The silver lining of being a Partner to an MBA student manifests itself in the form of glossy boarding passes, gleaming hotel rooms and the non-stop use of the gloriously dependable Google Maps. I am, of course, talking about the many travel opportunities that MBA students get (and Partners can hop along on). There may be career fairs in New Orleans, treks to Boston, case competitions in Austin and interviews in Palo Alto. Or your student might decide to spend a frosty New Year’s in New York, or get some serious tan lines during Spring Break in Miami.

Now if you’re a Partner like me, who’d rather spend money on traveling than on essentials like food and electricity, these golden opportunities are not to be missed. You can see a new city, meet some old friends, enjoy different cuisines or return to a favorite sight-seeing spot. When my student chose to travel to Chicago for a consulting trek last year, I tagged along and managed to see more of the city than even he did! Because while he was meeting alumni in downtown Chicago, I was seeing the Picasso exhibit at The Art Institute of Chicago, window-shopping on the Magnificent Mile and strolling (with rather difficulty owing to the notoriously fierce winds) at Navy Pier.

The best trip for me however, came in the form of my student’s internship. He was fortunately selected by the San Francisco office of a consulting firm and off we went to California for a three-month long summer. If you haven’t visited California yet, let me tell you that the state has a “sunshine tax” for a reason. Our California summer was fantastic: weekends were devoted to exploring beautiful nooks and crannies of San Francisco and other surrounding towns. We did a bunch of hiking and trekking at Lake Tahoe, Yosemite and Muir Woods. I fell and injured myself repeatedly across the state and enjoyed most of it. We tried a bunch of different cuisines for the first time and really loved them (highly recommend Afghan, Burmese and Korean food). We walked alongside the Pacific Ocean, toured Monterey Bay’s famous aquarium, drove down to LA to enjoy some Hollywood tourism and even visited a mystery house in San Jose. Whether we still have money left to cover school tuition is another matter, but as a Partner I am so glad for the enriching, amazing experience and I would absolutely advise all Partners to travel as much as they can with their students during this time.