My First Mentor Meeting

Monday begins as always with my early morning study session at Snell followed by Finance and work. However, this afternoon holds something a bit different: my first meeting with my executive mentor!

I meet my mentor at the Starbucks in the Curry Center. While initially a bit nervous we quickly settle into comfortable conversation. We spend the next two hours discussing my career path, residency search (yes, it is still ongoing) and life goals. I couldn’t be happier with the pairing and I think that he and I will do well together during the next year and a half. He tells me he is not sure if he can make the mentor reception next Wednesday, but I plan on attending either way.

That night I get a call from my contact over at the Massachusetts Horticultural Society. He gives me a run-down on how the Flower Show went last week and some news about membership renewals. While we did get several new membership sign-ups during the show, he also drops a bomb: 1,200 members whose membership expired during the month of February and March did not renew. Ouch! That’s 20% of our membership base. With that said he gives us our next mission: create an exit survey for defected members. He needs us to do some statistical analysis to see how many samples surveys we need to send out to get back enough responses, come up with the survey text and more. I’m excited and quickly send out an email to my team asking for a pow-wow tomorrow afternoon to divvy up work.

Tuesday morning I submit my Finance re-write before heading to Supply Chain. After class I manage to snag a couple members of my Marketing Club team for a meeting on our consulting project. I am proud to say that I delegated efficiently. I get one volunteers to head the statistical part of the project and one the text version, suggesting they contact some of our professors for help. I ask to have the work in by next Monday so I have time to compile the information and get it to Mass Hort by Tuesday.

While in the meeting I get the best e-mail I’ve seen in a while. It goes something like “Katrina, I am pleased to notify you that the MBA Scholarship Selection Committee has awarded you a Stephen Riley Memorial Scholarship". It’s all I can do not to squeal out loud in the middle of the grad lounge.

After the consulting project meeting I run home for a few hours before my second India IFS class that evening. I’m very excited but a bit nervous since we have our first Operations exam tomorrow and I could really use all the time I can get to study. The meeting runs about two hours and includes a guest speaker who lived in India for several months while working as a Fulbright Scholar, some pizza and a syllabus with some specifics about our homework for the course.

At 8:30 pm we’re let out and a friend and I, desperate to get to studying after the two hour class, head to Red Mango for some frozen yogurt and power studying. It serves as an oddly conducive Statistics cramming environment at night.

Wednesday morning is the Operations exam.   I end up feeling relatively confident about it as I leave class that day. I really think that study session over pomegranate fro-yo saved me.

Thursday after class we have our make-up casual Strategy lunch (remember last week it was canceled due to St. Patrick’s Day festivities?).  We head over to Punter’s, a dingy dive bar down the way. It was nice to get to chat with our professor outside of the classroom setting and I appreciate that he took the time to get to know us.

That afternoon I receive another exciting e-mail: I have a phone interview scheduled with Transparent Language for next Tuesday. This is great! I head home to start researching the company.

Despite the fact that we have Friday’s free of class, I somehow always manage to make it to campus anyway. I meet my interdisciplinary project group at 9:00 am in the grad lounge. Our teachers have generously offered to review any work we have thus far if we submit it by today.We scramble to compile Minitab results, competitor research and the like into a coherent e-mail for them.

At 11:30 am I bid my groupmates goodbye and head to the Alumni Center for the Open House for admitted students lunch. I sit at a table with my Finance professor, the new acting Dean of the College of Business and a couple of recent admits. I had a blast chatting with them and I hope they got a good taste of what Northeastern has to offer.

After lunch I head to the grad lounge to set up the Marketing Club table for the club fair. I will admit the “fair” was a little slow since only 3-4 admitted students stopped by, but I hope that we gave them a good idea of what being in a club entails and the activities we organize. Plus, there was free food, so no complaints.

Saturday and Sunday are dull as I nurse a cold (I know, again!). I do manage to start my Living Document 2 and my studies for the Statistics exam on Thursday, but the rest of the weekend is spent sleeping and watching ‘Wall Street’ – that’s kind of like doing Finance homework, right?

*The views expressed in this blog are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of Northeastern, its affiliates or staff.

St. Patrick's Day, or, the Week that Case Write-Ups Took Over My Life

Monday morning I meet up with my Supply Chain teammate to finalize our case write-up on Laura Ashley’s strategic alliance with FedEx.  After a couple of hours of editing and fine-tuning we’re finished.  It feels good to have it done early so that I can focus on my Finance and Statistics case write-ups from here on out.

After class my Finance group meets with our section’s tutor to verify that we are moving in the right direction with the case write-up. He gives us hints and corrects some of our thinking. While I’m grateful for the help, this means more work for my team.

At work that afternoon I learn that the Northeastern Full-Time MBA program has been ranked 56^th by US News and World Report! I’m elated, especially considering that we’re up 6 spots from last year. This, combined with our ‘56’ ranking in Business Week is just proof that Northeastern is on the rise. I’m so proud of my school!

Later that day I receive an e-mail that my Indian visa cannot be processed due to insufficient proof of residency. Ugh! I guess this is what happens when you have a permanent address in California and a temporary address in Boston. I need to fix this ASAP, since I’ll be leaving in just seven weeks!

Among my e-mails is also one regarding my executive mentor.  The Executive Mentor Program is an optional, though highly recommended, opportunity available to all first year students.  If you participate, a mentor is carefully selected to work with you; usually someone from an industry you are interested in or within your concentration.  This mentor will help guide you throughout the remainder of your time at Northeastern.  I have been paired with the CEO of GateHouse Media, Inc. and the former president of the Boston Globe!  In fact, you may remember that I met my mentor previously during an executive luncheon. We exchange a few e-mails and schedule our preliminary meeting for next Monday! He’s requested that I jot down some of my thoughts on my career path, questions, etc. for the meeting. I’m very glad to see that my mentor is willing to be involved in the process. I really want to take advantage of this opportunity.

Tuesday morning I turn in my Supply Chain case write-up. Let’s hope my group mate and I do better than last time. We also have a guest speaker today - this time it’s the president of American Shipping Group.  It was fascinating to hear about supply chain management from his perspective. He brings up such current topics as the expansion of the Panama Canal and the creation of even larger shipping vessels and how these will impact his company. It’s extra neat to hear his perspective because one of my classmates will be working with him this summer for her co-op!

After class my Statistics team and I head to our professor’s office hours to review our progress on the case write up we have due on Thursday (yes, another one). Ugh! I feel like these cases will never end. Our professor corrects us on our faulty assumptions and we leave the long line of students awaiting his advice facing a re-work of a number of calculations. Lesson learned my friends: start work early so you have time to review and re-work. While it may seem like a hassle, if it gets me from a B+ to an A-, I think it’s well worth it.

I’m up late tonight because I’ve decided to take a different direction on my Finance case- yes, this revelation came to me at about 9:00 pm. I was nervous to proceed against what my group had come up with, not being all that confident in my Finance skills, but I decided that now would be a perfect time to work on that ‘thinking creatively and analytically’ goal for my LD 2, which is due in just a few weeks.

I round out the night by submitting an application to VFA, Inc. for a marketing corporate residency. VFA, located in Boston, provides capital planning software to firms. I know a second year who had her co-op there and seemed quite pleased with her experience.

Wednesday in Operations, we get back our second Boston Globe project with a disappointing ‘B’ scribbled across the back. However, we are given the opportunity to re-write it so that’s positive.

I also turn in the Finance case that I was up until 1:00 am reworking. I hope my intuition didn’t lead me astray. We had to submit this case to both our Finance professor and a writing coach (something we often did in Marketing last semester). Our grade will be based on an average of the two. Since I e-mailed my assignment last night, by the time class gets out I already have my score from the writing coach. I’m thrilled to say that I got an A- on the ‘message’ aspect of the write up, but less so with my ‘B’ on the writing portion. With the re-write option, I’m hoping to improve that. Plus, I still have to see what our Finance professor gives me.

At 3:00 pm, after work, I meet with my group to finalize our Statistics case that’s due tomorrow. You can tell we’re all exhausted from the several deliverables this week, but we plug along and I agree to do a last review before submitting it tonight.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!!! I can’t think of a better city to be for this most boisterous of holidays. The streets are alive with green and costumed co-eds. However, there is an unfortunate side to the festivities. We were supposed to have our first casual Strategy lunch with our professor today at Conor Larkin’s, a bar across the street from Dodge Hall, however, when scheduling, he didn’t realize that it would be on St. Patrick’s Day. As the class and our professor gather around the window to watch a party bus pull in front of our anticipated lunch place and hordes of people rush through the door, he decides to reschedule for next week. That seems fair.

That afternoon I’m notified that Transparent Language, a language-learning software company in New Hampshire, saw my resume and wants to interview me! I feel very honored and think it would be a good fit. I’m just waiting for my interview date to be set.

I also learn that my resume has been sent to Au Bon Pain! That would be a great co-op as well. Perhaps things are starting to look up for me?

That night I attend my last restaurant week of the spring. This time it’s at Tremont 647. Because of the holiday we manage to snag seats at 7:00 pm with just a few hours notice. The food is fabulous and I’m glad to leave on a high note after my unfortunate dinner at Lucca. I order the carnitas appetizer, pork chop entrée with sweet potato bisque and for dessert, white chocolate and blueberry bread pudding. We even split rosemary French fries and each enjoy a festive drink.

After dinner my friends and I are berated with text messages from classmates; they are all heading to Lansdowne Pub for some St. Paddy’s Day celebrations. We pull up to the bar an hour later only to see a huge line wrapping around the block. Luckily, several classmates have already staked out a location at the front and we get in within minutes. I have never seen a bar this packed. It was insane. A sea of sparkling green and lights and roaring Dropkick Murphys music playing in the background. Guinness is, of course, strewn all across the floor. But we find what seems like half of our class clustered around the bar and the rest of the night is spent dancing, singing and partaking in some Irish beverages.

After a late start on Friday morning, I meet up with a friend to study at a local coffee shop: Espresso Royale. I had never been and was pleased to see that it gave off much the same vibe as the Seattle coffee shops of my undergraduate past. I really enjoyed the environment and we spend the next several hours plopped down at a large wooden table with our books.

After we satisfy our academic quota for the day, we spend the rest of the night shopping and having dinner at the Cheesecake Factory in the Prudential.

I do not leave my house on Saturday. Instead I become a certifiable homework rockstar.  Not only do I finish my Finance assignments for Monday, but Wednesday as well. This includes two chapters on forecasting, homework problems and a case. I also complete my Supply Chain homework for Tuesday. Since we have our first Operations exam on Wednesday, I’m sure I’ll be devoting all of my time to studying for that during the week. I also have that pesky Finance case re-write to attend to.

Sunday is spent indoors, hashing out a rough itinerary for my pre-IFS trip week in India. 

My itinerary will hit Jaipur, Pushkar, Udaipur, Jodhpur and Jaisalmer over the course of 10 days.

I also begin studying for Operations and finish a novel that was assigned by our professor called ‘The Goal’. I don’t think anyone besides me has read it yet, despite the fact that questions regarding it will be on our final exam.  I guess it’s easy to forget a non-fiction book in light of all of our work.

Well all, the admitted students Open House is on Friday, March 25. I plan on being there and if any of you attend, I’d love to meet you in person!

*The views expressed in this blog are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Northeastern, its staff or affiliates.

Boston Restaurant Week and a Little Trip to Western Massachusetts

Monday morning I wake up for my obligatory library session. This week I’m working on two scholarship applications. Each spring, continuing students have the opportunity to apply for scholarships. This year, the school will be awarding four prizes. The scholarships are worth $3,000 a piece so I made sure to hammer out the best application essays possible. I could really use some of the money for my IFS tuition this summer. Wish me luck!

After Finance class I stop by UPS on my way home to mail my India visa application! I‘m so excited to have it done. The process makes the trip seem all the more real.  In fact, I leave in just 8 weeks! Wow, I really need to buy my tickets...

On Tuesday afternoon after Supply Chain I meet with my Marketing Club executive board to review the final weeks of the club. We touch base on consulting projects and discuss the printing of our new logo on mugs for the group.  A multi-club harbor cruise is proposed for the end of the year and we set about seeing what our budget allows.

After that meeting, it’s on to my Operations team meeting. Our second assignment of the Boston Globe project is due tomorrow and we haven’t even started writing it yet.  Luckily, we have some great information from our site visit two weeks ago and plenty of pictures for illustrative purposes.  We spend the next several hours compiling eight pages of text along with several exhibits.

On Wednesday I start my morning with Operations before dragging my feet to Finance.  We are supposed to get our dreaded exams back today. Rumors swirl that the average for our section is a 63% with the range spanning 30-96%. I am certain that I’m that low-lying number. But, when the tests are handed back, I got a 71%! I’m thrilled, but even more so when I realize that with the generous curve, I have an A sitting in my hands. This is nothing short of miraculous!

That afternoon, while perusing Northeastern's eRecruitng website for newly posted residencies I came across a marketing position at State Street Corporation. I immediately set about doing research and coming up with my cover letter. I also set up a meeting with my career adviser to discuss the specifics of the job before applying to make sure it’s a good fit for me.

On Thursday in Statistics we get our exams back. I didn’t feel too confident about my performance but, after yesterday’s Finance surprise, who knows? I end up with an 84% after the curve, which is just above average for our section. I thank the heavens this week for whoever invented rounding.

That afternoon, after I get out of Strategy, I do some homework until my 2:45 pm appointment with my Statistics professor to go over questions I have from class earlier today. Since I didn’t do as well as I had hoped on the exam I feel it pertinent to step up my efforts. My teacher was so gracious in giving me an hour of his time. We even broached the topic of the big interdisciplinary project due at the end of the semester. I’m glad we did because he helps me start to make sense of our pages of excel spreadsheets and financial codes.

Tuna Tartar from Sibling Rivalry

After Statistics I head home to run a few errands and do some reading before getting ready for my first Boston Restaurant Week experience: dinner at Sibling Rivalry! For those of you not in the know, Boston Restaurant Week is a bi-annual event held in May and August where nearly 200 local Boston eateries prepare pre-fixe menus; every one with a $33.11 price tag for a three-course dinner. Since most of these establishments are of the finer variety, these prices cannot be beat. I’ll be hitting up two restaurants this year. Today it's Sibling Rivalry: a restaurant founded by two brothers that centers around dueling menus. The food may very well have been some of the best I’ve had in Boston. As I was with generous guests, we shared our entrees and appetizers. I sampled beef and tuna tartar, pork dumplings, a duck entree in a cranberry reduction, pistachio encrusted mahi mahi and a bevy of dessert including blueberry bread pudding and a chocolate profiterole. Heaven!

Afterward we hit up Punter’s, a dive bar right near campus and who do we find there but a gathering of our classmates! How fun.We spend the next couple of hours relaxing over cheap beers.

Friday morning I wake up early and head to campus. I need to work on my scholarship application that’s due at noon and begin research for my Statistics and Strategy team meeting this afternoon.

I arrive at the library at 8:30 am and get a good hour of writing in, putting the final touches on my scholarship application and submitting it to the business office. At 9:30 am I meet with my career adviser to review my cover letter for a new corporate residency. This one is for State Street Corporation. The job, while for a financial institution, is a classic product marketing position and would involve market research and analysis. I think it will be challenging, but very rewarding. The job was just posted on Wednesday and is already due Sunday so I had to do a quick turnaround.  I’ll let you know if I get an interview!  

After the meeting I feel much better and meet up with my group for some Statistics and Strategy work for our company, Ann Taylor. I relay some of the insights our professor gave me on Thursday and they all seem relieved to have a bit more direction on the project.

I spend the rest of my afternoon doing laundry and cleaning up. I haven’t had a moment to spare since Nick left on Sunday.

That night is round two of restaurant week! This time at a local Back Bay favorite: Lucca.  Having had such a great experience at Sibling Rivalry last night I have high expectations. Alas, it disappointed. My French onion soup was lukewarm and my chicken entrée, once it arrived 30 minutes after my appetizer, was dry and uninteresting. The only redeeming quality was the dessert: a chocolate mousse with orange marmalade, hazelnut crumble and whipped cream. The whole menu hosted only 2-3 options per course, compared to Sibling Rivalry’s with more options that I knew what to do with.

While the rest of group heads out to see a movie after dinner, I make my way home. I’m meeting a friend at 8:30 tomorrow morning for a trip to Western Massachusetts to see her family and I want to make sure I’m rested.

Deerfield Academy - A little spooky, don't you think?

Saturday morning my friend picks me up and we’re on an adventure to Western Massachusetts and her hometown of Greenfield. On our way we pass picturesque hills and rivers and I get to see the more rural side of the state. After a delicious French toast breakfast at her house we drive to Historic Deerfield – a colonial town minutes from her home.  Apparently, several prestigious boarding schools are located in the town, including Deerfield Academy, which many famous politicians and international leaders call their alma mater. 

Mmmmm....chocolates

After Old Deerfield we stop by her favorite chocolate shop: Richardson’s Candy Kitchen. I have never smelled anything like that store! I was almost overcome with the aroma of chocolate and sweets. We each pick up a half-pound box of truffles, caramels and the like.

Old-school candle-making

After that we drive to the Yankee Candle flagship store. Yankee Candle is huge in this part of the U.S. and is basically just a candle maker. But their factory would tell you otherwise. It is nothing short of a compound for shopping. You can make your own candles, browse their hundreds of varieties, shop for Christmas ornaments, make a teddy bear, visit the candy store, and on and on. I felt like I was walking in an indoor themed mall that never ended! But it was super fun and a definite sensory experience.

When I get home that night around 5:30 pm I buckle down to homework. I have several group meetings tomorrow and need to prepare.

Sunday morning I wake up early and hit submit on my State Street application before making my way to the library for what would turn into a six hour powerhouse study session. My Finance group meets and tries to hash out the case write-up we have due on Wednesday. After that we begin work on our Supply Chain case that’s due on Tuesday before transitioning to another Finance case due on Monday. Can you tell this week’s theme is case assignments?

But amid all this work, I do get an e-mail from my India IFS professor scheduling our next meeting! I’m excited and he says to have a group ready so we can begin discussion of our team assignments.

I leave the library around 4:30 pm exhausted. But I dutifully go home and finalize my portion of the Supply Chain write up, read a chapter of Strategy and try to make sense of my upcoming Statistics case due on Thursday. Phew! I make it to bed around 12:30am. It’s going to be a long week. 

* The views expressed in this blog are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of Northeastern, its staff or affiliates.

Spring Break

Lake Champlain, VT

This week is our glorious and much-needed spring break!

I wake up early Saturday morning in anticipation of Nick’s arrival. His flight ended up arriving early so I meet him at the Massachusetts Avenue Orange line stop. We grab some Dunkin’ Donuts breakfast before our lazy day.

The day is spent hitting up some of Nick’s  favorite food joints such as New York Pizza and Boston Shawarma before heading  out that night to watch The Kings Speech. We have decided to have an Oscar viewing contest tomorrow, complete with a ballot, so in the spirit of things we decided a screening of an Oscar-nominated film was appropriate.

Sunday morning we head to Mistral Bistro for brunch. I have wanted to go here for months and am very excited. I order a gargantuan serving of graham cracker encrusted challah French toast with roasted pears and marscarpone chantilly presented in a sizzling skillet. Our side of potatoes is perhaps the best I have ever had and I love the complimentary cinnamon strudel muffins with honey butter. Heaven!

Nick and I in the snow.

We then spend several hours walking around the city in the snow (got to burn off that breakfast, you know). We meander through the breathtaking and snowy Boston Common and the bustling Newbury Street, stopping for coffee and window shopping.

That evening is our Oscar viewing event.  As it turns out, Nick and I tie on our ballot (much to my boyfriend’s dismay).

We wake up early on Monday and head to IKEA. I am finally going to get a bed frame and be a real person after six months of sleeping on a mattress on the floor. We grab out Zipcar and I maneuver the rainy freeways out to Stoughton. The rest of the afternoon is spent assembling my bed.

That night we book a mini vacation to Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine for later this week.  I’m super excited as I have never been to any of those states before. We both hope for some fresh snow.

On Tuesday we visit the Mapparium at the Mary Baker Eddy Library. I had been told by a Northeastern alum to visit it and was not disappointed. But what is it, you ask? Basically, it is a giant stained glass globe.  You  enter the globe and walk across a foot bridge that runs along the 30-foot equator of the sphere.  The Mapparium was commissioned back in the 30s, and they have kept all of the country names and boundaries as they were in that time frame. It was neat to see how much has changed. The acoustics of the globe are also crazy.

We then make out way to Newbury Street and stop in at Trident Booksellers and Cafe for lunch.  I get a chicken quesadilla and Nick orders a delicious Cape Codder sandwich with turkey, provolone, bacon and cranberry mayo on challah bread.

That night we hit up House of Siam, a 'Best of Boston'-rated Thai restaurant near my house. I got the Tamarind duck. Unfortunately, it was not all that I had hoped for but was decent enough.

Ben & Jerry's Tour

We wake up early Wednesday morning and head to Avis to pick up our rental car. We spend the day road-tripping up to Vermont, stopping in Lebanon, New Hampshire at Shyrl’s Diner for a very authentic greasy spoon breakfast and in Waterbury for a tour of the Ben & Jerry’s factory. I had been wanting to visit the factory since seeing it on a top-ten list on the Food Network (I know, I’m a dork). It was very fun and we got free samples. It also started snowing while we were there! I even got the visit the flavor graveyard where retired flavors are laid to rest.

On our way we hit a mini snow storm, barely able to see in front of us. I’m a bit nervous, but thankfully Nick is driving and seems to enjoy this new and foreign weather challenge.

We make it to our first destination, Burlington, Vermont by late afternoon. We walk along the waterfront of Lake Champlain, guarding ourselves against the freezing temperatures and peruse the shops of Church Street Marketplace. We end the night at Sweetwaters where I enjoy a brandy and maple liqueur spiked warm cider and bison burger with gorgonzola.

Thursday morning we stop at a café called Sneakers Bistro in Winooski, Vermont for breakfast where I get a California benedict with avocado, spinach and portobello mushrooms on a croissant before beginning our long drive to Maine. On the way we stop in Stowe, Vermont to take in the picturesque ski village. We see a covered bridge and shop in the quaint stores, picking up some fresh-made maple fudge.

Next we stop at Lake Champlain Chocolates, a famous chocolatier of Vermont where I order a spiced Aztec hot chocolate and cherry and apricot white chocolate bark.  Can you tell this whole trip has been a mission to eat our way across New England?

The rest of the day is spent driving through New Hampshire and the White Mountains before landing in Portland, Maine for the night.

We are staying at the Inn at St. John, the oldest inn in Portland. It is wonderfully quaint with a Victorian décor that any grandmother would love.

Then we head out to J’s Oyster Bar, a local seafood favorite that Anthony Bourdain ate at! I indulge in lobster stew and crab-stuffed mushrooms while Nick orders up a half dozen oysters and a seafood casserole.

Friday we wake up, check out of the hotel and head to the waterfront and Old Port District. It’s adorable and we even stop by the flagship Stonewall Kitchen store. For those not familiar with Stonewall kitchen I am sorry for you. They make amazing jams, sauces and food stuffs in very unique flavor combinations.

After our walk we stop by the Standard Baking Company where I grab a hot coffee, homemade madeline cookies and a glazed morning bun. 

Portland Museum of Art

We then make our way to the Portland Museum of Art. It’s a lovely museum and quite manageable in size. What’s neat about it is that one wing is of modern construction, housing their more current pieces including a De Chirico, Picassos and Magrittes while attached is a restored mansion set up as it might have been back in the late 1800s.

Head Light of Portland

We next drive a bit south to Cape Elizabeth to see the Head Light. This is a signature lighthouse that is often pictured in calendars and brochures of Maine. While we might not have gotten the full experience of it because of the bitter cold, it was still fun to see.

We then begin our drive home, stopping on the way at the Roundabout Diner in Portsmouth, New Hampshire for fish and chips and a lobster roll.

View from the Skywalk Observatory

Saturday is my last day with Nick. We spend it relaxing and visiting the Skywalk Observatory in the Prudential Center. I’ve been wanting to go for quite some time and am happy it is a clear winter day.

That night we hit up Finale, a restaurant centered around dessert! I have been wanting to visit it since arriving in Boston and finally make it. I order their famed Boston Cream Pie with miniature whoopie pies and a Nogtini (think eggnog martini) while Nick gets their platter of warm cookies called, appropriately enough, cookies and cream.

Sipping my Nogtini at Finale

Sunday is a sad day as I wake up around 4:30am to drive Nick to the airport. I don’t know when I will see him again and so it is a very sad goodbye. I spend the rest of the day frantically catching up on homework for tomorrow and running errands, including filling out my India visa application. I leave in 8 weeks and have yet to book my flight! Yikes.

Tomorrow marks the beginning of the second half of my second semester here at Northeastern. I have much to do including filling out my scholarship applications, getting serious about my co-op search and buckling down with my difficult classes such as Finance and Operations.

* The views expressed in this blog are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of Northeastern, its staff or affiliates.

The Storm Before the Calm

We start this week on Tuesday, having had Monday off in honor of President’s Day, though mine was more in honor of Dayquil and my bed.  I do manage to get a solid 5 hours or so of Finance studying in, but the rest of the day is wasted on trying to rest before the impending storm of this week.

Luckily, Tuesday is a late start so I sleep in before dragging myself to Supply Chain Management.  I had contemplated calling in sick, but I didn’t want to tarnish my perfect attendance record and I have always been someone who felt guilty for missing class.  As it turns out, I’m glad I went because we had a guest speaker from the company Kiva Systems.  The President and Chief Operating Officer gave us an in-depth run-down of the Kiva system which is a revolutionary robotics warehouse technology.  Instead of employees searching isles of a warehouse for products to ship, Kiva robots bring entire shelf units to stationary employee for them to pack specified products.  The software behind the system is amazing and the ease of set up for each unit is nothing short of extraordinary.

After class I get straight to studying for the Finance exam tomorrow.  Feeling exhausted from my few hours on campus I find it exceedingly difficult to concentrate.  What should be simple Finance concepts completely escape me.  I force myself to bed at about 11:30 pm, frustrated and utterly under-prepared for tomorrow.

I wake up early on Wednesday and shoot out an e-mail to my Operations professor saying that I will not be able to make it into class this morning.  I feel horribly ill and I need to preserve all of my energy for Finance.  While I feel so guilty, something had to give.  After spending the next couple of hours studying I grab a large coffee and sit down to my doom.  I get ‘owned’ by the exam and all I want to do is sleep but, alas, tomorrow is the Statistics exam and my Strategy project due date.  I head right to the library with my Strategy team to hash out our strategic plan for Husky Injection Molding (fascinating, I know) before making my way to Richards Hall for the Statistics review session.  Again, the session probably would have been helpful if I had time to do some practice problems, but as it was, I sat there, uncomprehending, for two hours.  After that my group finalizes our Strategy paper and we e-mail that off.  I make it home by about 6:30 pm, still having not studied Statistics at all. Yikes.  I’m up until about midnight, setting my alarm for 5:00 am tomorrow in order to get a couple extra hours of book time in.

Thursday morning I’m just glad to have Statistics first so that I can get the test over with.  Our professor had promised us it would be very similar to the practice test he handed out (which I dutifully completed).  But, in true teacher form, it was far more difficult than the practice exam.  I honestly leave class feeling like I just might fail out of most of my classes this semester (a bit dramatic, I know, but I am sick and disheartened).

Our poor Strategy professor somehow manages to keep our attention for the duration of the 2 and half hour class (it being our last before Spring Break) and I give him props for that. We must have looked like some sort of sedated zombie mass staring back at him, eyes glossed over.

After we are dismissed I am jealous of all my classmates who can officially start celebrating Spring Break (yes, we have it in the middle of winter).  I head to work to catch up on some hours before commencing crazy errand running.  Nick flies into Boston Saturday morning and my entire apartment is in disarray.  I have no food, piles of laundry and textbooks and papers piled in every corner.

After grabbing some groceries, I head home to spend what would turn out to be 3 hours in a chat session with a Turbo Tax representative as I maneuver my two state tax returns, my capital gains claims, education credits, etc. Yuck!  At least that’s done so I can actually file my FAFSA (which, keep in mind, is due March 1).  I’m cutting it close but have had little time during the past week to do anything but the bare minimum amount of work.

I’m forced to skip out on the Supply Chain Expo happening today due to time constraints, but I’ll let you know if I hear anything about it from classmates.  From the look of everyone today though, I think most people made a beeline home to go to sleep and begin their week off.

Printing The Boston Globe

Friday morning I wake up early and go an adventure to The Boston Globe headquarters for a tour of their operations facilities.  As part of my Operations course we had to select a company and complete a 5-part report on all the aspects of their operations.  My group and I have an appointment with the Superintendent of pressroom operations and the Director of the delivery department.  I’m bummed I couldn’t do this another time when I could actually relax and enjoy it.  The Boston Globe is such a huge newspaper and the journalism major in me would have loved to explore it more.

 

We end up spending about three hours on site going through everything from sourcing for newsprint, to creating the plates for printing, to the mail room and delivery trucks.  It’s quite an impressive operation I must say.

You may be wondering why I wasn’t in Career Management this morning.  Our Career Management class is technically done for the year.  They will hold periodic optional seminars if we wish to attend through the end of the semester, but for all intents and purposes, we have three day weekends from here on out.

After our Boston Globe tour I rush back to campus to meet with my Strategy/Statistics group to work on our industry project.  Unfortunately, by the time I make it to Dodge Hall, they have already been there for nearly an hour and have finished the meeting.  I feel horrible, but there is little I can do.  I get my assignment from the group and head home, stopping on the way to run a few more errands.

The rest of the day is spent doing laundry, cleaning like a fiend and tying up some loose ends before Nick’s arrival.  I force myself to bed early as I’ll be getting up at around 4:00 am to meet Nick at the airport after his red-eye to Boston.

Well all, I know this is a shorter post than normal, but I’ll be back after Spring Break with a run-down of my vacation adventures.  I’m hoping to hop around some other New England states like Vermont and New Hampshire and will let you all know how that goes.

In the meantime, have a good week and good luck with all of your final grad school preparations.

* The views expressed in this blog are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of Northeastern University, its staff or affiliates.