Monday, February 25, 2013

SNOW

What a busy week for having several days off!!  Monday, I began the week by celebrating my birthday with a few close friends.  Then after several stressful days- I continued furious work on the various papers and tests due throughout the week.  Last week was also my first full week at my new internship with an accounting firm in Overland Park.  Its been an awesome opportunity to learn more about the accounting processes in real life situations.  Also this week has been "Winter Storm Q" that gave us two days off from classes!  We were all as happy as 10-year-olds with the Rock@lert telling us of the cancellation of Thursday's classes!  Although I had hoped to achieve an unattainable number of tasks and movie-watching, I only achieved a full day and night of sleep.  While most people had classes cancelled on Friday, I went into work for the day- but got a lot accomplished there!  The weekend came and went as quickly as imagined- I enjoyed a full day of work on Saturday (two jobs) and then a full day of homework on Sunday- the plaza library has over and over again been my favorite place to study and focus on all of my impending tasks.

Now today, I have gotten to thoroughly enjoy the same feeling again, with the announcement of school cancelled tomorrow for our next round of storms!  So I will sit here and enjoy the possibility of another day full of movies, (maybe a little less sleeping) and the ever-present thought of the papers and other homework I should accomplish.  With any luck, this snow day will rejuvenate me for the last 2 days of classes before Spring Break (rough life, I know)  :)
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Stay safe out there!!

Saturday, February 16, 2013

Mid- February

This week has been yet another whirlwind.  On Thursday however, my International Economics class welcomed yet another special visitor.  Ronald Reagan Okumu, a member of parliament from Uganda visited our class to talk about International Economics through his perspective and discuss some of the issues that he has faced during his last 17 years in office.  His experience with the changes that Uganda has seen over these years is absolutely amazing.  He has been the youngest member of parliament- since he began his term the first year following his university education.  He still has many years he may influence the future of Uganda as he looks forward to moving up in the world of politics.  I was amazed at the ability of our school to have such an honored guest visit our small school.  I learned a lot about the trading of goods across national lines in that eastern region of Africa, in addition to the developments that have taken place in that region in recent years.  It was such an amazing opportunity to really learn about the international side of what is going on.

This week has also held plenty of celebrations around campus- whether it was for Mardi Gras, the beginning of Lent or Valentine's Day was all determined by the solemnity and color theme for the evening.  (Tuesday being green and red, Wednesday being much more solemn, and Thursday being all shades of pink and red)  I can't say many people minded the extra excuses to bake and bring snacks to multiple meetings or just for everyone to enjoy- I would hope Thursday didn't ruin anyone's declarations from Wednesday's Lenten promises.

Oh, and this week I discovered a few more articles/ videos from the Grundfos challenge-- coming up in less than a month now!  I'm shown a little bit at the end of this video and briefly mentioned in the article in this KC Business Journal on page 16.  Getting excited!!


Saturday, February 9, 2013

Visitors

We've had some exciting events and visitors here at Rockhurst this past week!  To begin with, on Thursday, both the CEO of Dollar General and the senior vice president of global strategic sourcing, Richard Dreiling and Jim Kopp, visited campus and came to several classes, one of which was my International Economics class.  As alumnus of Rockhurst, they made a special visit to Kansas City to visit EMBA classes in addition to some undergrad classes for the Helzberg School.  Mr Dreiling was the one who mostly spoke through our class.  I was absolutely delighted to get to hear all about his journey from Rockhurst in Kansas City, through each of his promotions to end up at the top of Dollar General.  He was very down-to-earth, speaking about everything from his corporate jet and Mike's to their recent phenomenal sales and how to keep their growth reasonable.  Hearing about his journey to his current position was inspiring- as I hope that each step that I take will lead me to a place of success, its encouraging to hear of someone who truly has.  
Richard Dreiling, CEO of Dollar General
Another exciting event on campus was the annual Competitive Scholars Day for high school seniors.  The day includes a chance to see the university, but most importantly, they are given a chance to interview for full tuition scholarships offered by Rockhurst.  This year, there were over 300 applicants for 30 full tuition scholarships.  To show you how much Rockhurst has grown, the year I interviewed, three years ago, there were 160 interviewees for only 9 full tuition scholarships.  This day is a huge chance for Rockhurst to attract potential new students, as I know many people I currently talk to also attended Competitive Scholars Day.  I hope to see plenty of these potential new freshmen around our campus next fall.  
Rockhurst pulled out all the stops with classy lighting,
a jazz band, and  KC slideshow for the social  part of the event