Mallory

Business Class

I am currently in a first time taught topics course by the Business Department called Mangerial Decision Making.  It is an interesting class, taught in one of our computer labs in Jeanmarie, and all based on Excel and LP models.  While there were not any pre-reqs to the course (pre-reqs are a list of classes that you must have completed before you can enter certain upper-level courses) I think there probably should have been!  One needs a pretty good working knowledge of Excel and key business terms in order to really understand what is going on, which is making the class extra tough for me.  I’m always up to a challenge, but there are times I question whether I should be in the class or not.  Example:  after class on Wednesday we were assigned 3 problems.  I sat there for 2 hours trying to work them out, woke up early the next morning and worked for another 2 hours on them, and then did another hour of work from noon-1pm.  Luckily I contacted my professor and she agreed to meet with me at 1pm to go over the problems. 

Side note:  One amazing thing about our professors here is that the vast majority of them are more than willing to set up special meetings outside of their office hours, sometimes even on really short notice, in order to meet with students.  We are names and faces to the people that teach us, not ID numbers.  We develop relationships with our professors – inside and outside of our major’s department.  It is just incredible.   End side note.

So my professor and I met at 1pm.  After working on those 3 problems for 5 hours I thought I had really come a long way, and I was actually pretty close to getting the correct answers.  The nice thing was that my teacher was impressed with the progress that I had made, and understood where I had gotten confused.  Especially since this is the first time that the course is being taught, even the teacher is learning the information with us so she is potentially even more understanding than usual.

Hopefully this week goes a bit better, as the class gets tougher I get more nervous, but I know that I will continue to work hard and get through it.  At the very least I am learning a ton and this is definitely information that is applicable to real-life.  It is a really cool class and I know that I have a supportive professor who is going to be there to help me out when I need it!

Okay I'll admit it, I cheer for the Yankees.

Sport rivalries are a fun part of life.  Of course the biggest one at SMC tends to be Red Sox versus Yankees, with the majority of students leaning towards the Sox (probably partially due to the fact that over 30% of our student body is from Massachusetts.)  Being a born and raised Yankee fan I often have to resort to defending my allegiance to something along the lines of “well I am from NY, lets be honest who do you think I cheer for?”  I also pledge to not be “that Yankee fan” even if I do like to get a rise every now and then out of my Sox-pals.  I went a little overboard Friday night after that big 8^th inning comeback and of course had to eat my words Saturday night with lots of “mostly” playful jeering after the Yanks lost pretty badly.  As I write this blog it is 1-1 in the 8^th inning of their final season game against each other.   

I think it is pretty interesting how much some people care about sports.  People really invest a lot of time into watching their favorite teams play and learning about the players and then even learning about what other teams and players are up to.  Multiply that by a couple sports it can be fairly time consuming.  I have a friend who lives for the Pats, I think if he could get 3 credits for following the team and the sport of football he’d be all for it. 

But when one is talking sports rivalries it is nearly impossible to not mention the rivalry between Team Free T-Shirts and the Ducks.  Now chances are you haven’t heard of these two teams, but anyone who follows SMC intramural volleyball is well aware of what I am talking about.  Intramural Volleyball starts up this week and being it is our last year my team (Team Free T-Shirts) is ready to claim the championship title after 3 years of barely winning it.  Usually we are 2^nd place in the league, but the team that used to beat us just graduated.  So who are the Ducks?  The other half of my group of friends.  Of course the rivalry between the teams is heated in a fun way, but lets be honest Team Free T-shirts will rock their socks when we play them in the next couple weeks. 

Intramurals are an awesome part of college life and one of the things that I look forward to most during the school year.  Yes you are reading the blog of a 5 time intramural champion, as my freshman and sophomore year the indoor soccer league was dominated by Team Wood.  What happened junior year?  Well our team was always half-abroad, so this year we are really looking to reclaim our title.  I love intramurals because I chose not to play sports on the varsity level but still wanted to get a chance to play competitively.  It is also just a nice change of pace to working out in the weight room during the week!  Intramurals are pretty big at SMC and a lot of people participate in them, which makes it even more fun!

So, wish Team Free T-shirts luck over the next couple weeks.  We have a big championship to win.  And I guess on that note keep the Yankees in your thoughts too.  Interesting fact, ever since the Red Sox pulled out their big win 3 years ago they and every Championship winner since have been the wildcard – which is what I think the Yanks are going to be.

Oh and just so you are updated:  another 8^th inning miracle for the Yankees just happened, Jeter just hit a 3 run homer and now the score is 4-1.  Gotta love that 8^th inning!!!!

AG Edwards

This week was a huge learning curve for me, especially with my lack of knowledge about financial terms in general.  AGE has more than enough materials to help me with this, and I spent Monday morning and most of the afternoon going through their packets and brochures so that I could not only understand what different financial terms mean, but so I could also see the different services that AGE offers its clients.  I learned that AGE is basically a team of Financial Consultants (FC’s) who offer financial services to companies and individuals.  Each FC is responsible for marketing themselves in order to gain clients, however AGE headquarters (located in St. Louis) must approve of the marketing techniques and the wording that FC’s use when they create any sort of promotional material.  Examples on AG-Net ranged from television commercials that branches will finance to individual ads placed in newspapers.  There are also examples on what types of events have been done by different consultants and how they are marketed to either prospective or current clients.   

Reg has also decided that I am going to become well versed on annuities because there is a wholesaler who wants to present his information to some of Reg’s clients in hopes that they will switch to his company (Jackson) from their old one.  Obviously Reg has already decided whether or not to do the dinner, but he wants me to analyze the situation for myself and see what I feel.  This is a project I will continue this coming week, as I first have to fully understand what annuities are and what different offers can come with them.  This week I will learn about the two different companies and see which one I feel is the better deal for Reg’s clients.  If Jackson is in fact the best option than I will start to plan the client dinner for Reg.

Overall I felt that this week went really well.  I continued to meet people in the office, and I was even given my own cubicle.  It is really exciting to have a computer (let alone two screens!) since I do not have my own space at the ECHO.  The atmosphere of the office is very laid-back, people can pretty much wear what they want (minus jeans or shorts) and everyone comes and goes as necessary.  Even though everyone is working for the same company, each FC has their own clients and things to do so people go about their business during the day in their office.  I did notice that Monday morning, the first hour or so was more or less taken up by people wandering around and chatting with each other about how their weekends went.  It will be interesting to see if this is a regular Monday morning occurrence.

You can't escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today...

That quote is from the very wise Ab. Lincoln.

Sometimes we all procrastinate, I know that I am guilty of it too.  However, in college time-management is really key to keeping yourself on schedule.  I bought a PalmPilot this summer (best invention in the world!) and now am uber-organized.  Most people don't need quite the elaborate mechanism in order to stay on track with their schedule - but it can really be tough sometimes - managing class, classwork, friends, clubs, meetings, the Red Sox/Yankee games, etc. etc. etc.  Sometimes the list doesn't seem to end.

I feel so lucky that I was placed at the Student Resource Center in my workstudy freshman year.  Workstudy is something that is given to you in your financial aid package, then you fill out a form giving examples of jobs you have held or skills you have, and then you are finally placed in a certain department on campus.  The Student Resource Center (SRC) is money when it comes to anything and everything college.  Donna, Ingrid, and Chris are the three faaaantastic women who are the career counselors.  They do everything from cover letters, resumes, alumni databases, general counseling, grad. schools and tests, full and part-time jobs, AND time-management skills.  I think that as a freshman that is the numero uno thing that you can do is to set up an appointment with them in order to lay out your schedule and see exactly how to effectively time-manage.

I think I do a really good job at time-managing, but lets be honest we all get sidetracked sometimes.  Like tonight for instance.  I had EVERY intention of getting 2 chapters read in one of my books.....oops.  Instead I visited a friend, went to Friendly's, and then gathered with some Leap'ers (those students who have gone on the LEAP retreat) to chill and laugh.  Now I just got back to my room, it is 11pm, and am I reading??  NOOOOO.  There is always tomorrow, and to be honest in 3 years will I remember the reading I didn't do or the hilarious conversation over ice-cream?  (My vote goes to ice-cream conversations...)  The key here is not to have that attitude 100% of the time, or else NOTHING will ever get done, but really every now and then can't be too bad can it?

So tonight I will chalk it up to Senioritis and go to bed knowing that tomorrow morning I will probably spend 3 or 4 hours doing homework, so that tomorrow night I can have some more fun.  This is college afterall, and seriously the book doesn't have to be read u. 

Wait... I'm a senior?!

Graduation is a 10-letter-super-scary word that I kind of wish didn’t exist.  Nothing has been better than my last 3 years at SMC, but then again my high hopes for this year tell me that nothing will be better than the year that I am living – and thus far I am spot on with that prediction.  In two short weeks I can say I have spent some of my best times on this campus.  The Welcome Back Bash was beyond amazing, Student Government (while a huge time commitment) is so much fun because of the crowd of people that I’m working with, and all the good times of making this last year count with my close friends have no words to describe them.

I am living in Hodson Hall this year, one of the apartment buildings on campus.  Last year I lived in the 300’s townhouses, what most consider the “best” housing here.  I was a little bummed at first when I found out that I was technically downgrading my housing.  However, my house mates are my best girlfriends and to be honest our Hodson crew is pretty fantastic.  We live in the basement of this building and rock out!  Our apartment has been nicknamed “Lightening Eagle” for no real reason which has spawned the girls across from us to be “Fierce Badger” and the guys down the hall to be “The Dromes” (after Palindromes of course!).  One of our friends even made us little construction paper mascots to put on our doors and last night the new dance move – the Lightening Bolt – basically became the coolest thing ever.

If you haven’t noticed, me and my friends can be huge dorks but that is why we are so much fun!  Things that I was afraid to do as a freshman, because I didn’t want to be seen as uncool, are the things that I completely embrace now.  For example, at the Pep Rally the other night all the seniors who went were basically dance partying in the middle of the basketball court while all the freshman were sitting in the bleachers watching us.  You know they totally wanted to join in on the fun, but were afraid it wouldn’t be the cool thing to do.  As seniors, we definitely had no cares as to whether or not we looked “cool.”  I wish I had known that as a freshman, I definitely would have dance partied way more often.

But being a senior isn’t all about dance parties.  There is actual work to be done, as two of my housemates are quickly learning as they student teach.  I’ll be writing a thesis next semester (eeek!) and beginning to study for the GRE’s and applying to grad schools all before the semester ends.  However, I try to keep into perspective that this is my last year here and I want it to be as fun as possible, which is obviously why I am sitting here blogging and watching the US Open Championships instead of reading for class Tuesday, because of course I have all tomorrow to do that!

Alumni and Movie Night - a way to escape

Want to know the type of connections you receive at SMC?  The type that even when friends graduate, they still want to live in Burlington because they love it so much, and you still see them as often as if they were still living next door (even though they aren’t anymore.)  And then you have movie night.

Movies.  I sit here probably way less knowledgeable about movies than anyone who will ever read this blog.  It isn’t my first choice of activities, and I don’t really like spending money to go see something in the theatre.  Maybe this is due to the fact that the closest theatre was 20 minutes away and only had one screen for the vast majority of my life.  Then that theatre of course burnt down making the next closest theatre just under an hour away.  Coupled with the fact that my family are not big movie-geeks, I’ve never really been one to watch a ton of movies.  You could name the “classics” to me and I’d just stare at you blankly.

But what does this have to do with SMC Alumni?  Well Monday nights have now been officially determined as movie night with those friends who now live about 10 minutes away from campus. (As I read this to them, they interject that it is only 7.) I can’t say we are watching really thought-provoking movies -  but they definitely provoke good conversation.  For example, movie number one = The Labyrinth with who else but David Bowie. (Insert Josh’s voice here saying “Turn back Sarah before its too late!)  I realize you don’t know Josh, but I hope you’ve seen this movie, and if you have then his voice is so scarily like Bowie’s that it is practically indistinguishable.  I don’t think that this movie will ever make anyone’s Top 10 Best Movies of All Time list but Josh’s, but it was his night to pick so we went with it.   Of course, we all are (or were) college students and in college one thing you learn is that everything has hidden meaning and symbolism behind it.  Well, I can say with almost 100% certainty that this is the exception to the rule.  While Hoggle is a fantastic little gnome obsessed with plastic, and David Bowie sings rockin songs about magic dancing – I think that is about all the meaning there is to be had from Labyrinth.

Movie Number two was Hot Fuzz, a British comedy.  Those two words, “British comedy” should just about say it all without any further explanation.  I spent nearly 3 months in Britain, they have no comedy, and this was accurately portrayed in the movie.  As hideous as Labyrinth was, at least no one left while it was playing.  I think we started with about 7 people and by the time Hot Fuzz was over, I think we were down to 3.  I am pleased to say I didn’t choose the movie, Bo did, but hey at least she liked it.  The moral of the movie was that even if your town wins “best town” for 5 years in a row, don’t think there isn’t some secret society that is committing murder and destruction in order to keep up the façade.  Kind of creepy, but I suppose it can tie to college and class because I just read Mircea Eliade’s book The Sacred and The Profane which talked about initiation rites.  Okay, nevermind, I’m totally stretching here it doesn’t apply at all.

Movie Number three was Black Snake Moan.  Two words, Justin Timberlake.  Two more words... total hottie.  That is all I will say.

But before I go, I do have to mention a few “movie-moment” classics of the last few weeks that have taken place outside of Monday night among myself, Cailie, and Bo.  Sequels have provided us with some entertainment as watching Sister Act II and Save the Last Dance II have become quotable on a regular basis.  I promise your teacher really did not tell you to “take off your robes” and just because someone is 5’10 does not mean they are fit for wrestling. (Especially if they are of the opposite gender, common sense should tell you that you will probably just end up hurt in that situation.)  And if anyone ever tells you that there are “Mimes in the other room” do not fret or run away scared, just assume that they saw Nanny Diaries and have learned the art in choosing the ridiculous movie quotes and are merely exploiting it for a good laugh.

Welcome Back Bash!!!

This weekend was the Student Association’s (SA) Welcome Back Bash. As I have mentioned, I am this year’s Student Body Vice President, so I played an important role in making sure the day went well. Few students realize the amount of planning that goes into a day of this size. Our Executive Board (President, VP, and 7 Secretaries) have been working ALL SUMMER in order to plan this huge day. One thing that I really wanted was to have Carbon Leaf perform (obviously since they are my favorite!). They were surprisingly not too expensive, only about $10K. When you realize OAR last semester cost us closer to $60K, then the price ticket on CLeaf doesn’t seem bad at all! After going back and forth with their manager for a month or so we finally were able to book them. However, that is not where the day began, so let me take you there. Saturday began for me at 6:30am when I woke up to go help set up the stage. We had the concert outdoors and Atomic (our stage-company) needed help setting up the stage, which was kind of like a huge transformer. It wheeled on the 300’s field at 6:30 and by 9:30 it was almost complete. However, 3 hours of standing in the field watching the guys lift things was not the best time I’ve ever had but it was totally worth it because I knew what was going to be coming later that night. Around 10am I headed back to Hodson to wake up the ladies. We had bought champagne to make mimosas to toast to what was going to be an amazing day and our group of guys came over to make a fantastic breakfast. Around 11:30am some of us went into Alliot brunch with the Student Association’s new remote control car with a huge sign advertising the day. We had a GREAT time and definitely caused a scene, which was clearly the point! There were Rugby games that happened all day, and then class-sponsored games from 3-5pm. The Seniors sponsored a SLIP N SLIDE, 100 feet long 10 feet wide. It was probably the most amazing thing EVER. There also was volleyball and kickball. Then my friend Kevin’s band Carlson opened for Carbon Leaf. The BBQ also started around 4pm, which was good because it got even more people to come outside. Of course the highlight of my day was Carbon Leaf at 5pm. (AMAAAAAZING!) They were awesome, and getting the chance to talk with them afterwards was really cool. Of course I rocked the shirt I had bought in Lowell. We started pulling down the stage around 7pm but had to leave at 8pm because of the Pep Rally we held in Ross Sports Center. It was fun, all the classes wore a different color shirt, and we did fun games like tug-of-war and a three-legged-race. I wish more people would have come out to that, but the crowd we got seemed to have a really fun time. It was a fantastic day, and I hope that future SA leadership continues to hold a great Welcome Back Bash. This was the first huge one we’ve had and it went so well, everyone appeared to have a great time!

A New School Year!

It’s been a couple weeks since classes officially started, but I have been SO busy with life and school and reconnecting with friends that I haven’t had time to breathe!

As usual the first couple days of classes are totally overwhelming.  I hate seeing the entire syllabus on day one because I always have mini-panic attacks that I will never be able to get all the work done.  This semester I have so much on my plate outside of class that I had to drop Sports Marketing because it was a very time-consuming course outside the classroom.  I’m still a little bummed about it, because it would have given me a chance to do a lot of really cool marketing projects, but I picked up Intro to Judaism instead which has thus far proved to be a really cool class.  It is taught by a Rabbi who clearly is coming at the course with a life-perspective whereas last semester I took a Judaism course from our Dean of Students who was coming at the topic with an academic-perspective. 

I am also doing a 3 credit internship at AG Edwards, a finance company.  However, as I have no background in finance, I will be doing marketing for my boss Reg.  I’ll blog more about the experience later – as my official first day is actually tomorrow!

This month I also get to assist training new tourguides.  I am the Alumni Coordinator for our Founder’s Society this year.  As a coordinator I get to assist training new tourguides, but I also have separate duties dealing with the Alumni and Parent Relations Office at SMC.  In a couple weekends we have our first Alumni Weekend of the year that has actually been paired up with President’s Inauguration weekend.  Jack Neuhauser is our college’s new President, coming from BC, and he will be inaugurated on the 29^th of September.

Basically it is going to be a busy semester, but at least I don’t have a ton of homework to do each night because it still gives me a chance to hang out with friends.  Some who graduated are still in the area and it has been awesome being able to see them on a regular basis, and my closest friends all live right near me which is perfect as well.

I have high hopes for my senior year, and I want to make it the best that it can be as it is my last.