Faculty Auction Dinner

Last night we were able to claim our prize of dinner at Gale Nichols, Director of Student Services, home. She had 14 of us first years over for an amazing home cooked meal. Each dish was amazing and I ate way too much! The dinner gave us all a chance to catch up with each other as a lot of our schedules don't overlap anymore. Gale was a great host and FANTASTIC cook, class of 2012 take note and start saving your money now for next year's faculty auction!

Peer Coach Dinner

Friday my peer coach, Tara, had all of her peer coachees over for dinner to just talk through where we are and get a sense of where we are going. It was really great to get together with everyone and just talk about everything. Totally felt spoiled too with a home cooked dinner, I don't think any of the other peer coaches did that. Really helped me focus on this last final push, so glad she is in my court.

Another one bites the dust!

So accounting is done. It was a brutal exam, with full financials to analyze from Dow Chemical. Fun!

After feeling like we had been through a meat grinder, Charlton and I headed to the Irish Lion for dinner (delicious!) and then to BluBoy Chocolate (okay)

I have spent the rest of the evening going through applications for committee chair positions for Kelley Women. I am so impressed with the backgrounds of all classmates, we have some tough choices to make!

Planning to go bed early again tonight, we have an exec meeting early tomorrow to finalize our decisions. Then time to kick it into high gear for Operations!

New York, NY

I got into the city a little early, at 10:25, and hoped into a cab. It was awesome to see the city all lit up before me and reminded me a little of SATC with me dressed up in the back. I had no problems getting to the Roosevelt and took a quick shower and climbed straight into bed as we had another big day ahead.

First thing in the morning we headed down the block to find a little something for breakfast as we knew we would be getting treats at our first company visit. I settled on a yogurt parfait and a coffee and was ready to hit the town. Up first, Dylan's Candybar, where Kelley alum Maggy Siegel is the COO. She opened up the store for us and gave us a personal tour of the 3 floors of candy. It was a blast! We even got a sneak peek of the back room where all the inventory is kept and then we headed to the cafe for some treats (I got pumpkin ice cream) and some question and answer time with Maggy. It was a great experience and gave us a little different perspective of retail than Target and Wal-Mart who come to campus.

We had a little free time before our next visit and a few of my classmates and I went to Loehmann's nd then to Feline's. I ended up not getting anything but a proscuitto sandwisch from the Bed Bath and Beyond cafe.

Then it was time to head to Macys.com's offices. We were able to meet with HOUR and the merchandise, planning, creative and IT team. It was a really neat perspective on retail, and was great to see the differences between a brick and motar store and an e-tailer.

When we finished up there we were on our own, I headed back to the hotel with some of my classmates and changed into "something more comfortable" and then headed off to get some dinner. We walked to Serendipity, and were greeted with an hour long wait! We found a cute Italian place across the street and had an AMAZING dinner of pasta and salad. We hustled out of there to make our reservation at Serendipity, and proceeded to gorge ourselves on Frrrozen Hot Chocolate and a "Can't Say No" sundae. Everything was good but we needed at least 2-3 other people to help us eat everything. With full bellies, we headed back to the hotel making sure to look at all the holiday windows at Bloomingdale's before calling it a night

What is it REALLY like...

to be a marketer? That was the question of the day yesterday. Our CMA day had a panel of 6 recent alums who talked candidly about their jobs and the cultures of their company so we could get a better sense of what we can expect during our internships. Then we had 4 break-out sessions with them to work on some cases that they have had to work on. It was a lot of fun and they ranged from how do we evaluate what is important to the customer nutritionally to how do we set up our planogram. It was nice after being bogged down with our case competition to be reminded why we are here.

We finished up at about 3, I vegged for a bit and then headed to the grocery store to pick up our turkey. Then it was time for my first "Ladies Club" dinner. We went to Cafe Django, an Asian fusion restaurant. It was pretty good and it was fun for all of us to celebrate the holiday.

It's weird not having to go to school today, or not having to do research. I have a feeling today will be filled with a lot of cleaning, packing and working on my exam for CMA. But what an improvement over case comp! Yay for Thanksgiving break!

Case Comp, Mock Interviews and Trivia, Oh My!

So the last few days have been pretty uneventful school-wise as we were gearing up for today and the rest of case comp throughout next week. We had the presentation of the case last night and then were sent out to go pull everything together for the presentation Weds.

However, we took the evening off and went the the International Business Society’s Mexican Business Cultural Dinner at El Norteno. It was a great session, very informative, and the food was good.

Then it was time to get to work, at least a little and watch the case brief and do a little preliminary research. Today and the rest of the week will be interesting to say the least.

At least we get to let off a little steam from today with the trivia night being thrown by MBAA, I have a feeling I will need to!

**In other news, we found a stray cat on Tuesday night and brought him so he wouldn’t have to weather the elements. We took him to the shelter yesterday and they were not optimistic about his future. We are both pretty shook up about it, never a good time for that kind of stuff**

But to really celebrate the completion of another class…it was time for Women’s Weekend! First up, was a wonderful cocktail party at Tallent. We had a wonderful turnout of second and first years who could mingle with all the great Kelley prospectives. Then it was off to the Bluebird for the highlight of our week, the Faculty Auction! Most of our professors donated events and experiences, ranging from dinner, wine tastings, laser tag, basketball and even 10 hours of cabana boy duties. We had a great turnout and I was able to get in on a couple events: Superbowl party with our future statistic modeling professor, BBQ with one of the accounting professors, dinner with the director of student services and a knitting lesson with my buddy. Can’t wait to collect on all my prizes, will be a great way to celebrate the end of the core!

Although I can’t wait until the spring to watch my fellow first years dominate my Accounting professor and his team of professors at Assembly Hall. Go Class of ‘11!

Best dinner in 2 months! And got to spend with my buddies in St. Joseph. Then spent some time walking around town, and it totally reminded me of the movie Pleasantville, its that cute. Then came back to the hotel for some much needed girl time and to plan my classes. Now its time to go to bed in my private suite. Tomorrow Whirlpool!

Another weekend, another new restaurant (we have been trying to experience B-Town when we can!)

We woke up leisurely, Charlton having a rougher go of it than me, as he was really sore from the game last night. Breakfast was cereal on the couch catching up with Top Chef and Project Runway. Then we attempted to get some studying done while watching IU lose to Michigan. After all the distractions were gone we finally got some hard core studying in. I only was able to finish reading for Econ as we had a ton of reading assigned for one class session.

We then set out for some basic shopping and to get our flu shots. It was a bust on the shots as they had packed up for the day but we got all of our shopping done and then met our friend up for dinner at the Bakehouse. I had heard great things about it and it did not disappoint. I got their creamy tomato basil soup and Charlton got their BBQ sandwich combo with fries and cole slaw while our friend tackled their all-you-can eat BBQ sandwich meal (he got down 6!) Was a cool little place and conveniently they have one near our house, so we wont have to go all the way into the square. I still need to try their famed granola but we still have plenty of time.

Once back at the house was time for me to tackle some critical thinking. Feel like I hardly got anything done so far this weekend. Going to have to power through tomorrow though!

Goodbye Week 3

The last two days have been crazy, but it would be hard to find a day that hasn’t been since we arrived in Bloomington in the beginning of August. Since I have got home tonight, I have just sunk into the couch. Not going to get up anytime soon.

Yesterday started with a full day of class, then quickly picked up speed. Right after finance, a classmate and I sat down for a little informational interview about her previous position in retail. I learned a lot and will definitely continue to research opportunities in the industry. Had to microwave some soup really quick and run upstairs for our team’s weekly recap meeting. 3 hours later, the team adjourned and I headed to Kraft’s office hours. This was my first office hours I successfully attended and I was really happy I went. Got a lot of face time with their reps (8 1st years to 3 reps) Once that rapped up, ran over to GE’s company presentation. It was incredibly crowded and Charlton and I had to share a chair (worst idea ever!) Then we trucked home where I scarfed down a lean cuisine before I had to head back to school for Kraft’s company presentation. It was a lot of fun, and I learned about Oscar Mayer’s unique culture in their Madison office. They totally hooked us up too! Weinermobile jump drive, Bacon, Toblerone, Wheat Thins, etc. Crawled back home at 9:30ish and was up until 1 taking care of some internet housekeeping.

You know you have had a long day when you forget to take your phone off silent. Oops! I only woke up in time because Charlton had an alarm set. I ran around the apartment like a crazy person, and Casey and Addie didn’t make it any easier for me to get out the door. Got to school at 7:45 just in time for breakfast with GE. Got to find out a little more information about their ELCP program and hang out with a lot of the Kelley Women members. Once that finished up, headed to a LPCD Diversity presentation. It was much better than the one during orientation and even better than the session last week. Then I grabbed a quick lunch and then my team got together for 3 hours to work on our Quant homework. We didn’t finish but we got a lot done. We adjourned to attend a network event and then we headed to the lounge to relax before heading to the International Business Society’s Cooking Event. They had 4 dishes prepared from different countries that all included tomatoes. It was a lot of fun and the food was awesome! Brushetta, Thai Spicy Mung Bean Noodle Salad, Tamales and Nigerian Tomato Stew, delicious! Then it was time to head home, a little more than 12 hours since I arrived. Fun!

Since getting home, we have watched some Mad Men and Martha Stewart and I caught up on my email. I promise tomorrow I will start on my homework!

Painful Powerpoint

Yesterday we had an 8 hour Powerpoint presentation scheduled for us by the LPCD. Everyone was confused on why it needed to be 8 hours, aren’t Powerpoints supposed to short and succinct? Regardless on our expectations and questions we arrived at the auditorium at 8:00 for what we thought would be a Powerpoint for Dummies presentation.

A few minutes in, we learned that the presentation was not about using Powerpoint, but how to make a presentation. While many of us had similar classes in undergrad, it felt like a waste of 8 hours. The presenter didn’t really understand the needs of the audience and it was run like a mad house. I think he lost most of us about an hour in, and many of his stories about Michael Douglas still couldn’t bring us back. It was a rough day. Unlike many of my classmates I hadn’t brought any homework with me so I didn’t get caught up at all during all of our downtime.

I did get a coffee break at Sugar and Spice and had lunch at Laughing Planet so I guess the day wasn’t a total wash.

We came back to the apartment after, to just the dehumidifier. They finally took the fans, we are getting that much closer to normalcy! Hopefully they will take the dehumidifier soon as well. After a short nap, we headed back to campus for a Meet the Faculty reception. After some appetizers we headed back home to have dinner with our friends/classmates. We ended up hanging out until the wee hours of the morning, and had to pull the boys away from Digital Trivial Pursuit. Was a great way to end a not so good day.

We’ve got spirit, yes we do, we got spirit how about you?!

After a long day of academy and major presentations, and getting bogged down with our future assignments, we headed over to Memorial Stadium for the IU spirit event.

We got to watch the football team practice, receive a tour of the stadium, have dinner with our classmates and their families, get pep talks from the athletic coaches and get to see IU’s famous a capella group, straight no chaser. Was a lot of fun, wish I could relax in the hot tubs in the stadium though after this busy week.

Dinner and Dirt

So after a short break from all things Kelley, we had dinner with our orientation mentors. We hit up Yogi’s to make the transition to the D-bar that much easier. And if I didn’t already love my team, tonight just cemented it. We got the dirt on everyone and our mentor made sure to give us the dirt on what to expect from our Kelley experience. I am really pumped to get started and can’t wait to work with everyone this semester.