Opportunity Knocks

This post is going to be short because I am tired and have a lot of work today.....all a result of one amazing weekend every November called Monon. Basically, it is one of greatest football rivalries in all of college. It is between us and Wabash College which is located in Crawfordsville just up the highway about an hour away. We get together every mid-November to battle for rights to the trophy bell.

We lost this year after having the bell the past few years. The football game is on Saturday but as many of us like to explain, it is more of a state of mind than an event. Starting Wednesday or Thursday people start celebrating and the festivities start. The other events include pep rallies, parties, other DPU-Wabash competitions (rugby, swimming, ultimate Frisbee and debate are just a few), and entertainment. Asher Roth and Fabulous gave a concert on Friday night, which many students attended. Alumni from around the country returned to their Alma Mater to participate in the fun. I am so sad it's over.

See if you can find me in the below picture taken at the game.



~BB

Yesterday was a fall preview day. Fall preview days are when prospective students and their families are invited to DePauw for a full day of activities designed to give them a comprehensive view of what DePauw has to offer. The day was kicked off by an address from our amazing President, Brian Casey. The rest of the day had a variety of activities including mock classes for prospective students, campus tours, Q&A sessions with current students and an activities fair. At the activities fair, families can learn more about the different aspects of DePauw by talking with representatives from every department (everything from career services and dining services to academic programs and financial aid).

I participated as a current student in the Q& A session for parents and helped at the Management Fellows table in the activities fair. I really enjoy talking with prospective students because it gives me the opportunity to brag about DePauw and all the wonderful opportunities at this top 50 liberal arts college. 

Next weekend is Monon. I am so excited. I have a lot of work to do though before then.

~BB

Starting today, Sunday, is a week long event on our campus called ArtsFest. In its 9th year, this annual celebration showcases art and a specific theme. This year the theme is Art & Power, exploring "the intrinsic power of art to change itself, change us and change the world". This festival has amazing events showcasing our own artists as well as several visiting and world-renowned singers, dancers, actors and authors. As you can probably guess, all the events are free and open to the public.

This week-long festival is yet another example of the amazing opportunities at small liberal arts colleges. The accessibility of the events at Artsfest are at a level that can only be found on small college campuses. At larger schools these types of events are usually not available to all students and the events cost money.

As part of my ITAP job as a digital video producer, I worked on one of about six, sixty-second promo videos highlighting the various events that are apart of this year's Artsfest. Creating the promo videos got me really excited about ArtsFest and I already have several events on my calendar.


~BB

It has been a great week in NYC. I had a great time visiting my sister, aunt, uncle, and cousins. Meredith and I spent Thursday doing a bunch of touristy things and on Friday we spent the day at Columbia University. Meredith is considering going to to Columbia University to get her master's degree. Columbia is an incredibley impressive university but is very large, in the middle of the city and I didn't get the sense there was much of a community feeling like we have at DePauw.

This upcoming week is quite busy. I have to present an economics seminar paper on Tuesday and I am having lunch with the Mayor of Greencastle and President of the University, Brain Casey, on Thursday. I am working with an alum of DePauw who owns an urban design firm and he has some ideas about how to improve Greencaslte / DePauw. On Thursday, after he lectures, we are having lunch with several community and university leaders to talk about some of the ideas.

That's all for now.

~BB

Hello from the Big Apple!

We are on fall break this week and I am currently in NYC (actually just north in Hartsdale to be precise) visiting my sister. I got here on Saturday and we had a great time going out in the city that night.

Since then it is has bring pretty low key. My sister is in her second year of Teach For America and is working at a middle school in the Bronx teaching sixth grade math. I went with her to work on Monday and spent the whole day in her classroom. It was quite the experience, I don't think I could ever be a teacher, it is really hard.

Today I have locked myself in the apartment. I am trying to finish up my third seminar paper which is due next Tuesday. I hope to get the majority of it done before tomorrow night when my girlfriend, Meredith, gets into town. The rest of the week I plan to spend doing the tourist thing in NYC and seeing some other relatives who live in the area.

I'll try to post some pics/videos of the rest of the trip when I write next.

See ya!

~BB

This is the last week of class before a week-long fall break. I have a trip planned to visit my sister and other relatives in New York city. Unfortunately, the next 164 hours (1 week) are going to be full of work, work, work. We turned in our second Econ seminar paper this past Tuesday but also received the third paper prompt. The topic is the liberalization of agricultural trade laws and it is due the Tuesday after fall break. 

Because I do not want to have to spend my entire fall break working on the paper while in NY, I am trying to get a lot of it done this next week before I leave. In addition, I have an Ethical Theory paper due on Wednesday.

If there is one thing that all DePauw students learn, it is great prioritization and time management skills. Quite simply, if you don't manage your time and prioritize tasks, you loose.

See you on the other side.

~BB

This past weekend was absolutely amazing, the culmination of almost a year of planning. It was our fraternity's 150th anniversary at DePauw University. We had over 170 alumni back for a weekend full of celebration. It all kicked off with an open house Friday night at our chapter house. Saturday was highlighted by one amazing event after the other. It all started with a continental breakfast at our house for the alumni. While the alumni were enjoying their breakfast, many of us from the active chapter were busy setting up the tailgate party out at the football stadium. The tailgate party lasted from about 10am to almost 3:30. As a senior leader in my fraternity I was busy running around like a chicken with its head cut off all day making sure everything was all set and running smoothly.

Here are some pictures of the open house Friday night:



Saturday night there was a formal banquet which was followed by a performance by David McMillin, a recent Alumni of our chapter and up and coming musician.

I had a great time this weekend even though I was working most of the time. I enjoyed socializing with past Sigma Chi's both young and old. We shared many great stories and just really got excited about being at DePauw and being Sigma Chis.

Anyway, fall break is coming up quickly, just under two weeks aways. I just have a test and paper standing between me and a trip to NYC to visit my sister and relatives.

~BB

Another busy weekend has come and gone. Last week I had a string of fortunate events. First, on Tuesday I received my official job offer letter. Second, on Wednesday I got an A on my first seminar paper and the second seminar paper deadline got extended a week. This really enabled me to enjoy parent's weekend more and not have the second paper deadline stuck in the back of my mind.

My parent's drove up Saturday morning and stayed the night this past weekend. We had a big cookout on Saturday night at my fraternity and had a great time. In addition to parent's weekend, Friday night was the culmination of Greek God & Goddess. This is a week-long competition between all the Greek houses on campus and Friday night is always the highly anticipated dance competition. Each house prepares a dance/skit that are always amazing.

My house had an unbelievable dance and we ended up not only winning the dance portion of Greek God and Goddess but the entire week-long competition!

On a side-note, it has started to cool down significantly which is kind of nice.

~BB

This past Friday, the Management Fellows Advisory Board was on campus for their biannual meeting. The advisory board is made up of about 15 (mostly alumni) business professionals. They are a very impressive group of people who are executives at some of the country's largest and most successful companies.

Because we are a small, private university, we have unparalleled access to these individuals. In addition to having lunch with the advisory board, all Management Fellows had the opportunity to meet for 45 minutes with one or two of the advisory board members. I spoke with an executive from Eli Lilly who also is on the Harvard Business School admission's board.

Since I already have a job lined up for next year, I was especially interested in talking to him about applying to business school in several years. He gave me some great advice and even critiqued my resume. I felt very lucky to have over half an hour of one-on-one time with him.

Just got back from dinner at a professor's house, it was a delicious home cooked meal.

Another week starts tomorrow.

~BB

This weekend was quite full with activities. Friday night was the much anticipated Ubben Lecture of Karl Rove and Howard Dean. The Ubben Lecture Series is a speaker series we have each semester that is sponsored by two alumni, Tim and Sharon Ubben. Their goal is to bring the world to DePauw through the a lecture series each semester. We have had such big name speakers as Tony Blair, Mikhail Gorbachev, Peyton Manning, Paul Rusesabagina, Benazir Bhutto and Colin Powell over the lecture's 20 year history. The most amazing thing about the series is that each and every lecture is free and open to the public. Trust me, you won't find this on any public university campus. I think this lecture series is one of the things that makes DePauw so special.

This fall the lecture took the form of a debate for the first time ever. Over 2000 people from all over the Midwest flocked to hear the debate. The two political heavy weights debated everything from health care to the incivility of politics today. It was a great debate and even got a little heated at times. For more information about the debate, pictures and a full video web-cast click here.

Saturday was Tigerstock, a philanthropy event my fraternity co-sponsor with a sorority on campus. We had three bands, a BBQ and collected donations for a local shelter here in Greencastle. The weather was beautiful and we had a great turnout. Below are a few pictures from the event.

Thats all for now

~BB

Sometimes you reach a point in your life when you have to take a step back. That is exactly what I did this weekend. After a week and half on campus, I was beginning to get stressed out. I frankly felt over committed. I had reached a point where I was involved with so many different activities / organizations that I was not able to fully commit and add value to any of them. Thus, I decided to drop a few activities.

One of the major things I decided to drop is rugby. I didn't want to drop it but between the extensive time commitment and toll it would take on my body I decided it was the best thing to drop. I am taking two PE classes this semester, Racquetball and Tae Kwon Do, so I thought I would do my body a favor and not torture it with rugby practice an additional three days a week.

I feel much better now and am excited about some new committees and campus initiatives I will be a part of this year. I am still nervous about my economics senior seminar course. I am sure this will be a common complaint of mine this fall.

That's all for now.

~BB

It is the first full week of class and a lot has happened. The biggest news is a job offer from Cummins. I got a verbal offer a few days before I left my internship for the position I applied for in early August. I am really excited to know what I am going to be doing next year and to have the huge weight lifted of finding a job in the worst economic downturn since the 1930s.

School is off to a roaring start and my classes are great. My economics seminar will be, with out a doubt, my hardest class and I am a little intimidated  by it. Arabic is challenging but a lot of fun. Each day we are learning a few more letters of the alphabet. I have taken Spanish for years and this is a whole differnet ball game. Arabic not only is a completley different set of charaters, there are many new sounds I have to teach myself to make and everything is written / read from right to left.

I love that I am able to take such a wide variety of courses at DePauw and I am going to miss the feeling of excitment I get discovering brand new subjects each semester.

Back to work now...

~BB

I am finally back on campus for good now. Wrapping up everything at my internship in Columbus while packing was quite hectic but I was able to get out of work a little early on Friday afternoon. I then drove up to school, finished unpacking and settled in.

Classes do not start until Wednesday but Monday and Tuesday are already shaping up to be very busy days. I have all sorts of meetings with the various groups and programs I am involved with. I am taking a very diverse set of classes this fall including: Arabic, Ethical Theory, Economics Senior Seminar and Tae kwan Do. I think it is awesome that at liberal arts colleges like DePauw I am able to concentrate in a major area but still have enough freedom to take classes in other disciplines.

I am buying a video camera in the next few weeks so I plan on uploading some short videos to the blog this fall. Stay tuned.

~BB

I am currently sitting in my room at Sigma Chi. The unfortunate part of all this is that it is only for a few more hours. I have to head back to Columbus for one last week of work before moving back to DPU for good. I decided to come up this weekend to move in some of my stuff and clean out my room. This should really expedite the move in process next weekend.

Next weekend is going be crazy. I am driving from Columbus to Greencastle Friday after work. That night I will have to move in the rest of my stuff before leaving first thing in the morning for home in Saint Louis. I will spend some time with my parents on Saturday afternoon/night and do any other things I need to do before catching a Greyhound bus back to school Sunday afternoon.

Being here, moving in, and seeing many friends whom I haven't seen all summer has made me really excited to start my senior year. At the same time I am really excited for my last week at Cummins. I have two big presentations, one is a one-on-one presentation to a Vice President. In addition, I am hopeful about hearing back about the interview I had la few weeks ago.

Stay tuned!!!

~BB

The past two to three weeks have been marginally slower than the rest of the summer in terms of work. Now, however, with only two weeks remaining, it is going to be a sprint to the end. I am trying to wrap up all my different projects at the same time. On top of my projects, I have a big presentation this week to the Financial Leadership Team (FLT). All finance interns have to give presentations to the FLT about their internship experience. The FLT is made up of all the top finance people at Cummins, including the Chief Financial Officer.

The next two weeks will most definitely be hectic and probably a bit stressful. On top of all the work stuff going on, I have been working at night a lot on various other projects for when I get back to DePauw. I think I have mentioned that our fraternity is having its 150th anniversary this fall in a previous entry. Anyway, each day, I find my self having a growing amount of responsibilities associated with this event.

Okay, I think I have complained enough for one entry, I'll write next week and let you know how my presentation to the FLT team went and what the outlook is for my last week of the internship.


~BB

I had my interview for a full time position with Cummins on Monday. Given my experience with Cummins thus far, I felt fairly comfortable and ready. I won't know the results for at least a few weeks but am excited to see where this path leads. This past week I had an amazing opportunity to meet with the Chairman and CEO of Cummins, Tim Solso. Mr. Solso is a graduate of DePauw University and has been with Cummins his entire career. He has been Chairman and CEO since 2001 and has led the company to 5 straight years of record growth and profits.

Mr. Solso was the one who first got the ball rolling on the India internship opportunity and I wanted to personally thank him and share some of my India experience with him. He was very interested to hear about the experience Liz (the other intern) and I had in India. It was an amazing opportunity to meet someone like Mr. Solso, who is an alum of DePauw and who has been so successful in life. I feel very fortunate to have alumni who are not only so successful but are so willing to meet with and help current students. I don't think students have the same accessibility to their alumni at larger schools.

I only have three weeks left in my internship and can't wait to get back to campus for my senior year.

~BB

This past week marked one year since I arrived in India for my semester long internship with Cummins Inc. Coincidentally, the three new interns left today for their internships with Cummins in India. I would be lying if I said I wasn't a little jealous. I can't believe it has been a year since I first arrived in India.

Being with Cummins this summer, I have had the opportunity to help with some of the coordination of the DePauw-Cummins internship program. I have really enjoyed working on the other side of the program and see all the great improvements being made to make the experience even better. On top of all the excitement about the interns departure, roundtrip airfare prices are below $1000 from Indianapolis during our week-long fall break. I am very tempted to go for a visit.

I have realized this summer how special and truly unique the DePauw-Cummins internship program is. Cummins and most other companies don't have any other programs that remotely compete with the type of experience this internhip provides. When I talk with people here at Cummins about my experience in India, they often comment about how they had no idea such a program existed. In many respects the program doesn't exist........outside of DePauw that is. It is an exclusive, unparalleled program only offered to DePauw students. My fellow interns, here in Columbus, always ask me about how to apply for the program. I get a slight sense of pride when I explain it is only available to DePauw students. It's not that it is impossible to get an international internship at other universities; however, at DePauw the opportunities are so much available.

~BB

So there have been a few recent developments in my life the past week. I have my first interview for a full-time job in the first week of August. It is with Cummins for a financial development program. I am very comfortable with interviews and I have had a lot of experience the past few years interviewing for internships. However, now it is for a real J-O-B, and it feels very weird. There are so many questions I need to ask regarding benefits, salary, location, etc. that never come up in an internship. On the other hand, I am very thankful to be getting a head start on the job interviews.

With a market like this, I can't believe I could potentially have a job lined up before my senior year even starts. I can only imagine what it would feel like to have the weight lifted of finding a job my senior year. I am very excited about this job and I really hope it works out. I estimate about 20 people interviewing for 4 spots, making it very competitive.

Luckily I have two key unique advantages. First is being from DePauw, a competitive, strong liberal arts college. Everyone else applying is either a finance or accounting major and from one of a handful of schools. I automatically add diversity to the applicant pool which is something Cummins believes is of the utmost importance. Second is my semester internship in India. This DePauw exclusive internship is an experience unlike anything the other applicants have ever had. Many of the other applicants (current summer interns) have had several summer internships with Cummins but none have interned outside the headquarters or overseas at a foreign office. I am hoping these two unique factors will help me secure a spot.

I will be sure to keep you all updated on this interview.

~BB

Summer is in full swing here in Columbus. We are barbecuing on the weekends and enjoying the sun. I am still getting used to this whole sitting at a desk thing. Luckily it is only temporary and I will be back to the normal college routine in just about 6 weeks. At my internship I sit next to another intern who is actually in MBA school and he has worked for about four years before going back for his MBA.

I am beginning to realize how lucky we are being in college. The "real" work world after college does not sound all that great. Sure there are no papers or tests, but you are technically "grown up" which comes with a whole host of additional responsibilities.

The DePauw chapter of Sigma Chi (the fraternity to which I belong) is having its 150th anniversary celebration this fall. Now this is the 150th anniversary of our chapter on DePauw's campus, not Sigma Chi's 150th anniversary. I drove up to Indianapolis last week to meet with some of our chapter's executive board and some of our alumni house corporation (chapter alumni who own our house).

We are planning a large celebration and expect over 100 alumni, spanning 60 years to be in attendance. I am very excited to be a part of the planning committee and can't wait to see how the celebration weekend unfolds.

Hope your summer is going well

~BB

So its about 10:51pm and I just got back home from the office. No don't worry, I was not there all day. I left around 6 pm and then went back at around 9 pm to make a few calls to China. One of my projects requires me to call people all over the world. This, I find very fascinating but it also requires quite a bit of planning. When your calling 25 people in about 14 different countries and 8 different time zones you really have to have a plan or your never going to catch all them in the office.

Work is going great, the parents are coming to visit this weekend and I can't wait to see what the rest of the summer has in store for me. I went back to DePauw a few weekends ago for alumni weekend which is alwasy fun. I enjoy talking with the "old" guys from my fraternity and sharing stories. I'll tell you one thing, on a small private college's campus, some things never change. As we shared stories, the decades that seperated us seemed to evaporate.

Below are a few pictures of the Indianapolis Air Show I went to a few weekends ago with Meredith.

~BB