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

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.

Skipping Ahead

Hey Everyone ~ Sorry for the Delay, my blogs were down for some time and I wasn't able to post, my apologies.  I therefore am calling this post, "Skipping Ahead" because I will be fast forwarding a week or so.

April 4th week: I had completed 2 papers - One in Investment Analysis regarding my stock screening task, why I chose the criteria, the top 5 companies that my results "spat" out and what and why I chose the company to invest in, which in fact, I did invest in the company and another 2 by the way : ).  The other paper was regarding Netflix Inc., for my Strategic Marketing Management course which had to describe a new type mission statement for them, about their product offerings and growth strategies and also dealing with the result of technology - whether it was sustaining or disruptive to them - of course technology is really the platform for Netflix, especially when talking about the means of the internet and its capabilities for them and the disruptiveness to Blockbuster, which is trading around 25 cents per share, ouch!

That finished off that Week really, had another evaluation/quiz sort in Capital Budgeting which was pretty easy, we won't be having class this Wednesday night due to a conference he is attending.  He now has changed his final to a report instead of an exam - which really is nice because I love to pour my thoughts, strategies, ideas and understandings of what we are learning than taking a MC or T/F question type test - that just doesn't show that you understand the material.  Also, our intramural team (Gamebreakers) won on Tuesday night, which is 2 wins in a row and actually we have "mercied" the team 2 weeks in a row now.  Oh on another note -> I was front page on the Buchtelite, our University paper, regarding a financial advice section, where I talked about Roth IRAs - Invest Now, especially while you are young - the main principle of the article.

13th Week of Grad School Ahead
-Investment Analysis: I believe we are simply having a lecture
-Intramural Basketball Game at 9PM
-Strategic Marketing Management - Exam #2.  If I do well on this, I don't have to take the final : )
-Capital Budgeting: No Class (Professor @ Conference)
-Miami for Caitlin's Formal Dance on Saturday night - Hope my 180,000 + Mile car makes it : )

We are in the home stretch as of right now and there are still many things to accomplish.  I received a 95/100 on my presentation in Leadership on that last Monday in March and a 94 on my Leadership Development Plan, which I keep revising and reading to really find where I am going on this journey.  I appreciate everyone reading and I truly am curious: How is everyone finishing up?  Summer Plans?  Let me know!  Talk to you all soon.

-Lanny B.

Chicago with Beta Alpha Psi

Hey everyone ~ long time no talk!  The reason for this huge delay is because I was in Chicago from Thursday until late Sunday evening and have been extremely busy getting settled back in and getting adjusted to the Akron lifestyle again.  I was in Chicago with the current and upcoming Beta Alpha Psi members, we are a business organization at The University of Akron that entails for the majority: accounting students, some finance and MIS students.  We have professional speakers from public accounting firms and industry companies and it is just a really big tool to network, get the face-to-face time with potential employers and it is also an amazing way to build friendships at the university.

Thursday 3/25/10: We departed Cleveland at 8:00 AM on the MegaBus towards Chicago.  The bus ride was awesome as we all talked, made jokes and had fun.  We stopped on Toledo to pick up more people and also made a rest break in Northern Indiana (howe? I believe).  It was nice landing in Chicago and getting the extra hour : ).  Upon landing, we took a cab ride to the Double Tree hotel and the place was awesome.  We received these amazing, mouth watering cookies, so that was a great way to start the trip.

We then got to our floor and parked our things in our rooms, and we decided to hike it to the Willis/Sear's Tower.  The wind was insane!  So I definitely understand why they call it the Windy City.  Nevertheless, we arrived at the tower, received our tickets and started to hike up the elevator to the 103rd floor!  Out here, we were all in awe.  The view from the top of one of the largest buildings in the world, overseeing the city of Chicago was breathless.  MTV was filming an episode for the Buried Life and we got to meet the actors on there which was pretty neat.  The craziest part though is that they installed these all Glass encompassing ledges that stick outside of that floor that you can walk on to.  Bottom-line, it was scary.  We all managed to do it and with a few more turns it became effortless!  In fact, Justin was jumping on them and I was doing pushups - with nothing separating everyone from the bottom but a piece of plexiglass!!!

Giordanos: The BEST pizza I have ever had - American style, that is.  WOW.  The pizza was over an inch thick and was so elegant and perfectly placed together.  It was phenomenal and in the words of Autumn "Life Changing".  Justin, Ian and I ended up taking down 3 slices of the masterpiece.

Friday: To start the day, we headed over to "The Bean" which was also just a beautiful piece of art.  We took many pictures and had a pretty good time checking out the other structures.  We had lunch at The Gage and since it was Friday, I had a salmon sandwich which was actually extremely good.  We also went to Lavazza and had some wonderful gelato - nothing wrong with that!  It's funny because my Nona Gina (grandma) loves Lavazza espresso, so of course, I had cafe espresso gelato!
Then, we had our conference meeting numero uno.  Our keynote speaker was John Blumberg and he is the author of 2 novels.  His speech was about core values and how we "drift" away from them during our careers and our lives.  At my table were Kent State, Notre Dame, Ohio Northern and Xavier students, I was surprised to actually find out we knew some of the same people!  We had a team building exercise where we had to build a tower out of newspaper and tape and relate it to core values.  Our team called ours "The IFRS Tower".  Surprisingly, out of 34 teams, we placed 5th with an honorable mention - not bad.
Afterwards, we went to the rainforest cafe and I ate Mahi-Mahi tacos.  Our server was funny as he knew Akron and was mentioning things for all of us to do in Chicago.  We finished the night by going to a little Irish place, relaxing and walking down by the river.

I will provide the next 2 days on my next post!  Stay Tuned!

End of Spring Break, Start of Week 10

Spring Break and it's lavish/relaxing days are now at an end.  I have come to realize what I love to do - Read.  Not just any fiction type book, but I mean read books that are increasing my intelligence in regards to finance, business and the like.  I have developed a large passion to expand my content and context and am eager to continue to learn - through technical information and also through personal relationships.

Spring break came to end with beautiful weather.  I had track practice to coach on the last Thursday, relaxed and read pretty much the rest of the weekend - started my Leadership Development plan (20-40 pages!!) which is due on March 29th along with a presentation.  I have knocked out 8 pages thus far to it and I can easily see it being way more than the 20 pages no doubt.

Last night: I had a track meeting with the coaches at 7pm because our practice was canceled due to rain and spoke about practices this week and the meet on Sunday.
This week = Chicago.  I will be leaving for Chicago Thursday Morning at 6 AM with Beta Alpha Psi.  We are going for our regional conference meeting and I just found out we aren't returning until Midnight/Monday at 12:00 AM.  Therefore, I need to call and request my Sunday shift off, let the other coaches know I will not be able to make it to the meet and also have most of my leadership plan done by then : (, but it will be all worth it.

I have intramural basketball tonight at 10pm, which just stinks because class for me ends at 7:50, I will write more of my paper and get in a workout at the rec before the games begin I think, simply because I don't want to lolligag for 2 hours and waste the time.  Kind of frustrated because I have been carpooling everyone in my family - the siblings for high school and even my mom because her tie-rod is destroyed - I think it may get fixed today but who knows.  So the last thing I'd want to do is stay on a campus that is 20 minutes away from where I want to be.  But oh well.

Leadership Last night was great.  It's technically the last one where we will have a discussion.  We talked about keeping power when you have a leadership role, when to give it up etc.  and also about ethics and absolute ethics.  There is a lot of what we talked about that touches on many points in the books that I have been reading, which just makes it all the better.  I am excited and eager to finish my report and talk for a few minutes on what I am most passionate bout on the topic of leadership next Monday.

I have a stock screen report due next Tuesday, and another big paper due the follow Wednesday I believe on the 7th of April, followed by a final in Strategic Marketing on the 14th as well.  I have quizzes/in-class assignments for Capital Budgeting for the last 5 weeks I would assume, until the final given during the 1st week of May.  I essentially think that I will only have 1 actual "final" during that finals week.  I will keep everyone posted on that.

How is everyone's semester finishing up?  Getting geared up for finals?  Majority of my friends are graduating in May and I can't help but feel excited for them to finish the chapter that just ended for me and for them to start on some new journey - some will be starting full time jobs in other states starting in June/July/Aug and others are starting their graduate programs in this upcoming Fall as well.  I wish everyone the best of luck, please feel free to comment your thoughts and feelings below or message me! Talk to everyone soon.

-Lanny B.

Spring Break Update!

Hey Everyone!  Spring break has been so relaxing!  I have been busy, but with things that I love to do.  So what exactly have I been up to?

Thursday & Friday: Relaxed, Ran outside in the beautiful weather, started reading: Rich Dad's Retire Young, Retire Rich by Robert Kiyosaki.  It's a great book and part of the Rich Dad Poor Dad series.  My cousin Brent also came over on Friday and we got a run in, discussed many important topics concerning education, college, life, what we are called to do etc.  It was pretty deep discussion.  Cleveland Cavaliers beat the 76ers, which was always a plus and on Friday Akron advanced to the MAC Championships and My friend Mike and his brother Zach found tickets online for us to go.  Game was Saturday at 6 at the Quicken Loans Arena

Saturday: Got a workout at The University of Akron's Recreation & Wellness center at around 2:15, went back to Mike and Zach's apartment and I made them Pasta and made a pretty good sauce with chicken in it.  We went to the game at around 4:35, Akron was Facing Ohio University for the MAC title and a bid to the NCAA Tournament.

Damn.  Damn.  That's all I have to say about the game.  It is a shame knowing that you're team is much better than the other, but it just wasn't their day.  OU had 2 very good players, but I would never consider them a team.  We are so spread out and have good overall players that trust and count on one another.  Wow Moment - Steve McNees drains a 3 with under 15 seconds to go to TIE the game and put us into OT.  He Then hit another 3 with around 1 minute to go to tie it 75 a piece in over-time.  His and Akron's efforts weren't enough to stop OU's Bassit and Cooper.  Tough, mentally draining loss.  Next year fellas, next year.  You did phenomenal this year, 24-10, and thanks for a great season.

Sunday: I had work at the Parish Office and just relaxed.  Watched the Cavs beat the Celtics - Always a great recovery from the Akron Zips loss.

Monday: Took my brother & sister to high school and then went to my cousin Brent's house for a run, a little business action to help him build up a donation amount for his journey to Bethlehem Farms.  He is going on a 1 month retreat from Mid-May to end of June.  I may go down for a few days to do some service work.  Before our run, we prepared a Pumpkin/Apple/Banana bread and placed it in the oven and afterwards nibbled at it a little bit at a time.  It was phenomenal.  Then, we played monopoly with him and his gf, which is always a good time.  I then had to coach HF track practice at 6:15-7:45ish, which was just a fun time - 140+ children from grades 3 - 8, it's quite the party!

Today/Tuesday: So far, I have taken the siblings to school again and went over to Brent's for another run.  I just finished the run and am typing this now!  I brought over my book and other things to read and take care of while I am here.  It's weird taking myself away from homework/studies for a few days and relax the mind in that manner.  I think today/tomorrow I will begin back up and prepare for the week(s) to come.  I have my fall semester planned as well, to which I will talk about in a later post once it is finalized.

Other than that, it's been a whole lot of running, relaxing, and eating some nice food.  Pretty good.  Thanks for stopping by!  What have you all been up to on your spring break? Any interesting ideas that I should consider? Please Post!

-Lanny B.

End of Week 9!

Heyy Everyone!!  It's Thursday which officially marks the end of week number 9 for me.  Only 6 weeks left?  Crazy huh?  The weather is already picking up - here in Northeast Ohio it has been around 45-60 degrees for the last week I would say = Phenomenal running weather and it just gives people an overall better mood.

Another Highlight: As of about 10:40 PM last night - I am ALSO officially on spring break : )  Wahooo!!!!  Thank goodness.  I now can save mileage from driving to akron, have a clearer mind when working on my blogs, free to roam wherever I'd like.  Good Stuff.  I am on spring break until March 22nd, so a solid 11 days for me.

Last night's class overview:  Strategic Marketing Management was fun - we talked about differentiation and low cost leadership type companies, how the small firm can steal market share from the larger firm in a mature market.  We brought out the experience and learning curves etc.  It was, to me, a more in depth version of a few classes mixed together from my undergraduate program.  Our professor released us 25 minutes early which was nice for some students, but that just meant I had to wait an additional 25 minutes for my other night class to start...

Capital Budgeting: Class was good, received 2 "quizzes" back and had another in class "quiz".  The scores I received were: 100, 83, 100; so not too bad.  We learned more about continuing value, how when RONIC = WACC that doesn't necessarily mean there is no value added, because your base of invested capital is still bringing a higher return in.  On another positive note: Our professor let us out 70 minutes early!! Can't beat that?

Grades Breakdown for Week 9:
Leadership: 100%
Investment Analysis: 94% A-
Capital Budgeting: 746/800 = 93.25% A-
Strategic Marketing Management = 90.4% A-

With the grades above - The capital budgeting after quiz next week, I believe will shoot up to 846/900 = 94% A; after the next Paper with SMM I should have around a 92%, Investment Analysis after my paper = Unknown (I have no idea where my grade or what my grade will be on the paper!).

Overall - Fast, Solid Week.  Grades are looking fairly decent, I want to turn those minuses to just solid A's, so I will do what I can to do that.  I will be reading a few books over spring break, which I will post on when I finish.  Any books that you would like to recommend?  What are your strategies for increasing your grades towards the latter part of the semester?  Thanks for reading everyone!!  Talk to you soon!

-Lanny B.