LHP NEWSLETTER
IN THIS ISSUE:
• Current Student Spotlight Ayanna Patterson • Current Student Spotlight Lauren Cocca • Current Student Spotlight Michael Murphy • Items of Interest • Alumni Corner • For more LHP news follow us at: Facebook.com/ LindnerHonorsPLUS
Last June, I set off on a journey to participate in a program that would immerse me in the world of consulting, but I gained an experience that was so much more than just that. I participated in the Accelerator Vanderbilt Summer Business Institute at the Owen Graduate School of Management in Nashville, Tennessee. Accelerator is an intense 4-week program where students execute 5 consulting projects and take courses taught by world-class faculty. Students were from universities all over the country, with various interests and majors. The program allowed me to gain hands-on experience and learn how to work through real-world business problems that companies were facing. During the course of the program, I worked on 3 different teams to complete projects from 5 clients: Climb Nashville, Goodwill Industries of Middle Tennessee, Elrod Engineering, Apple, and Warner Music. The program was rigorous, working 6 days out of the week in order to complete the projects, create recommendations, and present them to our clients. Personally, I had the opportunity to present our recommendations on behalf of my team to executives from Goodwill about our ideas to help improve their clothing sales in Middle Tennessee. All of the projects were challenging and enabled me to utilize skills that I don’t use on an everyday basis. I was able to improve my problem solving, analytical, and presentation skills. My favorite project was the very first one with our Climb Nashville client. Climb Nashville is a climbing gym in Nashville, Tennessee. The gym has two locations in the Nashville area and was looking to expand to Arkansas. The challenge they were facing was how to replicate their unique culture in another location where they did not have loyal customers. This project was my favorite because I was able to interact with consumers of Climb Nashville and get to know the client more in order to develop creative recommendations that appealed to the client. Our team placed in the top 4 out of 7 teams. Another project that was very challenging yet exciting was the Apple project. This project was focused on finance and we were faced with the task of projecting what Apple’s stock price would be in a year. I really enjoyed working on this project because I am not a finance major, so it gave me the opportunity to learn a lot about finance as well as utilize my analytic skills, as I was the only one on my team with knowledge of excel. During this project, I learned what investors look at when valuing a stock and it is a lot deeper than the numbers. Along with my team, we were able present our findings on how we arrived at our estimated stock price through research and placed first out of 7 teams. In addition to working on consulting projects, I also took courses such as: team dynamics, finance, creativity, managerial economics, personal branding, marketing, and more. Professors of the Owen Graduate School of Management taught the courses, which were all phenomenal. I loved 2
ACCELERATOR REFLECTION: AYANNA PATTERSON the courses because they were so different than the courses I have taken at the University of Cincinnati. The courses were designed to help us with our projects and I was able to apply what I was learning in the courses right away when working on the projects. Other than working on challenging projects, I also learned a lot about public speaking, giving presentations, and branding myself. At all times, I had to be prepared to give my elevator speech and it greatly improved by the end of the summer. After every presentation, we critiqued one another as well as received feedback from the coaches and faculty members. At first, it was very hard to present in front of the program, but by the end of the month, I was a lot more confident when giving presentations. Outside of the presentations, we also played games and had competitions that helped improve my public speaking and helped me think on my feet. During the program, I was identified as “an exemplary student and someone who is likely to continue to have an impact on and shape the business world.� Because of this, I was offered the opportunity to be a Vanderbilt Owen Worldshaper. As a Worldshaper, I had a photo and video shoot where I answered questions about the program and myself. This gave me the opportunity to talk not only about how Accelerator has helped me and what the program entailed but I also got to talk about the University of Cincinnati. I was honored to be a part of this program and the material from the photo shoot will be used in marketing material for the school. On the first day, I was very nervous because I did not know anyone else in the program and I had no idea what to expect. I was unfamiliar with any other students doing the program and I was also unfamiliar with the school itself. We jumped into our first project on the first day and I remember feeling intimidated. After meeting people and realizing that we were all in the same position, I quickly felt a lot more comfortable. After getting passed this initial feeling, I was able to be really successful in the program and make friends along the way. I learned so much being in a new environment about myself and I enjoyed having the opportunity to work with and talk to students from many different universities and share different experiences.
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AUSTRALIA: LAUREN COCCA Last semester, I was fortunate enough to find out that I had been selected to receive a Lindner Honors-PLUS student grant that was going to allow me to study abroad in Australia over the first ten days of Christmas break. I went on this study abroad with around 25 other students from the Lindner College of Business, and the purpose of our journey was to go to Australia to study the effects that immigration plays on the country’s economy. Before going on the trip, I took part in a seminar that met and discussed Australia as a whole, and the various economic tools that can be used when evaluating and studying a country. We then took a deeper dive into looking at various immigration laws and policies in order to understand more of what we would be learning about and discussing while in Sydney. The first week of December quickly approached, and on December 8th, I boarded a 22-hour flight to Australia. My time in Australia was nothing short of incredible. Our days were filled with lectures, company visits and seminars designed to further our understanding of Australia’s economy and the immigration situation. I truly learned so much. We attended the local university, University of New South Wales, heard an academic perspective on the immigration situation facing the country, and visited Q-Station, a historic detention center that held immigrants all the way up until the late 1900s. In addition to all of the amazing classes and company visits that we were fortunate enough to attend, we also had the opportunity to do many activities to experience the culture in Australia. Some of the highlights included: attending a play at the Sydney Opera House, visiting the Sydney Fish Market and watching a live auction take place, spending time at Bondi beach and climbing the Sydney Harbour Bridge and visiting the ANZ Stadium, home of the 2000 Olympics. Sydney truly is an incredibly city, and I was so glad to get to experience all that it had to offer, and take part in learning outside of the classroom. My time spent in Australia was filled with memories that I will never forget. It was the experience of a lifetime and I was fortunate enough to meet many new friends and learn an incredible amount visiting a new continent. I am now familiar with an economy that I had never been exposed to, and additionally I have learned a significant amount about the effects that immigration truly can have on a country and its economic system. Fortunately for me, this trip helped me to complete my International Business major as well. I couldn’t be more grateful for not only the opportunity to go on the trip, but for the financial assistance that the Lindner Honors-PLUS program provided me as well to help sponsor my time there.
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As freshman, LHP students have the incredible opportunity to be hired for internships after our first year of classes. For me, I was hired by General Cable in their Global Compliance Office for the summer of 2015. At the time, I had no idea what compliance meant much less what it meant to build a global program from what was essentially nothing, as was the case when I first joined. Little did I know that a year and a half later, I would still be with General Cable in the same department where I had my first professional experience. For this rotation, I was offered the unique opportunity to be based out of the European headquarters in Barcelona, Spain. In recent years, authorities have placed an obligation on global organizations to prove they comply with business laws and regulations. Violations of laws (such as bribing government officials) have resulted in fines that have been seen in the hundreds of millions of dollars. To avoid fines, and more importantly for the continuity of a fair and open market, companies have to prove they do business the way they say they do: ethically, legally, and simply doing business the right way. A compliance program is evidence of that. Since joining in the summer of 2015, I have never felt like I was a “typical co-op.� With a team of just seven (including me), I’ve always been treated more like a full-time employee than an intern. The compliance office was tasked with implementing a comprehensive program that impacts each site, function, and employee. Being on a small team, everyone had a major role, which meant I was able to work with almost every function in the company. Whether it was building a process for the sales teams to submit bids or reviewing the procedure for hiring suppliers, I gained broad exposure across a variety of fields. Coming into the company without a clue what I wanted my future career to look like, this experience has been invaluable. Going into my most recent rotation, much of what I did in America carried over to Spain. In addition to the developing risk programs like those mentioned above, the Global Compliance Office was tasked with visiting all global sites (around 50) in 2016 to offer training, evaluate our compliance program, and essentially put faces to names for people who had primarily seen us through newsletters, online training courses, or other remote presentations and communications. I was 6
INTERNATIONAL CO-OP: MICHAEL MURPHY able to represent the Global Compliance Office and visit five different General Cable sites in Europe and provide in-person training to around 400 employees. These visits, combined with my previously mentioned responsibilities, created my assignments for the semester. Naturally one of the biggest benefits of this co-op was simply being in Barcelona. The city is a vibrant cultural center, the Mediterranean weather is fantastic, and the food is incredible. Beyond Barcelona, I was able to take advantage of weekends and do some gallivanting around Europe. I had heard rumors about discount airlines and potential $30 round trip tickets prior to coming, and once I found out they were real, I couldn’t get enough. I managed to see some of the “must visit� places, including Paris, Rome, and London (for the Bengals game of course). Overall, I feel extremely grateful for this opportunity. It started with my freshman internship, and I was fortunate enough to have managers who had a sincere interest in my development. I have been able to experience more than I could have imagined, both professionally and personally, in just three short years since coming to college, and these experiences are largely due to LHP and the University of Cincinnati.
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ITEMS OF INTEREST Student Leadership Check out Emily Rasmussen (‘20), Jeff Bogenschutz (‘21) and Laura Mersmann (‘18) on a recent Serve Beyond Cincinnati trip in Americus, Georgia. They’re working with the Fuller Center for Housing remodeling a house, fixing up temporary apartments and doing siding!
Congratulations to the outstanding performance of LHP student Ayanna Patterson (’18) who competed with the UC Lindner College of Business diversity team in the 6th Annual National Diversity Case Competition. Morgan Eberle (‘17), Ayanna Patterson (‘18), Chandler Rankin (‘21) and Mical Daniel (’19) were challenged by some outstanding competition - over 200 schools applied to send a team to the competition, and only a select 35 of those were invited to participate. The Lindner Team advanced to the final round, ultimately bringing home the 1st place prize as National Champions! Thank you for going above and beyond in representing the Lindner College of Business well!
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Congrats to Casmir Thornberry ('20 and VP of UC Mock Trial) and Stephanie Adamec ('18 and President of Mock Trial) for leading their mock trial team to a 2nd place victory at Case Western's Invitational. Stephanie also took home two individual awards for Outstanding Attorney and Outstanding Witness.
Beyond the Classroom The LHP Class of 2021 enjoyed their etiquette dinner at the Cincinnatian downtown Cincinnati. Bill Bagley teaches the class on etiquette for our students thanks for all of your hard work Bill!
Freshmen Internship Placements: The LHP Class of 2020 had a great time at Camp Joy last year!
Congratulations to our LHP Class of 2017! LHP was well represented at the Lindner College of Business Awards! Congrats to the following students for winning awards, including Matt Murphy winning the Overall Outstanding Undergraduate Student Award: Jack Johnson - Outstanding Student in Entrepreneurship Samson Lewis - Outstanding Student in Marketing Adam Millson - Outstanding Finance Student in Lindner Professional Experiences Matt Murphy - Outstanding Student in Industrial Management Matt Murphy - Overall Outstanding Undergraduate Student Ty Wahlbrink - Outstanding Student in Economics
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UPCOMING EVENTS JUNE 4: Coldstream event to welcome the Class of 2022 to the program AUGUST 5: LHP Domestic Trip - NYC/DC 21: Fall Semester Begins OCTOBER 19: LHP Homecoming Event - Kingsgate Marriott 21: UC Homecoming Football Game
The Class of 2006 celebrated their 10 year reunion at Homecoming this past year at Rhinegeist Brewery in OTR. Class of 2007 - it’s your turn to celebrate next! Congratulations to Ami Rawal Kulkarni (‘02) for starting a new skin care business, Arkadiance. Best of luck in your new adventure!
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BEN KEEFE, ‘15 Morgan Smith (’21) attended a LeaderShape event where Tamaya Dennard (from our first LHP class) was a guest speaker. Matt Baryluk (’21) was also attending and Anna Armao (’20) was an onsite coordinator for the event. It’s always fun for our current students to meet LHP alumni!
Brian Delaney and his wife Maggie welcomed their first child, Caroline Hayes Delany (8 lbs 15 oz) on October 14th, 2016. Congratulations to Brian & Maggie!
ALUMNI CORNER
Ryan Atkins (‘12) married Stephanie Perry on November 19th, 2016 with the support of Lindner Honors-PLUS alumni and even the Bearcat! Congratulations Ryan - wishing you all the happiness in the world!
DOMINIC BERARDI, ‘07
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