Lovin' Life at the Hurst

Hello again!

Well, it's official....we are now Mercyhurst University! Last week our college president, Mr. Gamble, announced our university status to the entire campus. We have a new name and a new logo! Check it out on the school website. Although we became a university, the college itself isn't changing much. We still and will always have a quality education and the one-on-one interactions with our professors. Mercyhurst will never change at the core.

We have been trying to figure out if it is winter or spring outside. We have had unusually nice weather this past month - I'm not complaining though! I'm ready for spring and the sunshine!

Classes are going pretty smoothly for now. I have an American Government test tomorrow, so I plan on studying the rest of the day. Competitive Intel is going well too. We are now in the process of compiling our final project, our class company profile of Tim Hortons. We plan to get the company profile professionally bound, which will be a great thing to take into future job interviews.

I cannot believe how fast this term went - it seems like we just started. We have about 4 more weeks until another break. I should probably start preparing for finals!

I had a great time with my friends this weekend! On Friday night we went to the movies and saw The Descendants with George Clooney. It was a pretty good movie. Last night we went to the Hibachi Japanese Steakhouse and it was fantastic! They cook your food right in front of you and they also put on quite the show for you. Our chef was hilarious and he made some amazing food! You also sit with people you've never met before. We had four total strangers at our table but by the end of the night we were laughing and getting along great! Here is a picture of a all of us at dinner:

At the Hibachi Japanese Steakhouse! Yum!

Well, I'll post again next week!

Thank you for reading!
Ryan

Intel Update

Hey everyone!

In my last post I said I would try to update you all on competitive intel this week. Today I submitted my first draft of my Marketing & Sales section for our class company profile. Our class has its own wiki that we upload assignments to and then the class peer edits each others. It is a neat idea, however aggravating to use - especially when formatting pictures.

In class today we had six book presentations. I am scheduled to give my presentation on Thursday. For the book report, we need to be formally dressed (suit and tie) and have a visual aid (PowerPoint). Our presentation is to last anywhere between 7-13 minutes.

I was walking back from class today and I took a picture of our new intel building. It's just about complete! Here it is as of January 17th:

The new Intelligence Studies building at Mercyhurst College.

I posted a picture last week of our campus covered with snow. Notice how quickly the snow has melted! It has been unusually warm here the last couple of days. 

I had two tests today, one in criminal justice and another in intel. They went alright and I hope I did well. 

Anyway, off to dinner with my friends! We're heading the the Laker, which is a dining place on campus. Great food!

I'll keep the posts coming!

Ryan

Busy Week in Intel

Hey everyone!

Before I talk about intel, I just wanted to post a picture I took today. WE FINALLY HAVE SNOW!! It came Thursday night and when I woke up for class Friday morning I looked out my window and I was shocked! I wish we had snow for Christmas though, but at least we have some now. But I know come next month, I'll be ready for the warm weather to return.

This is a photo of Garvey Park, located pretty much in the center of campus.

Next week is going to be a very busy in Intel. On Tuesday my section of our company profile (Sales & Marketing) is due. I need to analyze the marketing strategy of Tim Hortons and analyze how it reflects in terms of sales. I plan on doing most of it today and then finish it up tomorrow. My Sales & Marketing section is just one small part of our Company Profile. By the end of the year we will compile our sections into one professional document. 

On Thursday my book report is due. Throughout our competitive intel course, we have to read a business book. My book is The 5 Levels of Leadership by John C. Maxwell. It focuses on leadership development. On Thursday I'll have to give a 10 minute presentation to the class on my book and also submit a written book report. Each student in the class is required to do the same thing, and at the end of the year we are publishing a book of our book reports.  We will have a book to carry with us throughout our careers that contains a synopsis of various business books that we can refer to. 

I'll try to post a blog next week and let you know how everything went!

Have a great weekend!

Ryan 

Back from Christmas Break

Hey everyone,

Just got back from Christmas break-it flew by! I can't believe it's 2012, but I had a great break. It was nice seeing the family and my cousins. Every year my grandma and papa have all of us cousins over to make cookies, eat pizza, decorate, do a craft, and sleepover. We call it Cookie Night and this was our 20th year doing it! We had so much fun! I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. Each year, right before Christmas, I look forward to watching Darlene Love on The Late Show with David Letterman. This was her 25th appearance on the show, it has become a holiday tradition. Each year she sings her song, "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)" so I just have to post it, and if you have time please watch it! It's a great song!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENX1QeEcO_k

Just click on the above link and it takes you to YouTube. haha New Year's Eve was also great. We have a New Year's Eve party at our house every year with my family and it was a lot of fun this year. We were able to act wild and crazy, and of course we watched the Ball Drop. I actually was in Times Square in December 2008 for the Ball Drop - we rang in 2009. My cousin and I made it on TV for about 5 seconds too!

Classes started back up today, I had criminal justice at 8:00 AM and then intel right after. Both were easy today, the professors just introduced the next topic we will be covering. Next week will be a busy week for intel. I have my section of our company profile due, it's on sales and marketing for Tim Hortons. I'll explain more once I finally figure out what I'm supposed to be doing.

We finally have snow in Erie now! I'm thinking about joining the ski club again this year, if I have time with intel and ambassadors.

Anyway, I'll keep the posts coming!
Happy New Year!

Ryan

Christmas at Mercyhurst

Well... I couldn't resist publishing a Christmas post.

There's nothing like Christmas at Mercyhurst. The school itself is beautiful year round, but at Christmas time our campus transforms into something special. A Christmas tree with white lights welcomes you into Old Main. The Student Union is transformed into a winter wonderland and the buildings are decorated with wreaths and lights.

Above is a picture of the Christmas tree located in the lobby of Old Main. 

The school holds several Christmas events on campus this month. Christmas on campus is a popular one. Kids from the Erie area come to Mercyhurst for the day and make crafts and play games. We also have our annual lighting of our campus Christmas tree. Free horse-drawn sleigh rides are given that night as well.

This is my favorite time of the year and I'm glad I'm constantly surrounded by Christmas here at school. Now all we need is some snow!!

As far as intel is concerned, nothing much has changed since last week. We are still grasping our project, we'll find out more during tomorrow's class. Once we have some developments I'll post them here.

Exactly 20 days until Christmas as I write this :) This is exciting!

Merry Christmas!
Ryan

Competitive Intelligence

Hello Again!

We're back from Thanksgiving break and winter term is officially here! This term I am taking Competitive Intelligence (business intelligence). I had my first class yesterday and it seems like this will be an interesting course! We were given a company to analyze for ten weeks (similar to the country study in Advanced Intel, but this time it'a a company study). Our class has been "hired" by Starbucks to construct a company profile of Starbucks' biggest competitor - Tim Hortons.

Over the next teen weeks we will be looking at Tim Hortons in depth; their sales, marketing techniques, current research and development projects they are working on, and their overall company background - all of which is useful information to Starbucks.

In the intel program at Mercyhurst, we are exposed to three disciplines of intel: national security, competitive, and law enforcement. This is class is designed to give students an introduction to competitive intelligence (CI). The course teaches the basic fundaments and terminology associated with CI.

We are also required to read a business book for this class and do a book report. The book I selected is "The 5 Levels of Leadership" by John C. Maxwell. I just started and it is so far pretty interesting.

Competitive intel is a career I am considering so I hope to learn a lot in this class. I will have more posts coming regarding our project and the class.

Last post I attached a photo of the new intel building that is being constructed on campus. When I returned from Thanksgiving break I couldn't believe the progress that has been made, so I thought I would attach an updated picture of the new building.

This is an updated photo of the new intel building on campus. Notice the skywalk from the new building to our library.
It looks better and better everyday. Can't wait to finally have class in there!

Thank you for reading!

Ryan 

Crisis Week

Hey everyone & Happy Halloween!

Well-tomorrow is our last day of crisis week! We started last Wednesday and I've been living in the Intel Lab every since. (In case you forgot, crisis week is when our professor will assign us a tasking and we have exactly one hour to report back to him with our analysis and briefing) I received my first crisis week assignment last Friday, which was a written briefing, also known as a SFAR (Short Form Analytical Report). I received my team briefing earlier today and it went great! Tomorrow I expect to receive my individual oral report. I'm really not that nervous though, as we've been researching the European Debt Crisis for eight weeks now!

Immediately following Crisis Week, our team needs to get started on our final briefing. Our final briefing is scheduled for next week and will be approximately one hour long. In our final briefing we will discuss our group's findings and analysis regarding US trade and the European Debt Crisis. We are also expected to create a link chart, just like we did in the Advanced Intelligence Analysis course I took last fall (I have a blog entry specifically on that class if you would like to read it).

In other news, tomorrow is November and the end of term is near. I've already registered for four winter term classes:
       1) American Government
       2) Advanced Computer Applications
       3) Competitive Intelligence
       4) Criminal Justice

All of the above are required classes for intel students. We will also have a new intel building next fall, which everyone is excited about! Here is a picture of the construction:

New Intelligence Studies Building Construction

Thank you for reading! Enjoy the fall!

Ryan