Our Class

every Wednesday at 6 o'clock
we come to learn the building blocks
because management
is quite serene
blogging on line
and deciding in teams

the games were weird
and we had fun
earned extra credit all at once

The eggs had us holding our breath
as well as the quizzes whose pain we felt!

All in all, we had a blast
Never again to experience this type of class

Is blogging an efficient form of communication?

Unfortunately, to me blogging did not fill it full potential as a useful means of communication. I always felt like I did not have enough time for it because i do not like to spend too much time on line. i do not think i will keep up with blog after this management class, so i want this to be my formal good bye! (except of course till the next blogging assignment)
blogging is meant for the type of people who like to spend time on line and like to express themselves in writing. I realized (sometime in this semester) that I see myself pursuing a career in a totally different field then business... i am in the process of switching my major to biology. I think I am better suited for science.

The ABC's of DISC

My result for the personality test was C high D. Which means that most of all I am conscientious and place emphasis on working conscientiously within existing circumstances to ensure quality and accuracy. I am surprised to say that the test figured me out pretty well. Ever since being a child, I have always looked at assignments and projects systematically and concentrated on key details. I t has always been very important for me to produce quality work. My whole academic career I have always appreciated it when teachers gave clear cut guide lines as to what they wanted and how they wanted it. I like having those guide lines, they make me feel comfortable.

My second highest score was for Dominance, which makes sense as well. First I will scope out the situation, understand the defined rules and directions, and then will I voice my opinion and try to overcome opposition to accomplish results.

If i had to choose another personality type to be it would be the influential type. it is a great art and power to be able to influence people into believing and behaving the way that you say. In my opinion, this is a main characteristic for leaders to have. They must be able to influence and convince people.

My Vision Is To Change It All

As I really and truly start to picture my professional life I can't help but think of what I truly want to do with myself. I think that I have come to realize that I want to do something within science instead of business, like I previously thought. I want to help people, and dedicate my life to making a difference in peoples lives. I have decided that as of next semester I am going to start taking biology classes and changing my major altogether to health science. As of now, my vision for the future is to be a doctor of some sort helping people. It slightly saddens me that it took me so long to figure it out, I kind of wasted three years of college, but on the other hand I am glad I figured it out while I was still young enough to do something about it without it getting in the way of my life.If I really decide to go through with this, I would like to be in medical school within three years.

Our First Lesson in Decision Making

Professor Kurpis stuck to his usual way of teaching, and made us experience what it is like to come up with a very important decision as a whole. That was definitely not an easy matter because there are at least 80 people in our class, and everybody has different reasons for what they do or say.

My initial reaction was to be the "avoidance" decision maker. I reacted this way because I did not have any good ideas off the top of my head as to what we should do to improve the next test, and improve the grades of the first test. I definitely realized right away that this was a grand opportunity for us to really improve our ultimate grade and I didn't want to waste it. For the first 10 minutes I was acting out the avoidance role, but it was not because I felt that there was no chance of winning.

My next role was that of the "compromise" decision maker. My idea was to get rid of the true or false altogether, but then people started saying that they liked the true or false and wanted to keep them in the next test, so we compromised and decided to cut the true or false to five questions on the next test.

All in all, I think we all did a great job at negotiating, and we ended up with a very nice array of different things to improve our grades. Congratulations to all!

-------The Perfect Plan For Our Egg-------

My group and I definitely did our best to plan for the safety of our egg, but unfortunately, it still died from unforeseen forces. We went through the planning steps as best we could under the restrictions that were given. We knew that ultimately, our success depended on how well we actually went along with what the professor wanted from us, which was to go through the planning process and consciously plan out everything we would do.

Planning step one was already done for us because the professor gave us a specific goal that we had to achieve and also the amount of time we had to achieve it in. Planning step two is to recognize where you stand in terms of strengths and weaknesses, and also resources. We knew that we were only able to use 8 straws and a yard of tape. We also played around with the straws to figure out their dexterity and flexibility. Then we started sketching and discussing what we would do with these straws and in what format would we attach them to the egg. Right away we realized that a major weakness would be the amount of straws we have and that we would need to keep more than half of the egg untouched. Our team leader was easy to spot because she had a great idea that she was able to explain and also execute once the time had come-strength.

Planning step three is to develop alternative strategies. We used the leaders original idea and added to it. Each member came up with ways to improve the original.

Planning step four is to make a tactical plan which we did. We figured out how many pieces we had to cut each of the straws into and how many pieces of tape we need to rip the tape into. Each member was assigned a role that they were responsible to carry out. For example, someone was in charge of running for the scissors and cutting the straws, someone was in charge of ripping the tape into small pieces, someone was in charge of actually attaching everything to the egg, someone was the assistant of the main attacher, and someone was writing everything out on paper and drawing a sketch to hand in.

The final step is to implement the plan. Everything went according to the plan, despite all of the tension that could be felt in the room. When it came time to drop the egg, we chose our shortest person to do the dropping, and we also made sure she took off her heels in order to be even closer to the ground.

Unfortuanately, our egg did break, but I was still very proud of my group and felt that we did the best we possibly could have. I can't even say how we could have been more effective in our planning process. The only thing I can say is that we should have thought out of the box. For example, the group that lowered their egg into the basket thought out of the box, my team and I should have tried to think on those same terms.

Jumping In Every European City

While I was in Europe I traveled to many different cities. My best friend and I made a goal to jump in every city and get a photo of it in the air. Here are the results.

In order from top to bottom:
L.G. jumping on the bed of a hostel in a quaint, little, ski town called Bad Gastein, Austria.






Me jumping on the grass of Museum Island in Berlin, Germany.





L.G., A.M, and myself jumping off a bench in a beautiful, story book town called Cesky Krumlov, Czech Republic.










Me jumping in front of the Christopher Columbus statue in Barcelona, Spain.






L.G. jumping in front of the Palazzo in Florence, Itlay.













Me jumping in front of a naked statue in Florence, Italy.

Management Issues

As I have mentioned in my previous posting, I have just recently returned from a semester spent in Prague, Czech Republic. Before I left, I had many different types of jobs, I worked as a waitress, model, promotional model, coat check girl, etc. After being away for four months, I have come back to realize that I have no jobs and am quickly running out of savings that have been plummeted by my trip abroad. I have not taken money from my parents since I have been 14 years old so that is not even an option; usually I pay the maintenance and cable bills for my mom when I have an income.

Recently, an acquaintance of mine has opened a night club in Brooklyn. My friend is head waitress there, and my best friend also works there. I have also been offered a waitress job there, and I already trained on Sunday. Now the problem is my boyfriend. He really does not want me to work there because he thinks being a waitress at a night club is degrading. I do not agree, to me it is an easy way to make a few bucks, and it won't get in the way of school or an internship. My issue now is how do I get the best of both worlds. I feel this is the right thing for right now. What worries me most is that I am already scheduled to work this Wednesday and Friday, and my boyfriend has already told me to cancel but I have not. How do I manage my boyfriend and this job to work out fine, without any screaming fits or ultimatums??

Brief Introduction of Myself

I am 20 years old and a Junior at Baruch College, currently majoring in Marketing/Advertising. Ever since taking these Marketing courses I have been getting more and more turned off to Marketing and business altogether. Topics that are studied in these courses seem quite arbitrary to me. I have been considering turning my career prospects around and going to either medical or pharmacological school. Anyway, these are all thoughts that might never be put into action, so enough about that.
On a brighter note, I have just recently returned to America after studying in and traveling all across Europe. I lived in Prague, Czech Republic and attended Charles University which is the oldest university in Central Europe, founded in 1347. I had an incredible time and got to travel to Budapest, Hungary; Vienna & Bad Gastein, Austria; Brussels & Antwerp, Belgium; Amsterdam, Netherlands; Berlin & Munich, Germany; Milan, Florence & Rome, Italy; Barcelona, Spain; Krakow, Poland; Moscow, Russia; and of course Prague, Czech Republic which was considered home base.
I work part time as a model, and have been doing so for about 3 years now. Modeling is my main source of income for the time being. Before leaving to Europe I had a lot more jobs; I used to waitress at a night club along with many other odd jobs that you can only find in a city such as New York. Unfortunately, upon returning from my trip I have come to realize that these fast money type of jobs are long gone or way too hard to obtain in this economy.