Christmas Break

It has been a great break. I haven’t had 3+ weeks completely off in a long time. Even during my undergrad years I was never fully off. As a rower on the lightweight crew team, every free moment was spent training for the racing season. It was no surprise that I was a little unsure how to spend my winter break. To make it easier, I broke up the break into three blocks.

The first block of time off I spent doing nothing… and it was great. I stayed in Columbus and slowly unwound from the hectic life I lived during finals. Each day I read the paper, went to the gym, checked on grades, watched movies, attended ugly sweater parties, etc.

For the second block of winter break, I returned to Cincinnati to spend time with my family. Of course it was great to be home and see everyone, not to mention all the excellent food I ate. Plus I was able to go to the Bengals v. Chiefs game in which the Bengals clinched the AFC North title. Hopefully they can make a good run in the playoffs.

Block three officially began when I returned to Columbus a few days ago. I am currently trying to adjust back to a more realistic life – one with priorities, deadlines, and homework. I’ve already bought most of my books and now I need to start reading course syllabi and preparing for another quarter at Fisher College.

- Joseph Fahrendorf

(This was reposted from Joseph Fahrendorf's blog for Fisher College of Business)

Winter Break = Freedom

Classes are over, finals are finished, papers are complete… and I’m finally on winter break! For the next three and a half weeks I am off. This will give me plenty of time to reflect on the Q1 and make the necessary adjustments to be more successful in Q2.

Favorite class: Managerial Economics with Professor Campbell.

Least favorite class: Data Analysis.

Overall, this quarter was amazing. I met a lot of great individuals and I really stretched myself by taking subjects in which I had no prior knowledge. Accounting was tough, but I survived. I hear Cost Accounting next quarter is even harder, so that should be fun. My professional speaking class really improved my public speaking skills and I feel much more comfortable speaking in front of large audiences.

I'll reflect more on Q1 a little later. Now it is time to relax. I should also have plenty of time to blog over the next three weeks... although I won't have anything to blog about. Stay tuned, I'm sure something will come to mind.

-Joseph

This post was republished from Joseph Fahrendorf's Fisher College of Business blog.

Projects and Finals

Once again everyone is busy at Fisher College of Business. This is the last week of class so everything is wrapping up. As a result, I had to give a presentation on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of this week.

Monday – (Enhancing Professional Interchange) I gave a speech with three other individuals about the Thanksgiving holiday. We were supposed to talk for 16 minutes and we hit 15:59.3 without any help from the professor. Hopefully we get a few extra points for nailing the time exactly.

Tuesday – (Economics) My team gave a presentation on the compensation difference between the CEO of Aetna and the CEO of UnitedHealth. We discussed CEO pay packages and their financial incentives.

Wednesday – (Organizational Behavior) My team gave a presentation on a leadership model that we developed based on OSU President Gordon Gee. (I might have worn a bow tie for this presentation.)

As you can imagine, I’m definitely glad to have these projects behind me. Now I can start studying for finals. It all begins next Monday with Managerial Econ. Tuesday is the Data Analysis final and Wednesday is the Accounting final. It should be a fun three days.

I can’t wait until Wednesday afternoon…

-Joseph Fahrendorf

(This was reposted from Joseph Fahrendorf's blog for the Max M. Fisher College of Business.)