New York City: First Day Lessons

Today was the first proper day of the Quinlan Ramble, where we had a designated site visit. It was very exciting for all of us, especially after having such a nice sunny Sunday in the city, the energy was high and we were all well rested. I personally started the day at 5:50 (naturally, surprisingly enough) and was able to have a nice slow morning. I got ready and headed to Carnegie Diner to pick up a breakfast to go: a marble muffin for myself and my roommate + a caramel latte!

 

The day before I spent with a sweet new gal pal I’ve gained from this trip, Erin, and she inspired me to start enjoying coffee shop coffee more, so I took that advice and ran with it, because why not treat yourself? While at Carnegie, I ran into another Ramble friend, Mireille, and after we both got our breakfast, we came back to the hotel lobby and waited for everyone to head downstairs.

 

When Allison and Patty came down, they provided all of us with goodie bags for all of the people who are hosting us at Philips (our site visit of the day in Stamford, CT). You might recognize their name and their logo from their Sonicare line with items such as toothbrushes! It was about an hour commute to their office and despite it being a Monday morning there was little traffic and we had a peaceful ride, everyone either napping or listening to music.

 

Upon arrival we went inside and met the whole team, including our Loyola alumni host Birger Bueshing. We got to meet people that worked on different aspects of Phillips brand such as marketing, finance, and data analytics, which I found insightful. I also enjoyed that instead of presentations filled with their daily tasks, every speaker was engaging with their material, asked us questions and got us involved, and most importantly related their topics back to our lives and how it applies. For example, one of the speakers spoke about the transition from university to work life and how to handle that transition when your identity revolves around being a student for so long. He shared his general experience but also specifically as a finance major, which I thought was really interesting to hear, even though I’m not a finance major myself.

 

Additionally, I found all the speakers gave quality life advice overall on how to enjoy life, how to integrate work life balance, and how to find a career that’s meaningful for you. We were given pre-readings to prepare us for the mini case study we did, but ultimately what I found most beneficial was hearing their personal career journeys and how they navigated change, turbulence, and building personal lives along the way. I am also one of two sophomores on this trip, which I’m finding to be very resourceful, because the questions posed by the juniors and seniors during the presentation taught me a lot, because my awareness of supply chain and other subjects we covered are more limited. I love that I am learning a lot from the professionals who we are meeting, but also through other Quinlan students who just have more experience than me and who are so quick to give me advice and connect me to various resources.

 

We finished up at roughly 2:40 PM and took a shuttle back into the city. It was so gratifying getting to see the skyline and the Hudson River on our return. After getting back to the hotel, I quickly recuperated and decided to use the two hours of free time we had before dinner to go on a walk in the city. Our hotel was just down the street from Central Park, which is so nice because it has proven to be very helpful for late night and early morning walks, both solo and as a group. After walking deep into the park, I found a bench with a plaque that read “Live, Laugh, Love, Chocolate” and got people to watch for sometime. To wrap up the day, we all met up in the evening and got dinner with Dean Behnam, Dean of Quinlan, which was a wonderful experience, not only to meet him but to hear how thrilled he was with our performance at the site. As the dinner dwindled down and each dining table conversation was wrapping up, a group of us took a walk through Times Square and chatted about our reflections of the day and grabbed a treat from a bakery. Ultimately, it was an amazing first weekday of the trip and it got me incredibly energized for the site visits to come!