Thanks to everyone for the emails sent wishing us luck and for the words of encouragement in the halls...we will do our best to bring this home.

• Astronomy 100: Now some may think "why would a 5th year senior take a 100 level course"? The answer: to sit for the CPA exam. To be eligible to sit for the CPA Exam you must have 150 credit hours. Thus, I needed a class that is a bit easier than the typical 300 level accounting class at Kelley. This was the second test we have had in this course and it seemed to go pretty well.
• F494: This class is a bit more challenging, from my perspective, than Astro 100. This was our second test in this class. It consisted of an essay, 5 short answer questions, and 20 multiple choice. Time was most definitely an issue but I think I prevailed. Lets hope I do a bit better on this test than the first.
• Saturday Game At Centenary: We have already made the conference tournament (next weekend at Oakland), however this is a game we need to win to go on a 4 game win streak and carry our momentum into the post-season. Lets hope we can pull it out on Saturday and turn our attention to the Conference Tournament.

So, that is my week of tests. I am excited to be able to rest one day, but that day seems far away!

John 

I have talked to many recruiters in the accounting profession, both through the accounting association, which I am the President of, and through networking events and they all say that they want their interns to have taken Intermediate. They say that if someone has taken Intermediate and has been successful, they know they are serious about Accounting. Unfortunately for me, I did not learn any of this information until it was too late. I am a junior and wished I would have taken A311 this semester instead of A337, Accounting Information Systems. Lucky for me, I had networked enough with certain people to receive an internship this spring at Dauby O'connor and Zaleski. Even they have a cutoff of A311, but said they were willing to take a chance on me. How lucky is that!

So make sure you take A311, even if you have to take it with I-Core, which is something that advisors will tell you now to do. They will tell you to take A337, the easiest accounting class offered, since you have so much work to do with I-Core. But if you plan on getting a spring internship, do the extra work and take A311. When you do to an interview in September and October, you will see why it is the best class ever.

My name is Evan Fruits and I am a Senior in the Kelley School of Business.  I am majoring in finance and minoring in economics. I am also the captain of the men's cross-country team here at IUPUI.  In addition, I am a Community Service Leader in the Office of Community Service where I am the coordinator of Martin Luther King Jr. Day for IUPUI.

Ok, so enough about about what I do!  This the time of year where all students have a hard time staying motivated.  It has happened at this point every year for me.  Midterm tests are completed and now there is not too much in terms of assignments or tests until finals week.  It is especially hard to keep on top of the material in your classes when you know you don't have another test for at least a month!

This year, however, I am going to make sure to keep up to date on all my classes.  Now in my senior year, I cannot afford to get behind in my challenging finance classes.  I do not want to have to rush and cram during finals week.  I am going to make sure that I keep my focus and I am prepared for every class.

Ok, so I told you what I want to do... Now its up to all of you to make sure that I do it!

1)      First of all, make sure you know what job you are applying for and gear your résumé/cover letter toward that job. Have multiple people review your résumé. You can always improve it.

2)      Make sure you have all your skills and accomplishments listed on your résumé. Don't forget the soft skills: communication, leadership, research, analytical, and computer and teamwork.  These skills are just as important (and sometimes more) than your technical skills. 

3)      Make sure leadership roles stand out. Do you belong to any clubs/organizations? Have you been active in them? Have you held any office or chaired or co-chaired any events?  Employers like to see these leadership skills on your résumé.

4)      What about community service? Employers also like to see this on your résumé.

5)      Did you pay your way through school? Make sure that is listed on your résumé, too. 

6)      Networking is the best way to get a job. You have to keep at it. Find the networking events that apply to your major and go to those events. Network with everyone you know. 

Overall, employers want a well-rounded individual. Yes, you may have an excellent GPA, but what else have you done?  Employers look at a multitude of things when deciding who to interview.  So make yourself stand out. Visit the Career Planning Office (BS4090) and we can help you with your job search skills. 

Here is an article regarding companies hiring for the holidays: http://www.theworkbuzz.com/job-search/companies-holiday-hiring/.

I wanted to take a moment to tell everyone about my J411 class. The class is a capstone class for seniors and you must take it to graduate from the Kelley School of Business. During the class you work with a computer simulation where you are running your own company that manufactures and sells sensors. The simulation has five segments which you can manipulate: R&D (you change the products size, performance, and reliability), Marketing (you adjust the pricing and advertising budget), Production (you present a sales forecast and set how many workers you need), Human Resources (allows your company to invest in training hours and recruiting), Finanace (control stock issue, current and long term debt), and TQM (which helps your company become more efficient).

Now, I understand all this does not sound fascinating by any means, but when you are competing against teams in your own class as well as other students around the world, you take pride in what you do. Additionally, your grade accounts for your results, so you want to do well.

Currently, my group has done decent in the simulation. We started out great but we've had a couple bad rounds (8 rounds total). We are hitting stride again with 3 rounds to go and are looking to make a comeback in the standings. I have really enjoyed the J411 class thus far. It truly does help you apply the knowledge that you have learned throughout your years at Kelley. 

If you have any stories from your J411 experience please make a comment!

John 

• Class Again: After a long summer in Europe traveling around and living the dream, I had to come back to the real world and start going to class again. Not all bad though. I have enjoyed my classes this semester including the J411 Capstone class (our team is doing pretty well in the simulationg SHOUT OUT TO ERIE B!) and a Finance class that I really have enjoyed.
• SOCCER: It's my last year of soccer here at IUPUI. We did not start out great but my short term memory is serving me well now that we have won the past 3 games and clinched a spot in the conference tourny!!! We have one last regular season game then we are only 2 games away from the NCAA Tournament! Show your love to any Soccer player you see. Also support the Women's team who won today to become co-conference champs. They have their conference tourny next week so we'll be cheering them on.
• Job Interviews: Crazy to think I will be hitting the real world soon. It is scary and exciting all the same. I have really enjoyed my time here at IUPUI and am trying to enjoy the time I have left here.

So thats my story! If you like it or even if you dont throw a comment out there! Also, check out the other BizBlogs if you find the time!

John

Monday

4:30 AM: Get up to be at a distribution center at 6:30 AM for data collection for our P429 Green Belt project.

5:45 AM: Freaked out the Starbucks people when I walked in the door for a quad Mocha. I am a night dweller at Starbucks, not a day dweller.

6:45 AM: Standing in the middle of an inbound receiving dock, starting data collection.

8:45 AM: Wondering exactly how much concrete is used to poor those floors; still collecting data.

11:00 AM: Got French fries from the cafeteria (and sat down).

2:00 PM: Wondering why in the *&^!#  I wore these shoes. Standing on a concrete floor in one place all day will make feet angry.

3:30 PM: Done with the standing - heading home (glad that W430 was cancelled tonight).

5:00 PM: Apologizing to my feet...and legs. They are very angry for all the standing.

6:00 PM: Start reading the 200 pages that was assigned - quiz on the material on Thursday.

10:00 PM: Made a dent in the 200 pages - photocopied pages with really tiny type - I am now apologizing to my eyes.

10:30PM: Bed

Tuesday

9:00 AM: Try to register for Spring semester - can't until 3:30...glad that was the problem - for a minute I thought I forgot how to use OnCourse (almost called an academic advisor - that would have made me look smart).

10:00 AM: Back to the 200 page reading marathon...

1:00 PM: Leave for campus

3:00 PM: Classes

4:15 PM: Weird in between class time - not really enough time to study, but too much time to sit...it really is "lost time."

6:00 PM: Class - last X320 class...woo hoo

8:00 PM: Home from class; case study

11:30 PM: Just realized its 11:30...hurry and go to bed

Wednesday

Same as Monday - up at 4:30, DC at 6:30...standing on concrete floors all day for the Green Belt project. Except this time, I wore different shoes. Then I came home and had a case study to do...and back at the 200 pages of reading. I just realized, I haven't blogged...

Thursday

Up at 5:30 AM to meet Jake and Robert at the campus at 7:15 AM. One positive note about being at the campus at 7:15 AM...YOU CAN PARK.

8:00 AM: Seminar on Toyota Culture (uber cool seminar)

2:20 PM: At campus for 3:00 class

6:00 PM: Quiz on the 200 pages of reading...people asking me if I got it done...most of it; say a little prayer about the quiz...Got another 155 pages to read by next Thursday...really?

9:00 PM: Leaving campus - forgot where I parked. Had to find my car...

9:30 PM: Found my car (I NEVER park by the Campus Center)

10:15 PM: Home...

10:30 PM: Thought about blogging...

Friday

4:30 AM: Got up to be at DC by 6:30 for final day of Green Belt data collection - yeah.

11:00 AM: Data collection done - went to lunch with DC managers. You know, this was great. When the group gets away from what we "have to do" we get to know each other as people. In classes, we are fellow students - we know and understand each other on a "student" level. Away from that, we get the chance to get to know each other as people...things we do outside of school. I think that makes the "student" part better.

12:30 PM: Leaving DC, wrecked my mom's car...in the rain (not my fault; tickets were given, but not to me).

1:30 PM: Standing in the rain waiting for IMPD to show up

1:45 PM: Watched IMPD drive by...but not stop

2:30 PM: IMPD stops and asks if I was in an accident - no, I always stand in the rain next to my car that is propped up on the curb with car parts laying around...I'm good - keep going (didn't say it, but thought it).

6:00 PM: Staring at my W430 book - trying to pump myself up to crack it and do the case.

6:10 PM: Went to Starbucks - Quad mocha

7:00 PM: Realized I still have to blog...

7:35 PM: Clocked in and started blogging

So, that's where I'm at now...blogging with my W430 book open, highlighter on stand by, glad to have made it through the "9 day week."  I have now just realized that I suck at the short blogs - going to have to work on that.  

I was reading Shannon's blog about the super stretchy laptop cover (which is very cool, by the way) and I realized that it had been a while since I submitted a blog.  Been a while?  Try almost 8 months!!  The keepers of the blog are no doubt quite unhappy with me (I think I feel the evil eye even now), and I can't blame them.  But how in the world did over half a year pass under my very nose?  I'll tell you--WE'VE BEEN BUSY!!

Enrollments are up, so my usually placid summer of cleaning out files and catching up on emails was replaced with advising appointments and screening applicants for the MSA and MST programs.  And you know what?   I love it!  Admissions for the summer/fall 2009 terms were up 18% for the graduate accounting programs which means I get to do more of my favorite thing--meet with students.  It seems that more students are taking advantage of my calendar and scheduling their advising appointments early.

Graduate students will begin registering for spring classes the first week of November.  If you have never met with me, I send you a handy spreadsheet with your schedule plan via email right after your appointment.  We can even work out a long-term plan.  MBA Students:  do you want to see if you have what you need for your major?  I can help you with that.  Have you scheduled your advising appointment yet?  Well, what are you waiting for--time's a wastin'...

This is what an instructor told me last week. My knee jerk reaction - really?  As I am working on becoming more "polished" in my responses, I didn't say a word. I simply grabbed my 400 pound backpack and walked out of the class bewildered and amazed.

Thinking about it more, here's what I have concluded about that little interaction: Instructors see us (students) during one class period, I think that sometimes you believe that you are the only instructor that we have; that it's okay to assign reading that covers 200 pages to be completed in four days (that was what I questioned) - we should be able to manage our time and get that done. For one class, I would agree - that isn't a lot to ask. The problem comes when that request is multiplied by...say, four classes...that's when instructors get the "deer in the headlights" look from students. It's not a look of refusal, it's more a look of panic as we quickly calculate "80 pages out of textbook 'A," 40 pages out of textbook 'B,' another 40 from textbook 'C,' 20 from gigantic textbook 'D,' and now 200 from this guy." The look you see is the realization that over the course of a week, we will be required to read the equivalent of a fourth of War and Peace; not only read - but retain. And that is just the reading part... there are also the case studies, homework assignments, quizzes and exams for each class.

Now, I know this door swings both ways. As students, we generally see you only during that particular class time. I think that there is a belief among students that when you walk out of that room that you are done - you walk off into the sunset and don't have another thing to do...your job lasts an hour a day. I'm not really sure where we think you go, but for the most part there is an assumption that you're off doing whatever it is you like to do when you're not standing in front of us. We are impatient...we don't understand why you can't have our exams graded the instant we walk out the door and check OnCourse ...we wonder why does it take two weeks to get my assignment back ; after all you only have this one class, right? I'll come clean - I'll admit that I've walked up to the offices to speak to an instructor, and if you're not there I wonder "really? What could you possibly be doing? We're not in class."

 So, we both have the same problem - we believe we are your only students, and you believe we take only one class at a time. The big question now is how do we fix it? How do we blend to two little worlds so we can see where we are both coming from? How do we as students understand that you as instructors are trying to balance teaching with grading and with staff meetings and with school activities and with home (I think that we forget sometimes that you are actually people that live in homes and have home responsibilities - you don't just pop out of a box every morning) along with the multitude of other things that magically appear when we walk in for that one hour a day? How do you as instructors understand that we as students are trying to balance your class with another class and another class and another class, with student activities (as we are so strongly encouraged to participate in) with work and home and other things such as sleeping and eating?

I have decided to extend the olive branch and let you, as instructors, peer into the world of a full time student. I know that everyone of you have gone through this - you have lived this life; you "know what we're going through." However, I think you have forgotten - I no longer relate to 17 year olds...and I was one of those once...it happens. So, I want to give you a peek into the life of a full time student. Here's what a four week snapshot of 15 credit hours looks like...

That doesn't include the time I'm actually in class...just what I have to do when I get home (don't judge...I'm a supply chain major...dry erase boards and flow charts is what I do). Scary right? Scared me - don't think I'll ever take a picture of it again.

So, next time you give an assignment and you see that "deer in the headlights look," don't assume it's because you have just assigned something that we really don't want to do - we are just trying to figure out how to get it done.  

I was in a professor's office for some reason that I can't remember when I looked across the room and saw it - the super stretchy laptop cover proudly displaying the Kelley logo...the same super stretchy laptop cover that I saw in a marketing staff members' office in Bloomington during a campus visit. I tried to get one when I was in Bloomington, but couldn't (a conversation that is probably better to not re-visit in this forum, but one that ended with my comment of "you realize we are a business  school, right?"). After I was denied in Bloomington, it became a personal mission to obtain one for no other reason than the thrill of victory (obtaining Kelley gear is one of the great quests of a Kelley student), and there it was...within reach.

I'm not going to lie, I thought about grabbing it and running out of the third floor offices, down the staircase, and escaping through the congestion of the second floor - I think I could have made it. But then, within a nanosecond, I realized that I would have to return to the third floor someday; being "wanted" on the third floor was probably not a position that I wanted to be in.  So instead, I asked "where did you get that?" That was the moment that I realized the super stretchy laptop covers were being held for ransom...I could have one, but like most things in life, it comes with a price. Now truth be told, it's not that great of a price - I can have my super stretchy laptop cover in return for spending a few hours a week blogging about life as a Kelley student in Indy.

So here I am, logging on for the first time to the Kelley blog (within that 48 hour window). I'm a little freaked out to find that I am now a "category," but even more freaked out to find that the postings from other students include trips to London, France and some other exotic things - my life is just not that exotic, the farthest trip that I have taken in the last year has been from the parking lot on North and Blackford to the business building.  So, I can't promise the most exciting posts in the world, but they will be real - the good, bad and the ugly about being a Kelley Student on the campus of IUPUI.

I'm  glad to be able to blog about our school and have the opportunity to let people know whats going on around campus. It's pretty cool that we have technology like blogging available at our campus to let students get more involved and even have a part time job in between studying and going to class. I never knew that blogging existed until a professor brought it up in class. I'm glad that this found me and I'm looking forward to keeping these coming!

After the first half, the opponents were up 1 to 0. In the second half one of their team mates scored a goal, tying the game at 1-1.  The game ended normal play in a tie.  They then went into a 7 minute overtime -- no goals.  Another 7 minute overtime -- NO GOALS.  Finally a shoot-out.  In the shoot-out each coach picks 5 players to shoot against the goalie of the opposing team.  Both of my boys were selected for our team.  The pressure was clearly on.  In the shoot-out the opposing team made 4 of their 5 goals.  Our team made 5 of their 5 goals. 

The victory was made even sweeter, by the fact that this is the first time in 9 years our team beat this school in soccer.  This is also the first time Lutheran High School has been part of a conference.  Lutheran is a high school of about 250 total students.  Prior to this Lutheran played many games with a random set of opponents, but never as part of a conference.  So the soccer team has the proud distinction of being the first team at Lutheran High School to win a conference tournament.

Even neater for me is that fact that they wanted to share this accomplishment with me immediately after their game.  We had an awesome night hearing the boys recount their stories of the game and having supper at 11 pm at the Steak and Shake near our house.

Congratulations to the Lutheran High Soccer team which put in a tremendous team effort to win the first Conference title in Lutheran High School History.