Hello, and welcome to the MIM blog!  My name is Patrick Dedrick, and I am one of the three student ambassadors for the program for this year’s cohort.  Before we dive right into some of the particulars of the program that this blog is intended to provide, the three of us thought it’d be nice to give some self-introductions, to give potential students an idea of exactly what kind of people apply for the MIM, what kind of academic and professional background we’ve had prior to the program and where they see the MIM taking them in the future.

I finished my undergraduate work from Pacific University in 2008, with a major in Anthropology and International Studies and a minor in Japanese, and as soon as graduation was over, all I could focus on was the fact that this was the end of the academic road for me, and that I would never have to worry about another piece of homework again.  Well, I rode that feeling for some time, and settled into a great job at a winery in Carlton, Oregon, where I worked in the tasting room and was eventually given the responsibilities that often befit a tasting room manager.  While I was having fun, learning about wine, and meeting great people, I couldn’t help but feel that I didn’t belong in that setting just yet, and began to look for graduate programs that would allow me to build on my newly inculcated interest in business and my previous experience with the Japanese language.  I spent long hours scanning the internet for programs and degrees that fit my specifications… and I came up empty handed, time after time.  I remember distinctly, sitting down to my computer on what I vowed would be my last search effort for a program that I genuinely wanted to apply for, before I resigned myself to applying to a program that I felt was malleable enough to meet my needs.  Needless to say, the Masters of International Management program came up in the search results, and I couldn’t be happier for it today – it is the perfect program for my interests, and truly one of a kind in the opportunities and experiences that it has to offer.

We’ve only just finished the bulk of our first quarter, and I’m more excited about the MIM than I have ever been.  The academics are challenging, interesting, and pertinent to business in an international setting.  The location in Downtown Portland is ideal for developing a very real relationship with the city.  Being an Oregon native, I’m finding myself getting to know Portland in an entirely new way, living right in the heart of it, on campus.  But the most rewarding aspect of the program has been the people.  Adam spoke briefly of this in his post Wednesday, but I have to mirror the sentiment – that the people really are what make the MIM so special.  I’ve gotten to know people from all over the world, and have made friendships in the past three months that I consider to be life-long.  And while this is largely due to the people in the program, these modes for friendship are facilitated by the program, with activities like a mandatory four day camping trip in Eastern Oregon, complete with rock climbing, canoeing, and white water rafting.  So far, my experience with the MIM has shown me that the program is committed not only to providing a quality academic experience in a specialized field but also to giving students the tools and resources they need to network and build lasting relationships that are meaningful in both their personal and professional lives.

The other ambassadors, Adam, Austin, and myself would like to encourage readers to participate in this blog, with questions that they may have – or any one of us can be reached at the askmim@pdx.edu email.  I look forward to passing on my experiences in the program through this blog, and would be more than happy to help prospective applicants any way possible.

-パトリック

Well it has been 12 weeks and what have I learned?

I’m an insomniac? Never to go out drinking knowing you have a lecture the next morning? Don’t leave essays until the last minute? You can safely consume 5 cans of Monster energy juice in one night?

I can safely say I have learned all of these. But I have also learnedabout myself and the people around me. I have met some interesting people at Napier, and spoken to people I would normally have never talked to and enjoyed the experience. I think university is making me come out of my shell after the relative comfort of 6 years of high school and knowing people in your class from primary and all that guff.

The experience of being at university has also led to a worrying girlfriend, who attends college on the other side of the city. Literally. Her college is located in Granton and the campus I’m mainly on is Craighouse. These are in the different constituencies of Edinburgh North and Edinburgh South (maybe southwest, but I’m not too sure). So all I can say about this is that I value every moment I spend with her, knowing that it may be a full week before I see her next.

Next week is the last week of term 1, and thank god there are no exams! They would have killed me. This means I can see my friends and my girlfriend and experience everything that I have missed over the last 12 weeks. And yes that includes lazy days of doing nothing but playing games online. I chose to go to university and became the first member of my family to do so, which is something my mum is proud of.

My school were all proud of me as they realised that I was just a diamond in the rough, after being on a path walked down by many of my former pupils at school I fixed onto one, obviously I was walking on a tightrope, but whenever I fell I got back up. Resiliance is the key. And in fact to quote Thomas Wayne, Bruce Wayne’s father in the Batman comics ‘Why do we fall? To get back up again’ these words have acted as a catalyst for me to exceed what James Gillepie’s High School believed of me.

I hae recived help along the way to becoming a fully grown man, I admit I do slip into rather outrageous bursts of anger and being less politically correct as I should be, but I am 18 and still developing.

University is effectively a new start for me. A start where I can take full advantage of. A start like many people like me do not get. I am not blessed with great intelligence, nor am I blessed witha great vocabulary. Hopefully if I become a journalist or my main goal a politician, people can look back over my life and say ‘My God, how did he end up there’ and to which I can firmly reply ‘Batman’.

In the end becoming a student has really helped me develop as a person, even after these 12 weeks. All I am looking forward to is a break, one I need and one I think the whole course needs. I have no regrets about deciding to come to university and I have no regrets about what I have done since I started all those weeks ago.

This time next week I will be sitting in work, packing CDs into envelopes and placing orders online knowing that I have a month of spending my time as I wish, not as a timetable decides. I’m sure within that month of holidays I will discover something else about myself, but for just now realising how important I have become to my family is enough to push me on for the rest of my life and achieve my goals.

Also I don’t know if this was part of MMR1 but it is being placed in the coursework folder, along with the opinion articles. My laptop is not letting me access the student portal and WebCT so sorry in advance if this and the opinion articles are not actually coursework.

I very rarely suffer from the human emotion that is jealousy. If you take a look at my parents’ country, you can tell that they are not well off. Usually, £1 is P(peso)100. As far as I know, most of the people in the Philippines earn around P300 a month, which is horrendous.

With Christmas round the corner, I will forever wonder how they survive.

Nevertheless, it is the Christmas period and we do need some holiday cheer. Unless of course, you failed to acquire Michael McIntyre tickets for his Wembley show. Curse you Dina for seeing this enthusiatically camp comedian!

There is something about Michael that places a permanent smile on your face. As the Independent put it, “here was a man who managed to be extremely funny without being cruel to anyone – not even politicians.” Rightly so. Everybody loves a bit of Frankie Boyle and Jimmy Carr; controversial and challenging humour that has forced the BBC to patch up and slowly becoming CBBC-Too-Hot-For-TV.

His observational wit has earned him the mystical power of turning anything into comedic gold, such as his trademark “man-drawer” and his toff English for being drunk i.e. “I completely and totally, car-parked!”

Do I have to continue? Surely you would have guessed what sort of DVD I want for Christmas now!

On Uni Life

When I first came here, I found it to be very competitive and demanding.  Some students clog themselves into academics and stress themselves out. Uni is very different from high school. It’s tough at first – but then, you get to adopt yourself into the lifestyle and look at things in a positive way. 

Advice for New Students       

Sure, you are comfortable hanging with people from your own country and it’s great to have them as friends.  But what’s the point of leaving your country if you are always with your own group?    You should always try to meet people from other places, mingle, and experience new things.  Otherwise, everything just becomes monotonous.  

                                                                                                                                                                                                   An Active Lifestyle     

It’s your choice but you should find the balance and make good use of your uni life.  I’m a part of the Wing Chun Society on campus.   It’s a form of Chinese martial arts (you know, like Bruce Lee?).  It’s about speed, agility, and “smart fighting”, where you find ways to trick the opponent. 

Also, I play on the HKUST Cricket Team*. We have  practice every weekend.

I have fun partying out in Central once in a while but it’s also nice to chill with friends on campus.  Usually, on a Friday night, we head down to the waterfront by the barbecue site.  We sometimes stay there all night until the sun rises! 

Sanura Illeperuma, Sri Lanka                                                                                                                                                                             BEng & BBA (Dual Degree Program in Technology & Management, Year 3)

Black Student Union (formerly the Afrikan Student Union) Records, University of California, Irvine. AS-098. Special Collections and Archives, The UC Irvine Libraries, Irvine, California.

Students of the 1997-1998 Afrikan Student Union (currently the Black Student Union) were active participants in UC Irvine’s Rainbow Festival and Conference in November 1997. These photographs were included in scrapbooks created by the organization to document events and activities during the academic year.

The festival was founded in November 1984 as a campus wide celebration of cultural and ethnic diversity and has remained one of UC Irvine’s most festive traditions. The popular multicultural program has served as a model for numerous other colleges and universities.

While moderated by myself, David Bennett, in the admissions office, the hope in the coming weeks and months is to allow this site to be a conduit for students to talk about their lives as students. Let see how this experiment unfurls. Our first student blogger, Anica Lin, will be introduce herself shortly. She is a First-Year student from Swaziland who will comment not only on life at Lake Forest, but her life in America.

Seniors Holly Dempsey, Katherine Clowers and Rhonda Garrett look through the lunch selections at Flash Market. Soon seniors will have another choice when Subway opens next door to Flash Market.

LINDSAY RICE – Hoof Prints Staff

The craze started three years ago when Mayor Jerry Qualls came into office. Monette wanted a Dollar General. Qualls felt it was only fair since all other surrounding towns had one. The mayor tried to get one, but the Dollar General headquarters wouldn’t let the town have one. They claimed it would affect the sales of the other stores.

Qualls kept insisting that Monette needed one. After two long years, headquarters finally decided to let Monette have one.  According to Qualls, there are 8,000 Dollar General stores in the United States. He also said that it’s the goal of the Dollar General headquarters to build 400 every year. Qualls said, “We’re very fortunate to get one in this small of a town. We all use it. We certainly needed one in Monette.” He said that Dollar General headquarters was very impressed with the cleanliness of Monette. The goal of opening for the store is January 1, 2010.

Flash Market in Monette is doing some major renovating involving the Subway opening up in its building.  The original date to have it up was supposed to be December 1, but the contractors got tied up and that will be no longer possible. Subway will be located in the building adjoined to Flash Market, where the old laundry mat was.

Subway will allow more of a variety for the seniors who go off campus for lunch. Nicole Poe said she would definitely be eating there for lunch.

Not only is Flash Market adding a Subway to its building, it is also getting more gas pumps.  The site where the old Monette Auto Sales building will contain three gas pump islands.

These new businesses will not only bring more consumers to Monette, but they will also bring new jobs.

• I went to Beijing and saw tons of the cool sites, climbed the Great Wall, walked around the Forbidden City, etc. It was awesome. There’s tons to see in Beijing, and the Silk Market is really crazy.
• I went shopping in Shanghai and got some great knock off stuff for pretty cheap
• Went to a Hot Pot Restarurant. I’m not sure exactly how to explain this, but it’s kind of like a Fondue restaurant only different. You sit at this table that has this huge pot of soup on a little cooker thing and then you just order random ingredients and put it in the pot and then everyone just takes what they want using their chopsticks. It’s pretty fun, but Andy (the guy who took us, Andy is his english name I don’t know his Chinese name) ordered some interesting stuff…. I’m not really sure what half of it was. Most of it was really good, but at one point he really wanted me to try this one item, and I thought it might be octopus, but he informed me that it was a part of the cow that he couldn’t say in English…. I’d rather not know.
• Went to Haungshan (Yellow Mountain) which was really pretty, and Maddie and I found out that we were slightly under prepared for it. We were thinking it was just like a hike… but then we got there and everyone had like those huge backpacking backpacks strapped on their backs and like walking sticks and stuff. It turned out to be fun though the part of the mountain we were on wasn’t too hard, and we really liked Huangshan city.
• A few weeks back the Jazz lost to the Rockets. Everyone here loves this fact. They won’t let me forget it. The Jazz better shape up next time we play them.
• Last week we were invited to go to another school and teach a class. I’d forgotten what it was like that first week of school…. but I remember now. Signing english books, photos, video cameras, mobs of children all over again.
• This week is Sports week at our school, and tomorrow Maddie and I have been “invited” to be in one of the races… can’t wait…. we’re going to look totally foolish. Espeically since neither one of us packed gym clothes so we’ll have to run it in our jeans… should be fun.

Wednesday 4th March 2009 00:19am Lion and Lamb Walk

We had some very heavy snow for about a week then. The University was closed for many days giving us almost a whole week off to play around in the snow. After having a very warm day inside me and Arron thought lets go out and take some photos. We were out for a good couple hours as it kept coming down around us.

Bring on next year!

D

Yo fellow students!

It’s monday again! Another week of academics, co-curricular involvements and other school stuffs.

We can give into that “monday blues” or we can positively take this week as another challenge to train ourselves to become better.

Here are 3 simple steps to make things happen:

#1 Have a clear picture of your desired end result

What is your desired end result for the week? Don’t just let it stay on your mind. Write it down, so  it becomes clearer and you can be more motivated to get it done. A perfect score in Algebra? An excellent and inspiring report on Economics?

#2 Create a working strategy

Be practical. Ask yourself: how exactly can I make this happen? Is this really workable?  Realistic? As in really practical? If you are working on a big project, chunk it to little goals. Some call it “baby steps”. Set time and a place to start doing them and then…

#3 Take Action

Action is what separates the winners from the losers. There are a lot of people who got great ideas and goals but never get them done simply because they didn’t own it and were unwilling to take it to themselves. Once you’ve resolved a plan, stick t it until you get it done

… and don’t forget to reward yourself!

Enjoy the week!

Tiffany Yang

I attended the Student Advocates for Nutrition (SAN) Thanksgiving dinner last week and was told that when several of them helped out at the SPH prospective student day, many of the prospective students expressed worry about transitioning into graduate school life. Now, I know that the posts on this blog from all the various students may seem like all we do are attend seminars and events and sit around and talk about public health issues (tangent: it is really weird how this can happen. I never sat around as an undergrad and chatted with classmates about peroxisomes or gap junctions. Now, I find myself in conversations about dietary guidelines and the pros and cons of vitamin supplements) but we also spend time doing other stuff.

One of my classmates, a Master’s student in Human Nutrition, does ballroom dancing and she’s in Ohio this weekend for a competition. Me, I spend a lot of time cooking and preserving. I know other people who still have time to read, travel, play sports, go to gallery openings or pursue other diversions. Still others do amazing things with their time and volunteer, work, or be a parent. One of my classmates is taking 18 credits and is a parent. Parents in school are just amazing. If she can do it, you can too.

Yeah, you may be tempted to say that it’s going to be harder just because it is graduate school but this isn’t necessarily the case. Things are a bit more intense in terms of how much you need to know, but you will be surprised at how much the grades are adjusted on exams. At this point, you are making the choice to go to graduate school to learn more, not to get more A’s. Don’t get me wrong, I still want A’s, but I’m not as concerned about spending the exponentially greater amount of time needed to get the A although I usually panic a day or two before the exam and study like mad. But those hours still don’t add up to the insane amount of studying I did as an undergrad in order to “qualify” for graduate school. Glad those crazy days are behind me. However, I have classmates who are still crazy about studying and grades. They obsess over little details in lecture notes and amp-up for exams weeks before they are slated to occur. Is this normal? Only if you think it is. It’s different for everyone.

In terms of class, classes are classes. I didn’t know anything about public health or nutrition before I started and I’m learning everything right now. It’s definitely a bit scary to jump into something that I know nothing about, but that’s what classes are for! And, incidentally, I hear that the transition from 1st year to 2nd year is much more abrupt and crazy than the transition from undergrad to grad school.

Basically, things are not going to change that much except you get to say “graduate” in front of “student” when people ask you what you’re doing with your life and you get to learn lots of really cool stuff.

Professor Patrick Henry Winston ’65, SM ’67, PhD ’70

Every once in a while, a student group invites me to a free dinner, which pleases me, not only because faculty salaries were frozen last year, but also because I enjoy getting to know students in an informal setting.

This past week, I went to the Hillel Faculty Night Dinner, where the students have a tradition of asking the faculty attending to introduce themselves and answer a surprise question, such as, “What is your favorite building on campus?” This time, it was, “What do you want to be when you grow up?”

I didn’t have a good answer to that question, so I decided to use a trick I learned in humanities classes. I ignored the question asked and answered another one, “What is the strangest incident you have experienced involving a Jewish student?”

“Without a doubt, that would be the amazing case of Louis Lamon,” I said, responding to my own question.

Louis Lamon^* was one of my all-time favorite teaching assistants in 6.034, Introduction to Artificial Intelligence. One year, when Louis was a teaching assistant, our final examination was on a Monday morning, so on Monday afternoon the staff, about eight or ten of us, were sitting at a big table working away through a stack of 250 examinations. We were just getting started at the time the conflict exam was scheduled over in a distant classroom. We decided to take turns proctoring. I took the first turn.

When I returned from proctoring, I was feeling pretty goofy, it being the end of the term, so I decided to hack the staff.

“Wow, I just had my first experience with quiz rage,” I said as I sat down at the grading table.

“What’s that?” asked Louis.

“It’s a little like road rage, I guess. A student seemed to be having trouble with the exam, and then, about 20 minutes in, he started cursing and swearing loudly. I couldn’t calm him down. I finally had to call the campus police and have him taken away. They told me it happens once or twice each semester.”

“Who was it?” said Louis.

I thought it would add realism to describe one of Louis’s students, an Israeli named Ben Brotsky^*, who happened to be taking the conflict exam. “I don’t know,” I pretended, but some of the cursing and swearing was in a language unfamiliar to me, maybe Hebrew.”

“You know,” said Louis. “I think it might be one of mine, is he [physical description]?”

“Yes,” I said “That’s what he looks like.”

Then, a few minutes later, Louis said, “He once told me a scud landed a few doors from where he lived in Israel; maybe it is some form of post-traumatic stress syndrome.”

“Yes, Louis,” I replied, “Maybe it’s post-traumatic stress syndrome.”

Then, it came time for Louis to go off to the conflict-exam room for the final shift. About half way through his shift, I decided I should go and make sure he was ok with the hack and not too sore about getting snookered. But, when I arrived, he grabbed my arm and whispered into my ear, “He’s back.”

“Oh my god,” I said, improvising rapidly. “Louis, don’t do anything to upset him. I talked to his advisor, and he has a history of violence. He was a commando in the Israeli army. He could kill you in seconds with a wire…like that power cord attached to his laptop.”

“Ok,” said Louis. “I’ll be careful.”

A little while later, Louis returned to the room where we were all grading, looking highly upset, and said, “I confronted Ben after the exam.”

“Oh, oh,” I thought to myself, “now I’m in trouble.”

So, I started to explain, “Listen, Louis…,” but he interrupted me. “We’ve got to do something,” said Louis with emphasis. “The guy is so psychotic, he didn’t remember a thing about the incident.”

Amazing.

Not the best product name, not the best tasting either but it has its advantages.

Lets look a little closer…

Sainsbury’s Basics Chicken Roll (400g)
94p
(23.5p / 100g)

Description: Reformed from pieces of chicken with added water, chicken fat and skin.
Average 40 slices
yummy added chicken fat and skin… mmm skin

per 100g   per slice
Cal                       224kCal      N/A
Fat                      15.4g             1.5g
Sat Fat               4.3g              N/A
Sugar                 1.1g               N/A
Salt                    2.3g              N/A

Ingredients
Chicken (58%), Water, Chicken Fat, Chicken Skin, Modified Waxy Maize Starch, Milk Protein (Cows’ Milk Protein, Lactose (Cows’ Milk Sugar)), Salt, Flavouring (With Wheat Gluten), Stabiliser (Pentasodium Triphosphate).

Chicken roll containing Cow! that’s not cool, what if you don’t eat Cow (yes I said Cow)

Allergies Information
Contains Wheat Gluten, Milk, Cows’ milk, Lactose & Milk Proteins

Nutrition

nutrient                                per 100g            per slice
Energy kCal                        224 kCal                 N/A
Energy kJ                            934 kJ                   N/A
Protein                                14.2 g                       N/A
Carbohydrate                    7.2 g                        N/A
of which sugars                1.1 g                         N/A
Fat                                      15.4 g                      1.5 g
of which saturates           4.3 g                       N/A
Fibre                                  0.5 g                       N/A
Sodium                             0.9 g                       N/A
Salt                                    2.3 g                       N/A

So after reading all that its either put you off already or your dying to know more.

First Impressions

After opening the packet, visually its not very pleasing (as pictured above). It almost looks like it has freckles which was a bit of a put off, including all the little holes that were obviously where the gristle/bone was taken out.

What Can Be Done With It?

Well most obviously put in a sandwich!. I think I put something that resembled this last year cut up into a pasta sauce. Not a very versitile food… thing, but simplicity is good right?

In Sarnie mode it went alright with some mayo and english mustard so I would recommend strong tasting condiments to go with it.

Taste

Bare able, that’s really the best way I could put it. When eating a slice on its own the taste of “Chicken” is almost forgotten when you feel the grittiness of what it is. Sometimes some gristle that went under the radar goes crunch or there’s a bit of a shock with a odd almost sour aftertaste left in your mouth. In a sandwich its almost the same story except for the fact the mayo and mustard camouflages the aftertaste and the bread hides the grittiness.

Positives?… If any

It does cure one thing… The drunken munchies. Come home after a rough night down the SU, club, pub or mates flat and stuff a couple slices of this in a sarnie with whatever sauce in the house and it does fill a hole. Its even better when you have mates over. If you seem to raid their cupboards when your over theirs on the lash and they are over yours this time, demanding food after the amount of late night spag bowls you’ve had at theirs, just wack some of this into a triple decker sarnie for some friendly food loving. mmm good times.

Would you feed this to your friends?… I did and it went alright…ish

Overall

AVOID!

it really just isn’t worth the 94p

Enjoy

D

Here’s a funny but generally true description of college life according to a Stradmore notebook cover:

fresh.man |ˈfre sh mən| ( pl. -men)

1. People with smiling faces who, little do they know, will one day have the same harassed look as the upperclassmen 2. Very eager to mingle with the upperclassmen, favorite recruit of school orgs/clubs  3. Tends to travel in large packs for protection.

sophomore |ˈsäf(ə)ˌmôr|

1. People proud to be part of the upperclassmen, 2.Will not mingle with freshmen for they are now “above” them 3. Considered to be the most relaxed of all students, without the pressure of adjusting to a new school environment and still too inexperienced to handle major org/club responsibilities

junior |ˈjoōnyər|

1. Students with a happenin’ social life, aka study groups, all nighters’ meetings, org assemblies, group practices. 2. Caffeine dependent, has poor posture and basic hatred to anyone without homework 3.Susceptible to Junioritis, a condition inhibiting juniors from coping with their rigorous academic schedules and extracurricular activities, and poses them to ask the age-old question, “What is the point of all this?” In 99.8% of all cases, senioritis will result.

senior |ˈsēnyər|

1. School royalty 2. The coolest people in school, or so they think 4.Gets away with almost anything especially with the freshmen. 5. Has got the art of cramming down to perfection 6. Susceptible to Senioritis, a condition deadly to one’s grades as the carrier becomes apathetic about grades, classes, homework, basically anything connected to school. Symptoms include: not doing any work and skipping classes.

Does this describe your college life?

haha!

Lately, i couldnt post as regularly as i used to. I’ve been busy with assignments and projects.
Well well well, dedicated to my studies

balance

Sometimes here at HEC-Paris I feel like I blink my eyes on a Monday only to open them again on a Friday with a sense of amazement that the week has come and gone. I’ve just come off of one such week where I completed, attended and learned quite a bit. And honestly, the train was moving so fast that it all seems a bit of a blur!

This past week most of my days began at 8 am and finished somewhere in the neighborhood of 1 am. I attended 23 hours of class, worked on 2 financial markets problem sets, turned in a statistics project, prepared an accounting presentation the night before it was due (my group was saved by the bell on this one – we ended up not presenting!), collaborated on a human resources paper and sigh, took a financial markets midterm exam. On top of that, this week my 8 hour a night sleep-loving self learned to function on a nightly 6 hour average.  Breathe in, Breathe out.

It’s Friday now, and I feel I’ve arrived. I definitely feel a bit exhausted, but I likewise feel a bit smarter and a bit more accomplished. I have a sense that I’m not only working to attain my degree, but my degree is starting to work for me – the information I’m learning is sinking in! I find myself viewing real world situations through a business lens. Despite my flurried week, I managed to carve space for some runs, leisure reading and chill-out time with friends. I’ve found that such offsets to my sometimes hectic schedule are necessary to maintain my balance and mental health.

So now, with the week behind me I am eyeing the weekend. While I plan to devote some time this Saturday and Sunday to studying for a looming supply chain exam, before doing so, I will take a night to socialize with some of my new HEC friends and explore Paris.

Please come out to see 3, possibly four students from our program read their work at KGB Bar on the Lower East Side in Manhattan.  Zahra Darby, Jean Sung and I will be reading our poetry and prose, and there may even be a surprise 4th reader.  The reading is from 7-9, and is the perfect starting place for a night out in the city.  Hope to see you there! –Moira