Let’s Take this Moment to Reflect Take 3

By | December 12, 2017

Hello fellow Rambler, it’s that time of the year again. The Chicago weather has gotten much colder, the coats and thermal wear have gotten thicker, and the need for some quality piping hot chocolate and steaming herbal tea gets greater. You bust out all of your scarves, heavy duty gloves, and fluffy earmuffs; even this is not enough! The fall semester is winding down and it is already finals week here at Loyola Chicago! As part of Jesuit tradition, I am going to take this blog post to reflect on my experiences this past semester.

This semester was truly time consuming and a lot of hard work. I took 18 credits, which is a full load. It was exhausting, I always had work to do with numerous projects, papers, exams, etc.
In many of my classes I was able to gain some wonderful experience working with real world clients. In my Public Relations class we had to come up with a Public Relations Plan for a new product with dried cherry company based out of Washington state. For my Consumer Behavior class, we worked with Loom, a company tied with Catholic Charities to help refugee women create handmade products (scarves, earrings, pillows, etc.), and created video through our primary and secondary research, to help them promote their sales online.
In my Advertising class, I was able to come up with an entire advertising campaign with a group where we created our own energy bar catered toward college students. This project took up the whole semester to complete but it was super worth it! We had a lot of fun doing this!
This semester, my honors course was in Encountering Latin America and the Caribbean. Just like my other area study course, I had a lot of fun learning about this region in the world. Here I was able to apply many of the things that I learned when I studied abroad in Heredia, Costa Rica this past summer. I got the chance to read Isabel Allende’s The House of the Spirits which has become one of my favorite books of all time. Within its pages, themes of class, gender, and relationships are all covered; all in the context of Latin America. Additionally, I had to write a 10 page paper on the favelas, the shantytowns, of Brazil in terms of race, class, and criminology.
I was fortunate enough to be employed with the Quinlan School of Business for my junior and senior year. Currently, I am working with the Marketing department as their Marketing Research Assistant. As part of my job, I get to help the marketing faculty and the teaching assistants that aid them. I help find conferences, plan events, create presentations, and so much more! This job has allowed me to build connections with marketing professionals and gain experience with the marketing field.
Next semester, I look forward to my new set of classes, new events and promotions with my job, and of course being able to grab an internship for this coming summer!

Have a wonderful rest of your semester fellow Rambler and I hope you have a fun new year!