“Stauffer is my homeboy!” is a common phrase to hear around campus, particularly around midterms or finals.  Another good catchphrase is “Douglas is my homeboy!”, both making reference to Stauffer Library and Douglas Library located at the intersection of Union and University.  Now, I’ll admit to not always being a great fan of studying at the library, but I’m slowly learning to like it.  Actually, like is a bit strong, I’m learning to tolerate some late nights in Stauffer when the Goodes Hall breakout rooms have been completely booked up.  As I work best at night, I can really appreciate the late hours that the library is open until.  Douglas closes at 11:00 PM, and Stauffer typically closes at 1:45 AM, although the building itself remains open so if you’re a real night owl, you aren’t left out in the cold!  There are cubicles, desks, and computer stations scattered around all 4 floors, as well as many group study rooms that you can rent.  Typically, the higher up you go, the quieter the study space.  When exam time rolls around,  Stauffer is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.  So really, you have no excuse to not get any reading done…even after you’ve wasted precious hours on Facebook, MSN, YouTube, or watching your favourite TV shows.

Until next time!

Kat

Its finally November… meaning one more month of classes and then on to exams. I’m super busy right now, its just one of those weeks that you have an endless number of things to do. I just had 2 presentations last week in Law and Women’s Studies, and I have another presentation this week in Operations Management, and 2 memos due in Business in the Asia Pacific and Operations Management. I have a feeling this is not going to be a fun week.

After that, I have a Law assignment due the week after, then a test in Business in Asia Pacific, and a presentation and report for Business in Asia Pacific. It may sound like a lot of stuff that I have to do for Business in Asia Pacific, but there is no midterm or final (yay), and at the beginning of the term, there was pretty much nothing due.

Anyways, that was just meant to be a short update. In the meantime, you can follow me on Twitter, I am @pinkrose398 if you want consistent updates of my life.

P.S. I am really lucky as I only have 2 finals this year, Operations Management and Law. It doesn’t help that they are a week apart and I have to spend an extra week here in Kingston, but its better than having 5 finals.

It’s been a rough two weeks full of assignments and midterm exams.  The week before Halloween, I had a midterm exam, a test, and 3 Commerce assignments due all in the same week (2 of which were due on Friday).  Staking out a spot in Mac-Corry Hall, I think I ran into half of the 2nd year Commerce students all scrambling madly to finish ahead of the deadlines.  Staying up late on Thursday night (4 or 5 AM anyone?), I was one of the lucky ones who didn’t have class on Friday so I could sleep all day and recover.  Definitely one of the tougher weeks of the school year, so far.

The following week, all Commerce classes were cancelled due to midterms.  I wrote Business Decision Modelling, Finance, and lastly, MIS on Monday-Wednesday night.  In case you’re wondering what writing midterms are like, I’ll go through the basic process.  All students are sorted into different lecture halls according to last name, and each room has a proctor (usually a 3rd of 4th year student) who hands out the exam, and announces how much time is remaining in the exam (2 hours left, 1 hour left, etc.).  You’re expected to bring your student card and a Commerce approved calculator (if necessary), and any class notes as directed by your professor.  Some exams use Scantron cards for multiple choice questions, while others are just short-answer questions or essays written into an exam booklet.  I had exams until Wednesday night, which left Thursday and Friday free for me to catch up in everything else.  (You’ll find the minute midterms roll around, they take priority over everything…elective courses, eating, and sleeping.)

That’s it for now!

This past few days, I have been attending Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Weekend as part of the Certificate for CSR program at the School of Business. The purpose of this program is to educate students about the importance of corporate social responsibility and ethics in the workplace. This includes knowing to give back to the community in the form of social, financial or environmentally sustainable programs. This can also include making ethical decisions, and not just basing everything on the amount of financial return. The program is to reflect the changes in the current corporate society where financial bottom line (ie. profits) are not the main driver in what makes a company successful anymore. There is the concept of the triple E bottom line: Environmental, Ethical and Economical. All of these things must be considered whenever making a decision.

Basically the Certificate in CSR program consists of:

• Participating in at least 3 CSR weekends throughout your 4 years in the BCOMM program
• Passing in an evaluation component after the weekend (ie. you need to be engaged!)
• Completing 1.0 credits in approved Commerce CSR courses
• Completing 1.0 credits in approved Arts & Science CSR courses
• Volunteering in the community for a minimum of 10 hours and a maximum of 20 hours per year, of which 60 of those hours over 4 years will count towards the program

*Keep in mind that these are the regulations for the 2009/2010 school year and may change anytime in the future.

The CSR weekend is held once a year, usually in October. Contents of the weekend, spread over 3 days and depending on the years of participation you’ve had so far in the CSR program, can include speakers, interactive workshops, field trips to not-for-profit organizations and community challenges. It will also include a challenging case study or debate topic that you will need to complete and then compete with your other colleagues. Usually first and third year CSR participants will get a case study, and second year participants will get a debate. You will have one night to prepare your analysis of the case, or research towards your argument in the debate, and then you will need to present, or debate, in front of a panel of judges.

This year is my third and last year of participation in the weekend. We received a case to study, analyze and present recommendations for. It was a competition between two streams of students in the third year of participation, and whoever makes the best analysis, offers the most reasonable recommendations and best answers the questions that the judges pose, will win. Fortunately, this year our group won, which I am very proud of.

This seems like a lot of work, but what do you get out of this other than the knowledge part of it? Well you receive an actual certificate that says you participated in this program, it is definitely something you can include in your resume as it is something employers are beginning to value more and more, and if you win any of the competitions, it also earns you bragging rights and a shiny plaque to hang in your living room.

Currently, I have finished my three required weekends and I’m in the process of earning 0.5 credits worth of the required 1.0 credits of approved Commerce CSR courses by taking Marketing Ethics. I’ll be taking a geography course next semester that will satisfy half the require Arts CSR courses. I’ll have to finish the rest of my credits in fourth year. As well, I’ve been volunteering regularly with the same organization since grade 9, so I use those volunteer hours to count towards my CSR volunteered hours. I am actually quite excited about receiving this certificate upon graduation because it is something special that makes me stand out in front of an employer, and it also provides me the knowledge and skills to make the world a better place by making ethical and sound decisions. I highly recommend this program to every one of you, as I feel this is something that also differentiates the Queen’s Commerce program from other Commerce/Business programs in Canada.

A prospective Commerce student asked me: How do you like your experience so far at the Queen’s School of Business? What would you say is the best thing about Queen’s Commerce?

My answer: I feel that the Queen’s Commerce (QC) program is not like any others. Not only does it preach academic excellence, there is also a ton of real life experiences that I have gotten out of my classes, the workshops that I attend, and the people that I interact with. The QC program is set up so you work both individually and in teams, which is pretty much a realistic simulation regarding life after graduation. You learn how to work well and cooperatively with others, and in an environment where everyone is striving to be the best of the best, it is not the easiest thing to do. I’ve never been in another undergraduate program at another school, so I can’t compare QC with anything. However looking at my previous work environments, I can tell you that personally, I have done much better in areas than other people have, including my contribution to the work environment, my overall work ethic and the quality of my work. I would definitely have to give QC the credit for giving me training in that area which allowed me to surpass my co-workers. Because of the realistic work environment simulations that you’re in all the time here, it really trains you well for the real world. I believe that is one of the greatest things I have learned here.

I’ve always believed that school is not just about getting good grades and being able to regurgitate what you read onto a test and then forgetting it all afterwards. It’s truly about learning to learn, learning to live and learning to strive, and I definitely feel that the Queen’s Bachelor of Commerce program has achieved that.

If you have any questions, feel free to follow me on Twitter, I’m @pinkrose398. Don’t forget to check out my travel blog to read about my preparations to go abroad next semester.