Sunday, August 28, 2011

Stay Safe This Weekend....

So it first starts with the ground shaking mid week, and now we end the weekend with Hurricane Irene...Can we catch a break? The major part of the storm has moved out of my area finally, but the rain and wind is still present. My brother and I went outside before to see the damage and it's not too bad. We have a stream behind my neighbors house that is running into the road and we also saw a crayfish battling the wind and rain out in the road. I will post some photos below!

I am hoping that everyone received the Berk Alerts throughout the weekend so you took all the necessary precautions to stay safe. You may have also received emails from your professors letting you know that if you lose power or if something were to happen, to take all the necessary actions and whatever work needed to be submitted, they will deal with that. Hopefully you have reached out to your professors already if there is an issue at your home. First thing first is your safety!!

Although the gist of the storm has passed, there are still the issues of flooding and trees coming down so please be careful if you go out to travel. I have been keeping up with the news and seeing what is going on, and they are urging everyone to just remain indoors, so please listen to them!

We are transitioning into week 9 this week, which means only two more weeks till the finish line! This week may put a damper on your work, but push through and do your best to get it done. Like I said, your safety is your first priority!

Everyone stay safe this weekend and I will keep you all posted as we progress through the week!

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Halfway through Week 7

Hey guys! I know, I know, slacking on my postings again! This quarter has been kicking my butt between interning and keeping up with everything, but I am happy to say that everything is going great and the nerves and pressure of graduation are setting in!

I've been applying to some jobs already, hoping to land something close after graduation, so I still have my fingers crossed in that area! I know I always have the Career Services area available to me at Berkeley for any career assistance! It's great to know that you will always have someone there to help you out when you are really in need of it.

I want to make note of a posting this week on our facebook fan page "Give me one word that describes Berkeley College... -Angie Marie" As I was reading all of the responses throughout the day, they were the same exact things I was thinking to myself: Professional, Family, Success, Convenient, Opportunistic were among the many mentioned!

When I started at Berkeley, I loved the fact of how professional everything was handled. From the registration process to the enrollment of classes, it was just so great! You got to know your admissions rep, your advisement rep, and everyone you saw on campus were so friendly and ready to help you in any way they could. Everything was handled very professionally and if something fell through the cracks, they were sure to pick it up and correct the issue!

Success is something I am going to experience very soon with graduation approaching. Yes, I have succeeded in a lot already, but walking away with my Bachelors in Marketing, will be a huge part of my success here at Berkeley. The faculty and staff were there for me 100% of the way. Even with being a part of the online family, the differences in support were very minimal.

So when I read all of these terms being used to describe Berkeley, I couldn't agree more! We are all in this together and we all have a lot to be thankful for because of that!

As we wind down on week 7, I want everyone to look at how far you have come, whether you are a new student, or a continuing student. I am now looking at everything 3 years later and it's such a great feeling to know that I have been able to successfully obtain a degree that will help me land the job of my dreams.

I am still interning as well, which will be about another 4 weeks, until we close out the quarter. It's been a little hectic there because we are trying to organize and manage the database, and since there are so many contacts within, breaking it apart has been a nightmare, but we are all working together to sort it out. I work with such a great group of people, so each day I intern is always fun and exciting. I am also doing a lot of work with the marketing materials that go out and learning all sorts of different programs that could be in handy in the future!

All is good so I am lucky for that! Hang in there everyone! Only a few more weeks, and you get another weeks vacation! You can't beat that!

Friday, August 5, 2011

Oh, We're Halfway there....

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We are wrapping up week 5 and moving on to week 6, which means HALFWAY THROUGH THE QUARTER!!! And only 5 more weeks until I am a college graduate! Yikes! Everyone I talk to keep asking if I am on the job search yet and yes I am!! I'm trying to get something set up for right after graduation and I have sent my resume all over! Just waiting for the bites to begin. I did get a few so just waiting to see what happens!

I hope everyone is having an excellent quarter so far! I know it's summer and you really don't want to be going to school, but just think how much it is going to pay off. I am in this one class online and our discussion board is EMPTY. I feel like a loser being the only one posting, but I want a good grade. It's just boring talking to yourself after a while! LOL How is everyone's classes going?

It was yet another week of interning and I was a busy bee this week! Here is my journal entry for the week that shares what my tasks involved:

I had my work cut out for me this week and I actually got very stressed. This week I had to pick apart this HUGE, and I mean HUGE Excel sheet with information on pricing for all the products. The problem with the Excel sheet was it wasn’t very organized and the format was off. When I was first given the task, the directions were not very descriptive so I found myself staring at this Excel sheet saying, “Now what?” I asked my co-worker, who had assigned the task, for some assistance. She rolled right over and had no problem. I was showing her what I was trying to do and even she was like “Oh no!” We ended up having to change the formats of the cells and make a completely new sheet to get it to work. I think I even stressed her out too, but we managed to get through it. As soon as we got the formats changed and set up in the new sheet, I was able to begin picking it apart, labeling things that needed to be labeled, deleting things that did not apply, and just cleaning up the file so that it was presentable.

I found myself a couple of times stepping away from the sheet because there was just so much going on at once that my eyes were going crazy and I just needed to recollect myself. My co-worker made sure I was ok, and kept checking in because she knew it was a very frustrating sheet to work with. The deal with this huge Excel sheet was that we need to submit it to the government so show our prices and what products we are still selling. Since they run it through a system, a lot of the things in the Excel sheet would cause it to error, so I had to make sure it was clean enough so that when it went through their system, it wouldn’t bounce back at us. Instead of running into issues right off the bat, we wanted to alleviate them and clean it up in advance.

While that was the major project of the week, I also did some lighter tasks including entering more contacts into our database system and cleaning that up. I also sent out marketing materials to the people who came in as leads for our products. I sent out the brochure and made sure I included all the contact information if they were to have any further questions.

My final task of the week consisted of exporting our database again and organizing an Excel sheet so it listed just the Canada representatives. After exporting, I then added them to a website known as Constant Contact, where those individuals working there now organize and put them into our bigger database. It's pretty much the back up system in case ours crashes.

This week tested my Excel abilities, and I was glad I was able to get through it. I learned that no matter what, my co-workers are there to assist me and that I just need to take everything one step at a time and I will be ok!

I'm going to be sad when I have to say goodbye to my internship, but it's been nothing but great experiences so I am so thankful for that. I will walk away with great skills that will benefit me when I start my career!

I will be heading down to Atlantic City this weekend, so I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!!