Day late…and, well, a lot of dollars short

I know, I know Rebel that I am lagging behind this week, but in my defense I was rather busy—again—this week.[1]

So updates first:

               1) I got my accounting test back and it was a respectable 84%. Not bad for a test that I had split my study between a paper and 2 group project meetings.

               2) I haven’t heard anything about said CD paper. BTW, CD is what we will call Community Development from now on. We’ll assume no news is good news.

               3) The job interview went well but I haven’t heard back. When I do, I’ll let you know all the gory details. For now you (read I) just need to remember that job hunting can be a long process.

               4) I met with an incoming MBA student about our NWA Women’s Shelter partnership. He’s super excited and I’m excited to have more people!

               I did some other things—like sort a giant stack of files into their proper recycling piles—but the big thing this week was Business Plan! We’re still working our way through the sections and it’s a great process with four people and also a hard process with four people. With four people there are so many ideas and questions zooming about a room that it’s hard to grab onto the right ones and keep everyone on task; on the other hand, you don’t want to be too task-oriented because then you might miss something good. There’s the rub.

               I refer to this stage of the writing/researching process as the spaghetti stage, in which, we throw spaghetti at the wall and see what sticks. Then you cock your head to the left and see if it spells anything…Actually, skip that last step and, also, don’t throw spaghetti at your wall. It’s just an analogy.

               Speaking of analogies, it turns out my entrepreneurship team and I really love us some analogies. A favorite recently was my analogy for the difference between market and target market: “Think of it like dating, market is everyone interested in you that you are willing to date—in my case men—and a target market is the group of men that I know I will have the most success with—hipsters.” I think a weekly analogy might have to be a feature of my blog, just sayin’.

               This weekend I get to study for a leadership exam, finish a CD take-home midterm, do some accounting problems, do some finance problems, finish some GA work…oh and root for the HOGS!!

              

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[1] And no, there will never be a week when I don’t use this as an excuse for something. 

Busy!

This how my dog looks when I leave for a long day at Walker Hall, which most of the days this week have been and what the next few will be. 

 Hey all!

I don't have a lot of time today but I thought I'd give you a quick list of what's happening.[1]

1) I have an accounting test on Monday.

2) I also have the first 2-3 sections of my paper for Community Development due—approximately 8 pages—due on Monday.

3) We’re putting our business plan together! It’s really, really, really rough but it’ll get there.

4) I have GA work. Not real exciting actually.

5) I have an interview tomorrow. It’s with a sustainability consulting company. Wish me luck!

6) I had a financials meeting with the NWA Women’s Shelter. Hopefully we can build them a great investment plan. We’re going to get started on putting together a fundraiser for them and maybe some recommendations for their thrift store.

7) GWIB. Always planning something for GWIB. 

8) Also, pretty sure I need these shoes:

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[1] And yes, I really wanted to make a Pretty in Pink reference there: “Whatsa happenin’ hot stuff?!” 

Career Fair and Panamanians

On the same day to boot! But like Ted from How I Met Your Mother I'm jumping ahead of myself. (Side note: TV’s back! Well, it never really left; it just got really boring there for the summer.)

On Monday, we had our poster presentation/networking event. I talked to a few employers and a lot of Leadership Walton students. Specifically, stressed out freshmen students who were trying to figure out what to do with their lives. My response: “Chill, you’ve got nothing but time,” then I would pause dramatically and say, “The dude abides.”[1]  

I also had an Advisory Board meeting, which is a group of MBA students who get together with our administration and go over ideas, problems and positives. The gist of this meeting: the lockers were a great addition and we’re not getting a soda fountain to replace the worthless pop machines. Turns out, the administration doubts we’d be good about paying on an honor system…that’s probably a correct assumption. We are poor grad students, after all.

Tuesday was career fair day. I followed up on some of the contacts I made at the networking event and learned about good opportunities  and you will all be the first know if anything comes of them. But, by far, the coolest thing I did on Tuesday was hang out with a group of Panamanian undergraduates here to visit our logistics department. Some other GWIB (Graduate Women in Business) members and I had dinner with them and some of our logistics professors and then we fed them popcorn and ice cream and showed them The Social Network. They got pretty excited about seeing the movie and, honestly, I never really get tired of that movie either. But then again I love anything written by Aaron Sorkin: The American President; Sports Night; The West Wing; Charlie Wilson’s War. Okay, so I never really liked Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, but Sports Night more than offsets that show. Also, the children’s choir singing “Creep”; it’s the little things. Anyway, the students were great to talk to and they asked a bunch of questions about everything. They even put up with my rusty Spanish.

So the rest of the week has been a bit dull. Just classes, homework, GA work and group meetings. The semester is really starting to roll.  Now it just needs to learn how to rock.[2]

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[1] Actually, I never said that last part. I assumed they were all too young /business-y to get a Big Lebowski reference.

[2] I know it’s bad but I just couldn’t resist it. 

Settling In

Okay, so first things first I promised to tell you about my interview and presentation from almost a week and a half ago.

                The interview was for a graduate student spot on an economic trade mission in São Paulo, Brazil in October. The interview went well but it was highly competitive and I didn’t get, which isn’t that big of deal because I don’t as if I need the week off from school and work. (I did learn that one our terrific MMBA students got the spot, so at least it stayed in the MBA program.)

               Then, I had to present an overview of my summer internship as part of the first round of the MBA presentation competition. I succeeded in reaching my goal, which was doing well but not winning my round. Why, you ask? Because I didn’t want to lose another Friday morning prepping and presenting. It’s a priorities issue; I had better things to do –like sleeping in and not wearing a suit. (My Fridays are precious, okay?)

In other news, I’ve been working away. I met with my entrepreneurship team a couple times last week (and, yes, I will eventually post a picture of them) to start lining out our goals and product pitch. We’re really excited about this project and are just glad to finally get rolling on this. GWIB (Graduate Women in Business) has been working busily on getting our website up and events planned. It’s exciting to be leading this group and especially as we work to establish something new in the Walton MBA program. I know that my hopes are greater than we can achieve this school year but I want to build this group to the point where those hopes become a possibility. Finally, I’ve been working on a partnership with the NWA Women’s Shelter and we’ve started meeting again to do some financial planning and fundraising work for them. I love how helpful everyone in the administration has been to us and that we can expand what we do in the MBA program to more than work and class.

Alright, that’s all for now….

A Lovely Weekend in Fayetteville: Or How I Wish I Could've Taken Pictures but My Camera's Broken

After a rather hectic week, involving both an interview and a presentation and all that these entail[1], I got to have some fun this weekend. I started Saturday with a trip to Arsaga's, the local coffee shop chain, which was packed with people gearing up for the game. Then, of course, the game. This I actually watched on TV in the comfort of air conditioning. In my defense, I spent my four years of undergraduate spending all day waiting to  get into the game, sitting in the student section  for 3  hours before game time, standing the whole  game and then celebrating/complaining afterward. I deserve my air conditioning and cushioned seat. Anyway, the game was great and I will definitely get out there at some point this season.

               Also on the agenda this weekend was a trip to Greenhouse Grille with my friend Lauren, who is also in the program. Greenhouse is a great local place that specializes in what I call gourmet organic. It’s not as snotty as it sounds; it does hamburger and fries, just organic. Then we went to TheatreSquared for their first play of the season, Boeing, Boeing, a 60s comedy. The theater did a terrific job with it, as they have with everything else of theirs I’ve seen.

               Today, I hit up the Annual Clothesline Fair in Prairie Grove with another friend from the program, Megan. The weather felt like fall and its making me excited for the real fall to come. Summer has just been around too long and I want to start buying sweaters.[2]

               Alright, that’s it for today. I’ll try to post and tell you a little more about my interview and presentation. But I thought I’d lead with the fun stuff. [3]

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[1] Read buying/ripping 3 pairs of pantyhose and searching NWA for a sleeveless shirt to wear under my suit.  Dillard’s loves me.

[2] You will find that someway, somehow my logic always  relates back to shopping. 

[3] Yes, all these groups paid me. See previous footnote. 

Week One

               So the first is of the new semester is done. Here’s a quick list of how things stand:

                    1) I made it to every class thus far. Granted, I had Google Calendar remind me via both my phone and computer but, hey, whatever it takes.

                    2) I still don’t have all my textbooks. Evidently ordering the week before classes and paying for expedited shipping means they’ll all arrive the day after you needed to have 3 chapters read.

                    3) I’m without an internship, again, so at least I have some time to breathe between classes and extracurricular activities.

                    4) I’m enrolled in a Public Administration course, Community Development, and its intense and I spend a lot of time wondering if I can do all the work up to my standards.

                    5) I’m doing the entrepreneurship track. I’ve got a team started and a product picked and now we just need to write a plan….so all the fun stuff is yet to come. I also spend a lot of time in this class staring at a largely metaphorical pile of work. (One perk of the digital age is that you are able neatly store daunting tasks out of sight.)

                    6) I’m President of Graduate Women in Business and also working on a team that is doing some work for the Northwest Arkansas Women’s Shelter. It’s fun work, but that metaphorical pile of work just got a bit larger. 

Let’s hope my organization skills come through for me.