Thursday, April 25, 2013

Weekend and news

Weekend Home


It seems like I've been quite a few nice little breaks recently.  This last weekend, I went back home for my little brother's senior prom.  I can't believe how grown-up he is becoming, because soon I will be going home for his graduation!  It seems like I was a senior not that long ago!  So I got to have some quality family time and quality time in the car on the 6 hour drive.  This picture was taken at the walk-in ceremony (a small town means everyone gets involved)  My brother drove my boyfriend's Camaro which we drove from Manhattan and his date was a friend since grade school- which I think made it really fun for both of them!

New Dean for the Helzberg School


Photo: Rockhurst University's Helzberg School of Management has a new dean: Cheryl A. McConnell. Congratulations, Cheryl! http://goo.gl/Qw79z
Some very exciting news that we've received this week is that our official new dean for the Helzberg School of Management has been chosen!  Our interim dean, Cheryl McConnell, was also chosen to continue as dean of the business school!  I'm very excited to have her continue in this leadership position, as this past year has also been a huge year for the HSOM.  I also enjoy knowing that Dean McConnell used to live near my hometown in western KS.  Congratulations and good luck!  


Cooking

The end of the semester also gives a lot of opportunity to learn the best way to de-stress.  I was very excited to make chicken egg rolls from scratch a few weeks ago.  Here's the link to the recipe- they turned out really well, although I'd recommend following it a little more exactly- (mine didn't have quite enough flavor with my modifications with only using dry spices instead of onions and garlic) oh, and I found it just as easy to bake them in the oven (with olive oil on top) or to fry them on the stovetop- I'm definitely not going to fry them in an actual deep fry- so much oil!  Maybe I'll make something sweet this weekend :)  

Saturday, April 13, 2013

The Grind



This week has gone by quite quickly yet again!  Tuesday was the Helzberg School of Management's very first Leadership and Ethics Day.  What this meant was that every class that took place in the HSOM on Tuesday had a guest speaker from within the world of business.  My only HSOM class on that day, International Economics welcomed two leaders from Bayer.  It was an incredibly interesting conversation about doing business in an International world, and both shared stories of travel for work and their experiences.  I also enjoyed learning that Bob Grant, Rockhurst's very own Vice President of Advancement, also spent quite a bit of time traveling abroad for his job at Bayer prior to coming to Rockhurst.  The day was filled with countless guests, and I count myself lucky yet again, that Rockhurst is in a large enough city to host so many successful companies who are willing to come to a classroom and speak about their experience.  It seems that the connections that the professors have all across Kansas City is also very inspiring.

I'm also going to be very excited at the end of tax season on Monday- my internship at an accounting firm in Overland Park has been incredibly time-consuming, specifically with being gone for so long earlier this month and the increase of people in and out of the office retrieving their taxes.  Now I'm just looking forward to the finale coming up in the next month!  I have a plethora of summer activities in mind, and I will show just a few with pictures from Tumblr now:  (I apologize for the cheesiness of them all- this is way more fun than the homework I should be doing) and I took them all from the sites listed on the photos :)






Monday, April 8, 2013

Welcome Back

Bikes and architecture- pretty typical!
Rembrandtplein
I apologize for being so late on this post!  After the end of the challenge in Denmark, one of my teammates, Sarah, and I went for a few days to Amsterdam.  While many people may have a certain perception of this city, I had a fabulous time taking in the architecture, the museums, and the city in general.  We had quite a few adventures- following a tram to pick up a bag that was left there on the very first day and taking the tram the wrong way and ending up in a "weird" part of town (as the bartender who helped us said) were the (somewhat bad) highlights.  But only losing the small expense of a cab ride is much better than it could have been.  And I absolutely loved walking around the canals in the city, although the wind chill proved to be as cold as the Midwest.  Additionally, the Van Gogh exhibit was phenomenal, and I was very moved by the Anne Frank house/museum.



The line to the Anne Frank house stretched
around the block on a very chilly morning
I have been so blown away by the response that Rockhurst has given following our return to the US.  I arrived back on Thursday afternoon (after an all-day interview process for a summer internship) to be greeted by almost all of the professors at the Helzberg School of Management as they were gathering for a faculty meeting!  It was an unintentional timing, but it was nice to receive so much excitement and support from all of the professors.  Additionally, we were greeted in the lobby with this sign (which is still hanging up in the lobby of the business school):


The Rockhurst PR & Marketing Office also released a story, which got put on the Rockhurst website, congratulating us on the competition.

However, since the trip was not without problems, the adjustment back has been quite difficult.  Without a working computer for the past few weeks, doing all assignments, emails, and catching up has been happening during late nights in various computer labs around the campus.  As my first time without a laptop for any extended period of time, it was quite the adjustment!  Luckily Rockhurst Computer Services got it up and running again in just a few days!  Additionally, my phone ceased working while in Amsterdam, so setting up a new phone (with originally no contacts) created a few awkward conversations.  It was also frustrating to return to my car at KCI, to find that it had lost almost ALL coolant.  With no phone to call AAA, and no sleep in 20 hours, I did what I could, and with the help of a nice mechanic at the nearest convenience store, made it back to campus safely.  Luckily I took it into the shop before leaving for Easter Break, because it needed something new that might have ruined my engine if I would have driven with it that way.  I was incredibly disappointed not to have my car to leave for Easter Break, but I was lucky to have a boyfriend who came to Kansas City and drove me there and back instead, so I was not spending Easter Break by myself on campus.

This week marks the final week playing "catch-up" and by Friday, I'll be ready to start up final projects!  Only one more month left and it'll be on to new summer adventures with an internship/job, new housing, and NO homework!!  (perhaps the most exciting part)



A few of my favorite pictures from Amsterdam-- on the left, a view of the buildings and canals, on the right, my travel companions-- Dave (on the right) was another Grundfos challenge competitor from the KU Engineering team, Sarah (in the middle) from the Rockhurst team, and Vinzent (on the left) from Germany who studied at KU for a year with Dave (he met us in Amsterdam)