Spring in Ithaca!

Spring has arrived (sort of) in Ithaca and with it has come lots of updates! It has been a while since my last post and a lot has happened. First off, Spring Break (I can't believe that was already more than a month ago!) was amazing. I took a spontaneous trip to Niagara Falls with a classmate (who goes to somewhere COLDER than Ithaca for Spring Break, anyways??) and then spent most of my remaining time in Massachusetts with friends and family. I actually spent a lot of the time ironing out last minute details for the annual Community Impact Charity Auction, which was held the Thursday after we returned from break. It went great, thanks to the amazing amount of work and effort that the planning team put into it. At the end of the day, we raised almost $10,000 for two local charities as well as for nonprofit student internships. Some of the popular items were a wine tasting dinner at Dean Thomas' home (always a favorite) as well a ceiling tile (to be decorated by the winning bidder/s) from The Palms, Ithaca's legendary dive bar.

After a quick stop in NYC for the annual Park Alumni dinner on Saturday, where I had the chance to meet former Park Fellows and learn about their experience and careers post-MBA, I was off to a suburb of Philly to interview for a summer internship with a Johnson & Johnson company on Monday morning. I am excited to report that as a result I now have my summer plans in line, having accepted a position in the company's marketing group. I am really excited about the company and opportunity, and am looking forward to getting started on some of the projects they have lined up.

After Philly, I met up with my marketing classmates in NJ for the annual Marketing Immersion / Brand trip. We met with about two companies each day, including Colgate, Bayer, Johnson & Johnson, Coyne Public Relations, American Express, Lippincott Mercer, and Priceline. One of my biggest takeaways from the trip is that marketing is different in but central to all of the organizations that we visited, and that "cross-functional" is not just a buzz word. While Johnson & Johnson, American Express, and Priceline all have vastly different organizational structures, business models, and products, the marketing function is critical to the strength of the brands and growth of the companies. In each of these organizations, reliance on multiple departments was crucial to effective marketing. While we have heard about the importance of "cross-functional communication" many times over the past several months, it was useful to be presented with tangible examples at many of the organizations that we visited. The trip also provided a valuable opportunity to meet with company representatives in a setting outside of the corporate recruiting process, which I think allowed for richer interactions and the opportunity to really understand what happens on a day to day basis.

After returning to Ithaca on Thursday night, I geared up for Destination Johnson weekend - where I had the opportunity to meet many of you! It was really exciting to be here on the current student side of it and share what my experience has been like with prospective students, and it felt great to be a part of planning an event that was so massive in scope and helpful to prospective students.

Somewhere in the middle of all that, I also found out that I will be studying abroad in Monterrey, Mexico during Spring 2010. I am really, really excited about the opportunity to learn more about the Mexican culture and international marketing. (And for more about Monterrey and the study abroad experience, check out Ben Rollins' blog - Ben is a second year who just returned from studying in Monterrey).

So hopefully after reading what the past month or so has been like, you won't hold it against me for not writing sooner - and will also understand how incredibly exciting and enriching it is to be here in business school at Cornell. As always, please feel free to get in touch with any questions you may have...