Guest Post: Sean's takeaways from the CFA Research Challenge!

This week we have a special guest posting on the international student blog. In this article, my friend Sean will be talking about his experience doing the CFA Research Challenge and his main takeaways. Enjoy!!!

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Hello everyone, my name is Sean Lechleiter and I am currently enrolled in the MSF program here at Pacific Lutheran University. PLU has a wide variety of extracurricular activities allowing students to supplement their educational experience. I recently had the opportunity to represent PLU, along with my friend Pape, at the CFA Research Challenge, a global finance competition. Over the course of the past few months, our team conducted extensive financial analysis on Esterline, a Bellevue based aerospace and defense company. After completing our analysis and valuation, our team completed a report and defended our recommendation in front of a panel of industry experts. While our participation in the competition recently came to a close after placing third in the local level competition, the opportunity provided valuable experience for our team as we enter a career in Finance.

           

Along with developing our analytical skills, I learned how to thrive in a team setting while accomplishing our goals as a group. Effective teamwork is an essential aspect of any team or organization. For anyone interested in participating in the CFA Research Challenge, or a similar project, there are several key takeaways you must consider.

• ·         Utilize provided resources- Participants are provided with a professional and academic mentor willing to assist the team throughout the process. Constant communication with these mentors will ensure the team is on track and progressing towards their end goal. Additionally, participants are given a valuation book to assist with their project. Team members will make the most of their experience by using all resources available to them.

• ·         Get to know each team member- Developing relationships with each team member will ensure everyone’s strengths are being utilized correctly. Learning about everyone’s interests and strengths will allow the team to divide up roles and let each member contribute according to their skillset.

• ·        Determine and meet deadlines- Completing large projects with multiple components can feel overwhelming. The best way to approach the project is to break it into pieces and set a schedule with periodic deadlines. Working on the project for a specified amount of time each day or week will prevent waiting until the last minute to complete the project.

The CFA Research Challenge is just one example of the many extracurricular activities PLU offers. I found the process of completing this project to be an extremely rewarding learning experience with many lessons learned along the way.

Sean Lechleiter

Pictures of the final competition are not out yet, but please look out for them in the coming posts. 

Thanks for reading and have a great semester you all!

Your friend, 
Pape M. Samba

American Sport: Track and Field

I’ve gone through quite a number of shifts in priority during my time at PLU. The spring of my freshman year, I was debating whether or not to finally to declare my major in music performance (I didn’t) and was overwhelmed with campus life, along with preparing for a summer of rafting and mountaineering, specifically an attempt on Denali in Alaska. The spring after that, I was out of school, traveling in Europe and Asia in various capacities. This spring, I’m on the track and field team.

I participated in track and field for 3 of 4 years in high school, running the 100m, 200m (and 4x400m relay about twice, it was really hard), and competing for one season in long jump. I fell in love with track and field when I began long jumping. But after I graduated and went through the summer and moved into the dorms at PLU, I felt extremely intimidated by college athletics and pretended that I didn’t want to do track because I was “too busy.” I ended up having some amazing experiences because of this lack of commitment to track and field, most of all my time out of the state and country.

One morning at practice

However, the time has come to give in again to the call, and I am overwhelmed with joy in learning to perform in the heptathlon. The heptathlon is a special component of track and field. Heptathletes compete in seven different events: 100 meter hurdles, high jump, shot put, 200 meter sprint, long jump, javelin, and 800 meter sprint. This is really hard. I’ve only ever competed in 2 of these 7 events, so this season is taking on an even more humbling form. We started team practice on the first day of school in January term and since then, every day has been hard, extremely educational, and has surrounded me with a supportive community that is my team and coaches.

Every morning, I wake up at 5am, go to practice from 6am to 8am, and work hard and thoughtfully among a bunch of people who are doing the same. The events that make up track and field are exceptionally complex and the art in this sport is filling your performance with grace. More than anything, I’m glad that we have practice in the morning. We practice largely outside, which means that we get to see the sunrise over Mt. Rainier every morning and hear the birds start to wake up. Again, I find this sport humbling, and feel that every day I’m driven to learn about my body, my soul, and my mind.

Yay college sports!!

-Frances

P.S. Since it's black history month and she was an amazing athlete, here's a picture of Florence Griffith Joyner, fastest woman in the world. She set the current world record for the women's 200m sprint in the 1988 Olympics.

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Guest Post: Eirik's MBA Trip to India

This week we have a special guest posting on the international student blog. Eirik graduated from PLU in Spring 2015 however continued on with the School of Business to complete a Masters Degree in Business Administration. He has held two jobs while attending PLU, working both in Dining & Catering Services and as an assistant in the Scandinavian Shop section of the Garfield Bookstore. His Masters program concludes in June and he is actively searching for positions that may allow him to do an OPT year upon his graduation. This January Eirik and the MBA students accompanied their professor Gaurav Gupta to India. Read more about his experience below!

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Hey everyone, my name is Eirik and I am a graduate student from Norway. I am currently an MBA candidate at PLU and in this J-term I studied abroad with my MBA cohort. The MBA program requires students to study abroad under their Global Business Perspective course, and this year we could choose between India and Costa Rica and I chose India.
It was only a 10 days trip in India but we learned a lot and visited a lot of different places all around India from the southern tip and all the way to the north next to the Himalayas. The purpose of this trip was to experience the differences in business culture compared to USA but most important the difference between American and Indian culture in general.

The one thing that you need to know about me is that I love food so the first thing I looked to experience was the cuisine. I always have been a fan of Indian food and I always though food like Tikka Masala and Tandoori Chicken was all over India but I was wrong. India is a country with different cultures and every different state has its own food. For instance food in southern part of India use more rice while in the North they use more potatoes, and they do not eat beef since cows are considered holy in the Hindu religion. Food such as Tikka Masala and Tandoori are famous dishes from Punjab province. Also another fun fact is that most of the food I saw and most of the people I meet where vegetarian which is quite interesting and good for the society.

Well that is enough about my passion for food. We did learn other things as well, for instance according to our first business lecture India has over 45 languages and 300 dialects (some sources indicates that they even have more languages and dialects.) One thing that I notice is that the culture is quite calmer and relaxing in India compared to USA. For instance things take time which is not good for an impatient Norwegian such as me. I call it Indian time where things are supposed to take an hour takes 2 hours or more. But I envy them though; they are appreciating the time more than what we do while we are always in a hurry.

Eirik at the Taj Mahal!

Other thing that I notice is all the poverty that we saw. Many people live in shacks covered with dirt and trash and I remember that we said that how we feel sorry for them, but the weird thing that surprised us is how happy they looked. Even though they lived in terrible conditions, they were able to appreciate what they had and where happy. If we compare it to the western world we like to complain about everything we have and do not have.

This trip has been amazing, I have seen and learned a lot, much more than what I have been mention here and I would definitely go back to India and see the rest of the country and meet all the wonderful people again. If you have any questions about my experience in India or my experience with the MBA program at PLU please leave a comment below and I will try my best to answer you!

Eirik