International Technological University
Volume III, Issue 1, Winter 2013
itu and you “One of the greatest and simplest tools for learning more and growing is doing more.” -Washington Irving
Marketing with Social Media It seems that every industry has a main event, a draw that brings all the movers and shakers together in one place, usually Vegas, where those industry leaders, wannabes and pretend-to-bes share their insights, victories and challenges.
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Student Focus Group
Awesome Activities
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My time spent at ITU and in San Jose can be summarized in one word: “Awesome.” As a new student relocated from the East Coast to San Jose, I had some initial doubts, fears and inhibitions.
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Volume III, Issue 1, Winter 2013
What’s Inside O
ur Journal is committed to communicating events at ITU. The challenge is to include interesting topics. This issue focuses on our students. You’ll find examples from Course Student Learning Outcomes (CSLOs). Student Kunal Meshram explains his learning about Managed Care. Sai Reddy describes integrity in Business Ethics. Amy Chaung explains capital structures and financial distress. We’ve included student CSLOs for two reasons: first, to show the topics discussed in courses, and second, to reveal how to write excellent CSLOs. Dr. Bill Belew writes about his passion, blogging. “How do you get people to come to your blog/web site in the first place?” features Dr. Belew’s productive techniques. New and current students who’ve answered a survey interpret their ITU experiences. They express happiness at attending Diwali, Thanksgiving, bowling nights, the Pajama Drive, I-Phone and Android App Development workshops. You’re invited to the ITU Café! Finally, see the ITU Journal Newsletter Team, dedicated to communicating your experiences. I’d like to thank them, especially the Board of Editors, for creative editing to result in what you read today.
Dear Students, With this issue, our ITU Journal Newsletter is now two years old. Have you noticed how (like you as a student) the newsletter is in continuous growth? In the previous seven issues, many students contributed their articles, pictures, or quotes. I sincerely thank you all for your contributions, which have added value to the Journal. In addition, I would like to thank all the students who contributed to this issue. The ITU Journal is your Newsletter. Our university is you—and as well, all the people, professors, administrators and surrounding community. The ITU Journal is proud to show your achievement in every issue it creates. The aim of the Newsletter is to make you proud of continuing your education here. Stories from past issues have highlighted many themes, including ITU’s desire to be a global presence: going beyond the boundaries of the San Jose campus, expressing the spirit of ITU in China and India. The Journal has emphasized new programs and new courses, sharing the educational excellence of your professors. In a special issue, the Journal shared the importance of education for our staff, presenting conferences and workshops they attended. Every Spring we celebrate your accomplishments and hard work with a graduation issue. For some students, education can mean an official school and classrooms. I hope you consider academics as a means of engagement in a new interest, a lifetime commitment to learning, or a means to read something new. ITU offers more than academics. We want to engage the whole student with an entertainment course, a singing class, or a community service project (i.g. the pajama drive). These events also offer new knowledge and skills. We’d like your continued involvement in writing articles for the ITU Journal as well. Together we can realize how privileged we are to be a part of such an amazing University, its professional faculty and staff. Amal Mougharbel, PhD Business Administration Department Chair, Editor in Chief, ITU Journal
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Volume III, Issue 1, Winter 2013
CSLO’s: Course Student Learning Outcomes Business Ethics By Sai Reddy
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ntegrity comes from a congruence between thoughts, feelings, words, and actions—when what you are and do spring from your core values. Gandhi was an example of integrity, teaching by example. A mother brought her child to Gandhi to tell the boy not to eat sugar, because it was not good for him. Gandhi replied, “I cannot tell him that. Bring him back in a month.” The mother was angry but left. One month later she returned. Gandhi took the child’s hands, knelt, and said, “Do not eat sugar. It is not good for you.” Then he embraced him. The mother, perplexed, queried, “Why didn’t you say that a month ago?” “Well,” said Gandhi, “a month ago, I was still eating sugar.” Imagine if all leaders showed such integrity and we could depend on their word in any situation? What if trust and confidence were the foundation of every business relationship? Because of his integrity, millions trusted Gandhi, followed and collectively became a force strong enough to gain India’s political independence.
Managed health care By Kunal Meshram
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anaged care is a well-organized approach to deliver health care, in spite of scarce resources, and thus plays an important role in the lives of people in the United States. The key components of managed care are wellness and prevention of diseases, provision of primary care, and utilization of resources in a well-
Corporate Finance By Amy Chaung
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t is important to understand both capital structures and financial distress for prospective CEOs or business owners. Capital structure refers to the way a company finances its assets through debts, equity and securities. It will show on the balance sheet (A=L + E) and cash flow statements. The CEO and CFO should understand the debt/equity ratio to see if the company will survive in the next year or in the future. Capital structure planning is very important for viability in the long run. Financial distress is a condition where a company cannot meet its financial obligations to creditors, for example, due to high expenses of financing, high project costs or underperforming employees. Companies with a high amount of debt and low sales on their income statement will encounter financial distress. As potential business owners, we need to learn how to create business plans, read financial statements, understand capital structures, and know how to save the company when it is in a distress situation. organized way. Managing health costs in the USA is a challenge; we saw increasing inflation in health care costs from 1994-2008 in a graph presented in class. Understanding this concept may help everyone in his or her career in insurance services or may help us better select medical insurance during our stay here. The most important feature of managed healthcare insurance is, when in need, we can get healthcare services at less cost and not pay too much from our pocket.
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Volume III, Issue 1, Winter 2013
Marketing with Social Media
The key aspect, however, begins with WHEN the readers come. But how do you get people to come to your blog/web site in the first place? How do you get a lot of people to come? Why doesn’t someone tell us how many posts to write, how to write them, how often to publish and how long we need to stick with it until we see results? I will answer these questions for my students at ITU come spring of 2013. I will expand my 48-minute Vegas presentation to a 48-hour class.
By Bill Belew, PhD
There are lots of “techniques” and “tips” for getting people to come to your blog. But how many times do these techniques need to be implemented, how often do the tips need to be exercised in order to see “real” results? And my definition of real results is real visitors who put relevant words into search engine boxes and find me, to the tune of 1,000,000 (yes, one million) unique visitors or more. Again I will answer these questions in my Marketing with Social Media class starting in January 2013.
Image Credit: Benjamin Belew Continued from page 1
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ot surprisingly, blogging has a yearly main event, too. It is called New Media Expo or NMX Live. Bloggers, podcasters and videocasters gather in mass. NMX Live started as Blogworld some 7 years ago in Vegas with several thousand people in attendance. It expanded to 2 events, one on each coast, with well over 5,000 people total. In 2013, there will be just one combined event in Vegas again with somewhere around 10,000 people attending!
What if I just want 10,000 people to come to my web site in the site’s lifetime? Been there. Done that. What if I want 10,000 people to come in a year’s time? Been there. Done that, too. How about 10,000 people in a month? Yes, done that. 10,000 people in a day? That, too. 10,000 people in an hour? Come on now. Yes, that, too. 10,000 people in a minute? Uh, huh. That, too. 10,000 people in a second. Uh....no. That is really hard to do. But in my class in the Spring, I will tell ITU students what it takes to meet their inbound marketing traffic goals.
I received an invitation in my email box a couple of months back to be one of the speakers at NewMediaExpo 2013. My proposed and approved topic – 4 Concrete Steps to Get 1,000,000 Real Unique Visitors to Your Blog.
I know how many words I wrote, how many days it took me, what quality SEO parameters I included in each web page and how many times I hit publish to see the first 1,000,000 unique visitors come to my site. And I repeated it again...and again...and again....and again.... to the tune of over 65 million unique visitors to date and more than 100 million page views overall (Dec ‘12). I have taught my students and clients how to do the same - online educators, local niche business owners, authors... And I will teach
There are a LOT of things bloggers, web site owners (I use the terms interchangeably) can do with and on their blogs for their readers WHEN readers come. Take surveys, let them participate in your forum, share interviews, show videos, sell products, sell someone else’s product, place ads, make money and so on.... when the readers come.
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Volume III, Issue 1, Winter 2013 ITU students the same. If I did it once you could say I was lucky. Twice...really lucky. But more than 10 times and in different niches? I have figured out some things. And it is from my seven years as a professional blogger (yes, I pay my sizeable Silicon Valley mortgage through revenue from traffic alone to my blogs) that I will share how to Marketing with Social Media. Make no mistake, the blog is still the King of Social Media. The class will answer the questions: 1. How much content do I need? 20 posts, 200 posts, 2,000 posts, 20,000 posts to see 1,000,000 visitors? Come to my class. 2. What are the key SEO parameters to include in each page to get the best results? The search engines say there are 220 elements that go in to the ideal blog post. But there are about 20 elements that will give you more than 90% of the results you want. What are the 20? I will tell my class. 3. How often do I need to hit publish to keep the bots (and real people, too!) coming back and increase my traffic? Once a month, week, day, hour? Join my class. 4. How long will it take for my blog to catch on? How soon can I really expect to see 1,000 real unique visitors come to my site in a day? Yes, come to my class. No theory in this class...well,
maybe a little. But I will show you how the theory plays out in the real world. You can expect case studies and real world examples. If you don’t like numbers you will be miserable. If you want benchmarks, you’ll be thrilled. I will tell you what has worked, and continues to work for me, over and over. And you can plan accordingly to meet your own goals. I will also tell you what does NOT work. What if you don’t need/want 1,000,000 unique visitors? The person who knows how to get 1,000,000 unique visitors knows how to get 100,000 or even 10,000, whereas the reverse of that is not necessarily true. It’s easier to scale down than to scale up. I will give the upper end benchmarks and students can apply themselves accordingly. Real traffic = real business opportunities. Every serious business owner has, or ought to have, an online web presence. And everybody I have met would like more real people to visit their web site. Getting real people to come to your website is what I know how to do and what I will teach this spring at ITU in the Marketing with Social Media class. See you there! Or... not.
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ill Belew is a professional blogger and an expert in driving traffic to his network of sites. Bill has taken 10 different and unrelated niche topics to more than 1,000,000 unique visitors each, and more than 80 million views overall. Bill is a published author and in-demand speaker, and has taught at University of Phoenix and Niigata Industrial University in Japan. Bill teaches blogging, SEO and web traffic building to his network of nearly 4000 Meetup Members in the Bay Area. Bill holds 2 terminal degrees: PhD in Education with emphasis on teaching English as a second language from California Miramar University, and an MFA in Creative Writing (Nonfiction) from National University.
Disclaimer: If you want real and relevant traffic understand this - In this class I will teach the slowto-build yet long-lasting way to make it happen. It’s hard, but it works. See you in February! Mona and Hiral at ITU’S Halloween costume contest.
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Volume III, Issue 1, Winter 2013
STUDENT RESPONSES: Media Administration
Scholarship Student
By Manoj vuddandi
by Nidhindra Molathati
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ince I wanted to be an active part of ITU from the beginning, I applied to be a Call Center Intern. (Thanks to Sai Vidya Kumari). That was an awesome experience; I then moved on to become a Front Desk Intern.
joined ITU in May 2012 as a grad student in Engineering Management. I like ITU because it is a student-friendly campus and has reasonable tuition fees. There is a policy for student scholarship, which helps with financial aid. The curriculum is practically oriented. When I came here, I joined the Media Team as a Media Administrator. My team helps the university to record all the classes, events and workshops. The class videos are uploaded to EMS. Students can use class videos as a backup to their study material. Photos taken are given to the Web Team for use on the university website. The Media Team works from 9:00 AM to 9:00 PM. If you need anything, contact us at : media@itu.edu. It’s awesome to work for ITU on the campus. New students: have you missed classes?? Our team records all the classes for you. Don’t worry! Check the EMS! Are you conducting an event, and have no one to capture your memories?? We are here to lock them in with our DSLR camera.
Other events made ITU a great place to learn: the “Help Japan Relief program-2011”, the CSC Career Fair 2011, Halloween 2011, the ITU Thanksgiving event, Commencement 2012, Pajama Drive, I-phone App Development Workshops, and the Android Workshops. I have maintained a high GPA by always attending classes. ITU has excellent professors who help you when you have questions. The professors are very knowledgeable and highly skilled in their fields. My favorite (and most memorable) course was Linear Algebra, taught by Margarita Marinova. She made sure, with a lot of effort, that every student understood the concepts. And we learned how to use them in real life scenarios. Another interesting course was Computer Graphics taught by Dr. Barbara Hecker. She is simply superb, extremely knowledgeable, very kind, helpful, and always willing to help students. My friends, classmates, colleagues, professors, the admissions department, the finance department, and the facilities department—are all awesome. I enjoy each and every one of them!
ITU’S Thanksgiving Potluck Dinner
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Volume III, Issue 1, Winter 2013
My Perspective
I am very happy to pursue a management degree at ITU. I hope that they will keep on improving their standards. Then their graduates can more fully contribute to society as a whole. Before coming to ITU, I earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Physical Therapy from India, and enjoyed 3 years of clinical experience as a cardio-physical therapist. I am a permanent member in the IAP organization (Indian Association of Physiotherapists). I would like to work as a management professional in the future. I will certainly implement the knowledge that I have gained at ITU.
By Harish Hemavathi
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want to share my perspective on my experience at ITU. I came to get a management degree and to improve my business skills. During my courses, I have had the opportunity to work with so many people from different cultures. I also have had the chance to showcase my abilities through public speaking, presentations and roleplaying. I took a class under Professor Kim Yo Heish, who teaches a Healthcare Management course. From him, I learned important things like public speaking and role-playing. The other experience was under Professor Patty Wiggin. After completing her course, I gained so many skills personality development, as well as better ways of communication and presenting myself.
working as a teacher’s assistant By Wei du
exchange programs and taught business and marketing. In the U.S., I chose ITU because its location is great and its flexible schedule fits my life; it is the best place for me to improve myself. To be honest, some courses are a little bit difficult for me, but ITU’s professors help me a lot.
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enrolled in the MBA program and work as a TA for ITU. Previously, I pursued my Master’s Degree of Education in New York. I also worked at a university in China. There, I was responsible for the international student
My favorite memory was when I participated in the bowling night and Diwali festival. I felt closely connected with the faculty and classmates, and I made a lot of new friends. It was my first time bowling, and I was really happy that night even though I did not win!
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What makes ITU different is that the professors really take care of us seriously. My classes have been smaller, and everyone is involved in the discussions. As a TA, I connect students with faculty. I feel professors respect our opinions. For example, Professor Tom Tafolla asks for feedback on assignments. To new students, I would say ITU is the right place for you. Take advantage of all the resources, like the bus pass, the basketball court, and the gym. And be sure to participate in activities and events. Enjoy!
Volume III, Issue 1, Winter 2013
STUDENT RESPONSES: Digital Arts & ITU CAFE By Nichole Liu
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professionals in the digital industry. You can learn a lot of cutting edge knowledge from our passionate and innovative team. It’s possible get to know people from top companies, such as ILM, DreamWorks, and Pixar.
i, I am Nichole and I study in the Digital Arts (DA) department. My undergraduate degree was in Environmental Engineering from Beijing. I worked with Mr. Cedrick Chan, DA Chair, in a Beijing animation studio a few years ago. He introduced me to the program here and now I work in the department, as a Marketing and Event Assistant. You can usually find me in classroom #202, or in the ITU Café, M-F, from 10am to 7pm. Come by and get a cup of coffee! If you have questions about DA, contact me: lnichole@itu.edu.
Since I arrived in the US (less than three months ago) my time has been very fulfilling. I’ve learned a lot. I think the ITU staff is patient, helpful and inspiring. They also value input from students. So if you have any suggestion to help ITU improve, don’t keep it to yourself, let the staff know.
The ITU Café is a prototype of our future actual Cafe in Asia or other locations. DA is working on Data Visualization with the ITU Electrical Engineering Lab. We’re creating a V-blog and magazine as an interactive platform for
DBA Student By Jenny zhou
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y name is Jenny Zhou and I am a third semester DBA student at ITU. My MS degree is in Software Engineering and I have worked in various industries for more than 15 years. I also have a project management certificate from PMI.
to learn better and create a positive environment. I always benefit from my classmates. Third, pick a good professor. Good professors provide knowledge and useful skills to advance your goal.
My favorite class so far was Dr. Nadeem’s Emerging Issues in It’s important to me to Marketing Management and learn new knowledge, improve myself every day, and achieve a Research. It covered marketing for ethical, legal, and social high GPA. However to have a public policy Issues. We learned high GPA, one should start with Healthcare Marketing, Green a clear goal, choose classes Marketing, Tourism Marketing, to achieve that goal, and and Food Marketing, examining then try to enjoy the classes. historical and philosophical If you’re motivated to learn, theories. you will. Secondly, find good classmates—they help you
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Dr. Frank Aguilera is my favorite professor. He has magic to make complex concepts easy to understand, and simple theory deeper than it looks. He keeps my mind active and my soul engaged, maintaining a pleasant and interesting atmosphere. ITU is a dynamic, open and innovative school. It provides excellent classes and outstanding faculty, which give us the most up-to-date curriculum with great guidance and support.
Volume III, Issue 1, Winter 2013
Inside ITU
Did You Know? Marketing with Social Media
Joel Fleischman, Learning Resources
This course covers several fundamental strategic questions. Which business aspects should be delivered online? Can an online community become an essential part of the value proposition? To what extent does e-commerce make sense? How do targeting and positioning decisions affect online presence? Approaches will include “listening” for online mentions (for example, using Google Alerts, or, Social Mention); search engine optimization (SEO); online advertising, especially search ads (also called search engine marketing, SEM); and identifying available domain names. This course will explain using Live Google Adwords, Microsoft Bing’s Ad Center and Facebook sponsored ad campaigns.
Kristof Rieder, Call Center
Non-Linear Strategies for Business Success Mona Tadikonda, Front Desk
Jose Dominguez, Admissions Coordinator
ITU’s Fun EVENTS By Hiral Bhatt
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i I am Hiral Bhatt. I am a third semester student in the Master of Software Engineering program. I recently worked with a team to decorate and set up games for the DIwali Celebration. I liked working with the ITU staff. I volunteered to work on the Diwali event because it’s a tradition in India. It’s like the Thanksgiving celebration in the US.
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This course will give students an edge in the hyper-competitive business landscape revolving around entrepreneurship, innovation, and leadership. Knowledge of the underlying operating system of Field Engagement is key for tapping innovation, unlocking potential and activating the hidden drivers required to succeed. Researchers such as Stanford’s William Tiller and Columbia’s Brian Greene have been studying these forces and their implications. Successful next-generation leaders require practical strategies for understanding of these concepts.
Certifications
The Business Department is planning certifications for the areas of Project Management, Risk Management, American Society for Quality (ASQ) Programs, Supply Chain Management, and Financial Analysis. Certifications will be associated with workshops, with each workshop equivalent to one unit. If an attendee completes three workshops in different levels of the same workshop, the attendee will earn three units, which is equivalent to one MBA course. For complete information, contact student advising.
Volume III, Issue 1, Winter 2013
Awesome Activties
to fairy, to even a schoolgirl!
By Samantha sundaresan
For the Diwali function the entire university dressed in traditional Indian attire, with lots of jewelry, smiles and excitement. There were “Rangoli” drawn all over the university, and lamps lit to welcome the Indian Goddess of wealth who is “Lakshmi Devi.” There were some absolutely great games, Indian food and festive cheer. All in all, my first semester here has been so welcoming, warm and fun, and I look forward to the remaining semesters to be as memorable as my first.
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TU has provided me with the much needed love, support and confidence. Working as a front desk intern since the Fall semester of 2011 has been a great experience. It gave me the opportunity to be the face of ITU, and to be the first person to help visitors find the help they need. I also got to know almost everyone who works in ITU, from the staff to professors, and the students. In my first semester, there were two big functions that were celebrated. The first was Halloween, followed by the Indian Diwali function, both of which were great fun and festive. At the Halloween festival, the whole campus dressed in all kinds of costumes: from ghost imitations,
Student Focus Group By Charitha Valluri Continued from page 1.
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he Business Department held a focus group, to explore opinions of students from all majors, in order to collect feedback on courses and programs. After collecting the survey, Dr. Amal Mougharbel, Business Administration Department Chair, conducted an open discussion. Much information was collected from the focus group survey and discussion; excerpts are provided below. Students were positive on the flexibility of weekend classes, which allow them to work while pursuing their education. Many valued the recorded video class sessions, uploaded in the EMS, alongside professor presentations. Courses like SAP, and major concentrations like Enterprise Resource Planning were included as unique offerings that students found to be best at ITU. Some of the concepts highlighted in accounting or project management courses directly correlate to industry needs, which the students
find greatly useful. Major positive aspects mentioned were the variety and the diversity of the overall programs, IT-related courses, the SAP university alliance certificate, Android-based industry level courses, class projects and CSLOs, and the Curricula Practical Training option for work and study. Regarding improvements, some students requested that major-related courses be offered every semester. There was a request for an online database for research, and for major concentration courses or electives to be repeated, to help the students with low grades retake their course. They suggested more labs, and hands-on experience to be included in courses, rather than only theory. Dr. Amal discussed the ITU Industry Advisory Board and upcoming meetings to decide the certificate programs that could be offered for Business students. She assured the students that their concerns would be taken to the AQC committee and discussed with the dean of the faculty and other faculty members.
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Volume III, Issue 1, Winter 2013
Halloween
Celebrate with ITU Diwali
Christmas
mIRRORS: Tamales and Corundas By Kathia Rubi
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amales are a popular Mexican dish made with seasoned meat, or cheese and chile, wrapped in cornmeal dough, and steamed in cornhusks. They are a tradition for celebrations like New Years, Dia de los Reyes, Easter, or Christmas. Tamales are what you may have heard of, but have you heard of the Corunda? Corundas come from the State of Michoacan, are made from cornmeal dough, like tamales, but don’t have a filling. Their distinctive shape comes from being wrapped in a long Kathia Rubi, ITU Graphic Designer, is a graduate from the Art Institute Sunnyvale. She was born in Michoacan, a state in Mexico, but raised in San Jose. She enjoys dressing up and experimenting
green corn leaf, and formed into a triangle. Corundas are served with marinated pork in red sauce and sour cream. Our family rotates between making tamales or corundas for Christmas and New Years. One thing that never changes is my Mom waking up early to make the masa corn dough, and my sisters and I waking to the sound of Mom pounding the masa. When the masa and pork are ready, we all help wrap the tamales or corundas. When we are in Mexico, the masa is made from fresh corn, and we cook the tamales outside in a large steamer, over a wood-burning fire. Being in Mexico and making corundas or tamales with my family is one of my favorite memories from Christmas and New Years. with make-up. This year for Halloween she was a Zombie-Unicorn . Her hobbies include photography and Team Fortress, one of the few video games she loves to play.
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Volume III, Issue 1, Winter 2013
team Editor-in-Chief: Dr. Amal Mougharbel Manager: Hubert Chang Editorial Board: Barbara Arnoldussen Patricia Wiggin Coordinator: Charitha Valluri Contributors: Dr. Bill Belew Hiral Bhatt Amy Chaung Wei Du Harish Hemavathi Nichole Liu Kunal Meshram Nidhindra Molathati Sai Reddy Samantha Sundaresan Manoj Vuddandi Micheal Xia Jenny Zhou Marketing & Distribution: Suman Bhargava Designer: Kathia Rubi
International Technological University “Global Development through Silicon Valley Education”
355 W. San Fernando Street San Jose, CA 95113 The views expressed in articles are those of the writers only and not of ITU. ITU Journal is not responsible for accuracy of information cited in the news and events. The Editorial Board reserves the right to edit submissions, with contributions capped at 300 words. Plagiarized submissions will be discarded.
Please remember to recycle!
Left to Right: Micheal Xia, Kathia Rubi, Patricia Wiggin, Charitha Valluri, Barbara Arnoldussen, Dr. Amal Mougharbel, Hubert Chang
What’s on your mind? Please send your thoughts to newsletter@itu.edu.
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To find out more about ITU, visit www.itu.edu.
ISSN: 2161-8054