First "Real" Week

Phew! This week felt like it was much longer than 7 days! It was my first week of “real” classes, and I have to say the orientation definitely set the intensity expectation for the program.

Monday

This was my first Economics and Marketing class ever! Economics seems like it will be interesting. The professor broke us up into groups even smaller than our learning teams in order to play a semester-long business strategy game that imitates the athletic sneaker industry. Because we had to split up into groups smaller than our learning teams, I was re-assigned to another team. Throughout the semester, we will make seven decisions that will affect both the game and our grades. As the professor went through the vast amount of information that is given for each decision, I started to panic. This was certainly going to be a challenge!

After classes were over for the day, I went to the gym. I’ve hoping to do so 3 or 4 times a week to relieve stress. I jokingly refer to this as “Amy-needs-to-fit-into-her-wedding-dress session.”

Once my homework was finished, I watched the Patriots defeat the Dolphins!

Tuesday

I can already tell that this is going to be my favorite day! On Tuesdays, I don’t have class until 10:50, and even the professor called us her “Monday Night Football” section.  Although class starts later than every other day of the week, I went to the library during the time normally allotted for the early class in order to finish some accounting homework. In fact, we had a case study due on the first day of class! I think I’ll keep doing this to have more time to get homework done and study. It’s helpful that Jim has to wake up at the same time every weekday – gives me motivation to get up!

Wednesday

On Wednesday, we had our first Management of Information Systems class, and we had a Marketing case due. I’ve never taken an MIS class before, so I was extremely interested in what this would be like, and I was surprised by how “into to” the case I was during class.

Wednesday was also my first rehearsal for the 2012 season for the winter guard I help teach. I was not only surprised by the number of students we had attend (the first few months of the season can be tough because many of our students participate in their school’s marching band), but also by the skills that they had managed to retain over the summer. I honestly thought I had a difficult short dance to teach them, but they picked it up right away. Looks like I’ll have to step-up my game!

Thursday

Thursday is my long day! The day starts with Human Resources Management, where we learned more about the 30 page deliverable that is due before Thanksgiving. This paper will follow all members of the MBA class through next semester and our Corporate Residencies. I promised myself while in this class that I would get ahead on this, so it wouldn’t come back to haunt me later in the semester. I’ll see how successful this is.

After HR, I have accounting, where we finished the case we started on the first day. Thursday finishes with an MBA skills class which has different topics each time we meet. This course seems like it will be extremely helpful for career changers like me who need to be reminded how to use some Excel functions among other things. This week, we discussed Northeastern’s honor code.

Thursday was not only long, but I felt exhausted all day. At first I couldn’t figure out why, but then, I realized that I not only was doing homework and staying up later than I usually do, but on Wednesday, I had gone to the gym and taught color guard. Needless to say, I slept well on Thursday night.

Friday

Friday started with some excellent news! Earlier this week, I had told the Women MBA club that I was interested in a leadership position. (Because the second year MBA’s are in their Corporate Residencies during the first semester, this gives a unique opportunity for first years to take leadership positions within these organizations.) On Friday morning, I found out that I got President!

Our only class on Friday is Career Management. We briefly went through the syllabus to discuss the various networking events that the Northeastern Career Center hosts. They must never sleep - there are so many opportunities for us to network!

We also had guest speaker, Suzanne Goldstein, the author of Carry A Paintbrush: How to be Artistic Director of Your Career, who both provided advice on how to build our personal brand and shared anecdotes from her life such as how she landed her first job and how she broke into Hollywood in six weeks. This session was inspiring, and I have to say, I will carry a copy of my resume on me at all times from here forward.

Friday night, was also celebrated Tanushree’s birthday at the Purple Shamrock. So many of our classmates showed up; I think we all needed to relax after the first week.

Weekend

Just to prove that the work of an MBA candidate is never finished, I’ve decided to provide a little insight into my weekend. I woke up at 6:30am on Saturday, thinking it was 8:30am. By the time I realized this, I was already awake, so I decided to do homework.

 On Saturday, I met with the second year president of the Women MBA club, Danielle, along with my fellow students Diana and Roopsi, the Vice President and Treasurer, respectively. We talked about the club and what was accomplished last year, but Danielle also answered many of our questions about the program.

Later on Saturday, I went to Jim’s nephews’ soccer game and birthday party. I had almost forgotten what 5-year-old soccer is like because both of my sisters played soccer in college. It was adorable to see dads playing goalie and children scoring on their own team’s net.

Sunday was “Spin with Sac Day.” (The organization I teach for is called Blessed Sacrament, so we are lovingly referred to as “Sac” within the activity.) At this event, all three Blessed Sacrament color guards learn dance and equipment work together. This year we had a great turnout!

I’m trying to get ahead on the homework, so once I got home, I worked. However, I was able to watch the second half of the Patriot’s game. Another victory!

Finally, my learning team member Habib requested a shout-out in the blog! Hi, Habib!

*The views expressed in this blog are not necessarily those of Northeastern University, its staff, faculty or affiliates and are solely the opinion of Amy Foley.*

First Day of School!

I have to admit, I cheated. I met with my peer mentor, Katherine, a few weeks before orientation to get the low down on it. From what she said, it was going to be long and draining, but I would come out of it more prepared for the courses. Great, this was the academic equivalent of going to the gym. I know I should, I know deep down I will feel better after, but I mustering the motivation to do so was going to be tough.

Tuesday

I entered Dodge Hall the first day extremely nervous because I really had no idea what to expect and because we had an accounting assessment scheduled for later that day. I think I even wrote the wrong date on the photo release form! A continental breakfast was in the adjacent room, and usually nothing can keep me away from free food, but I decided to look over the schedule and other paperwork that I had been given. This was a strategic move; I wanted other people to sit down before I did, so I could look for one of the few students I met over the summer.

As I entered the room, I witnessed a phenomenon I haven’t seen since middle school dances – all of the women were sitting at one table, and all of the men were at another. I was tempted to shake things up, but in the end, I chose to sit with the other women. Perhaps this is because I went to a women’s college, and I take comfort in the familiar. Anyway, the seating arrangement quickly changed once we started “getting to know you” exercises.

When I saw these exercises on the schedule, I was disappointed. I had a flashback to freshman orientation, when we played the name game with an upperclassman who wanted to be anywhere else. And we had to do this for two hours? Ugh! Admittedly, I had a bad attitude going into these exercises, but they were actually really fun. I found out that one of our classmates has been attacked by a shark and two others are twins. All fraternal like my sister and me! I guess I shouldn’t have judged these exercises before we started them.

Wednesday

I was particularly looking forward to two events on Tuesday’s schedule. Today, we found out who was in our learning teams, and we went to Ashland for team building activities at the Warren Center in the rain. Many of us guessed that we would be doing trust falls, but I’m pretty sure we just all didn’t know what to expect.

I was assigned to a six person learning team, and as advertised, we all came from extremely different backgrounds, which was apparent after a brief introduction. I hate how uncomfortable this part of the team building process generally is, and I hoped that our time in Ashland would change this. On the ride over to Ashland, my team worked on our team charter, and I believe we started to speak more openly about our expectations of the team and how we should operate.

After a delicious lunch, we split up into section 26 and section 36. Being a member of section 36, I watched the other team walk outside into the rain and secretly hoped for it to stop raining by the time 36 had to go out there.

For our first activity, we broke up into our learning teams and created a strategy to reassemble a deck of cards by suit and number as quickly as possible. Then, we switched leaders. It was interesting to see what teams used which strategies.

My favorite activity of the four that we completed was named “Don’t Break the Ice.” In this activity, we had to see how few foam squares we could fit our entire section on. I can proudly say that section 36 officially had 11 squares, but unofficially fit our entire section on 9 squares. I was impressed with the motivation and determination that everyone showed.

Thursday

I honestly can’t remember much about what happened today because we were given the case study that we were to present the next day. On top of that, I was one of those presenting!

I do know that we had a speaker from IBM, and he was fantastic. He had some great advice for us, such as make yourself known as a credible and reliable person within your organization and take on challenging projects. After he spoke, we had a panel of previous Northeastern MBA's speak about their experiences during and after their degrees.

After that, my group started working on the case. We left Dodge at 7:30pm, which was early compared to some groups. I heard that one group didn’t leave the library until 11:00pm! That’s dedication! I again was impressed by the motivation not only of my team but all of the others. This was not going to be an easy decision for the judges.

Friday

This was the day that we were all dreading since the first day of orientation. After three long days, I was extremely tired. My team decided to skip breakfast and go straight to the library, so that’s what I did right after grabbing some coffee from Dunks.

We were all pretty exhausted by now, but that did not stop us from working 5 straight hours on our case, and the time went by so fast. During this time we did one thing that really helped; we practiced in front of a team from section 26, and they did the same for us. This was invaluable, and made me feel like I had already done the presentation.

Then, we left for the Curry Student Center where we presented. My team went second, which is my favorite place to go in. You don’t have to worry too long, but you get the advantage of watching one group before you. Again, I was extremely impressed by the presentations. How was it possible that we all did this much work and analysis in such a short amount of time?

After the presentations we assembled on the front steps of Dodge for a group photo; then, a large group of us promptly left for Connor Larken’s to celebrate before the dinner.

Both faculty and students gathered at the dinner. Since most of our time was spent in our sections, I had almost forgotten how many other students there were. I tried to spend part of my time speaking to students that I hadn’t met yet. The case winners were announced; and I’m sad to say my team did not win, but all of the presentations showed such in-depth analysis and creativity, that I almost felt sorry for the judges.

Saturday

This was the first day all week that I was able to sleep in (by “sleep in” I mean until 9:00am), and believe me, I took advantage of it! At noon, we had a clubs fair and many of the second year students were there to tell us about the clubs. Not surprising, I made a b-line for the Women MBA club. I am extremely interested in this club, and I even emailed the second year president over the summer to express my interest. I can’t wait until they send the email for leadership positions! I also expressed interest in the Finance and Investments Club and the MBA Connections Club. Although this was a short day, I was ready to go home after the Club Fair.

When I got home, I did homework. Such is the life of a first-year MBA!

*The views expressed in this blog are not necessarily those of Northeastern University, its staff, faculty or affiliates and are solely the opinion of Amy Foley.*

All About Me

 

Hello Northeastern universe! My name is Amy Foley, and I am a first-year, full-time MBA student. 

This is me!

Anyway, I am currently enrolled in Northeastern’s MBA program. Like most others in the program, I chose Northeastern because of the Corporate Residency program, which allows full-time students to take on an MBA-level position at a company for 6 months. As a career changer, this program is definitely something that will give me experience and help me build my network. Also, Northeastern has a fantastic reputation for academic rigor. The fact that about 98% of MBA graduates are employed six months after graduation was also a huge draw to the program.

As a career changer, I obviously did not start my career in business. In fact, my career did not even reflect my undergraduate major. For the past two years, I have worked in the editorial department for Pearson Education, an educational publisher. (Just look on the spine of any textbook that you still own from college, there is a good change that it is a Pearson product.) After two years at Pearson, I realized that publishing is great, but it’s not for me. I decided to pursue an MBA in order to gain important skills that are transferrable to a variety of industries. At the moment, I am interested in both corporate finance and non-profit finance. Whichever path I choose, I want to work for a company that has a strong mission.

A little bit about myself and family. My mother is a middle school teacher, and my father is an IT consultant. My older sister is an athletic trainer for a local high school, and my twin sister is currently at Great Falls University in Montana as a Masters of Organizational Management candidate. She is also the assistant coach for the Great Falls women’s soccer team. I grew up in Foxboro, MA, but my family moved to Rockland, MA my junior year of high school. I must have caught the moving bug, because I went to UMass Amherst my first year of college, then transferred to Simmons College for the remainder. At Simmons I studied Arts Administration and English. Don’t know what Arts Administration is? Don’t worry. Most of the time when I tell someone my undergraduate major, I get a blank stare. My study of Arts Administration included half coursework in art history and half coursework in management, in preparation to work for a museum. 

Hands-on experience with art!

More about myself. I live in Malden, Massachusetts with my fiancé, Jim. He proposed in Disney World last November, and we are currently planning the wedding for August 2012. At the moment, we know where we will have the ceremony and the reception, I have the dress, and we have the rings. Right now, I am trying to motivate myself to design the save the dates. 

He proposed with a ring; I proposed with a pickle.

I also teach the Blessed Sacrament A winter guard, which is an independent high school winter color guard that competes nationally. Don’t know what winter color guard is? Remember in high school when people dancing with flags and other equipment performed with the marching band? Take that activity, put it indoors, get rid of the marching band, and multiply it by 100. That’s winter color guard. For four years, I performed with Blessed Sacrament’s world guard, but last year I started teaching the high school guard instead of performing. At nationals last spring, I realized exactly how rewarding teaching is.

I look forward to writing this blog and sharing my first year experience with you!

*The views expressed in this blog are not necessarily those of Northeastern University, its staff, faculty or affiliates and are solely the opinion of Amy Foley.*