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About Me:

My name is Steph, and I am a senior Marketing major with a Communication Studies minor. Since this is my last year at Butler, my main goal is to enjoy every moment that I have left, while doing as much as humanly possible. I am a marketing analyst at the Butler Business Accelerator, a Speakers Lab tutor, and a Butler blogger (obviously). I also am an Alpha Phi, the President of the Butler University Student Foundation, a member of Alpha Kappa Psi (a professional business fraternity), and a member of the Butler American Marketing Association. In the small amount of free time that I do have, I love crafting, watching large amounts of television, and enjoying my favorite comfort foods, like sweet tea.

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Posts Tagged “working”

The Beginning of the End…of my Butler Career.

Posted on January 25, 2012 by Stephanie

Last semester, I worked so much that I barely had time to study and I hardly even felt like a student.  I was this strange “phantom senior” who was only in my room between 11 p.m. and 7:30 a.m., and who lived out of my plethora of Vera Bradley bags.  Some people would love this kind of schedule…but I couldn’t stand it.  It was like I was living double lives, as a partial “real person” who worked 25+ hours a week, drank coffee, and who went to meetings to talk about things that involved budgets more than $500….and as a partial student who still took 12 credit hours, was overly involved, and lived in a sorority house.  It was a nice little introduction to my future….but I have got to say…I am so glad to be a student again.  I am now in class more than I’m at work, and I love it.  Granted, it is just the second week of school, and I actually have time to study/prepare for each class, but I think that my schedule this semester is going to allow for me to love every minute of my last few months here at Butler…and I couldn’t be happier.

So, in my last semester at Butler, I tried to make sure that I would be making the most of everything… classes, work experience, and campus life.  I’m taking 15 credit hours (which is not a ton, but not an easy load either), all of which I am really excited about.  I get to take my two business capstone courses (one for management and one for marketing), consumer behavior, international marketing, and a leadership & decision-making course for my minor (communication studies).  As far as work goes, I am still blogging, working in Speakers Lab, and I am doing my 4th internship at the Butler Business Accelerator (an on-campus consulting firm).  Even though I am still working 3 jobs, I’m working about half as much as I did last semester, which is absolutely BEAUTIFUL.  Since I am a second semester senior, I am also starting to “phase out” of most of my organizations.  I recently transitioned the new people that are taking over 3 of my past leadership positions, so I am outrageously excited to be a participant in campus activities for the first time in awhile…rather than being in charge.  We will see what I say in about a month, when school is really moving….but for now…I finally am loving senior year.  :)

Some Alpha Phi seniors on Bid Day...

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Semester #7 – Check

Posted on December 22, 2011 by Stephanie

Ever since I started college, I have thought that my life could not get any busier, and that the next semester would be so much easier.  But, of course…it never let up…and I think that it actually got worse over time.  I love being busy…but when I look back over the last 7 semesters…I wonder how I ever made it through…

  • Fall 2008 – 17 credit hours, I pledged Alpha Kappa Psi, and I joined the Butler Dance Team
  • Spring 2009 – 17 credit hours, I joined Alpha Phi, and basketball season with the Dance Team was super busy

The 2008-2009 Butler Dance Team

  • Fall 2009 – 19 credit hours, I lived in Alpha Phi for the first time, the Real Business Experience ruled my life, and I started working in Speakers Lab
  • Spring 2010 – 18 credit hours, my Law & Ethics class ruled my life, and I started having leadership positions in clubs
  • Fall 2010 – 16 credit hours, and I’m sure something took up all of my time…I can’t remember what it was….
  • Spring 2011 – 16 credit hours, and I was searching for an internship with every free moment of every day

So this brings us to now, the end of Fall 2011…my 7th semester of college.  I only took 12 hours (which is the lightest load you can take as a full-time student), but I worked 22 hours/week at my internship, and between blogging and working in Speakers Lab I worked an extra 5 hours/week.  Also, when you factor in the time that it took me to drive to my internship every day, you can add on another 7 hours each week, so altogether….I worked around 34 hours every week.  This basically meant that I had no time to spare when I was on campus..or period…because I was either working, or in class.  But now, it is over….and I officially fulfilled my internship requirements!  I never thought that I would, because I had to work for 300 hours throughout the semester, and it took me a LOT longer to do that than I originally thought.  So last week during finals, I worked as much as I could, and I ended up making it to 300 right at the end of the day on the last day of the week.  SUCCESS!

So now…all I have to do is make it through 15 more hours this Spring.  This will be a breeze…I hope?

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The most unusual finals week of my college career…

Posted on December 21, 2011 by Stephanie

Last week was our finals week at Butler…and it was the easiest finals week that I have ever had.  This is mostly because I only had 3 finals, and they were spread out on different days throughout the week, so I never had a day where I was overloaded.  My schedule looked a little bit like this:

  • Monday – Sales Presentation, then I worked at my internship all day
  • Tuesday – Retailing Final
  • Wednesday – I worked at my internship all day
  • Thursday – Worked again…
  • Friday – Health Care Economics Final

Even though it was kind of nice not having entirely too much to do all week, I actually kind of missed having an awful week where I rarely showered or slept.  I learned that I am much more productive when I have an overloaded schedule…because there is just something about feeling gross and knowing that you absolutely HAVE to study for the next 72 straight hours to make it through the week that strangely motivates me.  This year though, I showered every day, I only pulled one all-nighter, and it was outrageously hard to concentrate and buckle down to study.

In fact, I was so off my finals game that I almost slept through my Health Care Econ final.  I studied until 6 a.m., and the final was at 8 a.m., so I thought that I had just enough time to nap for 30 minutes before I cleaned myself up a bit and studied for one hour before the final.  Instead…I slept for 2 hours, woke up at 8:03, and then ran to my final.  Good thing that I had plenty of time to finish all 8 essay questions during the 2 hour final, and that I was officially finished as soon as it was over.  After last week, I’m actually hoping that all 5 of my classes next semester have finals….is that strange?  That I want to be overwhelmed in my last week of college…ever???

My desk area during finals...there is just something that I love about having stuff EVERYWHERE.

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College Life vs. Real Life = Totally Different

Posted on September 1, 2011 by Stephanie

This summer I realized something pretty big, something Earth-shattering.

Ok, maybe it isn’t that big.  But it still is rather important.

Contrary to popular belief, college life is not real life.

For the last 3 years, I have felt like a grown-up, like a real person with real life problems and situations.  Actually, it’s not real at all.  Most of the problems I see every day not things that happen in every day real life.  For instance, people coming over and drinking all of our slushies (apparently not everyone has a slushie machine in their house), or not being able to put holes in my walls while I’m decorating my room (look out for a blog on my back to school crafting and decorating soon!).  But most importantly, college distorts our perception of time.

Most semesters are about 16 weeks long, so our lives revolve around that singular time period.  We worry about the test that is coming up next week, then once that passes we move onto the midterm the next week, and lastly the final that we cap off the semester with.  Even with projects, everything has to be started, developed, and put into action within that 16 week time period, or else there isn’t a way to get graded for it.  On the flip side, in the real world, 16 weeks is sometimes much less time than is allowed to complete projects (or in some cases…brainstorm them), which is kind of a problem when you have an internship that is only a few months long.

Personally, I can’t wait to get out into the real world to be able to look at life in a more long-term prospective, because right now my version of long-term is Thanksgiving.  Past that, I don’t really think about things much, with the exception of my TBD post-grad plans of course….so on second thought….let’s stick with the college mentality.  I’m totally fine with postponing the inevitable for as long as possible….

Can't I just stay in college forever???

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Is everyone in HR like Toby??

Posted on August 17, 2011 by Stephanie

One of my very favorite TV shows is The Office.  I watch it religiously, or if there is a way to watch it more than someone who watches something religiously, then that is what I do.  So, when I accepted an internship in HR with Vera Bradley for the summer, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect, but I did wonder if I would arrive there on my first day to find a department full of Tobys (Dunder Mifflin Scranton’s HR Representative).  If you have not seen The Office, basically Toby is Michael Scott’s (the office manager) least favorite person.  Michael always says that Toby ruins his fun and just makes each day awful in every way possible.  So, with this as my only exposure to HR prior to starting, I was slightly nervous, not going to lie.

Toby Flenderson himself...

Luckily, I arrived on my first day at work to find that Vera Bradley HR was not only much cooler than Toby, but they are much more fun.  None of the executives or managers acted anything like Michael Scott, so many of the things that Toby has to do in response to Michael’s outrageous acts are never actually necessary at Vera, or at any company that is not Dunder Mifflin. Even though I would have LOVED to meet a real life Toby Flenderson, I am secretly happy that everyone I got the chance to work with was so much cooler.  We would chat throughout the day, take breaks to get coffee and water altogether, dress up in themes on special days like the Friday before July 4th, decorate the office for special birthdays, and go out for lunch to celebrate anything and everything.  Today was the third workday that I haven’t been at Vera since I finished, and it still hasn’t exactly sunk in that I’m officially done, and not going back next week.  I loved working with them so much that I have actually wondered quite a few times if I really do need to finish my degree here at Butler, because if not, I would happily stay and work with them for as long as they would have me.  Maybe if I just continue to pretend that I’m not really done, and I’ll be going back soon then it won’t be so bad??  Maybe??

Vera Bradley HR...some of my absolute favorite people!

 

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