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Jarrett, Student Life

Howdy Partner: A tale of who done it?…MPA style

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As I’ve mentioned in my previous blog posts, there are many students here in the MPA program from across the country and the world. To make those long absences from home more bearable, each MPA clique kind of becomes a home away from home. Even though I’m only from Arlington, TX (three hours North of Austin), I have grown extremely close to three fellow MPA-ers in particular.

So when I started planning what I wanted to do for my birthday three months in advanced (I love birthdays!), I immediately when to my BFFs here and said unapologetically, “I want a murder mystery surprise party for my birthday.” My thinking was that a murder mystery would be a fun twist on the usual birthday celebrations we’d been having. I just wanted to do something different. And I’ve always wanted a surprise party.

My friend, Theodore, replied, “How are we supposed to make it a surprise if you know it’s coming?”

“That’s the challenge isn’t it, “ I said. “You have to be creative.”

Well as my birthday was approaching, I starting getting nervous that perhaps I was demanding too much from my friends. Who pretty much demands a surprise party from their friends? It started to sound more and more ridiculous in my head. And as I was going through my calendar and my friends’ calendars it seemed that finding the block of time to have the party, it seemed like the window of time to have a surprise party just kept getting narrower and narrower. Continue reading Howdy Partner: A tale of who done it?…MPA style →

Jarrett

Group Projects: A scheduling dilemma

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I am sure that many of you reading this blog have had to deal with the end of semester projects in just about every class. The MPA program is no different. At this moment, I am in the middle of two group projects. This can become quite a headache when you are having to work around classes, study time, relax time and other group meetings to schedule a meeting with the teams you are involved with. I thought I would take some time to explain some of the expectations of working in groups here in the MPA program.

First, since the MPA program has an outstanding reputation, they can choose the best students for the program. As such, the student body here is quite above average. Therefore, almost everyone in your group is going to be able to contribute something to the final product. I’ve never been in a team environment here where someone in the group was not able to contribute because of a lack of technical knowledge.

Second, the MPA program attracts students from all over the country and the world. So you are going to be working with a diverse group of people at times. Having great communication skills will help make sure your group projects progress smoothly. When you’re working with a person from a different country, take some time to look up a brief history of that country, local customs and forms of business. Doing so may help reach across cultural boundaries that can often frustrate students of different backgrounds. Additionally, taking the time to learn more about the place a group member comes from helps build a rapport with them.

Third, and finally, the types of group projects you will work on will vary. Continue reading Group Projects: A scheduling dilemma →

Academics, Jarrett, Student Life

MPA Daily Life: Five Need-to-Know Topics

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For this week’s blog post, I thought I should describe some essential parts of daily MPA life. These are things to which you’ll become accustomed very quickly on a daily basis.

  1. MPA Mailboxes: Professors and TAs will return any graded assignments to your mailbox. Mailboxes are located on the fourth floor of CBA in McCombs. There is a room with four cabinets with cubby holes. Each cubby is assigned to one MPA student. It is here that you will find your graded homework, tests and announcements from the MPA Office.
  2. Blackboard: At my undergraduate institution, we had an online platform called eLearning, which professors used to post announcements, readings and assignments for the class. At UT, we use Blackboard. Most professors in the MPA program will use Blackboard to post the class syllabus, additional readings, class notes, practice tests and solutions to assigned homework problems. In my government and not-for-profit accounting class, we even submit homework assignments on blackboard.
  3. Name plate: At the beginning of the fall semester, the MPA Office gave each student a name plate to place in front of his/her seat in class. If there is one piece of advice I can give students, it’s don’t forget your nameplate! Professors usually stipulate in their syllabi that they expect students to have their nameplates for each class. Additionally, some professors will call on students who don’t have their nameplates.
  4. Suit lockers: During recruiting, you will be wearing a suit a lot. Most likely, you will only need it for an event immediately after school or for an interview in the middle of the day. To avoid wearing a suit all day, you can check out suit lockers from the MPA Office. It’s free, and the lockers are conveniently located around the corner from the changing rooms. You only need your UT EID to check out the lockers. They are available for check out between 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. A word of warning: If you don’t return your locker key on time, you will be locked out of the on-campus recruiting system until you return the key or pay a lost key fee. This is the system you will use during recruiting to apply for jobs and schedule interviews.
  5. Bevo Bucks: Many universities have their own version of this type of system where students put money on their student ID cards and use this like a debit card at on campus diners and select area merchants. You will also use Bevo Bucks to print in the main business school computer lab, the Millenium Lab, and in the Perry Castaneda Library.

I hope that by listing these five things you’ll have a better understanding of daily life in the MPA program. Sometimes describing commonplace things like the ones above paints a move vivid picture of what day-to-day to life is like here.

Jarrett, Student Life

Getting Fit: UT offers it all!

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As I mentioned in my previous post, I have started a work out schedule. It’s been quite an adjustment to incorporate that into my weekly schedule. Luckily for me, I don’t have class until 2 p.m. CST Mondays and Wednesdays and I have a three-hour break between classes Tuesdays and Thursdays. And as is usual in the program, I don’t have Friday classes. So as long as I budget my time between classes, study time and working out, I can fit it all in.

I thought this week I should discuss some of the many different ways MPA students can get active and exercise around campus. First there are two main recreation centers on campus: Gregory Gym and the Recreational Sports Center. Both offer full weight rooms, cardio machines, handball/racquetball courts, basketball courts and table tennis. Gregory Gym also offers an indoor jogging track, climbing wall (mainly open for just bouldering), indoor lap pool, indoor leisure pool, heated outdoor lap pool and heated outdoor leisure pool. Gregory Gym is probably the most frequented by MPAs because it is across the street from McCombs.

If you are interested in intramural sports, you have a plethora of choices here at UT. Racquetball, volleyball, soccer, flag football, softball, basketball and billiards are all choices sponsored here at UT. If you don’t have a team, you can even sign up as a free agent. Then if there are spaces on teams, team captains will call you up to join their teams.

And if group exercise classes are your thing, then UT offers more than 100 weekly classes including yoga, Pilates, cycling and dance classes. The only thing that you have to consider with this option is that all these exercise classes are “extras” and require the purchase of a semester pass to participate. I know this caught me off guard because these fitness classes were included in the general student fees for use of the recreational facilities at my undergraduate institution.

There are probably more options I’m forgetting, but I hit the highlights of what our campus has to offer for physical exercise here. If you have specific questions, leave a comment. I’ll research and get back with you.

Jarrett, Student Life

New Year, New Semester

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dumbbellsIt’s a new year. It’s a new semester. What better way to start off my first blog post of 2011 than with some resolutions.

First, upon coming to campus in the fall, I established a goal GPA for my first semester here at UT. I knew it was going to take a lot of work, studying and dedication. I spent many afternoons and evenings huddled up in the Reliant Productivity Center in the Graduate School of Business (GSB) and the Perry-Castañeda Library (PCL) toward the end of the semester. It all paid dividends in the end. I achieve my goal GPA for the fall. Now, I’ve set an even higher and very challenging goal for my overall GPA by the time I graduate. It will be hard to achieve, but after one semester I have a good perspective on the things that I could do better.

Second, toward the end of the last semester, I was discussing with one of my good friends here the prospect of starting to work out on a regular basis. It had been over a year since I was on any kind of workout regimen, and living a healthy lifestyle is something that I wanted to make a priority in my life. I think a lot of problems with resolutions to get fit revolve around the fact that people don’t consider them in the context of a lifestyle change. Getting fit shouldn’t be about losing that last ten pounds of fat or building muscle for Spring Break. Those are great side effects, but getting fit needs to be about a person’s willingness to have a lifestyle that increases his/hers enjoyment of life. So my friend and I both agreed to start working out over the break and then hit the weights, cardio and diet hard when we returned to Austin. I did research on the foods I needed to be eating to achieve my fitness goals. I’ve developed workout plans to help me with my goals. And after two days of intense workouts with my friend, I can say I am sufficiently sore to the bone.

Third, I want to be more fiscally responsible. I want to establish savings goals and budget my resources more efficiently. It’s not necessarily my desire to become stingy, but I think tracking the way I spend money will help me make better decisions about the kinds of the things I should and should not be buying. Additionally, practicing healthy spending habits now will train me to handle those resources better when I start my full-time job in the fall.

So there you go; these are my new resolutions for 2011 and beyond. What are some of your resolutions?