More Back to School!

Okay, so, those "Tuesday/Thursday" classes I said I'd talk about:

Shopper, Buyer, and Consumer Behavior ("Behavior") - Jeff Murray
I am probably far more excited about this class than is socially acceptable, but it's what I love. I would love to eventually work in shopper insights/consumer behavior, so THIS is the class I've been looking forward to taking. It's an interesting format, too. Dr. Murray (who I've never had before but who everyone raves about) hasn't assigned us a textbook. Instead, we're reading more "pop culture" themed books - the Gladwell trio (Tipping Point, Blink, and Outliers) and a book called Mind Wide Open (which I like as of the first chapter). The books are meant to complement the lectures and give us references to cite when we write our essays (basically the only graded component of the class). We have six essays, spaced throughout the semester, and one group project. No exams. Quite different from the classes I've taken in the past, but the emphasis is on creativity - so that's just plain exciting!

Consumer and Market Research ("Research") - Scot Burton
Although I may be less excited about this class than I am Behavior, I am still glad to have it on my schedule. With what I'd like to eventually do (focus on shopper marketing/insights and then *eventually* teach in a university setting), I need the skills this class will provide - the basics behind research design, implementation, and evaluation. I've had Dr. Burton before, and I liked the class I took with him as an undergrad, so I see this going well. We do have a HUGE group project that will take the entire semester, but once we get going, I'm thinking it may actually be fun...we'll see.

These are my two "career track" classes, the addition of which is new this semester. Up until now, we've ALL had class together. With the tracks, we split up into four sections (marketing [yay!], tlog, finance, and entrepreneurship). As a result, we are now taking classes with sub-sections of the class...which means my normal little study/social group is split up. It's kinda odd to not see them all everyday...

Anyway, we had normal lectures today, and I'm still just as excited about Behavior as I was on day one. Plus, I'm already getting into the reading (a good sign!). Research seems to be going well, too, with the only hiccup as of yet being the "group formation" time we had at the end of class.

Dr. Burton said we could team up in groups of, at minimum, five people. Well, conveniently enough, the little piece of our "group" that is enrolled in the class happened to be a five person version of the whole...so I assumed we'd work together. Yeah, I was wrong and that didn't work...at all. Team formation was actually a bit tense there for a sec (I'm honestly still a little confused as to how all of that happened, but, no matter). Turns out, this will probably be for the best. Those of us that ended up together are getting to work with some of the class that we don't normally get to hang out with, so, yay new friends!

As mentioned before, we don't have class on Fridays, so I'll spend all day tomorrow at the office. We're gearing up for a big meeting with Walmart on Thursday, so there's a lot to get done before then. After that, it's weekend time! Oh, and we have our first India class on Saturday - yay! That'll be a fun post, I hope.

And, did I mention that it felt like fall today? Oh, it was so nice. Almost football weather! Can't wait for that to start back up - Go Hogs!

Back to School!

We started class on Monday! (and yes, I'm actually very happy about it) I'm one of those 'weirdos' that actually LIKES school, especially the first few weeks - I love new school supplies, and meeting new teachers, and getting to write dates down in my calendar, and then checking those same things off that calendar - all of it.

Plus, as much as I love Dannon and the people I work with, the idea of only working 15 hours a week is quite refreshing. My schedule this semester has me in class every day except Friday (just like last semester). So, I'll work all day on Friday, but only go in on Monday and Thursday afternoons - leaving Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons open for fun...I mean homework...*sigh*

Monday was fun, to be honest. Other than that whole getting up really early thing (I hate 8am classes), I enjoyed my day. We haven't really gotten to see everyone this summer, so it was nice to get the class back together and hear how summer break had treated everyone.

I got there a bit early (first day of class compulsion of mine), and, though I could have picked basically any seat in the room, I went back to the same seat I sat in last semester. I am a creature of habit, so that's really not all that surprising. Then, as everyone else started to file in, the confusion began. We had some new non-MBA students in this class, and they, naturally, were unaware that we all had "seats." This caused some returning students to take OTHER seats which furthered the confusion. Nothing too crazy happened, but it was a bit hard to tell if everyone was there simply because I didn't know where to look for people.

The day was pretty standard - we went over the... syllabuses? ...syllabi? ...you know, those things with all the class info on them, and the course matrices (ha! got that one). We went around in both classes and introduced ourselves and then the professors lectured for a bit...nothing too exciting. Oooh, funny moment: the guys on my row (well, all but one) managed to wear the same outfit - blue shirts and khaki shorts...needless to say, people noticed. Made the day that much better. We ended up going to lunch afterwards and (semi-jokingly) decided to all wear yellow on Wednesday...but we apparently didn't tell Brock. We all showed up in yellow today, and poor Brock was the only one on the row in another color. I'm not sure what the class thinks of our row now...though we did provide a bit of a conversation topic.

Anyway, want to know a bit about the classes we're taking this semester? Of course you do...that's why you're here, right? Okay, since it's Wednesday, we'll start with Monday/Wednesday classes (the names are all quite long, so naturally we shorten them. I've included the shorter name for clarification of future posts. You're welcome):

Managing and Leading Organizations ("Management") - George Wibben
Our first class of the day/week. We'll be covering stuff like interpersonal skills, motivation, diversity in the workplace, recruitment, compensation, HR planning, etc. We'll also focus on team building and implementing organizational change - so, it's basically a people focused class - which is new. Up til now, we've mostly focused on numbers/warehouses/supply chain/ANYTHING IN EXCEL...I'm kinda excited to talk about people. As for our professor, "George" as he wants to be called, I like him. He's real. He's been out in the "real world" and can bring that experience into the classroom. Those are always my favorite kind of teachers. 

Accounting for Supply Chain and Retail ("Accounting") - Rien Bouwman
Well now, we couldn't get away from numbers completely, could we? Admittedly though, I don't mind accounting. It's like a big matching game - it's logical, cut and dry, black and white. Not like finance where your decision depends on about a thousand different "what if" scenarios. THIS I get. We'll focus mainly on managerial accounting (i.e. the stuff managers actually look at) instead of financial accounting (the stuff most people are familiar with - balance sheets, income statements, etc). I know enough about a balance sheet to read one (which is all that really matters), but I DON'T know much about managerial accounting, so I'm glad we're focusing on that portion. I've had Dr. Bouwman before, and I liked him, so this should be a good class.

Ethical Decision Making ("Ethics") - George Wibben
This class is set up a bit differently from the others. First, it only meets on Wednesday (so our Mondays are actually fairly short). Second, it's only an eight week class (meaning our final is in October...hmm). Our first class was today, and I'm not quite sure what to think yet. It was a lot of: here's a topic, discuss, but I'm not going to really weigh in on what's "correct." As I've mentioned before, I like black and white, cut and dry. This class will NOT be that way, I can tell already. He even said several times today "ethics is not always black and white." This class could either be really fun or really frustrating...I'll let you know.

And our Tuesday and Thursday classes? Check back tomorrow for info on those (hey, I have to have SOME ploy to get you back here, right?) Til then, readers. Happy Back to School!

Alana and the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad weekend

It didn’t start off terrible OR horrible. Thursday evening was actually quite nice. My roomie and I decided to enjoy the Perseid meteor shower from a blanket in the middle of the soccer fields across the street from our house. It was nice and dark (so the stars were clear), and the weather was wonderful – 75 and breezy. Also, since it was a relatively new moon, there was little light interference. We saw a pretty good handful of shooting stars (much better than airplanes…which did keep tricking us…). I even made us cute star shaped snacks and lemonade for us to enjoy during the show.

Then, about a second after midnight, the ickyness of the weekend set in. I should have seen this as a sign of unpleasant things to come, but no. We’re lying there, enjoying the sparkly show, minding our own business, when the automatic sprinkler system in the soccer complex kicked on. I grabbed my phone and puppy seconds before they were soaked by the evil sprinklers. We then had to gather up the blanket, cups, and picnic basket and make a run for it before we, too, were doused. We made it back to the house relatively dry and decided to call it a night.

The next morning, as I was out running errands, a guy in a mini-van managed to back into the front of my Jeep. Now, normally, I wouldn’t have been super upset. I mean, the damage wasn’t even all that bad, see?

The problem was, I had JUST had that bumper replaced, I kid you not, a month earlier. The hoops I’d had to jump through to get it fixed the first time might as well have been flaming AND spiked, so I was NOT looking forward to fixing it again. It was like re-living the nightmare.

So, I tried to brush it off and went to my doctor’s appointment (oh, I didn’t mention I was sick that day? Well, by the way, I felt icky. So that made everything better). Anyway, I made it to my appointment, got my prescription, and drove to Rogers for the last half of the work day.

That evening I went out with some of the guys from the program, and that was a nice little break. It was so nice, in fact, that I actually thought the weekend might be redeemable.

The next day, though, life got worse. I got up, planning to do several loads of laundry and ironing (which I knew would take most of the day). Halfway through my first load, the washer breaks and starts leaking water all over the kitchen floor. So, not only are half of my clothes soaking wet, the other half are dirty, the maintenance line is closed on Saturday, and my kitchen is covered in water. Great.

Well, I couldn’t go anywhere (no clean clothes, well, I had clean dresses…but it was Saturday at 10 am and a cocktail dress would have been inappropriate attire), I couldn’t get anyone to answer the phone, and I had no clue how to fix the machine (or keep the puppy from playing in the newly created puddles and making things worse).

So, I did what any girl does when an appliance brakes. I called Daddy. Of course, since he’s five hours away, he couldn’t fix it. So, I opted for plan B in the “Girl’s Manual for Fixing Anything that Breaks”: I started kicking the machine…and pushing all of the buttons…and turning it on and off…and lecturing it…and begging it…and smacking it…til it finally kicked back on.

I then composed myself, cleaned up the water, re-ran the load in the machine, and finished my laundry. The rest of the day (what was left of it) went smoothly, thank goodness. And Sunday was nice and relaxing – Heather and I spent a few hours at Starbucks while I uploaded long overdue pictures to Facebook and then we came home, assembled a shelf, and watched the Sting. Turns out, Robert Redford and Paul Newman (plus a little quality roomie time and coffee) can make even a terrible-horrible-no good-very bad weekend better.

The week promises to be pretty light (which is good since I still have a good deal of prep work to do before school starts back on Monday). Can you believe it’s time for school again already? Yeah…well, ‘til then, dear readers. Happy Tuesday!

“Can I add ‘Efficient swag-bag packer’ to my résumé?”

Yesterday, my friend Lauren and I were able to help out filling “goody bags” for the golfers participating in this weekend’s Will Golf 4 Kids charity tournament. According to their website, “Will Golf 4 Kids is a nonprofit organization that raises funds to support the mission of Arkansas Children's Hospital.” They sponsor an annual golf tournament (originally started by Walmart but now coordinated by vendors/suppliers) and charity auction. It apparently does pretty well - in 2009, the tournament and Color of Hope Charity Gala raised more than $770,000.

As part of the event, all participants are given a swag bag – full of sample product from all of the tournament’s sponsors. Thinking it would make for an entertaining morning away from work, we volunteered to help stuff these bags. Now, I had imagined that these would be basically gift bags with a few small product samples and some coupons…nope. They’re huge, 45-can capacity thermal cooler-bags that we stuffed TO THE BRIM with all kinds of stuff: detergent, brownie mix, dog treats, rubber duckies, sunscreen, granola bars, lotion, toys, mustard, golf balls, Duck tape… And it wasn’t all samples, some of this stuff was full sized.

The bag stuffing happened in Walmart’s layout center (so I couldn’t take pictures of the event…no cameras allowed in the building). Each of the volunteers grabbed a bag and walked down a long line of tables, putting one of each donated product into the bag. Our first few times down the line, our bags were almost too full to be zipped, but after about bag 4, we both had a nice little method and the bags zipped easily (by “nice little method” I mean my compulsive nature had taken over and all of my bags from that point forward matched because I had found a perfect spot for each item…). Anyway, we were there for about two hours and filled about 15 bags each. In total, all of the volunteers assembled 1400 bags. Bonus: each volunteer got to take a bag home! Nice, right? Gigi, especially, was SUPER excited. She could smell the dog treats through the bag.

Until I unpacked it on the living room floor, I don’t think I realized just how much stuff we’d put in that bag. I ran through what was there, and my roommate and I played our own little version of The Price Is Right. By our estimates, each bag is worth about $200 (NOT including all the coupons for free stuff)…(and if they gave away 1400, that’s about $280,000 worth of product). Wow, thanks Walmart.

One thing I LOVE about Dannon – they actually believe in social initiatives. It’s not just words in an annual report or a plaque on a wall, it’s part of the culture. They believe that it is our duty to give back – to our communities, to the nation, to the world. And they live it. I told my boss that I needed to miss the morning to help out the charity, and he was excited that I had found an opportunity to lend a hand (not annoyed that I’d be a few hours late to work). Reactions like that make me love my internship (and company) more and more every day.

A Drive-Through Zoo?!? (and other fun NWA weekend activities)

Greetings! Want a weekend update? Good, ‘cause that’s what you’re getting. As I mentioned last week, two of my very best friends came to visit this weekend – Kevin and Vicky Henderson. Kevin graduated from Walton, too (or is almost there…he should be defending his dissertation in the next few weeks!). After he “graduated,” he took a job in Minnesota, and so he and Vicky don’t get to come see us very often anymore. Which means, naturally, that when they are here, we have to get as much Fayetteville in as possible. Well, that’s exactly what we did this weekend.

They got here Thursday evening and we had dinner and Orange Mango (a new frozen yogurt place on Dickson Street – it’s wonderful). They were pretty tired from their 9.5 hour drive, so that’s about all we did that night.

I had to work on Friday morning, but for lunch we had Taste of Thai (another one of my favorite restaurants in town), checked out the absolute adorableness that is Riffraff (a store on the square owned by a fellow U of A grad), and had cupcakes at Bliss. I had a lavender honey flavored cupcake and it was SO yummy – just the perfect hint of floral with this lovely, light honey-ish icing. Vicky had a chocolate-maple cupcake, and yes, that is bacon on top of it. It actually wasn't as weird as we expected it to be.

 Next, we stopped by the U of A bookstore. They have just opened a new location in the Garland Center (our new parking deck on campus), and it’s incredible. I know I’m using lots of “happy” adjectives today, but really, look at this place! There’s even a computer store (with Apple Genius support which is nice since the closest Apple store is in Tulsa), a coffee bar, and a Clinique counter!

 The best part of the weekend, though, might have been Saturday. We decided to drive to Gentry (yeah, I didn’t know where it was either) to visit the drive-through zoo (called the Wild Wilderness Drive-Through Safari). Okay, so, to be honest, when I heard “drive-through zoo” and “Gentry, AR” I figured it would be like a loop around a few acres where you might get lucky enough to see a few cows/deer/buffalo, maybe a camel or two. Well, I was wrong. Here’s a short list of some of the animals we saw: kangaroos, zebras, antelopes, giraffes, tigers, lions, bears (go ahead, say it, you know you want to…), baboons, hippos, crocodiles, rhinos, etc. The drive around the park took about an hour and a half. We would have to stop occasionally to let a camel/buffalo/deer/goose/zebra cross the road, and more than once we had emus walk up to the car and peck at our windows. Admittedly, there WERE cows, deer, and buffalo, so I wasn’t totally wrong.

 There was also a “petting zoo” type of area, but once again, not the kind you would expect to find in Arkansas. We petted kangaroos and held (and were bounced on by) capuchin monkeys (one named Chloe stole my hair clippie…I was not happy), baby baboons, a teeny-tiny, precious ring-tailed lemur, and two of the sweetest lion cubs ever. I could have stood in that corral and cuddled that cub for hours.

Oh, it was SO much fun. I would go back again and again. The entrance fee is only $10 and you can stay for as long as you like. And Gentry is only about 45 min from Fayetteville, so it’s an easy Saturday trip. I’d recommend it to anyone, no matter how old.

Despite our full day, we ended up going to a movie that night (it’s a Kevin and Vicky tradition). We saw The Other Guys. I’m actually not sure if I liked it…I laughed a lot…so maybe? It was…different.

Anyway, Sunday was very laid back. We had lunch, hung out at the house, and had dinner at Grub’s (a Fayetteville classic). Monday was slower, too. I had to work, so Kevin and Vicky spent the day running around town, seeing other old friends and doing errands. We met up after work at Rick’s Bakery (Vicky used to work there and it’s one of our favorite places to sit and talk) and had dinner that evening at Powerhouse (yet another Fayetteville classic). We spent the rest of the evening back at the house, dreading the fact that Kevin and Vicky had to leave the next day.

I also had to finish my internship reports – they aren’t perfect, but they ARE just drafts, so I can perfect the final version to my heart’s content. Once I have those results a little more nailed down, I share details on them, too.

Kevin and Vicky headed back north yesterday morning (sad day). We did get to have breakfast at Rick’s before they left, though, so that was nice. Now it’s back to the routine work week – reports, analysis, meetings, etc. I’m participating in something (potentially) fun today. I’ll let you know how it goes!

Did August sneak up on anyone else?

So...yeah...how is it August already? Not only that, but how has a week of August already gone by? It amazes me how quickly time disappears. Also, it is HOT here. Not, "Oh, it's summer" hot, like "I think my skin is melting and I'm pretty sure I can swim through this air" hot...it's upsetting. Hurry up, fall!

Anyway, I don't have a tremendous amount to report from last week. I had a lovely weekend in St. Louis with my parents and family. We took my cousins to the Arch, the City Museum, and the Zoo (entertaining kids is exhausting!).

I got home late Sunday night and didn't really feel like I'd had a weekend before it was time to head back to work on Monday morning. The week went by quickly, though, full of Retail Link, Excel, conference calls and meetings.

I did have a little treat on Wednesday evening. We are blessed to have a great performing arts center in downtown Fayetteville - the Walton Arts Center. They bring in all of the big, touring Broadway shows, and on Wednesday nights, students can get discount tickets (in this instance, 50% off!). The theater is small enough that none of the seats feel very far away from the stage, so even with the "cheap" seats, you still have a great view of the show. My friend Lauren and I went to see Beauty and the Beast. It is my favorite childhood movie, and I've seen the musical several times, but no matter what, it always makes me smile and giggle like a little kid. Afterwards we grabbed a quick dinner at Kosmos (a cute, affordable little Greek place on Dickson). I love laid back nights with girlfriends - they make the occasionally boring work week go by faster.

Now it's Friday and this weekend is going to be PACKED! Two of my best friends are in town from Minnesota (Kevin got a job and took Vicky away to the frozen north last summer, so we rarely see them). We have all sorts of fun "Fayetteville" plans, so I'm sure I'll have a great "Life in Northwest Arkansas" post for you in a few days (which should involve, wait for it...a drive-through zoo! No, I'm not kidding).

On top of all of that fun, my internship reports are due on Monday, so that's going to add some unwanted "work" time to this weekend. We have to submit: an executive summary (how did the summer go, what did you accomplish, what did you learn type thing), a poster (a pictorial depiction of the summary), and a presentation. They are just drafts, but my perfectionist nature doesn't always understand the concept of "drafts," so it's probably going to take me longer than I'd like to get everything put together.

So, dear readers, I'm off to enjoy a few (unnecessarily warm) days with my favorite people. I'm sure there will be many, many pictures and fun stories to share, so check back (I mean, drive-through zoo, I KNOW you're curious...). 'Til then, friends!