Author: Jie Zheng

The Quinlan Ramble Trip to Boston

The Quinlan Ramble Trip to Boston

< 3 minutes read >

Last Spring Break, I got an amazing opportunity and honor to participate in the Quinlan Ramble trip to Boston ✈️. The Quinlan Ramble is an annual alternative spring break trip that enables Quinlan undergraduate students and Arrupe business students to experience business in another part of the United States. Where I got to network with amazing professionals in different business fields and with our great Loyola Alumni🎓. I also got to make many new friends with whom I know I can count on during my time at Loyola University Chicago🐺 and beyond.

On the first day, I realized that I am here for much more than just visiting companies. Being on this trip has also allowed me to build community within the Quinlan School of Business. The Quinlan Ramble team is so diverse and I’ve been able to learn about a variety of cities, cultures, and languages through the trip.

There are couple lessons I learned from all the company visits. Networking🤝 is one of the most important skill for students to step into the real business world to get an internship and job. We did a lot of penal sessions with current/incoming employees during our site visits. It’s very surprised for each of us to see how many people who do not have a business degree and working at Accounting and Finance firms because of their network with someone in the firm. It sounds very harsh, but it showed us what does the real business world look like. And, it also motives and warns us to build our own network and create professional connections for our careers. I am glad the Quinlan Ramble trip gave us the great opportunity to connect with all the people we met from the trip. Also, thanks to our Loyola Alumni connection, we had a chance to visit the Massachusetts State House and hold an Alumni Reception in the house! The second part I learned is the importance of transferrable skills. Companies are always looking for someone who has transferrable skills, not expecting you know everything about their business. Companies recruit from all different majors today, not just business majors. Communication🗣 and teamwork👥 skills are the key elements they are looking for. Today, employees can easily transfer to different departments within the company. I think it’s also great for our college students to experience different field of business, but keep learning the fundamental skills we need in our lives. 

I have met so many amazing people within Loyola & Quinlan, especially with Dean Stevens. We had great conversations in many events during the trip. I really appreciate all of his advices and stories he told me. It was an honor to speak with all of the individuals; being able to hear the journey and successes of them was a notable experience. I will always reflect on this trip and how it has helped shape my look into the business world. I am very grateful to be attending this trip, and hope to further myself as an individual, business person, student, and member of the Loyola community!

Thank you and hope you enjoyed reading this blog. The Quinlan Ramble trip is heading to Los Angeles this spring break. I can’t wait to hear about their experience soon! For more information, please visit: https://www.luc.edu/quinlan/thequinlanramble/

Please leave a comment below if you have any questions, thoughts or suggestions about our page.

Taking a Public Speaking Class

Taking a Public Speaking Class

< 2 minutes read >

Public speaking skills are valuable in both our personal lives and careers. As a business major student at Loyola, one of the curricula required classes you need to complete is COMM 103: Business & Professional Speaking. After taking COMM 103 for a month and completed my first speech this week, here are some of my experiences I want to share with you all!!

FYI: My class is held at Loyola’s Water Tower campus each Tuesday and Thursday morning (75mins per class session). Also, there is no school year restriction for this class, which means you can take it during your first year at Loyola too!! 

Okay, allow me to assume that a lot of people have some fear of public speaking (me🤚). So, I want to start with a question: “What do you think would make a public speaking class more comfortable or enjoyable to students?” 

My answer would be respecting, supporting and appreciating each other. After 3 weeks of learning, preparing and practicing. Our first speech presentation week is finally here. (A 5-mins informative speech on any topic you want.) In Prof. Borden’s class, there is an important rule everyone has to follow on speech days: clap 👏after every speaker finish their speeches. It may seem like a very little thing, but it shows a lot of your respect and support to the speakers. We all have good and bad (performance) days, even though we did our best. Ice-breaker talks with my classmates helped us get curious and excited about each other’s stories and speeches. 

At a very diverse school, there is a big chance your classmates may come from different countries or culture backgrounds. Which is also part of the reasons why I enjoy this class so much. Students have the option to choose whatever topic they want to talk about. So far, I have heard speeches on Mexican Tacos, Shanghai Yuyuan Garden, and Princess Diana, etc. It’s very interesting to learn something new or something you are familiar with from a different perspective. (The Taco one was so fascinating!! I couldn’t stop thinking about trying some traditional Mexican Tacos🌮!! Btw, there are two Flaco’s Tacos restaurants at both of our campuses.)

Please let me know if you want to hear more about my COMM 103 class experience in the future. I am happy to share more of my experience and stories with you!!

Before I go, 

If you ever feel nervous about public speaking, I have a quick tip for you. As Pro. Borden always says to us: Your peers and audience want you to succeed. Don’t be nervous, you will do great!! 😊

JIE’S GROCERY STORE SERIES 🛒 #2— Devon Market

JIE’S GROCERY STORE SERIES 🛒 #2— Devon Market

Hi everyone! Welcome back to another blog on grocery store around Loyola! In this series, you will hear from me about all the grocery shopping locations around our two Loyola campus, includes ADLI, Devon Market, Target, Whole Food market and Trader Joe’s, etc. Each store has their unique strengths in my opinion. Today, I am going to introduce Devon Market, a neighborhood market located on the west side of Loyola Lake Shore campus. 

If you read the first blog on the new/renovated ADLI, you may know ALDI is my go-to grocery shop location. I have never been to Devon Market until ADLI was closed for the past 6 weeks, and I need to find another affordable store to shop.    

Okay, let’s go inside the store! As an international student from Asian, it somehow feels like shopping at home. They sell a lot of international products such as Japanese cookies🍪, European cheese and Kimchi, etc. First, I love kimchi, and I eat a lot of them! From now on, I am so glad I don’t need to travel to an Asian supermarket and shop for kimchi off the Argyle stop or Chinatown every month. Devon Market also offers a large variety of vegetables and fruits more than any other grocery stores around Loyola (as you can see from the picture below). My favorite part is they have Bok Choy! It’s a very popular Chinese vegetable, and the name is actually direct translated from its original Chinese name “bái cài”/白菜. 

From my Retail Marketing class, I learned that many people complain about the big “bundled” bananas they bought always go bad before they even finish them. Just like in Trader Joe’s, you can buy a single banana 🍌 in Devon Market too! If you never heard about the “single banana” story at Trader Joe’s, stay tuned for my incoming blog! Another quick story: I have never seen an avocado as big as my water bottle! If you haven’t heard of Florida Avocado 🥑, please come and check it out at Devon Market! It surprisingly tastes just like the normal avocado!

Important news time! Devon Market offers student discount for all Loyola students! Just bringing your Loyola ID, and you will get 10 percent off at check out! Another benefit Devon Market provide is free Uber/Lyft ride if you spend more than $100 (and distance within 3 miles)! They will help & send both you and your groceries home! 

That’s all about Devon Market! Hope you enjoyed this blog. Please leave a comment below if you have any questions, thoughts or suggestions about our page.

Thank you & Stay tuned for the next grocery store blog 🛒!

Jie’s Grocery Store Series 🛒 #1— New/Renovated ADLI

Jie’s Grocery Store Series 🛒 #1— New/Renovated ADLI

About 2 minutes read.

Hi everyone! Welcome to a new blog series on grocery stores around Loyola🛒! In this series, you will hear from me about all the grocery shopping locations around our two Loyola campus, includes ADLI, Devon Market, Target, Whole Food and Trader Joe’s, etc. Each store has their unique strengths in my opinion. Our first store is going to be ALDI, which just reopened from renovations last week! 

As a Junior who is living off-campus this year, grocery shopping becomes an essential part of my life. ALDI has always been my first grocery shop choice for snacks and everyday-products since my freshman year (Target was not built yet). I think the two main reasons people shop at ADLI are because of their location and overall low-price items. The store is just one minute away from my Sophomore-year residence hall Spring Hill Hall last year! It’s super convenient for me to stop by and grub something on my way home. For students who live in the northern part of our campus especially during the winter time, taking the CTA red line from Loyola station one stop to Granville station could be another choice. 

Okay, let’s go inside this newly renovated ALDI. Comparing with their old store, the new store offers slightly more items than before. Their frozen food section definitely has gotten larger, with a bigger refrigerator and more frozen meal/food options. One of my favorite items to shop for at ADLI is their frozen chopped broccoli 🥦! It’s only 95¢ per bag, and only takes you 4 minutes to cook in microwave! I usually buy 10 bags in bulk…and people always ask me about the price and if it taste good at the line. It definitely tastes good, and worth the price! I am so happy to see they updated their refrigerators to make people easier to grub the food in the back. Quick tip: They sell two types of frozen broccoli, 95¢ and $1.65, just double checking before you put it into your shopping basket! I think the cheaper one even tastes better! Other than normal grocery items, they also offer vegan, Gluten-free and soy-free items in most categories.

For most fresh vegetables, ADLI is unquestionably low-price, but not the cheapest store around our campus. Devon Market, which located in the west side of our campus offers cheaper and more kinds of fresh vegetables like bok choy, bean sprout, and mint, etc. I will introduce with more details on Devon Market in my next blog! 

That’s all about ADLI! Thank you and hope you enjoyed reading this blog. Please leave a comment below if you have any questions, thoughts or suggestions about our page.

And, do you know ADLI owns Trader Joe’s? Stay tuned for my future blog on Trader Joe’s, and a special connection with my experience at Loyola! 

Jie’s Food Blog, La Crêperie, A French Restaurant 🇫🇷

Jie’s Food Blog, La Crêperie, A French Restaurant 🇫🇷

About 2 minutes read.

Hi everyone! Welcome to my food blog! Today, I am going to introduce: La Crêperie, a French restaurant located between the CTA red line 🚇 Belmont and Fullerton stations (about 35min train ride+ walk from Loyola Lake Shore Campus). As you may realize from the restaurant name, Crepes are their signature dishes! I personally do not have much French food experience, but I will share with you my honest opinion and experience on this restaurant! 

When I was researching dinner ideas, La Crêperie’s interior decoration and ambience really caught my eyes! My best friend and I haven’t seen each other for a long time. We both have very busy schedules during the first week of school. So, we decided to have dinner at La Crêperie on a Wednesday night! Because it was a Wednesday night dinner, a farther located restaurant from our campus might help us free the school work in our mind a little bit. 

We arrived around 7:30pm that night. There were a total of four groups of people eating in the restaurant included their patio seating area. It was not a busy night, but the ambience and waiters really made us feel warm and lively. My friend and I accidently ordered the same dish: La Vēgétarienne, a type of savory crêpes. But I switched the roasted tomatoes to mushroom instead. It was my first time having a savory crepe, I would give an honest 7/10 for the taste. You can obviously taste the cheese🧀, broccoli 🥦and mushroom, but the flavor of the whole dish was not very strong for me. I think using other types of cheese would make a different and add a heavier flavor into this dish. I would like to try crêpes from other places for comparison and share more thoughts on it! Also, because we were seating in the patio area, and it was a chill night, the dish went cold quickly. 

Even though their inside dining area is sooooo lovely with all the decorations and warm lighting, I also highly recommended eating at their patio too! Many colorful flowers 💐 🌸and decorations are displayed around the patio area. And, the music playing in the background made a perfect summer night outside! 11/10 for their ambience scores!

Many people also come here for brunch. The restaurant also offers another type of crêpe, the Sweet crêpes. It’s more like a type of very thin pancake for breakfast or a dessert. Most of their Savory and Sweet crêpes cost around $10±2. Sweet crêpe with some French coffee ☕might be your top choice for a lovely brunch meal!The French Onion Soup from La Crêperie is also highly recommended by many people (it looks sooooo good!), and I am planning to try it the next time! So, stay tuned for the next soup blog! 

Landmark’s Century, a movie theater 🎥 which is located right cross street from La Crêperie. The restaurant offers “After Movie Special”, you can bring in a ticket 🎟 from the cinema dated today for a complimentary Chocolate Crepe with the purchase of any beverage! Perfect spot for a date night or just a sweet treatment!

Trader Joe’s, Target, Walmart Neighborhood Market, T.J. Maxx, and Urban Outfitters are also located around the restaurant (all less than 3min walk). If you are looking for a one stop shopping 🛍️ and dining 🍽 experience, La Crêperie should be on your top list!

That’s all about La Crêperie! Hope you enjoyed reading this blog. Please leave a comment below if you have any questions, thoughts or suggestions about our page.

What’s your favorite French restaurant 🇫🇷 in Chicago? Let us know!

Thank you & Stay tuned for the next food blog soon!

Jie’s Food Blog — Pizza🍕

Jie’s Food Blog — Pizza🍕

About 3 minutes read.

Hi everyone! Welcome to my very first food blog! Today, I am going to introduce my favorite PIZZA restaurant in Chicago: Pete’s Pizza and Bakehouse, which is located near our Loyola Lake Shore Campus. I am a huge pizza fan and their pizzas are truly the number one in my heart! FYI my personal favorite is sausage pizza! (And no, there is no sponsorship in this blog.)

I still remember the first meal I had at Pete’s. It was a very special experience to me. During my freshman year when I was coming back from China after our winter break, my flight ✈️ got delayed until very late that night. I was very hungry and tired…and Pete’s was one of the couple restaurants open until 1am! Not because any food tastes good in that kind of situation, but their pizzas do taste very very good… 

Fun fact, Pete’s was literally across the street from my second-year residence hall Spring Hill Hall last year! And, I like to workout at very late night, so Pete’s became my go to post-workout meal last year! I am not sure how many times I have ate there around midnight. But I am sure their very friendly workers already know the guy who always come in late and order the same sausage pizza every time. 

Not only pizzas, but they also have a huge menu you can choose from; like burgers, sandwiches, soups, salad and dessert, etc. I have heard their ice cream and cakes are very good, too!🍨🍰 I personally haven’t tried any other food from them yet. Because their pizzas are sooooo good…and I looooove pizza. The price for one slice of pizza is around $4+, include taxes. BTW, you can also use your Rambler Bucks in this restaurant! Also, as you can see from the picture, their slices are pretty big… 

One more fun fact, Pete’s opens in the morning too! I didn’t know that until I wanted to have their pizza for breakfast one time! Okay, that’s a joke, but I do want to have pizza for breakfast sometime. Metropolis Coffee is a very popular coffee shop very close (about 1 minute walk) to Pete’s and our main campus. (📍All locations pined in the Campus Map below.) Many of my friends and students hang out and study in the coffee shop. I am a very quiet person when it comes to studying outside of my room or library. Quick tip before I finish this blog, I found not many people go to Pete’s in the morning, but they do offer coffee, tea and other drinks too. It’s a perfect spot for studying if you are looking for a quieter place with the same smell of coffee! ☕️~

That’s all about Pete’s! Hope you enjoyed reading this food blog. Please leave a comment below if you have any questions, thoughts or suggestions about our page.

And, what is your favorite pizza topping? Deep dish or thin crust? Let us know!

Thank you & Stay tuned for the next food blog!

My “Blend” Retail Marketing Summer Class (Part 2)

My “Blend” Retail Marketing Summer Class (Part 2)

July 10, 2019

Welcome back to the Part 2 of my Retail Marketing summer class blog!

As I mentioned in the Part 1 blog, this online summer class has two in-person class meetings at a local coffee shop called Helix near our Lake Shore Campus. And yesterday, we had our first “coffee shop class” together!

The coffee shop just opened in May 2019, and many things are still in developing like store layout and menu, etc. I really like all the design and small detail in the shop, but have not tried their coffee yet (but will try soon ha-ha). I am personally not a huge fan of studying in a coffee shop because of background noise. And, I am happy our class came in after their business hours so that there was only the smell of coffee around the shop! We sat down with the two founders of Helix, and learned about their mission and purpose of opening this coffee shop. Their vision is to create a network of social enterprises that employ youth and reinvest in the communities. I have never seen a mission driven coffee shop built for helping youth on their career path and skill sets before. Also, both of the founders are Loyola Alumni, and one of them is also the co-founders of Loyola Limits!

I am not sure if it was the coffee shop environment or the excitement of meeting each other in person, but three hours of the in-person class went by much faster than our online version in my opinion. I think it is great to meet with my classmates in person and know more about each other, because we will have group projects working together in the next few weeks.

There are so much more interesting and new ideas in this class. For example, this is a writing intensive class, but we are not writing anything like a research paper or any normal college paper. We are writing podcast scripts for our final marketing audits project! To be honest, I did not even know there are scripts for podcasts at first. I though people just free-talk and chat on their podcasts. By the way, are you a Trader Joe’s fan? Do you know there is a podcast talking about everything about Trader Joe’s called Inside Trader Joe’s? Dr. Stacy is a huge fan of Trader Joe’s, and this podcast is actually one of the “textbooks” we will learn from. (If you have not read the Part 1 blog yet, we don’t have any paper/online textbook for this class. Instead, we listen to podcasts!)

Please make a comment if you want to know more about summer class experience at Loyola or anything else! I am happy to answer and write about! Stay tuned!

My “Blend” Retail Marketing Summer Class (Part 1)

My “Blend” Retail Marketing Summer Class (Part 1)

July 3, 2019

After waiting for two months, I finally started my Retail Marketing summer class yesterday!! This class just becomes my all-time favorite class, even though it is a three hours and fifteen minutes long class per class section! There are many reasons why I joined in this class. Dr. Stacy Neier is my favorite marketing professor at Loyola! I have taken her class in the past. It was the most interesting class I have ever taken. I love the energy during our class discussions and all the creative knowledge about Marketing. Also, she is the faculty advisor of my fraternity! @DeltaSigmaPiLUC

When I first saw the class title, I was very confused by the name “MARK 360W Blend”. I think most people understand the “W” which means this is a writing intensive class. This course incorporates a variety of assessments that are specifically designed to help students become a better writer. This is another reason why I joined this class, to improve my writing skills.

The word “Blend” was where I got lost. But before I explain the meaning of the word. I want to share a fun fact about this class: most of our class meetings are online, but there are couple meetings we have to meet in person. Guess where do we meet for the in-person classes — a coffee shop!!! Yep! At first, I thought maybe because it is a small class, so we don’t even need a normal classroom to meet up. But the truth is we are working together with a local coffee shop name Helix Café near the Lake Shore Campus! The coffee shop is also owned by our Loyola Alumni!! (And FYI, there are about 15 students in this class.) We will work on the retail strategy about this coffee shop and write audits as a Retail Analyst. I really cannot wait to have a class at a coffee shop! Okay, back to the “blend”. I guess the word starts making sense because this course has both online and in-person class meetings. Yesterday during class, Dr. Stacy explained to us the word “blend” means a class only meet up in person under three times. Since we are only going to meet twice at the coffee shop during this six-week summer class, we get this special title!!

After yesterday’s class, I learned there are so much more interesting and new stuffs about this class. I will share them in my next blog! Quick hint: Do you know there are actually scripts for podcasts?

Stay tuned!

And happy 4thof July everyone!

News about Helix Café: https://abc7chicago.com/business/edgewater-cafe-provides-jobs-for-unemployed-chicago-youth/5404082/

Allow me to Introduce “G”

Allow me to Introduce “G”

Hey folks, my name is Jie (pronounce as G). Today I would like to introduce myself and my life at Loyola. Before we get into the Blog, just a quick fun fact about my name: almost every person asks if my name is spell as the letter G after they first heard my name. It always makes me wonder should I just change my first name to letter G?

I am an international student from Beijing, China. Also, I am a raising Junior student and majoring in Marketing. The past two years have gone by very fast. From being a first-year university student in a foreign country. To a person who sees Chicago as his second home with all his great friends. About a year and half ago, I had the opportunity to join Delta Sigma Pi, a business professional fraternity. I could not tell you how much all the brothers have helped me through my life in this totally new environment. It has always been a pleasure time to work and hang out together with them. After became the social media manager of the fraternity last year, I gained more skills and made many friends around campus!

As a business major student, I think college life and Loyola taught me a lot of lessons on managing relationships with people and the importance of building networks. Last Spring Break, I got an amazing opportunity and honor to participate in the Quinlan Ramble trip to Boston. The Quinlan Ramble is an annual alternative spring break trip that enables Quinlan undergraduate students and Arrupe business students to experience business in another part of the United States. Where I got to network with amazing professionals in different business fields and with our great Loyola Alumni. I also got to make many new friends with whom I know I can count on during my time at Loyola University Chicago and beyond.

For now, I am currently one of the Social Media Student Ambassadors of Loyola University Chicago. I joined the team at the end of last semester. It has been more than a month since I started working as the Social Media Student Ambassador this summer. I am very grateful and excited to join this wonderful team with our leader Adam, even though I have not had chance to meet with my other teammates during this summer break. I really enjoy been in a creative and motivated team. With all the future plans we have like creating Loyola memes and promoting our own YouTube channel, I cannot wait to work with the rest of our teammates together and contribute each of our unique skills to this team!

And, that is my boss Adam in our Instagram Name-tag!