Senior Year Begins!

Although it's not the first class, day, or even week of my senior year, this blog post signifies a very special moment: the first weekly report of my last year in ISM! There's so much that's happened over the summer and in the past few weeks, so I'm excited to be able to update in this post.

First I'll start with the summer.

Unlike some of my peers, I stayed home the entire time. However, I kept myself quite busy with my new job: a barista at a local coffee shop. I only wish I got the job earlier because I could've really used the 50% discount on coffee during AP season. Despite that, I really love my job and the management! Also, as of two days ago, I got promoted to Shift Lead, which means I'm now in charge of distributing tips, making deposits, and managing cash flow amongst other responsibilities (and a pay raise).

Also over the summer, I visited my mentor quite a few times. Although they were all remote due to construction in the building, I managed to go into the office on in-person Wednesdays to keep up with the company's financials and marketing progress. In late July my mentor and I created a plan to give me some "homework" that would allow me to get more hands-on experience in marketing and to build my portfolio. I'm excited to continue working alongside Ron as the year progresses!

Now for the school year.

Quite a lot has changed since last year. As an ISM II student I've now gained a large amount of responsibility both in being a role model for the curriculum, and in mentoring my three ISM 1 students. Considering I want to be a marketing consultant it's ironic I find myself in this position because everything I'm doing now as a mentor is exactly what I'd do as a consultant (on a larger scale of course). But from a branding perspective, this is amazing experience to use in my portfolio!

Some of the recent things I've done in class as a student is my guiding quote and mission statement for the year. I also created a give my introduction speech along with updating my LinkedIn account.

For the ISM 1 students I mentor, I had them all send me their introduction speech to which I updated to Kami and edited individually based on what I know and the comments my mentor has given me. Also as an ISM II student, I've created a google sheet with all of my ISM 1 students where they (and I) will link all of their projects throughout the year and add information on the assignment. I decided to "make" my mentees do this because I wished I had done it last year. I hope to speak more on this, but everything I've done/will do for my small group is what I should've done/wish I'd known which is why I believe this curriculum change for ISM II students is such an amazing opportunity.

So excited for this new year. Until next week,

Samantha Stein