Thursday, November 25, 2010
Thanksgiving!
Hey Everyone! Happy Thanksgiving to all!
Today marks the end of the 14th week of Class. I have one more week of the Fall semester remaining, followed by 3 exams the week after during finals.
Our team group for Strategic Financial Decision Making gave a presentation this previous Tuesday evening on our case work. We are still compiling our report in document format, which is due by December 3rd. We are pretty much completed with it, just have to tidy it up and make it more presentable to the professors, you know how that goes. Overall, this class has been definitely the most difficult and stressful classes in Graduate School thus far because of the extreme amount of material that we cover on a weekly basis and the amount of intense assignments that we work on - 3 case memos, 2 cases with group, presentations, exams, etc. This is all given that we meet once per week for 2.5 hours at a time - therefore it felt as though we had an assignment due weekly (excluding the first few beginner weeks!).
Financial Markets and Institutions: This class has definitely gotten better. I didn't do as well as planned on my first exam, therefore, I usually turn it up for the second one we had. I received a 98% on that exam (I will not display my first exam score, don't worry it isn't all that bad, but for me I am upsate : ) ). Again, as a reminder, our professor is the CFO of FirstMerit Bank, headquartered here in Akron, Ohio. What is amazing is the knowledge, experience and first-hand experience he is receiving on a daily basis that he relays back to us, the students. We have been reading and writing journal articles about what is happening in the business world, such as, the value of world currencies, the bailout Ireland has requested due to their crisis they are enduring, the new quantitative easing the fed is embarking on, to which they are buying billions of government securities on a monthly basis and the like. What is great is that we are applying actual material we learn in class to events that are happening today, tomorrow and so forth. One final left to go for this bad boy!
Corporate Taxation: This year I was on the graduate taxation case study team, accompanied by JD students, and we competed nationally in our Cleveland office provided by Deloitte. We, however, didn't get to place, but it was such a great experience seeing these intense scenarios of taxation and figuring from each viewpoint the effects of each action. I did so-so on this exam, but definitely feel I could have killed it - I HAD SIMPLE/BASIC errors that weren't stemmed from lack of knowledge, just lack of proofreading my answers and what not - I was very upset with that. We have a comprehensive final, so that will be intense on Thurs. Dec. 9th.
Beta Alpha Psi & Accounting Association: phenomenal semester. Service work = Incredible. Inductions = Incredible. Amount of students = Incredible. I am currently in the process of reaching out to firms to see if they want to come to our meetings and present to us as well as networking opportunities for the students and the like.
Student Toastmasters - A successful semester, but we have a lot of work to do over christmas break.
I am taking my last 3 classes next semester, and then, GRADUATION. Thank the LORD. I am so exhausted it isn't even funny. Being involved with so many things is great, but it definitely takes a toll on you. For example, this is my first post in over 2 months!!! I am working 40 hours per week and an officer for 2 organizations as well as writing weekly for our paper, The Buchtelite, about financial advice and topics. Also, I have been volunteering almost every week around 5-10 hours, so it definitely wares you down. This upcoming semester I want to limit the things I am involved in and really focus on school, friends and life.
I have been investing tremendously lately too. I will post my new blog that I have had in the works as soon as I have more posts to go with it, details, color and what not.
In closing - Thanks everyone for being my friend, caring for me and others, and showing much interest in the things I am involved in. If it wasn't for people being interested and eager, life would not be enjoyable. For family - thank you all for putting up with my busy nature and not being able to fully focus on everything all of the time. To my Friends - Thanks for everything you do for me and providing the motivation to keep on doing what I need to do and staying focused on the end result.
God Bless Everyone and Happy Thanksgiving!
-Lanny B.
Today marks the end of the 14th week of Class. I have one more week of the Fall semester remaining, followed by 3 exams the week after during finals.
Our team group for Strategic Financial Decision Making gave a presentation this previous Tuesday evening on our case work. We are still compiling our report in document format, which is due by December 3rd. We are pretty much completed with it, just have to tidy it up and make it more presentable to the professors, you know how that goes. Overall, this class has been definitely the most difficult and stressful classes in Graduate School thus far because of the extreme amount of material that we cover on a weekly basis and the amount of intense assignments that we work on - 3 case memos, 2 cases with group, presentations, exams, etc. This is all given that we meet once per week for 2.5 hours at a time - therefore it felt as though we had an assignment due weekly (excluding the first few beginner weeks!).
Financial Markets and Institutions: This class has definitely gotten better. I didn't do as well as planned on my first exam, therefore, I usually turn it up for the second one we had. I received a 98% on that exam (I will not display my first exam score, don't worry it isn't all that bad, but for me I am upsate : ) ). Again, as a reminder, our professor is the CFO of FirstMerit Bank, headquartered here in Akron, Ohio. What is amazing is the knowledge, experience and first-hand experience he is receiving on a daily basis that he relays back to us, the students. We have been reading and writing journal articles about what is happening in the business world, such as, the value of world currencies, the bailout Ireland has requested due to their crisis they are enduring, the new quantitative easing the fed is embarking on, to which they are buying billions of government securities on a monthly basis and the like. What is great is that we are applying actual material we learn in class to events that are happening today, tomorrow and so forth. One final left to go for this bad boy!
Corporate Taxation: This year I was on the graduate taxation case study team, accompanied by JD students, and we competed nationally in our Cleveland office provided by Deloitte. We, however, didn't get to place, but it was such a great experience seeing these intense scenarios of taxation and figuring from each viewpoint the effects of each action. I did so-so on this exam, but definitely feel I could have killed it - I HAD SIMPLE/BASIC errors that weren't stemmed from lack of knowledge, just lack of proofreading my answers and what not - I was very upset with that. We have a comprehensive final, so that will be intense on Thurs. Dec. 9th.
Beta Alpha Psi & Accounting Association: phenomenal semester. Service work = Incredible. Inductions = Incredible. Amount of students = Incredible. I am currently in the process of reaching out to firms to see if they want to come to our meetings and present to us as well as networking opportunities for the students and the like.
Student Toastmasters - A successful semester, but we have a lot of work to do over christmas break.
I am taking my last 3 classes next semester, and then, GRADUATION. Thank the LORD. I am so exhausted it isn't even funny. Being involved with so many things is great, but it definitely takes a toll on you. For example, this is my first post in over 2 months!!! I am working 40 hours per week and an officer for 2 organizations as well as writing weekly for our paper, The Buchtelite, about financial advice and topics. Also, I have been volunteering almost every week around 5-10 hours, so it definitely wares you down. This upcoming semester I want to limit the things I am involved in and really focus on school, friends and life.
I have been investing tremendously lately too. I will post my new blog that I have had in the works as soon as I have more posts to go with it, details, color and what not.
In closing - Thanks everyone for being my friend, caring for me and others, and showing much interest in the things I am involved in. If it wasn't for people being interested and eager, life would not be enjoyable. For family - thank you all for putting up with my busy nature and not being able to fully focus on everything all of the time. To my Friends - Thanks for everything you do for me and providing the motivation to keep on doing what I need to do and staying focused on the end result.
God Bless Everyone and Happy Thanksgiving!
-Lanny B.
Friday, September 17, 2010
Wow.. 4 Weeks Down
Hey Everyone! Today marks the end of the 4th week of the Fall of 2010 Semester. It hasn't gone by as fast as the Spring or summer, but the difference in that is there is TOO much going on over these last and upcoming weeks. To Start...
Beta Alpha Psi and Accounting Association - We have had 2 meetings, a Pre-Evening (which I was unable to attend) workshop and we are having our Bowling Social tonight in our student union. Our groups here are doing phenomenal, and around the second to last week of October, I am going to start notifying firms/companies for speaking at our meetings for Spring. We have around 50 people or so that will be attending tonight at our bowling social and we are building a resume book as well for all candidates for our event next Tuesday - Evening With the Accountants, which we will have 40+ firms recruit at our University. I will be there to represent Crowe Horwath as a Student Ambassador, as I interned there and will start Full-Time next Fall of 2011.
Student Toastmasters - I had to miss our 3rd meeting this week due to work constraints, but I hear it went extremely well. Our meetings here have ranged from 8 - 15 people and all we do is improve our public speaking ability. We have a LOT of fun in this group as it is very laxed. We need to do many things to help keep this organization alive, I am going to register us for an official student org., and hopefully we will be able to accomplish other things.
Graduate Group Deloitte Tax Challenge: Thanks to some of my friends, I was asked to be a part of the tax challenge team for the graduate school. Our advisor, and my corporate tax teacher, is amazing and she even let me borrow her brand new edition of a comprehensive volume of taxation. Our group is all MTax students and I am the sole MBA-Finance student, similar to my Corporate Tax course. We will stay the night in Cleveland on the 22nd of October and compete on that Saturday against other schools form the area. It will be intense, so all my other free time is learning other topics that I was unable to learn at an undergraduate level. There are cash prizes, dinner events, hoodies, souvenirs, etc., and it all seems like a great experience.
Strategic Financial Decision Making - Tues 5:20-750: We have a HUGE project due on Tuesday this upcoming week. I chose Pfizer to do my company analysis, along with the 2 largest competitors and we have to do investment analysis, industry analysis and ratio analysis for the company and 2 largest comp.. This will be a very intense project and I have much work to do for this. I do love being in this class, as I feel as though I know a great deal on what makes a very strong/strategic financial decision and all my extra/leisure reading has definitely paid off.
Financial Markets and Institutions - The CFO of FirstMerit, again to let everyone know, teachers our course. We had a group assignment this past Tuesday night (8:10-10:40) and I was paired up with 2 international students, which was an experience. We performed extremely well and this assignment was to prep us for our 8 chapter exam this upcoming Tuesday. I know Tuesday is a very crazy day: Evening With the Accountants, Pfizer Analysis Due, and This Monster of a test. I have been studying off and on and feel as though I will perform well on it. I will keep studying and make sure that it pays off.
Corporate Taxation: Thurs 8:10 - 10:40. WOW. That is all I have to say. With every tax code, there are exceptions, loopholes, different ways around different things and it is difficult to grasp what is black and white, just too much grey in between. It is fun working on cases and trying to make sure you get everything right on the cases and problems when we do them in class, but even if I mess up, I am eager and anxious to learn what I did wrong, what I can watch for next time and how to fix it. I am speaking on a current tax issue come Sept. 30th and I think our Midterm exam is a few weeks after that. It is a great class, lots of reading, tons of notes and just trying to be able to learn as much as I can about C Corps and the code.
Welllll..... WOW. Ok. 4/15 of the semester is over. Putting it in % terms makes it better 26.67% is done. Thursday is Thanksgiving, which means I miss Corporate Tax that night, so I only have 10 classes left for them, instead of the 11 like the others. This semester is definitely the hardest and most difficult one to fully grasp, as working full time, being involved in 2 student organizations (an officer in both), getting ready for this tax challenge, and writing for the Buchtelite, ALL WHILE trying to do a few extra things for myself long-term on the side has been so tough. Here we go. Week 5 I am coming at you. Knocking down the project and studying for the exam this weekend as well as writing up another article for the Buchtelite. Bowling Social tonight. How is everyone else doing in their studies? I talk to my undergraduate friends, and it's extremely funny in a way. The work and studies that they do just cannot compare to what graduate school is like. It is just a higher level of learning and you are surrounded by professors and students that are there for a big reason. Take care everyone!
-Lanny B
Beta Alpha Psi and Accounting Association - We have had 2 meetings, a Pre-Evening (which I was unable to attend) workshop and we are having our Bowling Social tonight in our student union. Our groups here are doing phenomenal, and around the second to last week of October, I am going to start notifying firms/companies for speaking at our meetings for Spring. We have around 50 people or so that will be attending tonight at our bowling social and we are building a resume book as well for all candidates for our event next Tuesday - Evening With the Accountants, which we will have 40+ firms recruit at our University. I will be there to represent Crowe Horwath as a Student Ambassador, as I interned there and will start Full-Time next Fall of 2011.
Student Toastmasters - I had to miss our 3rd meeting this week due to work constraints, but I hear it went extremely well. Our meetings here have ranged from 8 - 15 people and all we do is improve our public speaking ability. We have a LOT of fun in this group as it is very laxed. We need to do many things to help keep this organization alive, I am going to register us for an official student org., and hopefully we will be able to accomplish other things.
Graduate Group Deloitte Tax Challenge: Thanks to some of my friends, I was asked to be a part of the tax challenge team for the graduate school. Our advisor, and my corporate tax teacher, is amazing and she even let me borrow her brand new edition of a comprehensive volume of taxation. Our group is all MTax students and I am the sole MBA-Finance student, similar to my Corporate Tax course. We will stay the night in Cleveland on the 22nd of October and compete on that Saturday against other schools form the area. It will be intense, so all my other free time is learning other topics that I was unable to learn at an undergraduate level. There are cash prizes, dinner events, hoodies, souvenirs, etc., and it all seems like a great experience.
Strategic Financial Decision Making - Tues 5:20-750: We have a HUGE project due on Tuesday this upcoming week. I chose Pfizer to do my company analysis, along with the 2 largest competitors and we have to do investment analysis, industry analysis and ratio analysis for the company and 2 largest comp.. This will be a very intense project and I have much work to do for this. I do love being in this class, as I feel as though I know a great deal on what makes a very strong/strategic financial decision and all my extra/leisure reading has definitely paid off.
Financial Markets and Institutions - The CFO of FirstMerit, again to let everyone know, teachers our course. We had a group assignment this past Tuesday night (8:10-10:40) and I was paired up with 2 international students, which was an experience. We performed extremely well and this assignment was to prep us for our 8 chapter exam this upcoming Tuesday. I know Tuesday is a very crazy day: Evening With the Accountants, Pfizer Analysis Due, and This Monster of a test. I have been studying off and on and feel as though I will perform well on it. I will keep studying and make sure that it pays off.
Corporate Taxation: Thurs 8:10 - 10:40. WOW. That is all I have to say. With every tax code, there are exceptions, loopholes, different ways around different things and it is difficult to grasp what is black and white, just too much grey in between. It is fun working on cases and trying to make sure you get everything right on the cases and problems when we do them in class, but even if I mess up, I am eager and anxious to learn what I did wrong, what I can watch for next time and how to fix it. I am speaking on a current tax issue come Sept. 30th and I think our Midterm exam is a few weeks after that. It is a great class, lots of reading, tons of notes and just trying to be able to learn as much as I can about C Corps and the code.
Welllll..... WOW. Ok. 4/15 of the semester is over. Putting it in % terms makes it better 26.67% is done. Thursday is Thanksgiving, which means I miss Corporate Tax that night, so I only have 10 classes left for them, instead of the 11 like the others. This semester is definitely the hardest and most difficult one to fully grasp, as working full time, being involved in 2 student organizations (an officer in both), getting ready for this tax challenge, and writing for the Buchtelite, ALL WHILE trying to do a few extra things for myself long-term on the side has been so tough. Here we go. Week 5 I am coming at you. Knocking down the project and studying for the exam this weekend as well as writing up another article for the Buchtelite. Bowling Social tonight. How is everyone else doing in their studies? I talk to my undergraduate friends, and it's extremely funny in a way. The work and studies that they do just cannot compare to what graduate school is like. It is just a higher level of learning and you are surrounded by professors and students that are there for a big reason. Take care everyone!
-Lanny B
Friday, August 27, 2010
End of Week 1 of Fall 2010
Well - Week One is Over. Now starts the extremely fast paced and intense semester of graduate courses. I am going to run down through each class and activity that this semester is bringing me thus far, specifically University of Akron related.
To kick things off for the semester, the Beta Alpha Psi and Accounting Association officers had a meeting from 3:45 - 5:00 on Tuesday. We talked about the semester, what firms are coming, how our meetings are going to be set up for the students, planning out our first meeting next Tuesday and other reaching out activities that were apart of RooFest on Sunday. I emailed all of the potential members that we met this past Sunday at the RooFest to let them know about our upcoming first meeting - Meet and Greet Intro, Fashion Show, and also Pizza and Pop for all in attendance. We settled on doing a Fashion Show for students to display what TO wear and what NOT TO wear. I will be WHAT NOT TO WEAR. Hopefully a picture will be taken that I can Post
Also - I booked a room for our Student Toastmasters group which will now be on Wednesdays from 4 - 5 PM. This is our public speaking group, it is currently a very lax atmosphere, with pizza and pop of course.
First Class: 5:20 - 7:50 - Strategic Financial Decision Making with Dr. Lahey - This class seems very intense with many things going on at once - Group Projects, Individual Case Memos, Exams, Homework Assignments - you know the deal. What was nice though is that since I have a very nice finance background because of my prior courses and ability to do more on my own learning - I was able to answer many questions and shoot many other answers that the other students seemed "dumb-founded" to say the least, but I will not say anymore. I chose my firm that I will do research on - Pfizer, happy especially because I own stock in them as well : ) We also formed our group and all we need to do now is establish which semester long case we will be working on. I will keep updating when new facts arrive.
Second: 8:10 - 10:40 - Financial Markets and Institutions with Professor Terrance aka the CFO of FirstMerit Bank. How awesome is that? We have the CFO of a large regional bank (one that I have done business with over the last 8+ years!) lecturing/teaching this course. The first class was very basic with going through notes etc., but he has the most real first hand experience with the most recent and on going financial crisis which especially hit hard with the financial institutions. I am definitely eager and excited to hear what he has to say. I did three quizzes that were assigned for the first 3 chapters 2 days ago, just to stay on top of things.
Third: 8:10 - 10:40 - Corporate Taxation with Dr. Mosebach. She seemed so awesome and passionate about Tax and has already spread wisdom and expanded my knowledge base on corporate taxation. Funny thing is - I am the ONLY non-MTax/MSA/JD student. This was the course that I had to talk to a few of the "big dogs" to be placed in this course. All MBA-Finance students probably think I am crazy for taking this course in place of a much easier one, well I want to Learn and I am paying for it. I am EXTREMELY intrigued by this course especially - since it will help determine which type of company I want to start of my own - whether that be C Corp, S Corp, LLC, Lp, LLP etc to name a few. Very intense course based on reading and keeping up to to date with tax law and code.
Weekend - I have a lot of reading and small assignments to do along with finishing my graduation application for next May 2011. I will be reading about Pfizer - going through their SEC filings to learn more about them, reading more and practicing Corporate tax, and also reading up on Financial Markets and Institutions. Hopefully I am disciplined enough to stay on top of the readings for the duration of the semester.
How are all your courses going thus far for the semester? I feel as though this will breeze by and that next thing I know it - snow will be on the ground and Christmas Lights outside. Talk to everyone soon and good luck!
-Lanny B.
To kick things off for the semester, the Beta Alpha Psi and Accounting Association officers had a meeting from 3:45 - 5:00 on Tuesday. We talked about the semester, what firms are coming, how our meetings are going to be set up for the students, planning out our first meeting next Tuesday and other reaching out activities that were apart of RooFest on Sunday. I emailed all of the potential members that we met this past Sunday at the RooFest to let them know about our upcoming first meeting - Meet and Greet Intro, Fashion Show, and also Pizza and Pop for all in attendance. We settled on doing a Fashion Show for students to display what TO wear and what NOT TO wear. I will be WHAT NOT TO WEAR. Hopefully a picture will be taken that I can Post
Also - I booked a room for our Student Toastmasters group which will now be on Wednesdays from 4 - 5 PM. This is our public speaking group, it is currently a very lax atmosphere, with pizza and pop of course.
First Class: 5:20 - 7:50 - Strategic Financial Decision Making with Dr. Lahey - This class seems very intense with many things going on at once - Group Projects, Individual Case Memos, Exams, Homework Assignments - you know the deal. What was nice though is that since I have a very nice finance background because of my prior courses and ability to do more on my own learning - I was able to answer many questions and shoot many other answers that the other students seemed "dumb-founded" to say the least, but I will not say anymore. I chose my firm that I will do research on - Pfizer, happy especially because I own stock in them as well : ) We also formed our group and all we need to do now is establish which semester long case we will be working on. I will keep updating when new facts arrive.
Second: 8:10 - 10:40 - Financial Markets and Institutions with Professor Terrance aka the CFO of FirstMerit Bank. How awesome is that? We have the CFO of a large regional bank (one that I have done business with over the last 8+ years!) lecturing/teaching this course. The first class was very basic with going through notes etc., but he has the most real first hand experience with the most recent and on going financial crisis which especially hit hard with the financial institutions. I am definitely eager and excited to hear what he has to say. I did three quizzes that were assigned for the first 3 chapters 2 days ago, just to stay on top of things.
Third: 8:10 - 10:40 - Corporate Taxation with Dr. Mosebach. She seemed so awesome and passionate about Tax and has already spread wisdom and expanded my knowledge base on corporate taxation. Funny thing is - I am the ONLY non-MTax/MSA/JD student. This was the course that I had to talk to a few of the "big dogs" to be placed in this course. All MBA-Finance students probably think I am crazy for taking this course in place of a much easier one, well I want to Learn and I am paying for it. I am EXTREMELY intrigued by this course especially - since it will help determine which type of company I want to start of my own - whether that be C Corp, S Corp, LLC, Lp, LLP etc to name a few. Very intense course based on reading and keeping up to to date with tax law and code.
Weekend - I have a lot of reading and small assignments to do along with finishing my graduation application for next May 2011. I will be reading about Pfizer - going through their SEC filings to learn more about them, reading more and practicing Corporate tax, and also reading up on Financial Markets and Institutions. Hopefully I am disciplined enough to stay on top of the readings for the duration of the semester.
How are all your courses going thus far for the semester? I feel as though this will breeze by and that next thing I know it - snow will be on the ground and Christmas Lights outside. Talk to everyone soon and good luck!
-Lanny B.
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Class Line up for Fall 2010
Hey Hey Everyone! Today's post I will focus on the courses that I will be taking this fall:
Tuesdays 5:20 - 7:50 - Strategic Financial Decision Making = This sounds interesting simply because I use financial metrics etc., to analyze and aid in my decision making process. This will be more on a corporation/business unit level dealing with external factors that can hinder/propel the outcome of a decision. Definitely interested in the strategy behind making extremely important decisions in a corporation and what type of methods are used to evaluate those decisions.
Tuesdays: 8:10 - 10:40 - Financial Markets and Institutions = All about the different markets out there in the financial world. I am sure I will deal with laws/regulation as well as deadlines and requirements for companies.
Thursdays: 8:10 - 10:40 - Corporate Taxation = This class is pretty self explanatory. Learning tax law/code for Corporations, Shareholder information, the reporting, deductions etc. I am excited for this course more especially because I opted to take this one in place of another course, since it will help me in the long run if I want to run my own corporation.
Next Tuesday this begins. Oh boy. I hear this should be the hardest semester of the program. Eager to learn, hopefully the professors are eager to teach : ). Talk to everyone soon and I appreciate anyone stopping by. Question I leave = What classes are you all taking? Any rumors on the difficulty of the class? Best of luck to everyone in going back to school as well!
-Lanny B.
Tuesdays 5:20 - 7:50 - Strategic Financial Decision Making = This sounds interesting simply because I use financial metrics etc., to analyze and aid in my decision making process. This will be more on a corporation/business unit level dealing with external factors that can hinder/propel the outcome of a decision. Definitely interested in the strategy behind making extremely important decisions in a corporation and what type of methods are used to evaluate those decisions.
Tuesdays: 8:10 - 10:40 - Financial Markets and Institutions = All about the different markets out there in the financial world. I am sure I will deal with laws/regulation as well as deadlines and requirements for companies.
Thursdays: 8:10 - 10:40 - Corporate Taxation = This class is pretty self explanatory. Learning tax law/code for Corporations, Shareholder information, the reporting, deductions etc. I am excited for this course more especially because I opted to take this one in place of another course, since it will help me in the long run if I want to run my own corporation.
Next Tuesday this begins. Oh boy. I hear this should be the hardest semester of the program. Eager to learn, hopefully the professors are eager to teach : ). Talk to everyone soon and I appreciate anyone stopping by. Question I leave = What classes are you all taking? Any rumors on the difficulty of the class? Best of luck to everyone in going back to school as well!
-Lanny B.
Thursday, August 12, 2010
End of Summer & School Sessions, Fall 2010 Begins
Hey everyone, I have been on a 3 month Hiatus. I am back however, to speak on my last few experiences and to touch base with everyone. Here is my summer broken down into sections:
Visitation of Mary Parish - I started working at this Parish in Akron Ohio around mid-April. I have been there now for going on 5 months and it has been an experience thus far. I am the administrative assistant and pretty much do a lot of the day to day operations and am striving to save the Parish money by being extremely efficient and to help organize their financial data in a much more orderly fashion.
Summer Session - 6 Credits total - I took 6 credit hours total - 3 one credit courses as part of U of A's LEAP program - Terrorism & Global economy, SAP, and Business Decision analytics. All were experiences from different viewpoints and I am truly grateful for being a part of their first time doing these courses. SAP was extremely intense - as we learned how to operate SAP at a minimal in less than 2 days (usually a whole semester to a years worth). Bus. Decision analytics was pretty basic as it had a lot to do with excel functions - to which I have a pretty large knowledge base on. I received an A luckily in all courses.
My full class that was worth 3 credits in itself was Operations Management, pretty much an intense more in depth version of Principles of Operations Management, which I took at an Undergraduate level. We formed an awesome group for our cases, homework and project, to which we excelled very nicely. We had one midterm and one final exam, along with weekly homework assignments and quizzes. I definitely learned more and appreciated more of the operations and supply chain side of a business -- definitely can see where there can be jobs from this, as it is a nice way to increase effectiveness and efficiency in an organization. Luckily, again, I received an A
Grad School GPA as of today = 3.944
San Jose California - Came back from San Jose California late last night. Best trip in a while. I love San Jose. Perfect weather and perfect people. This was for our Beta Alpha Psi National Conference meeting, to which we presented on Innovative Career Networking. We offer many activities and events for our students to meet and network with potential employers, it is amazing. I was very proud to present with my group and I believed we performed very well, as we received many questions and spoke with our moderator afterwards for a while to which we always stated - "you are all on top of this and are on your top game". We enjoyed the 6 days we were out there, meeting new students from universities across, not just the US, but world. We had great afternoons and nights, and I have created memories with my friends that will last a lifetime.
August 24th. First day of Fall Session begins. I am taking 3 courses, 9 credit hours total. I will be taking 3 courses in the spring to complete my MBA finance program. It will be a busy year - as I am VP of communications for BAP, Co President for Student Toastmasters and am currently working 35-40 hours per week. My class schedule is nice - only there on Tues/Thurs. Sadly, I am there until 10:40 PM, however. I am going into this semester with a completely different outlook. I want to learn and experience as much as I can, with as many people as I can. I want to attack everything that I do on a daily basis with full thought and soul, to really get everything I can out of it. I am excited to create new friendships and strengthen current ones. Here we go everyone, Fall 2010 is going to be amazing.
I will update as soon as possible, thank you for reading and good luck to everyone on the close of their summer!! When does everyone else start? What courses are you taking? Post below if you'd like!
-Lanny Berlingieri
Visitation of Mary Parish - I started working at this Parish in Akron Ohio around mid-April. I have been there now for going on 5 months and it has been an experience thus far. I am the administrative assistant and pretty much do a lot of the day to day operations and am striving to save the Parish money by being extremely efficient and to help organize their financial data in a much more orderly fashion.
Summer Session - 6 Credits total - I took 6 credit hours total - 3 one credit courses as part of U of A's LEAP program - Terrorism & Global economy, SAP, and Business Decision analytics. All were experiences from different viewpoints and I am truly grateful for being a part of their first time doing these courses. SAP was extremely intense - as we learned how to operate SAP at a minimal in less than 2 days (usually a whole semester to a years worth). Bus. Decision analytics was pretty basic as it had a lot to do with excel functions - to which I have a pretty large knowledge base on. I received an A luckily in all courses.
My full class that was worth 3 credits in itself was Operations Management, pretty much an intense more in depth version of Principles of Operations Management, which I took at an Undergraduate level. We formed an awesome group for our cases, homework and project, to which we excelled very nicely. We had one midterm and one final exam, along with weekly homework assignments and quizzes. I definitely learned more and appreciated more of the operations and supply chain side of a business -- definitely can see where there can be jobs from this, as it is a nice way to increase effectiveness and efficiency in an organization. Luckily, again, I received an A
Grad School GPA as of today = 3.944
August 24th. First day of Fall Session begins. I am taking 3 courses, 9 credit hours total. I will be taking 3 courses in the spring to complete my MBA finance program. It will be a busy year - as I am VP of communications for BAP, Co President for Student Toastmasters and am currently working 35-40 hours per week. My class schedule is nice - only there on Tues/Thurs. Sadly, I am there until 10:40 PM, however. I am going into this semester with a completely different outlook. I want to learn and experience as much as I can, with as many people as I can. I want to attack everything that I do on a daily basis with full thought and soul, to really get everything I can out of it. I am excited to create new friendships and strengthen current ones. Here we go everyone, Fall 2010 is going to be amazing.
I will update as soon as possible, thank you for reading and good luck to everyone on the close of their summer!! When does everyone else start? What courses are you taking? Post below if you'd like!
-Lanny Berlingieri
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
First Semester of Grad School Over as of 5/5/2010
End of 1st Semester
-WHOA. Really? Wait, did 16 weeks just go by? Oh, okay. Yes, everyone, the first semester of Graduate School had wrapped up for me last week on Wednesday the 5th of May after turning in my final and last paper for Capital Budgeting.
Thoughts
-I love graduate school. Not only are you taking courses that are to your liking, that you have interest in taking (heck, at around $500 per credit hour, it better be something I want to learn about!), but you are surrounded by like minded individuals and you experience more freedom than one could imagine in terms of more available time, freedom in assignments and paper and the like. Thank you UA for providing this aspect for me, it is much appreciative. One thing, I want to be Challenged a tad more. I feel that I wasn't pushed rarely at all. I want to feel that my back is against the ropes. I want to feel pressure in a class. I really didn't receive any of that, but I guess that is because this is more individual based and the pushing is up to the student not the professor.
Our minds are definitely more advanced than most, no disrespect please to anyone, but there are reasons why we are in this type of education curriculum. My mind has changed, grown, adapted tremendously these last 4.5 months, words cannot even begin to describe it. The different points of views that I take any little statement from is making my head spin, finding opportunities in everything is relentless, and my eagerness to learn more is at a height that I have never experienced.
Highlights:
-I have read 9 books, as of recently, outside of the classroom at my own will. I think I read one book at will my 3.5 years in undergrad.
-Investment Analysis - all the students (about 35-40) gave presentations on the company/stock they believe would be a good move to invest into, our reasonings and explanations of course, to which we voted on afterwards on the top 3. My investment company I presented (and I actually did invest) won 1st place in voting.
-Went to Chicago with the present and upcoming Beta Alpha Psi offers = Incredible
-Finished another year of coaching High Jump track for Holy Family in Stow
-Leadership course has opened up my eyes more and my desire to experience many different activities in life and help develop myself more into a "leader", more on how to live life in general as well.
-Capital Budgeting was a great course. Along with this course and many books, it is all about cash flow, in this course we focused mainly on discounted cash flows to valuate companies. Cash Flow IS KEY.
-I received a 3.91 GPA for my first semester as a grad student, had to throw that in there!
-Made many new friends, have really found some peers that are interested in learning and taking action into what I also want to do = phenomenal when you have that type of synergy.
Upcoming:
-I have a L.E.A.P course that is Friday/Saturday from 9AM - 430 PM with Dr Thomas. Will be a fast credit hour.
-Another LEAP course on June 4th & 5th, similar to above times, topic is SAP
-Summer course from 6/21 - 7/22 for Operations Management, 3 credit hours
-Final LEAP course on July 17th and 24th for another credit hour.
-Total 6 Credit hours in 20 actual days of class = VERY Rapid Paced.
-Going to San Jose with Ian, Mo, Kristian (BAP Officers) for our national meeting in August
Final Words
-Thank you to my friends, family, UA staff and other departments for helping me, following me on here and guiding me along this path. I can't wait to knock some more books and credit hours out and really focus on some planning in terms of business ventures and the like. Lets just say the next 7 months should be another life alternating time period for me, I believe. Of course, I will keep everyone updated!
-Big shout out to my friends that are graduating this semester = Congratulations everyone, you all have worked so hard and made many proud, keep it up and stay focused on your goals. Shout out to David and Robbie Stein & the Stein family, our prayers are continually with you. Until next time, enjoy all your summers, enjoy the start of a new career, enjoy the approach of higher education and enjoy every second that we have. Don't Count the days, Make the Days Count.
-Lanny B
-WHOA. Really? Wait, did 16 weeks just go by? Oh, okay. Yes, everyone, the first semester of Graduate School had wrapped up for me last week on Wednesday the 5th of May after turning in my final and last paper for Capital Budgeting.
Thoughts
-I love graduate school. Not only are you taking courses that are to your liking, that you have interest in taking (heck, at around $500 per credit hour, it better be something I want to learn about!), but you are surrounded by like minded individuals and you experience more freedom than one could imagine in terms of more available time, freedom in assignments and paper and the like. Thank you UA for providing this aspect for me, it is much appreciative. One thing, I want to be Challenged a tad more. I feel that I wasn't pushed rarely at all. I want to feel that my back is against the ropes. I want to feel pressure in a class. I really didn't receive any of that, but I guess that is because this is more individual based and the pushing is up to the student not the professor.
Our minds are definitely more advanced than most, no disrespect please to anyone, but there are reasons why we are in this type of education curriculum. My mind has changed, grown, adapted tremendously these last 4.5 months, words cannot even begin to describe it. The different points of views that I take any little statement from is making my head spin, finding opportunities in everything is relentless, and my eagerness to learn more is at a height that I have never experienced.
Highlights:
-I have read 9 books, as of recently, outside of the classroom at my own will. I think I read one book at will my 3.5 years in undergrad.
-Investment Analysis - all the students (about 35-40) gave presentations on the company/stock they believe would be a good move to invest into, our reasonings and explanations of course, to which we voted on afterwards on the top 3. My investment company I presented (and I actually did invest) won 1st place in voting.
-Went to Chicago with the present and upcoming Beta Alpha Psi offers = Incredible
-Finished another year of coaching High Jump track for Holy Family in Stow
-Leadership course has opened up my eyes more and my desire to experience many different activities in life and help develop myself more into a "leader", more on how to live life in general as well.
-Capital Budgeting was a great course. Along with this course and many books, it is all about cash flow, in this course we focused mainly on discounted cash flows to valuate companies. Cash Flow IS KEY.
-I received a 3.91 GPA for my first semester as a grad student, had to throw that in there!
-Made many new friends, have really found some peers that are interested in learning and taking action into what I also want to do = phenomenal when you have that type of synergy.
Upcoming:
-I have a L.E.A.P course that is Friday/Saturday from 9AM - 430 PM with Dr Thomas. Will be a fast credit hour.
-Another LEAP course on June 4th & 5th, similar to above times, topic is SAP
-Summer course from 6/21 - 7/22 for Operations Management, 3 credit hours
-Final LEAP course on July 17th and 24th for another credit hour.
-Total 6 Credit hours in 20 actual days of class = VERY Rapid Paced.
-Going to San Jose with Ian, Mo, Kristian (BAP Officers) for our national meeting in August
Final Words
-Thank you to my friends, family, UA staff and other departments for helping me, following me on here and guiding me along this path. I can't wait to knock some more books and credit hours out and really focus on some planning in terms of business ventures and the like. Lets just say the next 7 months should be another life alternating time period for me, I believe. Of course, I will keep everyone updated!
-Big shout out to my friends that are graduating this semester = Congratulations everyone, you all have worked so hard and made many proud, keep it up and stay focused on your goals. Shout out to David and Robbie Stein & the Stein family, our prayers are continually with you. Until next time, enjoy all your summers, enjoy the start of a new career, enjoy the approach of higher education and enjoy every second that we have. Don't Count the days, Make the Days Count.
-Lanny B
Thursday, April 15, 2010
End of Week 13!
Hey Everyone! End of week 13 over here for me! Ended last night at around 7:00 PMish, lucky me! A recap of this week:
Monday: Just coached at track practice from 6-7:45 for Holy Family grades 3 - 8
Tuesday: Investment Analysis Class - Very interesting, we talked about different trends, about rational investing, ended the class off with just some ending words of advice in regards to using the stock market as your investment vehicle. Received my paper back and received 100, and picked a presentation day for first up on April 27th. We have an exam next Tuesday the 20th.
Beta Alpha Psi/Accounting Association: Prior to class, we had our inductions for new members and officers (I will be VP of communications), having pasta, lasagna etc., from Spaghetti Warehouse and having a few faculty join in. I am pretty excited about the position and to make the group better, the officers standing down were awesome and we have big shoes to fill.
Wednesday: Had student toastmasters, which went well, talked about applications for the iPhone and many people had great ideas for the app store, pretty cool stuff.
Strategic Marketing Management: Had our exam - the essays were pretty decent, but there were 6-8 multiple choice that I just could not narrow down for the life of me! Again, I hope I get a 50/50 right on the ones that I could narrow and make an intelligent guess on. I received my Netflix paper back and received 100 again. He must be getting excited for his retirement at the end of this semester! Also, if I do semi-well on this exam, I won't have to take the final. I have my fingers crossed.
This upcoming weekend: Well, today I have track practice to coach at again from 6-7:45. After that, I just need to plan and get ready for my trip to Oxford for a formal that I was asked to go to from Caitlin. Pretty excited, but doubt my legs will be able to move like they used to : ). Looking forward to it, but I feel terrible that I am missing out on our track meet on Sunday and also work on Sunday. Also, I have to find plenty of time to study for my Investment Analysis exam next Tuesday. It should be quite a busy upcoming 5 days for me. And guess what? It starts NOW!
Therefore I am taking off to read and study some. Any one have any big plans for the weekend? Cavs play the Bulls Saturday to start the playoffs - Definitely looking forward to the "extended" season! Go Cavs! This is YOUR Year!!
-Lanny B.
Monday: Just coached at track practice from 6-7:45 for Holy Family grades 3 - 8
Tuesday: Investment Analysis Class - Very interesting, we talked about different trends, about rational investing, ended the class off with just some ending words of advice in regards to using the stock market as your investment vehicle. Received my paper back and received 100, and picked a presentation day for first up on April 27th. We have an exam next Tuesday the 20th.
Beta Alpha Psi/Accounting Association: Prior to class, we had our inductions for new members and officers (I will be VP of communications), having pasta, lasagna etc., from Spaghetti Warehouse and having a few faculty join in. I am pretty excited about the position and to make the group better, the officers standing down were awesome and we have big shoes to fill.
Wednesday: Had student toastmasters, which went well, talked about applications for the iPhone and many people had great ideas for the app store, pretty cool stuff.
Strategic Marketing Management: Had our exam - the essays were pretty decent, but there were 6-8 multiple choice that I just could not narrow down for the life of me! Again, I hope I get a 50/50 right on the ones that I could narrow and make an intelligent guess on. I received my Netflix paper back and received 100 again. He must be getting excited for his retirement at the end of this semester! Also, if I do semi-well on this exam, I won't have to take the final. I have my fingers crossed.
This upcoming weekend: Well, today I have track practice to coach at again from 6-7:45. After that, I just need to plan and get ready for my trip to Oxford for a formal that I was asked to go to from Caitlin. Pretty excited, but doubt my legs will be able to move like they used to : ). Looking forward to it, but I feel terrible that I am missing out on our track meet on Sunday and also work on Sunday. Also, I have to find plenty of time to study for my Investment Analysis exam next Tuesday. It should be quite a busy upcoming 5 days for me. And guess what? It starts NOW!
Therefore I am taking off to read and study some. Any one have any big plans for the weekend? Cavs play the Bulls Saturday to start the playoffs - Definitely looking forward to the "extended" season! Go Cavs! This is YOUR Year!!
-Lanny B.
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