Hello hello Babson blog readers!

I hope you all are enjoying these beautiful, crisp, but super chilly November days!
(Unless you’re reading from California or Hawaii or something, then never mind…)

November at Babson means REGISTERING FOR SPRING CLASSES!

I have just registered for my LAST semester at Babson (tears tears).

So I decided to dedicate this post to classes!  As a senior, they are pretty much all dedicated to my concentrations (Marketing and Literary/Visual Arts) and I’m definitely a huge fan of all of them!
Hopefully this will give you an idea of what kind of interesting classes we have at Babson.

Fall Semester:
MARKETING MANAGEMENT (Professor Roggeveen) - the capstone class for your Marketing Concentration that looks at marketing from a strategic, managerial perspective.
BRAND MANAGEMENT (Professor Fisher) - analyzing successful brand maintenance and brand sustainability; we talk about all the big brands across industries, everything from Puma to Heineken to Ducati.
ENLIGHTENED ENTREPRENEUR (Professor DiCarlo) - an ethnographic approach to studying and observing the social entrepreneur
LIMIT CASES (Professor Goldberg) - definitely one of my FAVORITE classes at Babson, we study international Human Rights cases that span a variety of topics, including the oil crisis in Nigeria and sex trafficking in India, mainly through literary and visual representation such as books and movies.

Spring Semester:
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT MANAGEMENT (Professor Thibodeau)
ANIMATED, EXPERIMENTAL FILM (Professor Levinson)
MANAGING THE SALES PROCESS or VALUE SELLING FOR THE ENTREPRENEUR
Finally… I’m going to GHANA over winter break, for a liberal arts project with Dean Hanno and Professor Deets!

As you can see, Babson gives us the fantastic opportunity to take classes within our business focus and creatively in a liberal arts focus - no charge (except tuition, obviously…)

Feel free to post any questions about any of these classes and more at Babson!

Have a terrific Thursday,
Vanessa

Hello to everyone out there in the internet world.  I’m Lee and I’m a junior here at Babson College and you get the pleasure of hearing about my random musings.  The reason for me writing this though is because Babson College is participating in College Week Live! *cheers* This is an online college fair where students can come and chat with Admission representatives if they have any questions.  We’ll have people in the booth chatting at the following times:

• Thursday Nov. 5th: 6-9 PM
• Friday Nov. 6th: 4-6 PM
• Saturday Nov. 7th 4-6 PM

Not only do you have those lovely times that you could come and chat with us, but on Saturday Nov. 7th we are going to have a video presentation from 1-2 PM featuring myself and Jillian Smith.  You can ask any questions you want and we’ll answer them as well as we’ll be telling stories about our experiences here at Babson, it is going to be awesome!

So i guess it would prudent to tell a little about myself.  As I said I’m a junior here at Babson.  I’m originally from Kansas and couldn’t be happier to be living in Massachusetts instead.  I am engaged to a lovely girl named Alaina and I’ll probably mention her several times my blogging so just giving you the heads up.  I’m concentrating in Quantitative Analysis and want to be an actuary after I graduate, so if there is anyone working in at an insurance company reading this let me know so I can try to get an internship, looking for any connections I can find.  I’m involved in the theater organization here on campus and I happen to both act as well as run tech. Well that’s enough of the biography stuff.  This weekend my plans are pretty simple because I have to work everyday except for Sunday so that leaves Sunday as my homework day…what fun.  Oh well just 2 weeks and then it is Thanksgiving break.  Huzzah.

Oh and I’m going to close every blog with a random fact and a random picture.

Random fact: If the population of China walked past you in single file, the line would never end because of the rate of reproduction.

So here we are, about half way through the Fall semester at Babson!  The campus is gorgeous with the New England fall leaves dusting the ground and the air getting crispy and cooler by the hour.  This weekend is FALL WEEKEND, one of the highlight weekends of the year, as Babson students flock to a ton of really fun, interesting events and activities… specifically HALLOWEEN PEPSICO PARTY on Saturday night, one of the biggest parties of the year. Every student on this campus is decked out in their most creative costume attire for this extravaganza. Can’t wait!

Another really unique event is this weekend that goes to show that YES, you can have EXPERIMENTAL THEATER at a Business School - and pretty good theater too.

I am the President of the Babson Players and a CommUnity Educator, and this semester I have teamed up with Origins of Necessary Equality (ONE Tower) and Black Student Union to collaborate on an epic theater event, produced by yours truly, directed by Arts & Humanities Professor Jon Dietrick, and starring two current seniors - Terence Musto and Pichon Duplan.

Student Clubs and Organizations

TOPDOG / UNDERDOG
A dramatic play by Suzan Lorie-Parks

The idea that sparked this event began in my Modern Drama class with Professor Dietrick last Spring. Terence and Pichon had performed a scene from the play for a class project - they had never acted before and we were all blown away by the performance!  I immediately thought that these two should have the opportunity to showcase their (hidden!) talents to the campus wide community. Thus initiated this play!

Another cool aspect of this event is that it is the FIRST EVER BLACK BOX PRODUCTION! We have converted the dance studio of Sorenson Center for the Arts into a make-shift black box that allows the audience to feel completely connected to the setting and the characters.  The play takes place in the tiny apartment of the two characters, thus the audience feels completely drawn into the time and place.

Sorenson Center for the Arts

The guys have done a fantastic job and I can’t wait for all of our friends and favorite staff members to see it tonight and tomorrow!!!

Have an awesome and safe Halloween!

High fives,
Vanessa

I know it has been a great travel season when my office is a huge mess!  Well, that seems crazy to say, but it is quite true.  I wish I had a camera so that you all could understand what I mean.  I have profiles from high schools, inquiry cards, receipts and business cards among other things placed in piles around my office.  Also, I have transfer folders that I continue to read and evaluate right on my desk for our Spring of 2010 cohort so that I can get a head start on those before I begin reading ED and EA files.

That is truly the theme- this time of October is a time of transition for the admission counselor.  We return from our travels, hyped up about all the super kids we have met and all the exciting places that we have been.  Fall cleaning ensues, and then, we move into hibernation mode, otherwise know as reading season. For now, I will clean through my materials, catch up on email and get organized so that I feel refreshed and ready for your applications.

At this time tomorrow, I will be landing at Heathrow, readying myself for the first leg of my European journey.  I have read applications from the UK for the past three admission cycles, but I have yet to visit these schools.  Needless to say, I am quite excited to visits with students at TASIS, the American School of London and Southbank International School.

Of course, I am tying up loose ends here at the office before I head out for the day.  There are intern meetings to plan, transfer application review days to set and emails to answer.  But, they are all good problems to have.  I love this busy time of the year.

One thing I have not had time to do is plan where I will run in London.  As many blog readers know, I fancy myself as quite the runner.  So, as soon as I am at the Marriot, I am sure I will be logging on to the British version of mapmyrun.com to see where I should venture to.

Well, I survived my first week of travel.  New Jersey treated me well, and I was excited by how many students I saw at schools despite the fact it was the first true week of school.  Visiting you all at your high schools is one of my favorite parts of my work.  I enjoy meeting the faces of applications that I will read, and I love learning about the schools that you attend.

I also had a chance to reflect upon the types of questions that students had during our meetings.  What types of classes are offered to first years?  Do I really get to run my own business as part of the curriculum?  What is the campus community like? Each student I met had so many queries about life at Babson, demonstrating that they truly are engaged in the college search process.

On a less serious note, I had a new discovery this week- Satellite Radio.  It was installed in my rental car, and it was pure heaven for this traveling admission officer.  I am from the Northeast remember, so ten country stations was complete bliss! (Please, I know…. it is a corny fact about me.  I love country music, almost as much as I love my golden retriever Cisco!)

Week One down, and now two more trips to go.  I cannot wait to see what other topics come up!

I am sitting at my desk this Friday morning thinking that the inevitable is about to happen. It is the last morning for this academic year that I will not be thinking about applicants, essays and where the closest Starbucks is. And though I look forward to it, I dread it as well.  Once travel season begins, the whole admission cycle kicks into gear.  The relaxed nature of the summer is over. There is simply no turning back once travel season begins!

I have been not really thinking about it.  Although my colleage James left for Asia on Tuesday, it was almost as if it was a continuation of summer, and he was simply out on vacation.  But yesterday, our intern Shanna set up Skype on my computer.  Courtney, another colleague, and I spoke to James via Skype just after he woke up in Korea.  It started to settle in- travel season was here! That will be me contacting my colleagues from far away lands in about two weeks.

For now, I will be traveling stateside. So today, I am like Santa Claus, packing my bags and checking my list.  I have the inquiry pieces tucked into my Babson LL Bean bag. Lee, my intern, is making sure I have all my addresses correct on my agenda.  The rental car agency called to confirm my car pickup today.  ladies and gentlemen, start your engines! Next week, James, Courtney, Christine, Kim, Michael and myself will all be out traveling.

Monday, I will have my first visit of the year at the Wardlaw-Hartridge School in New Jersey.  I am looking forward to my week in the Princeton area, as there are many great schools and even more great friends in the area.  Stay posted for updates from travel- I am sure I will have many observations!

As much as I love working with my students and at Babson, I have to admit that vacation is awesome.  Last week, my husband and I went to Nantucket.  For those of you non-New Englanders, it is a small island off the coast of Massachusetts. It is our most favorite place to vacation; we even named our golden retriever Cisco after one of the beaches there.

On the way back, we stopped in Falmouth to run a little foot race, the Falmouth Road Race.  I have run this race five times, and I will keep going back. It is an amazing seven mile run along the shoreline, as well as incredible crowd support and a decent elite field.  Even better, Courtney Leahy, my colleague here at Babson, and Brian Rodkey, one of our interns from last year, also ran the race!  Go Team Babson!

Now, it is back to reality and I am catching up on life here.  This week, I will start to plan my visits to high schools in New Jersey and Europe; students in these areas, I will be offering interviews during my time there, so stay tuned!

One last thing- as you know from this blog, the Summer Ventures program created a huge buzz on campus these past few months.  Check out this article from the Boston Globe.

It is amazing- even though campus is definitely slower during the summer, there are still boundless activities involving our students. A new summer program this year at Babson is Summer Ventures, which I reported about earlier on this blog. Today is Demo Day, where our student entrepeneurs will formally present their plans to angel investors, venture capitalists and the community. To check out the businesses showcased, click here.

It is amazing- even though campus is definitely slower during the summer, there are still boundless activities involving our students.  A new summer program this year at Babson is Summer Ventures, which I reported about earlier on this blog.  Today is Demo Day, where our student entrepeneurs will formally present their plans to angel investors, venture capitalists and the community.  To check out the businesses showcased, click here.