Before the Cold Calls, a Chorus: UVA Darden’s Newest Students Get Started

Incoming MBA students at the University of Virginia Darden School of Business got a different kind of first lesson Monday morning: how to sing “The Good Old Song.” 

The Virginia Gentlemen, UVA’s oldest a cappella group, led the crash course in the University’s unofficial alma mater, sung to the tune of “Auld Lang Syne.” CavMan, UVA’s costumed cavalier mascot, was on hand, and orange-and-blue pom-poms bobbed across The Forum Hotel. 

The hotel and conference center, owned by the Darden School Foundation, opened beside the School in 2023 to give Darden more room to gather. Since then, the School has begun each academic year by bringing students from all three MBA formats together before different calendars and home bases pull them in different directions. 

Monday’s crowd included 321 Full-Time MBA students, 126 Executive MBA students and 81 Part-Time MBA students. The incoming cohort also includes one Ph.D. student.

Yael Grushka-Cockayne, Darden’s 10th dean, was 10 days into the job and beginning her first academic year in the role. She had already noticed one difference between walking into a classroom and walking in as dean. 

“There’s definitely more pom-poms and hype this morning than there is in a regular Darden classroom,” she said.

Dean Yael Grushka-Cockayne challenged incoming students to show up fully, make the people around them better and stay open to surprise. (Photo by Caroline Mackey)

She called on each program in turn and invited the room to make some noise. Full-Time MBA students got a nod to learning teams and cold calls, as well as the new residence halls rising just outside. When they return as Second Years, Grushka-Cockayne said, some could be among the first students to live there. 

Part-Time MBA students were recognized for calendars that “would frighten the rest of us.” Executive MBA students, she wagered, had already answered emails and solved organizational problems before breakfast. 

The roll call widened to faculty, staff and colleagues from the Darden School Foundation, whose work turns the generosity of alumni and friends into opportunities across the School and helps keep graduates connected to Darden. 

Then she asked everyone to look around. 

“Different programs, different industries, different life experiences—but one community,” she said. “One community that really has a shared passion for learning and for leadership.” 

The mood was light, but the assignment was real. 

In Darden’s case-method classrooms, Grushka-Cockayne said, students cannot sit back and wait for an education to happen to them. Each person is responsible for preparing, contributing and listening—and for the learning of everyone else in the room. 

“You are not simply receiving a Darden education,” she said. “You are creating it for one another every day.” 

Those classroom habits—asking better questions, testing assumptions and reconsidering a position—are also leadership habits, she said. They will matter as students enter a business world being reshaped by artificial intelligence and other fast-moving tools. 

“Better tools do not automatically produce better leaders,” Grushka-Cockayne said. Judgment, ethics, accountability and human connection, she added, matter more than ever. 

She distilled the year ahead into three challenges: Show up fully. Make the people around you better. Stay open to surprise. 

“Bet on yourself,” she said. “Bet on the people who are standing right beside you here. And bet on what this entire community can become when we bring our different experiences together.” 

One final call-and-response sent another burst of cheers through the room. Then the Virginia Gentlemen took over, and hundreds of new voices joined “The Good Old Song.” 

The first cold calls were still ahead. The first answer came as a chorus.