I did it!

Well, I did half of it. As of midnight last night I have finished the first year of my MBA program. Spring term was by far the toughest. In addition to four classes, I had three large projects this term, all live projects for real companies. The projects were:

-A strategy plan for Oakshire Brewing. This was a fun project because the company is a small local upstart which happens to be founded and operated by an old friend from high school - Chris Althouse. I have a feeling my group learned more than we were able to help Oakshire, but it was a great experience none the less.

-A market research project for Rejuvenation. This was a cool project for me because it entailed a lot of market research, conducting a survey, and then analyzing the data to find worthwhile results-which I think we did. I also loved this project because I tend to geek out on home building stuff, and Rejuvenation builds some of the coolest period-authentic light fixtures you can find. We got a tour of their manufacturing facility and it was like I was in a live episode of This Old House.

-A supply chain analysis for NW Natural. NW Natural is looking to become a greener company, and we looked at a portion of their supply chain to find ways to improve it.

All of these projects took most of the term, and were on top of the normal course load. To manage all of them at once was a tremendous challenge- but I'm beginning to get that maybe that was part of the point. It was very cool to work on real projects for real companies. It is cool to think that our recommendations will now influence these firms.

I am definitely ready to be done with school for awhile. Which is good because I start my internship on Monday.

I accepted my internship several months ago. I will be interning at AirBP, which is headquartered in Salem. I am really excited about this internship, and the opportunity to learn over the summer. It will be great to not have a 150 mile drive everyday, and the internship has been described to me as one that is done each day at 5pm, so no crazy hours and I'll get a chance to see the family everyday, something I haven't been able to say all year. Also, Steph surprised me with an early father's day present- I'll be getting a road bike to commute to work on (I've been wanting to get a road bike for some time). I haven't had a bike since I sold my mountain bike almost 15 years ago. So, I guess we'll see if this bike commuting thing works out. I'm encouraged that Steve and Dad commute by bike and they seem to like it. My commute will be about 10 miles each way.

Right now I am just recovering form the term and enjoying being home for a couple days.