It feels good to finally have made it to the Memorial Day holiday weekend. It’s been a long couple of weeks and I’ve pretty much been limping to this point, so some rest and relaxation will be much appreciated. Most of the folks at the GSB have gone out of town for the next few days, but I’ve chosen to stay here and be productive for the next few days. Graduation is only about three weeks away and the prospect of having to move has been on my mind a lot, so I’m planning to spend a good portion of the weekend packing up my stuff and figuring out the best way to get it back to the East Coast. As of right now, I don’t even know where I’m living in ATL yet, so I have no clue what i’m going to do with my things once they’re all boxed up and ready to go. I’ve got some time to figure that out, so, for now, I’m just going to get started on what will be a LONG process of relocating my life back across the U.S.
So, let’s get started with the recap of this week…the big event for this week was the first-ever GSB Staff Appreciation Reception on Tuesday that I planned along with my man Jon S., who is another former GSB Student Association Senator. Jon and I separately came up with the idea of doing something for the staff sometime in Fall quarter, but we ran out of time to make it happen before our Senate term ended in December. Instead of letting the idea die, we put our heads together a few weeks ago and put the plan together so we could show the unsung heroes of the GSB how much the students appreciate them for their contributions to our experience. The process of planning the event was strange because we had to go to both the Social Committee and Senate for funding and, after having spent three quarters evaluating these sorts of funding requests, it was weird to be on the other side. Going into the big day, Jon and I wondered whether we’d get enough staff members and students to attend, but everything went off well. We ended up with a great turn-out and, although we had fewer staff than we’d anticipated, they all seemed to enjoy the gesture and the thank-you’s from the students. One of the staff members at the reception told me that she’d been at the GSB for 38 years and that the students had never put on an event to thank them…positive feedback like made me realize that Jon and I had done a great thing by planning the event. We both hope that classes that follow us keep the reception going because the staff here puts in so much work and they certainly deserve to be honored.
In addition to putting on the staff appreciation reception, this week was a beast because I had a ton of final assignments that had to get knocked out. First up was a group final paper for my Real Estate Investment class. I don’t think that one is due for another week or so, but a lot of my group members have itnernational trips planned for their job searches, so we just wanted to get it done ASAP. Now, we’ve got the paper done over a week early and one of the group members is going to take the paper and turn it into a presentation for us to do in class. The assignment was for us to analyze a property for sale in the area (it couldn’t be a single family home, which would have been much easier) and decide whether we would recommend an investment in purchasing it. At the beginning of the quarter, I would have thought this would be pretty difficult, but, after taking the course, my group and I were able to run through it with very few problems. The second assignment was a group paper for my Strategic Philanthropy class that isn’t due until next Thursday, but we had to get our individual parts finished by this past thursday so the guys who are putting the paper and the presentation together could work on it over the weekend. I’ve explained that project a little in an earlier entry, but, fo rit, we had to work with a non-profit and do an analysis of a grant proposal for them. Once our analysis is done, we’ve got to make a pitch for them in class to receive one of two infrastructure building grants from the Arrillaga Family Foundation and the Sand Hill Foundation. We worked with Eastside College Prep School for the project and I think we’ve got a great shot at getting those funds for them. The last assignment was an individual final paper for my Managing Growing Enterprises class where we had to write a “Last Lecture” we’d give to the class describing what we learned in there and our perspectives on entrepreneurial management careers. I didn’t think this paper would be too difficult until I went through all of our lecture notes and realized how much we’d learned in the course. Trying to summarize the course in only 8 pages and do a good job of it was really hard, but it got done and I felt like a million bucks when I turned it in. Now, I’m officially finished with the “finals” for three of my five classes and I’m hoping to knock out my portion of a group paper for my Urban Education class sometime this weekend too. It would be SO nice to go into the final two weeks of classes with only one more final assignment hanging over my head. I’m really glad that I signed up for classes that didn’t have final exams because that would have made the next couple of weeks torture for me considering the amount of studying I’d have to do.
Next week will be the second to last week of classes in the Spring quarter, so that means my time here is ticking away really quickly. My next few entries will probably sound really reflective because that’s where my head has been lately, so I’ll apologize in advance. I can’t believe how quickly this two years of B-school has flown by. I hope I’m ready for the Real World…actually, what am I talking about? I hope the Real World is ready for me
So, let’s get started with the recap of this week…the big event for this week was the first-ever GSB Staff Appreciation Reception on Tuesday that I planned along with my man Jon S., who is another former GSB Student Association Senator. Jon and I separately came up with the idea of doing something for the staff sometime in Fall quarter, but we ran out of time to make it happen before our Senate term ended in December. Instead of letting the idea die, we put our heads together a few weeks ago and put the plan together so we could show the unsung heroes of the GSB how much the students appreciate them for their contributions to our experience. The process of planning the event was strange because we had to go to both the Social Committee and Senate for funding and, after having spent three quarters evaluating these sorts of funding requests, it was weird to be on the other side. Going into the big day, Jon and I wondered whether we’d get enough staff members and students to attend, but everything went off well. We ended up with a great turn-out and, although we had fewer staff than we’d anticipated, they all seemed to enjoy the gesture and the thank-you’s from the students. One of the staff members at the reception told me that she’d been at the GSB for 38 years and that the students had never put on an event to thank them…positive feedback like made me realize that Jon and I had done a great thing by planning the event. We both hope that classes that follow us keep the reception going because the staff here puts in so much work and they certainly deserve to be honored.
In addition to putting on the staff appreciation reception, this week was a beast because I had a ton of final assignments that had to get knocked out. First up was a group final paper for my Real Estate Investment class. I don’t think that one is due for another week or so, but a lot of my group members have itnernational trips planned for their job searches, so we just wanted to get it done ASAP. Now, we’ve got the paper done over a week early and one of the group members is going to take the paper and turn it into a presentation for us to do in class. The assignment was for us to analyze a property for sale in the area (it couldn’t be a single family home, which would have been much easier) and decide whether we would recommend an investment in purchasing it. At the beginning of the quarter, I would have thought this would be pretty difficult, but, after taking the course, my group and I were able to run through it with very few problems. The second assignment was a group paper for my Strategic Philanthropy class that isn’t due until next Thursday, but we had to get our individual parts finished by this past thursday so the guys who are putting the paper and the presentation together could work on it over the weekend. I’ve explained that project a little in an earlier entry, but, fo rit, we had to work with a non-profit and do an analysis of a grant proposal for them. Once our analysis is done, we’ve got to make a pitch for them in class to receive one of two infrastructure building grants from the Arrillaga Family Foundation and the Sand Hill Foundation. We worked with Eastside College Prep School for the project and I think we’ve got a great shot at getting those funds for them. The last assignment was an individual final paper for my Managing Growing Enterprises class where we had to write a “Last Lecture” we’d give to the class describing what we learned in there and our perspectives on entrepreneurial management careers. I didn’t think this paper would be too difficult until I went through all of our lecture notes and realized how much we’d learned in the course. Trying to summarize the course in only 8 pages and do a good job of it was really hard, but it got done and I felt like a million bucks when I turned it in. Now, I’m officially finished with the “finals” for three of my five classes and I’m hoping to knock out my portion of a group paper for my Urban Education class sometime this weekend too. It would be SO nice to go into the final two weeks of classes with only one more final assignment hanging over my head. I’m really glad that I signed up for classes that didn’t have final exams because that would have made the next couple of weeks torture for me considering the amount of studying I’d have to do.
Next week will be the second to last week of classes in the Spring quarter, so that means my time here is ticking away really quickly. My next few entries will probably sound really reflective because that’s where my head has been lately, so I’ll apologize in advance. I can’t believe how quickly this two years of B-school has flown by. I hope I’m ready for the Real World…actually, what am I talking about? I hope the Real World is ready for me
