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

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 :)  

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 :)

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)

Grundfos final

This will be a short post, but I want to conclude my remarks on Denmark while I'm still enjoying my time at the Grundfos Academy.

While our team was not one of the winning teams, I am still extremely pleased with the experience here at the Grundfos Challenge. The students that had been recruited here are examples of the future, of the most innovative, and hard working groups of people that our generation has come to represent. I cannot wait to watch throughout the next 10 or maybe 15 years to see what these students will make happen for our world, all over the world. Simply being a part of this representation has been an honor, and I'm so pleased to have had this opportunity to represent the United States and rockhurst university throughout the past week here in Bjerringbro.

Tonight has been a fabulous example of intercultural relations- working together and enjoying a night to relax and celebrate the accomplishments that we have all accomplished. We enjoyed an amazing dinner at Frisholt, the guest house of Grundfos, and drinks, music, and dancing after. Talking, playing games, and dancing with everyone gave us all a sense of perspective of the importance of working together in all that we do.

Now tomorrow morning, as we prepare to leave Denmark for our respective legs in our journey of life (from Guatemala, to India, china, and all over Europe, in addition to back to the United States) I hope that each of us remembers this past week with fond memories of the students and the staff that truly made the grundfos challenge unique.

--I hope this post includes the pictures I've uploaded- with a broken computer, this is the true test of the Blogger application on my iPhone!--

Grundfos- real challenge

So we've now made it halfway through this week at the Grundfos Academy in Bjerringbro, and the true challenge has really come into play this evening!

 First I'll talk a little more about the experience here at Grundfos though.  A really unique part about this opportunity with the Grundfos Challenge has been the chance to talk to real people who work at Grundfos about future opportunities.  A part of the offer for the winning team is an offer to work at Grundfos.  They incorporated two "interview" sections into this week to more specifically decide where you might end up.  The first interview was with a recruiter, which became a relaxed, longer interview- with her experience looking at potential candidates already, she is able to assess if (and where) the student might be a good fit for Grundfos.  The second part was with someone in a department or division that we set up ahead of time.  Through this process, it was a way to see if the student would like to work at Grundfos.  Making sure that the fit is right in both directions is incredibly important to this company from what I can see from my perspective.  It was a neat chance to delve more deeply into the company and into the opportunity.  Also given this unique position, we have been given a chance to run our ideas by some very influential people in the company.  We have developed a good relationship with a few employees who have given us an amazing amount of support, helping to develop a viable plan from every direction for the challenge. 

I've also had a great time with the social media work that the Grundfos Graduate Program has put toward this event.  Its also been great to see all of the support from everyone back home!  Its great to know that at Rockhurst and all around Kansas City and my hometown, we've got an awesome support system of people! 

I'm not sure what else I'd like to share about the experience! We've had snow the past few days, so that's been fun to watch-- with our big windows, it feels a lot like we're inside of a snowglobe! (atleast that's what I'm imagining)

 I'm avoiding posting repeat pictures just for the benefit of those following my Twitter and Facebook also- so I'd encourage everyone to atleast check out the Grundfos twitter @GrundfosGrad- they're posting tons of videos and pictures throughout the day (night for those in North America) to see our progress and the progress of our colleagues. 

Now tonight- we've changed a big part of the outlook for our solution- so we're looking forward to a very late evening, to prepare for our final day of preparation tomorrow!  :) 

Grundfos First Days

Saturday, after a delayed flight out of Chicago on Friday, a short flight in a small plane out of Frankfurt, and arrival in snow and wind in Billund, Denmark, we arrived at the Poul Due Jensen Academy, here in Bjerringbro to compete in the Global Grundfos Challenge.  We arrived just before dinner-time on Saturday a few hours after the Chinese teams had already arrived.  They greeted our travel-worn and weary faces with large smiles and many greetings, which were probably not received the best due to our sleep-deprived state. However, after a shower and some food, we were ready for more time to socialize- a few of the US students even learned a game that the Chinese students taught us.  

Sunday, we began the day with a factory tour on the Grundfos headquarters.  Learning such an in-depth part of the country so quickly was incredibly interesting- especially to the Engineering students I believe.  We then were directed to a new groups- which combined students from all of the teams, Engineering, Business, US, China, and Denmark- into 3 teams of about a dozen students.  We were given the task to create a simplified hot-air balloon in 2 hours that could lift the weight in a full water-bottle.  Each team had a framework, but then was encouraged to expand or change the plan as needed.  My team, Team #1 actually became the eventual winning team- by expanding the framework and lifting 2 1/2 water bottles off the ground.  

Ours is the first balloon- not too pretty, but effective

Later in the day, we had culture "training" you could say.  By having a chance to more deeply look at the Chinese and Danish culture-- exploring assumptions and first-impressions from all of the teams from different countries was incredibly valuable and made us more self-aware of our own assumptions also.  

Today was our day to receive the challenge.  After a few inspiring messages from innovators, such as John Picard, Niels Due Jensen, the son of the founder of Grundfos, and Carsten Bjerg the CEO of Grundfos, we were given our challenge and given the rest of the day to complete it.  We are given all the resources we may need- from experts within the company, to certain resources outside the company to really develop a solution that the judges will also react positively to.  I think many of us are extremely excited about the challenge- and the final product is going to be absolutely fascinating!  

The trophies set out as inspiration for the week! 

I can't wait to share more about this week (hopefully I'll have time to write a little more before the end of the week about our experience at the Academy!!)  hint:  the food has been incredible!  

Also- if you want to check out more updates from the challenge, the Grundfos Graduate program is posting TONS of videos from throughout our days on their Facebook and Twitter sites (Grundfos Graduate Programme on Facebook-- and @GrundfosGrad on Twitter)  You can also follow me on either-- Anna Juenemann on Facebook or @_AnnaMJ on Twitter-- I'm retweeting and posting a mix of everything on the various social media outlets!  

Mayors forum and departure

Last night, I was honored to speak at Rockhurst's Mayors' Forum, including three RU grads who also currently hold public office as city mayors of Kansas City, Kansas, Kansas City, Missouri, and Blue Springs, Missouri. I was honored to have a chance to meet all three mayors and talk to Mayor James and Mayor Reardon about the Grundfos challenge. As I sit here waiting to board our flight from Chicago to Frankfurt, I'm very excited to begin this next journey! I will do my best to keep this up to date and full of pictures and stories of our adventures. So far we have a rainy and cloudy day in the Windy City to bid us adieu from the states for a few weeks :)