ivory_welcome\’s blog

It’s been awhile since my last post b/c I didn’t have too much exciting to write about school b/c I don’t have that many classes! While most of the people are stressed about this test and this test or this project, I have nothing! The poor souls…lol. The majority of my days are spent working. I go to work at Concentra Medical Centers from 1-5 every day. I have been so blessed to have two jobs AND they are on different pay cycles so I get a paycheck EVERY week! It’s so nice!

Anywho, other than work I have gone to class here and there…ha. I took my very last Finance test a couple of weeks ago and that was an indescribable joy! Finance is NOT at all my strong point – who are these crazy people who are actually good at it – so I spend the whole time merely preparing to do just enough to get through the Final. I REFUSE to retake that exam! The stress of taking the first is enough and even if you retake it, he’s not replacing your previous grade but taking the average of the two. SO, unless you completely bombed the first (which is totally likely), it doesn’t necessarily help much and it could actually hinder you if you happen to do worse than on the first. Anywho, I am DONE with Finance and I never have to take a Finance class or exam AGAIN!

I’m still on the job search to get things more solidified. I have a couple of job prospects but I need to get them solidified so I can take that weight off my shoulders. Then I can find a place to live, start buying furniture – start doing all that fun post-graduation stuff! Ah graduation is only 30 some odd days away! OMG! I remember when I had a countdown to graduation that had 400 some odd days on it and I just took it down b/c it only made me sadder rather than happier lol. I ordered my graduation invites already – not through Baylor b/c not only are their invites expensive but they’re a little somber. This is a HAPPY occasion!

In my personal life, I now have a significant other/boyfriend I went through all of my graduate education with no boyfriend, with my mind set on I was going to go where the wind took me after graduation – then he had to show up! Ha! But I love him dearly and obviously it was meant to be. He makes me happy and being here in Waco at this point in time is the happiest I’ve ever been. Who woulda thunk it? I came here thinking Waco was the twilight zone and here I am actually liking it! Every time I go to Dallas and have to drive halfway around the globe just to get to another side of town I am further appreciative of life in Waco. So my couple job prospects are right here in Waco. Keep crossing your fingers and praying for me!

So I’ve officially began my job search and I must say..it is one of the most nerve racking things ever! It seems much easier said than done, but the whole process takes a lot of time and effort. Knowing that my job future rests on what comes out of this is so intimidating. I actually had to go so far yesterday as to google how exactly to job search b/c it really is difficult to know where to start! I’ve narrowed down my search to more specifics, with looking at openings at Texas hospitals being at the top.

I definitely would like to be in the healthcare field b/c that’s where my specialization lies and where I know I will be happiest, but I’m finding even moreso as I look into openings in healthcare that entry level positions in administration are pretty much nonexistent. At the end of the day, I’ll still have an MBA and I’ve got to start somewhere with gaining work experience. I am having a meeting with one of the VPs with Baylor Healthcare in Dallas in October so I’m really hoping something comes out of that. Cross your fingers for me!

As far as classes go, I feel so bad seeing my fellow MBAs struggle with their class load when I do no more than an hour of school work on an average night. Oh wait…that’s sarcasm. I think it’s freakin great that I have very little to do! I love it! It gives me plenty of time to do my job search so I’m really hoping to use that to my advantage. Until next time…lets hope I have some interviews to boast about!

Wow, you all don’t understand how happy I am to finally be able to say those words…back to school…ONE last time. My total tenure in the program will be 2.5 years by the time of my graduation so you can quite imagine my elation to finally see the light at the end of the tunnel! My summer was a good experience, being in Dallas back w/ my friends and family close at hand, although I can’t say that I was completely satisfied with my internship experience. It wasn’t exactly what I was expecting as I spent all 0f my time in the clinic and none in the corporate office. However, I learned that the clinic aspect of Healthcare is probably not for me. I am definitely willing to take it on for a couple of years to get my foot in the door, but I don’t see long-term happiness there for me. It was definitely a blessing to get that experience to know that that is not for me.

My biggest feat this semester will be the inevitable job search as I’m only taking 10 hours and have PLENTY of time on my hands (other than my two jobs).  One of my biggest fears is graduating and not having a job so I have to start as early as possible to avoid that happening, especially with the current state of the economy. I will be fully utilizing all of my resources – my Healthcare program director and both Baylor and SMU’s (I’m an alumni) job search engines.

I wish I had more to write on my classes, but I have all of THREE classes right now and I’m completely done with my Healthcare specialization. So…yeah…I’m not really doing anything in that respect! I’m going to take the opp to also get involved with our Recruitment Committee (also b/c Joanna asked b/c she knows I’m only taking 10 hours), GBA, and other events around campus. I’m excited to finally be done with my MBA but also afraid of the job search process and getting back to the “real” world where you can’t just skip out on your classes if you don’t feel like going – not that I do that or anything…

I started my internship on Monday – yes Monday, I waste no time – and so far I’m unsure of what to expect. I and another one of the Healthcare students are the first MBA students to intern with the company so I don’t think they’re quite sure what to do with us – or at least me – yet. Right now I am at observing at one of their busiest medical centers in Grand Prairie and helping out where I can. Hopefully I’ll have a more detailed account soon…hopefully.

Anywho, I came to Waco this weekend for the hooding ceremony, a sorority meeting, and an orthodonist appointment. I realized on my way in that I actually may have missed good ol’ Waco! I think it may actually have grown on me a little bit. I’ve been here for almost two years now and I guess it has become my home. I first thought Waco was in the twilight zone when I got here – not saying that it isn’t – but I’ve learned to appreciate Waco’s little quirks, especially being able to get anywhere in about 10  minutes; learned to appreciate that even more since being in Dallas! Could it be that I’ll actually miss Waco when it’s time to pack up and go?! Waco’s been good to me though, I won’t lie.

Okay, enough with the sentimental stuff again! I did this in my last blog. Anywho, I got all my grades for this past semester and I actually did a lot better than I thought I would! I am so serious – I really didn’t think things were going to go too well about half way through. I didn’t know what in Hades was happening in my Healthcare Directions course, I was lost in some of my core classes, and I was worried about Orals. Everything turned out great! I ended up actually enjoying Healthcare Directions (shhh, don’t tell any of the Healthcare profs and directors) and really feel like I learned a lot in that class. I got Bs in all my core classes except for MIS but I got As in all my 3 hour courses which really have weight on the final GPA so woohoo for me! Apparently I didn’t have my head in the clouds as much as I thought.

Another hooding ceremony gone by without me in it, more friends to say goodbye to…Goodbye all my wonderful Healthcare friends. I will miss you dearly. My time is near!

I haven’t written in a couple of weeks and I definitely have good reason – the last couple of weeks have been completely chaotic! I have never been so happy to be done! Everything just got really busy with my sister getting married and the semester coming to end with finals, papers, and our healthcare ORALS. Orals was probably the most stressful part of it all. With my sister’s bachelorette party and wedding two weekends in a row, I did not have the time to study for Orals like some of my fellow classmates were doing. I was concerned, but I knew I had to do my best with the time that I had. I went into orals and I Aced it! They said I was the first person they looked at all day and did not feel nervous for and even if I’m putting on, I have a way of still looking like I’m enjoying myself in all circumstances. Yay Healthcare specialization achieved!

Now to getting this MBA completed! It is finally almost here. Graduation is approximately 225 days away – woohoo! I only have 10 hours next semester and I couldn’t be more excited. One of my fellow classmates called me lazy, but hey, I’ve earned the right to slack! With IMS and my Healthcare residency, I’ve been in this program for 2 years – it will be 2.5 total! I’ve been on the long ride and I’ve earned the ability to lean back my chair and prop my feet up a little bit, haha.

When I got here the prospect of 2.5 years seemed like so long! But now, looking back, I can’t believe it has gone by so fast. This is probably been one of the best times of my last – I mean this is in all corniness – although I don’t think I will EVER be coming back to school haha! Baylor has been wonderful – my classmates, our professors and Joanna, Karen, Laurie, and Gary in the office; we definitely cannot forget Ms. Adriene who always makes my day and many others a bit brighter. I asked Adriene if I could take her with me when I graduate b/c she has done so much for me. However wonderful Baylor has been, getting an MBA is ROUGH! There are some of us like my crazy friend Mari who graduated from the program in December who love school; I on the otherhand would much rather be sitting on my butt watching TV, reading a book or doing whatever the heck I want after I get off work haha! However, I appreciate that anything worth having is worth working for; nothing worth having comes easy.

Enough sentimental stuff! I *think* I have my internship situation worked out with Concentra. I am going up there on Monday to meet with them and hopefully things will be solidified. Otherwise I will be staying in Waco bothering the Baylor peeps! I will keep you all posted

Yes, have you ever felt as though the walls were closing in on you slowly, slowly, until suddenly you’re stuck in between a rock and a hard place and all you can do is yell “SAVE ME!” Earlier this week I could definitely have emphathized with that feeling…It’s the end of the semester and we’re getting everything in before it’s all said and done with. Project here, project there, test here, here, here, and oh yeah – HERE! Okay, maybe it’s not that quite that bad but if you’d have asked me last night  you would have thought the world was ending. It’s definitely a lot of pressure in the air these days, but the semester is almost over!! The GBA End of the Semester Party is next week which signifies that things are truly coming to a close. Diadeloso – the Day of the Bear – is also next week. You ask me, what the heck is a Diadeloso or a Day of the Bear?

Your guess is as good as mine. J/k! Diadeloso is a day that Baylor takes out when all students don’t have to class (YIPPEE!) and everybody just gets to have a biggo celebration in honor of a bear (??). Hey, the bear is the mascot, bring the bear out, do a little trick - it’s an excuse to have fun for one day okay?! But anywho, definitely don’t complain b/c it’s a day not to have class and that’s always good (don’t tell my professors I said so…shhh. yes everyday in your class is an honor…). They have games, bands, events, and best of all FUNNEL CAKES. Yummy! Most of the MBA students probably won’t be out there in their imminent lameness – just because we’re graduate students doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy carnival games! Haha at imminent lameness – please be assured this is said and love and jest. The MBA students at Baylor are the best EVER!

Anywho, nearing the end of this semester and I now have an internship! I’m in talks with a healthcare organization that does business mostly in urgent care clinics and employee drug testing. They are pretty much going to make an internship for me b/c they’re very dedicated to finding and keeping hold of young, educated individuals that are compassionate about healthcare – yay for me! We will see if it works out, however, because currently there are some issues. If things don’t work out, I may just stay here working in the business school b/c it’s only for a few months and I’ll still have my apartment here either way. We shall see. Enough babbling from me, back to working I go

Today I registered for my last TEN hours of MBA classes. You have no idea just how happy that makes me! It’s here, it’s finally here. Back in Fall of 2007 when I started this program the end seemed so so far away and I thought I just might pull my hair out along the way; I’ve definitely come close over the time, but the path has been well worth it. Aw, sentimental stuff. Lol.

So what do you ask, am I going to do with only taking 10 hours next semester? Absolutely NOTHING. Haha. No, actually, I really will have to find a second job or something but I’ll become a complete lazy bum if I only have 10 hours of coursework (just about 3 classes at any one time) and only work 10 hours a week. It has been suggested that I take another class and I might *consider* it if not for the fact that I would have to pay more if I added on an additional class. See, once you get over 12 hours you pay a set rate for any additional hour added. As I am now UNDER 12 hours (yeah, rubbing that in your face), I pay the hourly rate. Taking another class > paying more money?! NAH. I’ve put enough money into this program. No way Jose! I love you Baylor MBA program, but you’re not getting anymore of mi dinero.

I’m still in search of an internship for this summer and time is slowly winding down. I’m really not sure what is going to happen this summer, but luckily it’s only for 3 months, so hopefully I can rough it out, if things don’t work out exactly the way I would like. My advisor over the healthcare program is still in contact with another CEO who is actually checking into some other consulting companies he believes were interested in taking on an intern and we’re still checking into a couple of other contacts, so I’m still crossing my fingers. It ain’t over ’til it’s over!

I will be very happy when this economy starts turning around and consumer confidence begins to be restored. I know none of us are thinking about overall consumer confidence when we’re worried about where our own next paycheck will come from, but some of this economic downturn and can be attributed to our own doing. People got scared, stopped spending money. Money stopped going to the companies, company profits dropped. Companies didn’t have the necessary profits to cover operating expenses, companies layoff workers. Do you see my reasoning here? I know it is not as simple as this, but just by the smallest laws of economics, some of this can be attributed to our own actions as consumers. I’m looking toward Fall of 2009 when I’m looking for a full-time J-O-B and hoping for the best!

Looking back on my blogs from this semester so far, I can’t believe this semester is already almost over. Just a little bit over a month and we will be done with this semester. With the week I’ve just had, I am looking forward to it! I had an Economics test on Tuesday, Healthcare Directions on Wednesday, and Quantitative Business Analysis (QBA) quiz on Thursday. Even though the week was quite hazy due to lack of sleep, I actually did well on all of those tests – go figure?! I was a little concerned as to how my grades would end up this semester b/c I was struggling in a few of my classes, but I might just not be that bad at all. We are ending up QBA next week and Accounting – Thank God! These two together are probably the busiest of the core, at least in my opinion. On April 3rd, I will be registering for my last TEN hours of my MBA career. I am so ecstatic! I have been in this program since August 2007, so there is not many people that are still in the program with me that can understand just how much joy that brings me. It’s almost done!!

In other not so happy news, this economy continues to show its true colors. I thought I was pretty solid on a Healthcare consulting internship, but that has fallen through. They usually have high turnover and with the economy the way it is, no one is leaving the company – they would be crazy to do so! One upside is that the man with the company does know of some other consulting companies that ARE looking for an intern so he is going to take my resume, look around and see what would be a good match for me. I really hope this works out! I don’t know what I’m going to do if it doesn’t. Wish me luck!

Tomorrow will be the 1st day of March and I am both surprised and excited that time has gone by so fast. I have exactly 293 days until graduation as of today – yes I have a countdown on my Igoogle page (a girl has to have something huge to look forward to!). I remember when that countdown was over 400 days and I decided to remove it bc it only made me sadder rather than excited…Yeah I think once it gets to a year then it will be worthwhile to do a countdown…

Anywho, I cannot wait until that day comes. I think it is really starting to weigh on me that I have been in this program since August of 2007! Everyone I came in with – with the exception of 3 that were doing double degrees and the 2 others that came in as Fall IMS & Healthcare with me – is gone! All I can think about is the days going by so this semester can be over and I can have my semester of only 10 hours and then FINALLY graduation. Oh I cannot wait. I think I will be smiling so big I just might get offered a job as the star clown with Ringling Brothers..I wouldn’t even require makeup…

In the meantime, I am trying to keep myself afloat with QBA and Accounting right now. I think this is probably the most difficult block of core classes b/c they are both 2 time consuming courses. Luckily, they do only last for about 5 weeks at a time so they’re over before you know it and in the case of Core 2, Spring Break happens in the middle so you get a week away. I will unfortunately doing NOTHING for my Spring Break. I really promised myself that I would do something for which will probably be my last Spring Break ever, but again it ended up being a money factor (I’m too cheap) and I will be spending part of my time in Waco, part in Dallas, doing work and studying. Oh great fun. Ah well, I’ll try to be positive about it and realize that it is a break and breather, regardless of how I am spending the time.

Still working on my healthcare residency for this summer. Need to check in with the Colonel to see how my prospect is going b/c it’s always good to know for sure that you have a job! Yep, that’s always nice. With the way this economy is looking, I’ve decided that I should really take advantage of the 1-year healthcare fellowship opportunities. When I started the program I said there was no way I would want to continue with anything school oriented once I graduated, but after experiencing my residency, I realize that it really feels nothing like school. Of course you’re learning a lot but it just seems like a regular job with the ability to learn everything you ever wanted to learn from a set of mentors. Doing a fellowship is pretty much a good jump start into a GOOD job for anyone who completes them, so I will be applying for a few fellowship opportunities in Dallas to start next January after I graduate. I’m a strong believer in having lots of options if I can and this will be a great option if they actually go so far as to actually select me. That’s the hard part…Anywho, back to studying. Tata for now

A month has already passed and one 5 week module already completed. That’s pretty exciting, because the quicker time passes, the sooner I am to graduation and if you’ve read my past blogs, you know I’m counting down until that date. All of the Lockstep 2s just got done with Finance, which means I don’t have it again until the Fall. Very happy about that, but this time around it actually went better. I didn’t feel completely like a deer caught in a headlight like I did in the first Finance course, so thinking I should do pretty well in that class. The other excitement of the week was my Economics test which I was not at all happy about. I sent Dr. Kelly a very strongly worded email because I didn’t feel like the test was representative of anything I was told to study and spent several hours studying. Essentially, I could have kicked back, barely studied and have had the same performance on the test as I did with studying several hours – I pretty much felt like I wasted my time studying. I and pretty much of all my classmates felt the same and he is giving us a quiz with the possibility of adding 12 points on to our test grade, but I am still not happy about the test. I am going to try to maintain a positive attitude about the course and next test I’ll just go in with a blindfold on b/c I’ll probably do just as well writing scribble scrabble then if I went in eyes completely wide open…now that’s not positive Ivory…Anyone who knows me knows I am a very outspoken person when need be – note: ROAD RAGE. Lol…that’s just me.

 QBA starts on Tuesday, Accounting on Wednesday. Let’s keep this semester rolling and over! Still crossing my fingers about my internship this summer. Colonel Garner has contacted KPMG about doing a healthcare consulting internship with them this summer. Hoping it works out and they’re not implementing any hiring freezes or anything…Eeeekkkkk!