B-School Buffet and Areas of Emphasis

With the weather finally warming up (it has been completely freezing here the last few days!) it was an excellent day to walk over to the Koebel building and check out the B-School Buffet- an event run by Leeds to introduce students to all the areas of emphasis and certificates available!

An Area of Emphasis is a concentration within your major, which is Business Administration. Commonly, there is no major in marketing or management, but concentrations within those areas at most business schools.

Areas of Emphasis at Leeds are:

• Operations and Information Management
• Management
• Finance
• Accounting
• Marketing

A certificate is a few extra courses that give you a better understanding in a certain area of business. Leeds has some really excellent certificate programs- the entrepreneurship program is one of the best in the nation.

Certificates available at Leeds are:

• International Business (my favorite!)
• Real Estate
• Quantitative Finance
• Entrepreneurship and Small Business Management
• Operations and Information Management

There are tons of options within the business school, so pursuing a more specific goal is very achievable. The more ambitious people often pair a business degree with a degree in the college of arts and sciences, which can give you a unique set of job skills. Plus, you don't have to pick an area of emphasis until the junior year, and within the business core classes you get experience in all of them.

Volunteering around Boulder

This semester has really freed up my schedule as far as extracurriculars go: I'm much more aware of what my classes are going to require of me time-wise and so I decided to find some new activities to get involved in around Boulder. What I found was a vast array of opportunities, from the school's radio station, Radio 1190, to reading and interacting with senior citizens a few days a week near campus.

Tomorrow I start my main commitment, one that I'm really excited about- CU Gold. CU Gold is a leadership development program based on campus and open to anyone, all you have to do is turn in an application. The program meets once a week and requires members to attend a one-time weekend retreat (paid for by the program) in Estes Park.

I'm hoping that CU Gold will help me meet other students who are interested in getting involved on campus, who I usually find to be really friendly and interesting people. These are only a few of the things you can participate in on campus, which I highly recommend- not only do you meet people who have similar interests to you, but you have a good resume builder too. :)

Living in W.V.

At this time last year I had decided I was going to CU, and was really excited to get my housing assignment. The amount of time it took for me to get that letter felt twenty times longer than even my acceptance letter! :-)

I applied for housing at the very end of March, and got my assignment around the beginning of May. My choices were pretty typical of incoming students- the on campus "circle" around Farrand Field and a few Kittredge halls. I got really lucky and was assigned to a single in Baker Hall- Hooray for me, one of the first on my list!

Sadly, living in Baker didn't work out for me- I didn't realize how lonely it would be to be in a single during the first few weeks of school, when everyone around me was getting to know their roommates. I didn't get a real sense of community out of my floor in Baker and despite its proximity to all of my classes, I made the decision to move out to the ever-dreaded Williams Village (Stearns East to be exact).

This turned out to be one of the best decisions of my freshman year- not only do I have a wonderful roommate now, but a great floor of people who are all much friendlier than where I was living previously. Even though I had thought that living with someone else would be scary and too cramped, it has turned out to be a wonderful experience and tons of fun! Taking the bus from Williams Village isn't as terrible as it sounds either- at the end of the day you go somewhere that feels like home instead of still part of school. The community formed amongst the towers is great, and with your own rec center and dining hall you aren't missing out on much on campus.

My current room in W.V. [Stearns East]

A little bit of fun on our refrigerator [Stearns East]


My old room on campus, such a beautiful building! [Baker Hall]

Peace and Conflict Certificate

Today was one of the best days, weather-wise, we've had in a long time- Boulder reached temperatures in the low seventies today! It was amazing to get to walk around campus and bask in the sunshine after a few months of dreary cold.

I stopped by the business building for a brief presentation on another cerficate you can earn at CU- this one based on peace/conflict studies. It seemed to be a really interesting subject, and definitely a good consideration if you're planning on going into human resources management. The program has been around since the 60's in Boulder, but seems to be a bit of a hidden jem.

Almost 40% of students who earn this certificate go on to serve in the Peace Corps, which I found really interesting- it's definitely a very internationally minded program. It's also extremely flexible within your major- there's only 3 required courses! Other than that it's up to you.

For more information and to get signed up, check out this website, or you can email the program director Stanley Deetz at stanle.deetz@colorado.edu.

Technology Heaven- How Computers Take Over Your Life In College

People with laptops are more common than not around the UMC and Leeds Cafe. [Koebel Building]

After my first week of classes (and unfortunately, homework) I decided to discuss something that is seriously different from high school- the massive amount of assignments, readings, announcements, and even textbooks that you get off the Internet. This semester, EVERY class in my schedule has an online course page that all of my professors are planning to use heavily. That's 100% of classes where I will have to spend some serious time on the computer, especially in Business Stats where part of our required "texts" was a homework program based entirely online.

Don't get me wrong, I actually LOVE having all of my classes so condensed into one place, and not having so many paper copies of various syllabi and assignments rocks. Professors are far more accessible in college (outside of school hours) than teachers were, which works out nicely because homework and readings require a deeper level of understanding and analyzation than in high school. CU is really at the forefront of bringing technology onto campus- we have wireless Internet access everywhere (I have yet to not be able to log on), campus email accounts that all students use regularly, and we even pay tuition entirely online. Leeds and about 50% of the other buildings on campus have TV screens placed in high traffic areas where students can find information on upcoming events.

To find rooms in the business building, use this sweet touch pad! [Koebel Building]

My favorite piece of campus technology (besides my own laptop of course) are strategically placed Macs called Scarpies. Scarpies are in almost every building on campus and can be used to surf the web for a few minutes before/after classes. I like them because they make it so I don't always have to bring my computer to campus if all I would need to do is check my email. They're also great for checking dining hall menus, library hours, and of course, facebook. :-)

Announcement screen with current Leeds happenings [Koebel Building]

Plenty of Snow for the First Day!

A Squirrel Enjoys a Snack on Campus [Duane Physics Building]

Yesterday was the first day of class for the spring semester, but that didn't stop mother nature from dumping a solid 5 or 6 inches of snow on Boulder in the wee hours of the morning. When I woke up for my first class around 7:30, none of the sidewalks or roads had been plowed yet. What a way to start the day! Bundled up and with some serious snow boots on, I managed to get to all my classes on time and keep track of my various new syllabi until I got home later that afternoon.

This semester is different for me in a couple of big ways- first off, I'm taking a much wider variety of classes than last semester. Because first semester freshman in the business school are pre-registered for 10 or so credits by the school (Finite Math/Calculus, Microeconomics, and Introduction to Business) I only added one other class when I registered (German). This semester, I have classes ranging from Business Statistics to Social Problems (a sociology class). I really like that I have the chance to take a really wide variety of classes to fulfill my core requirements- I get to take off-beat classes that I wouldn't usually get to be in as a business student.

My other big change this semester is that one of my close friends from high school who came to CU last fall chose to transfer schools. It's really strange to be totally on my own in Boulder- even though I've made some awesome new friends here, it was nice to have someone who I was really close to at school with me. As last semester wore on and people really settled into their various social groups, I definitely stopped meeting as many new people as I did at the beginning of the year so I need to start up on that again.

Hopefully this semester will be more focused and I'll get a more specific idea of what I really want to do as a career or for my area of emphasis in Leeds. There's so many certificate programs, minors, and classes I want to take that it's been hard to narrow down my interests- but that's part of what I really love about CU.

2009 and a New Semester

[Macky Auditorium]

Happy new year everyone! Kicking off 2009 was wonderful, despite the last week or so being incredibly busy for me. Everyone is back in town for about two weeks- my siblings and any friends who went to other colleges all need to be seen and new lives need to be heard about at a rate of five or six people a day. : P

Needless to say, I've now gotten past the biggest part of my break and have spent today sleeping in and not driving all over the front range or to the airport. Awesome!

Seeing bunches of people from high school was so strange- even though it was easy to fall back into my old friendships, it was weird to hear about new cities, classes, and majors. The wide variety of experiences and schedules, roommates and romances was fun to hear about- and it shocked me how different each school's experience was even though we are all doing basically the same things. Some schools' lowest level of math was calculus, and some kids would never have to take it again after fufilling basic requirements. That's part of what I like about CU- because the student body is so big and has a wide variety of interests, there are about a thousand different things to do on any given day!

After hearing about all the new activities my friends were getting into in college, I have a new year's resolution- to try out something totally out of the blue for me next semester on campus. Wish me luck! :-)