt stories and special moments from 2020 on our Cambridge MBA Instagram pages.
Special moments of HOPE from across our world wide MBA community, as we share the holiday season with our loved ones, in new and different ways, at the end of this extraordinary year.
Sharing remarkable moments in the lives and careers of our global Cambridge MBA family in 2020.
What have been your remarkable moments this year?
Looking for HOPE 2021
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