A Reflection of My First Year in College PART 1. What are some of the most important information and/or knowledge you’ve accumulated during and as part of the Business Essentials course and class, both MGMT1051 and MGMT1052? Please describe in as much detail as you can why do you consider them being of importance to you personally.
The most valuable thing that I learned from Business Essentials isn’t based on the information that was taught but more through the experience of the class. I learned that some professors really do care about their students and would do anything to see them be successful in the future. Macarie taught me that it’s the people that matter the most in today’s business world. I would consider this to be the most important to me because I will forever feel that I have support no matter how far down the road I am in college or my career, I know that I can come back to Macarie with any question and he will sit down with me to discuss the issue or concern that I bring to his attention.
PART 2. Describe your personal involvement with your project teams for two different semesters in a row. How was the second semester experience compared to the first semester? Did you grow and better yourself as a student and person? Did you get better as a team? Looking in retrospective, is there anything else you could have done different to enhance your project delivery?
For the first semester, I was the leader of the Opportunities Group of the SWOT analysis. I was in charge of setting deadlines and making sure the work that my group produced was above my standard. When the presentation day came, I was able to show Fifth Third Bank what my group found after a semester of work. We were able to find ways the bank could expand and capture new markets. Once debriefed about Project Innovation, I immediately began thinking of goods and services our group could pursue for the rest of the semester. Although none of my ideas were seen as the best option, I provided useful feedback and critiques of the goods and services that made it to the final rounds of the decision. Once our product was finalized, we decided to split into groups regarding the different departments our company would need. Being a Finance major, I wanted to assume a leadership position as the Finance Executive for our company K-Electronics. In this position, I calculated the numbers and projections of our company for the next six years of operations. I completed an entire Microsoft Excel spreadsheet that explained our costs, market acquisition, gross and net income, and salary wages for our staff. I constructed a trifold board that we used for our pitch which took time and effort. I completed all of these tasks while delegating the work needed to complete our various financial statements and paper portion of our business plan.
Nearing the end of my first year at Cincinnati, I can say with confidence that my second semester experience has been far better than my first semester. I definitely grew as a leader and as a person in general. I am now able to lead with confidence and speak publicly without much hesitation. However, as a team, I think we worked better together the first semester. This semester a few team members have really fallen off the path, which lead to more work being placed on the leaders and other members of the group. If I could have changed anything that would have enhanced our project delivery is that I would have made sure the different groups were as balanced as they were last semester. Although we worked well and completed the tasks at hand, it would have been much easier and efficient if we took some of the strongest leaders and split them up into the weaker groups. Also, I wish that we put in more work at the beginning of the second semester when it came to idea generation. We would come up with ideas and then we would find information sometimes weeks later that could have been found from a simple Google search. We could have delegated the workload much better the second semester too, due to a lack of participation from some of our key contributors last semester lead to the majority of the work to be placed on a few individuals of the group.
PART 3. How did you find your relationship with your PACE Leaders? Did you find their involvement to be of importance to you as a person and your team overall? What would you say to your new/second semester PACE Leader as a matter of comparison with your first semester leader? Are there any personal recommendations you may want to share with them?
I didn’t have much, if any, connection with the other PACE Leaders of our class. However, I had a great relationship with my PACE Leader Taylor. He provided a fun yet structured atmosphere that led to a very successful year in my eyes. Taylor’s involvement with our projects was extremely beneficial; having someone who has been in the same place and situation we all were over the course of the year was a valuable resource. I would say that we all grew closer as a team from the first to second semester which made the experience so much better. Taylor was a very consistent PACE Leader through both semesters. I know anyone could approach him with any kind of question. My personal recommendation to Taylor would be to stay how he is and keep the same attitude going on with the PACE program in the future. Having Taylor as my PACE Leader definitely made my first year at the Lindner College of Business a great experience and I hope we can stay in touch as our college lives progress.
PART 4. Tell us about your sense of the course? What did you do well in this course? What could you have done better? Did you learn anything more or different from the other courses taken during your first academic year? Do you see yourself going back to the information and knowledge accumulated during this year as part of the Foundations/Business Essentials course? What were some of the most memorable moments you will remember from this entire year and Foundations Course?
After completing two semesters of this course I would say that it has benefitted me greatly as both a student and an individual. I completed the tests to the best of my ability and will actually retain the information learned rather than just forgetting it all. The homework was a great opportunity to reflect on various activities that happened during the first and second semester. I can say I dominated the participation within our class time this semester. All of these combined leads me to believe that I did well in every aspect of the course. However, I could have improved my experience by expanding to the other Learning Communities to associate with the other peers in my class.
In my first year, I have learned much more than I could have expected. I went in my first year with a declared Finance Major and a Marketing Minor. After taking Introduction to Marketing, I realized that Marketing wasn’t a passion of mine. In the various other courses I was enrolled in this year, I have discovered that I have a strong interest in Economics, which is why I am going to pursue a degree in Business Economics as well as Finance. I have enhanced my communication and leadership skills as I have tackled many tasks related to both of these characteristics. I also learned more about a sub plan for Finance, the Analytical Finance Academy, which I am also going to pursue once I get the required courses completed in order for me to apply.
I will most definitely come back to the knowledge I acquired during the last two semesters from Business Essentials. The foundation that was laid from this course will allow me to build upon the concepts we covered in these classes. Business Essentials has provided me with a solid understanding about the business world that I will take with me for the rest of my professional career. I will continue to apply the information from this course when in interviews and researching topics that are new to me.
I will remember the late nights with my friends studying for the tests. I will remember laughing when Macarie went on somewhat random tangents during class. I will remember the teams that I have spent countless hours working with to complete our projects. I will remember my PACE Leader and the positive impact he left on us all, especially myself, as first year students. The preparation for our speech with Fifth Third Bank and our visits to Bi-Okoto will stay with me forever, because they were some of the most stressful and funny times we spent together as an LC. This course has impacted me greatly and I know that I will remember my team and the experiences we lived through for a long time to come.
PART 5. Any final remarks, thoughts or comments?
At first, I thought that this class would simply be a pain, but after completing the course I have been corrected. This course provides a very good base that needs to be laid with all first-year business students at the University of Cincinnati. I am much more confident when speaking in business terms and in a professional manner. Business Essentials will continue to expand the young minds that pass through. Taking a leadership role in both of our projects has led to a great resume booster for me and has been a great talking point when in interviews. Over spring break, I was in an interview and the representative I spoke with asked me to explain my experience with the SWOT Analysis of Fifth Third Bank. I then explained in full detail my role and what we accomplished as a team and they were blown away that a group of freshmen had done such impactful work. This course should continue to be required within the Lindner program to establish a vast understanding of how the business world really operates. The interactive nature that this class demands makes a lot of people break out of their shell and create a voice for themselves which is a vital quality for any business professional. Lastly, I would like to thank Macarie and all of the PACE Leaders for making this year so successful for me and my colleagues.