Exciting start to Fall!

Hi everyone!

This is Joel. I'm back and I'm so excited to begin blogging again here at PLU! For this week's blog, I will specifically talk about the first day of school, and some fun things that the new international students did on their first day!

The day started off perfectly. Morning classes were canceled for the opening convocation of fall semester. This meant that I had only one class for the day, and it was my Behavior in Organizations class (BUSA 305). I wanted to attend the opening convocation but at the same time, I needed sleep and also needed to prepare for the start of the school year.

The highlight of the day was definitely when some of the new international students decided to play soccer later in the evening! Soccer's my favorite sport, I love watching and playing soccer. But before that, I offered to take a few Danish students shopping for soccer gear!

Us at Dick's Sporting Goods (L to R: Lars, Jesper, Flemming and myself)

After that was done, we headed back to school and prepared for the big event, the soccer match itself. We had a great turnout, 12 people showed up and 9 of them were new international students. The students were mainly from Norway and Denmark, but we also had a Saudi Arabian, myself, from Malaysia and my coworker, Pape, from Senegal.

Us at half-time!

We spent a fun-filled 2 hours playing soccer, making new friends and most importantly, exercising. As a new student in a new environment, it's always great and important to stay fit and healthy. Playing a sport and having fun at the same time is an awesome way to do it. Here are some more pictures of the game! Photo credits go to Vilde Bonsak! This is my blog post for this week and I hope you had fun reading it. See you soon :)

Sincerely,

Joel Goh

Surprise! I'm Back!

I'm back at PLU once again after deciding to get a Masters Degree at the PLU School of Business! This is the first year that PLU will be offering a Masters of Science in Marketing Research, a rapidly growing field as companies struggle with the masses of "big data" they have been able to collect as technology advances. As the first cohort my classmates and I will be undergoing an intensive 10-month program before walking across the Tacoma Dome stage once again in June.

www.plu.edu

If you had asked me a year ago today about my plans for after graduation I would not be able to tell you. I was pursuing a BA in Psychology with a Business minor and was very unsure of what course I wanted to choose next, let alone if I wanted to stay in the USA or go back to Norway after graduation. When I heard about the program I was intrigued and applied right away through the Fast Track Admission option provided for current undergraduate PLU students and was accepted a month later.

A happy Madeleine & Co. after Graduation 2015

Today was my first day as a graduate student and it feels quite a bit different than undergrad so far. The great thing is that I know the professors I will be having from classes in my undergrad or research projects and several of my classmates have been group partners previously or co-workers. I am even taking a class with my professor from sophomore year, which I thought would be really strange. However, the people in my classes come from so many different areas of study (including computer science/information technology, economics, psychology, communication and religion) and can bring so many good qualities and experiences to the class as a whole and I am really looking forward to the next 10-months with the sixteen of us.

@brekkemo

I will keep you posted on how the next few months go and if I am able to keep up with the new program! If you have any questions for me please do not hesitate to leave them in the comment section below and I can try to answer them to the best of my ability!

Best,
Madeleine