Giving Credit Where Credit is Due - In rambling fashion, of course!
Hey Strangers!
Hope you're enjoying your summer. Congratulations (if applicable) on the whole graduation thing, I knew you could do it!
So, I'm home for the summer, enjoying time with friends and family, and I keep thinking about how fabulous Temple is. Let's start with the people: I didn't begin at Temple with any super close friends from the past, just a few pals from the area where I live. Well, as much as I do hang out with the high school group now that I'm home, I'm definitely hanging around with those Temple kids a lot more. This past Tuesday in fact, a local Temple-ite and I took the train into Philly to catch up on our Reading Terminal Market eating and Center City shopping. We probably wouldn't have hung out one-on-one like that without bonding at Temple. Also, I visited one of the girls I'm moving in with next semester at her home about an hour and a half away. She had a pool party and I got to meet all of her friends from home. (Yay - new facebook friends! Speaking of which, totally add me if you have any questions) I'm also planning on visiting a friend who lives in Ohio for the Fourth of July (Yay - travel!).
Now the part of Temple's fabulosity that your parents will love: we are totally as good as we say we are. I just got back from a retreat held by the New Jersey Society of Certified Public Accounts (CPAs) that was all about networking, business etiquette & ethics, and information about CPA certification. I learned what it takes to get certified in New Jersey as a CPA, but truthfully, not much else. And that's because all the other information I had already picked up at Fox and the Center for Student Professional Development, as a freshman!! Seriously, I was with "my colleagues from around the state," the CPAs words, not mine; and they were oohing and ahhing over things I have drilled into my brain already. Most of the kids at this conference were going into their senior year!
We did case studies of ethical dilemmas, I knew the right answers from attending talks at Fox about how important ethics are in the wake of scandals like Enron and Worldcom. We attended a business etiquette luncheon with a speaker who told us proper etiquette and manners in different business and networking situations. I've done a few of those workshops, right on campus at the Diamond Club, led by an etiquette professional brought in either by the Center for Student Professional Development or one of my clubs I am involved with in Fox (Business Honors Student Association and Phi Beta Lambda). A professor from Caldwell College made the shocking announcement that anytime you interview or are assisted by a professional you should write them a handwritten thank you note, not an email. I have plenty of practice at that from both the Business Honors Mock Internship Fair and Spring Connection. At both of those events I got to meet with many employers, as a freshman, who looked at my resume and spoke with me one-on-one. At the Mock Fair, we talked to recent grads in our fields of interest and showed them our resumes. Then we thanked them for their time and got to say, "Hey, how'd I do?" I'll never be able to get that feedback from such an honest stranger anywhere else. Practicing your interview skills with your mom is nice, but she does not inspire fear the way a person you don't know does. Or maybe I just haven't met your mother.
One of the cool things we did at the retreat was we got to talk to professionals from every possible area of accounting (entertainment, technology, education, audit, mergers & acquisitions, tax, government & law inforcement, forensics, financial planning, non-profit, and industry) in small groups and ask them questions. I've heard from friends higher up at Temple than I am, that that's what the speakers that our professors have into the accounting-for-majors classes do.
Last night we had a cocktail-style networking reception, much like Spring Connection, just with food. Like I said, I was with a lot of senior accounting majors from other colleges, and they were nervous to approach the professionals in this environment. I wasn't, I'd done it twice already.
We did a teamwork exercise that involved building a chair using only newspapers. That was a lot like when we had to build a tent blind-folded in my Human Resources- Intro to Management class last semester. This morning we had a resume workshop and mock interviews. My resume, done in the Temple format, passed with no problem.
I suppose what I'm trying to say is . . . Thank you Center for Student Professional Development. All the Fox students know that CSPD earns its bragging rights - sometimes it's just nice to be reminded. =)
Until we meet again . . .