Tag Archives: internships

Looking Back, Looking Forward

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Here is a guest blog post from Maribel O., a senior Energy Management Major from Arkansas….

When I first decided to be a guest blogger for the TU Admission Blog, I thought it would take me a couple of minutes to write something funny, insightful, and inspiring.  Yet, this brought to mind so many of the memories that I have experienced at TU. Both good and bad.  And it surprised me how quick my journey at TU has been.  Allow me to share my story with you…

As a small-town girl from Huntsville, Arkansas, I wanted to get out of Arkansas. And fast. I traveled to colleges in Missouri, Oklahoma, and California in search of the perfect one.  I wanted to retain the small-town feel that I had grown up in, but not sacrifice the thrill of football games and Greek life.  I found the perfect mix at TU. This sounds super cheesy, but I knew I wanted to be a Hurricane the moment I set foot on campus.  I even made a life-long friend out of my tour guide at Tulsa Time.  (Shout out to Sara M)!  The professor whose class I sat in for Tulsa Time ended up being one of my favorite professors and I proceeded to take two of his classes (Dr. Settle WILL make you learn economics).  My admission counselor was beyond awesome and the entire staff or counselors, advisers, and professors eased the transition from high school to college.

First semester I joined a sorority and I am proud to call some of the most incredible, talented, and caring women on campus my sisters.  But some of my closest friends are non-Greek and I love that TU has the type of environment where affiliation does not impede friendships, but rather fortifies them.  Campus has so much diversity; I have friends from Indonesia, Scotland, China, Venzuela, Uzbekistan, Ireland, Germany, Nigeria, and India.  It is incredible how much you can learn from your friends!  Who knew Kazakhstanian women love telenovelas as much as I do!

Finally seniors!! My best friends and me on bid day 

With friends after brunch with alumni

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Because We Can Conquer the World!!

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Wow, these past couple weeks have been so busy and so exciting!!

Things I did in the past two weeks:

1. Went to a job fair and talked to a lot of people about internships this summer and different job opportunities. I’ve decided that I would love to have an internship this summer and am going to pursue that.

2. Went to the Tulsa State Fair! I’ve never been to a fair before, so this was a ton of fun. I went with a bunch of friends and we got to do the whole fair thing: rode a Ferris Wheel and ate a funnel cake! We definitely had a blast there.

3. Had my first internship interview! A speaker came to one of my classes and I went to introduce myself to her after her presentation. She was very interesting and friendly and helped me to schedule and interview with ConocoPhillips. The interview went very well and now I’ve got my first interview out of the way!

4. And I got to see my family and go to the Tulsa Zoo with them! I haven’t seen them all in quite a while (it seems like forever) but I loved getting to spend time with them and catch up on their lives and share some about mine.

Overall, the past couple of weeks have been incredible. Being in college is such a fun experience and I feel like I could go anywhere from here. The world is here waiting for me to decide what I want to do with my life. I change my mind all the time about what I want to do with my life, but I’m learning that’s okay! I still have so much time in front of me to figure out what I like and what I want to spend the rest of my life doing. Right now, I am very much enjoying where I am!

Thanks for reading!

Khristen

Dawg Days of Summer

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It. Is. So. Hot.

In case you were unaware, the heat wave that has hit the Midwest and South this year is practically based in and around Tulsa and my hometown of Fort Smith, AR. The other day it was 114 degrees in Fort Smith – hotter than anywhere else in the entire country on that day. Luckily for me, I was spending that record-high day in the beautiful, high-of-78 Rocky Mountains in Colorado. My dad and I went to raft, fish, ride horses and shoot guns. What a trip! On the day we drove back, we woke to 45 degrees at 7 am in Colorado and ended with 97 degrees at 11 pm in Fort Smith. Crazy… So now I’m spending a couple of days here in Arkansas catching up with friends before heading on another long roadtrip to Destin with the “in-laws.” The heat shouldn’t be so bad if there’s a beach to go along with it.

Apart from my trips, summer went really well for me. As I’ve mentioned, I got the opportunity to work for the Williams Companies, a Fortune 500 energy company based right here in Tulsa. What a valuable experience. I spent the summer doing economic research, analysis, and consultation with Williams’ lead economist. Not only was I able to do challenging and relevant work, but I met a boatload of awesome people, many of whom are very influential within the community and industry. And to boot, I got a window office on the 46th floor. I didn’t calculate the total time I spent staring out the window, but I’ll suffice to say it was more than a couple minutes. AND I got paid well to do it – not too common in the world of college internships.

School starts in a couple of weeks. I’m excited to get back, see everyone, and hit the ground running this semester. I’ll be taking a decently full class load – Finance, Management, Microeconomics, Spanish Linguistics, and Professional Writing. What I’m REALLY excited about is my schedule – first class at 1 on MWF and at 2 on TTH. Finally, I’m going to get a sufficient amount of sleep! Granted I don’t stay up until 4 every night, that is…

That’s about it for now – gotta go buy some new sunglasses for the beach. My old ones are somewhere beneath the rapids of the Colorado River.

Later.

Sweet Summertime

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Wow…a LOT has happened since the last time I posted in May! First of all, I took the LSAT on June 6 and raised my score (yayyyy!!). I was really, really excited about that, and now I never have to take the LSAT again (insert sigh of relief here). Beginning at the end of May once I moved back to Tulsa I dove into my research, and I have really enjoyed not only the program that I am working for, but also the students that I am working with. I have picked up computer science this summer through my research, and I am also teaching myself Arabic on my own time. I figured there’s always a benefit to learning a new language, so why not pick one of the most difficult languages in the world? I’m still at a pretty low level of reading, writing, and speaking, but my comprehension is getting better and better! I’m really excited about learning the language and being able to utilize it sometime in the future! My days have been filled with research and internships, and my weekends have been filled with traveling. I’ve been back and forth to Springfield, MO where my boyfriend goes to school, St. Louis to spend at least a weekend or two with my family, and the Lake of the Ozarks where I love to go to hang out. It’s been extremely hot everywhere I go, but nothing beats Tulsa right now! It’s been around 107 degrees every day, not including the heat index. Somehow, though, Tulsa never seems so hot. There’s always bright blue skies and happy people, so it makes the heat a little more bearable.

Other than work and research, I’ve just been coming to terms with the reality that summer is almost over. I feel like it flew by, but I’m excited for the year to begin so that I can enjoy my sorority, my classes, and the fun that comes with being a senior–I can’t believe I’m so old already! The summer session ends on Friday, so I’ll head to St. Louis for a week or so before moving back for sorority recruitment. Then, after recruitment, the fall semester starts and I’ll get back into the swing of things again! I can’t believe fall is already coming around…it’s amazing how time flies!

Next time you hear from me I’ll probably be in the middle of beginning-of-school craziness, and I wouldn’t have it any other way! :) Talk to you soon!

Winding Down

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What a semester it’s been!

I guess you wouldn’t know, though, since I haven’t been on here in, well…awhile…

So. Extended leave of absence behind us, alot has been happening. Like I said in earlier posts, I’ve spent this semester serving as president of my fraternity. What a job! I now know three phone numbers by heart – my house, my mom’s cell, and Stanley Security Co., the operator of the fraternity house’s fire alarm. Let’s just say their operator and I are on a first name basis… Other than that phone number, the main thing I’ve learned through my stint as executive in chief is that foreigners know NOTHING about American university Greek life. That is, fraternities and sororities. These collegiate “social societies” are wholly American concept. The other day i had to attempt to explain to my Spanish teacher, a Spaniard, what exactly a fraternity is. In Spanish. No small feat, especially when all she knew of fraternities was the typical mainstream cultural reference – Animal House. Luckily for me, that’s not the fraternity environment here at TU, so I was able to tell her otherwise without lying to her face.

Apart from my presidential duties, most of my time is spent on school work. Classes are going well, for the most part. I’ve learned quite a bit this semester – how to build an information database, why Americans are so much more opposed to taxation than in other countries, and how to say fun things like “inflation rate” and “mortgage lender” in Spanish. Finals and end-of-semester projects are creeping up all too quickly, so honestly, I don’t want to talk about classes any more.

For Spring Break I headed two hours east to the Ozark mountains in Arkansas to go caving, hiking, and camping with my girlfriend and her family for 4 days. I know – that sounds awful, but fortunately, I have awesome “in-laws,” and the time was fantastic, especially at a true natural gem like Devil’s Den State Park just a couple hours away.

As school ends, summer kicks into gear, and I’ll begin my first real job as an intern at Tulsa-based Williams Companies. Williams is one of the nation’s leaders in the natural gas industry – one that’s going to do nothing but grow in the near future. I’m really excited about it – I’ll be working in the Economics Department doing research on energy markets and the like. Again, I know, that sounds awfully boring to some. But to be the right hand research assistant to the executives of a 3000-employee company like Williams is a fantastic opportunity. It’s also great to be a TU student, as Williams HQ (which is located in Oklahoma’s tallest building, BTW) is a ten minute drive from campus. It’ll be a great summer here in Tulsa.

Like I mentioned before, finals are fast approaching, and the biometric facial recognition paper I’ve been putting off for 2 months is due in 6 days. Considering I didn’t know what “biometric facial recognition” meant until earlier today, I had better get started pronto.

Later!

Oktober… November!

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My “little sister” that I mentor at a local elementary school always reminds me how AWESOME it was to be a kid! Remember when you could be basically anything for Halloween, and somebody thought it was cool? Well those days are loooong gone! Halloween in college is a time to prove yourself… who can come up with the most clever costume? There were definitely some creative ones this year. My friend Craig was dressed as left-brain/right-brain. I saw a pre-Christmas season elf wandering around, as well as a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, a pig in a blanket, and a German exchange student in a bumblebee costume! My boyfriend Stefan and I spent 3 weeks brainstorming for costume ideas… and we had nothing until the night before the big party. Luckily, it only took us one lunch-time shopping spree to pull our costume together!


littlebopeepandasheep
Me and Stefan: Little Bo Peep and a Sheep

pig in a blanket christian

Jordan S: Pig in a Blanket; Christian: Bumblebee

October is one of my favorite months at TU. Halloween was just the icing on the cake – we had a great football game against Notre Dame, and one of the top 10 Oktoberfests of the year was happening right across town! TU’s Student Association sponsored a shuttle service from campus to Oktoberfest so that we could avoid parking fees (and stuff). This year I even managed a SWEET discount on the ferris wheel… I got 2 people on for $1 ($7 in savings!!). Who knew you could bargain with the ride operators?


Oktoberfest

So yes, October was awesome, but November is coming in at a close second. How do I know this just 3 days into the month? Because hopefully November will bring the first big freeze!! My allergies will be put to death, I can wear all of my comfortable winter sweatshirts, and soon it will be time to decorate for Christmas. Maybe we can even outdo our holiday decor from sophomore year in La Fortune!


christmaslafortune
Aaand to update you since my last post… I’m sooo close to handing in my scholarship application for grad school in Germany! November 12 is the big day. Right now my professors are writing letters of recommendation and I’ll soon be able to put together the application packet!

Also, the job interview in Wichita went pretty well; I managed to get the internship this summer with Koch Industries! I’ll be working in the IT department as a business analyst. It seems like it will be a really good experience, so I hope I can learn a lot while I’m there!

Welp, it’s 11:14 PM, sooo… time to hit the books! Then the hay. Until next time!

Opportunities Galore

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Flipping through my to-do list booklet and looking over my social and academic calendars, I wonder how it will all get done. Lately I have been going nonstop but truly enjoying every minute. These past couple of weeks have been filled with many workshops, meetings, and even football practice. It’s the beginning of the hiring season for interns for most companies so the Collins College of Business has been buzzing. I have been able to attend quite a few informational workshops over how to dress, ways to network, and mock interviews are coming up. They have all given tons of helpful information, and I even won an Olive Garden gift card along with other fun goodies. Last week was also special because I interviewed for Student Association and received an associate position in Cabinet!

It’s officially football season, both to play and watch. Tailgating was something I had never done, and now I see why people put so much effort into their pre-game events. Student Association put on one, and gave out t-shirts, pizza, and drinks. Right after that, I ran over to the Tri-Delt/Sigma Chi tailgate where hamburgers were freshly grilled…Don’t worry I didn’t eat at both. Our Golden Hurricane boys just beat Bowling Green, and it was exciting to see classmates and friends on the field. Intramurals kicked off, and it was a bittersweet first game. Playing with the Tri-Delt girls was awesome, but losing in overtime..not so much. The intensity of all the girls was quite shocking, and our awesome coaches (from one of the fraternities) brought us kool aid and orange slices for halftime..they’d make great team moms.

I purposely almost forgot academics, because after awhile your brain stops functioning in school mode, and starts to feel like overcooked raman noodles. Although classes have been difficult, my major Energy Management has been quite educational in relaxed settings. My TEMSA mentor and I had a good talk over Hurricane Hut passion fruit smoothies (great college pick-me-up) where she encouraged me and got me back on track after some discouraging grades. We had our first official TEMSA meeting on Sunday Night which was sponsered by Williams, and the Vice President of Gas Marketing gave us an overview of what his job entailed. Again, great networking that I feel a larger school could not offer as well and as often as TU does. Something I’m looking foward to this weekend is going skeet shooting with the Director of Energy Management, Ted Jacobs, and some of my EM peers. Again a skill I’ve always wanted to learn and TU has opened the door in order for me to do so.
Laundry haunts me back at the house, and studying for upcoming tests and quizzes is not going to go away. I hope everyone has a fantastic week and I look foward to letting you know I’m alive after shootin’ some skeet.

Back 2 school!!

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I officially finished unpacking today, and I’ve got to admit that it feels good! Finally I’ll live in a place for more than 3 months without packing up and heading off to somewhere new. I’m sharing an on-campus apartment with my roommate from freshman year, Kay Sind. Apartment life is nice… we have so much space! It’s unbelievable!

My last day at ConocoPhillips was Friday, and I was really sad to leave – the internship experience was really good. I loved my position and I got to know so many really cool people. We finished the summer strong with a trip to Dallas! My friends from work (Mark and Phillip) and I drove down to Dallas Friday evening and went to a great piano bar. Saturday was full of outlet mall shopping, getting lost and the highlight of the weekend… THE GOO GOO DOLLS IN CONCERT!! I am pretty sure the lead singer was looking right at me as he sang Black Balloon… pretttty sure. I’ve been dreaming about seeing them in concert since I was twelve, so I would say this is a good start to senior year!

Being back on campus feels a little weird since I’ve been gone for so long! There are so many unfamiliar faces. I have a lot of catching up to do!!

Today was the first day of classes, which means I (as always) got up unusually early and went to class unusually awake! I listened to the standard first-day-of-class spiel from every teacher and had some delicious Chick-Fil-A for lunch. I am trying to embrace all of this random free time I have right now because I know that my schedule is about to fill up, really fast!! See ya later!

Fast Forward

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from student blogger Quinn…

So its been a while since my last post. I’ll update you pretty quickly though. So this past semester, I took a Robotics class that met everyday except Sunday. Yes, everyday! Everyday does include Saturday. Although this class met everyday, it was only for the first 6 weeks of the semester. It was geared around an high school robotics competition called FIRST. We had this program at my high school , but I never had the opportunity to participate. Anyway, the class was a good experience. I was the team captain of the Booker T. Washington High School Team. Long story short, we lost in the championship. It was a good experience, and I hope to participate in the class next year.

beach

So for springbreak my friends and I decided to go Mazatlan, Mexico. My parents weren’t too thrilled with that idea, but we all made it back safely. I really enjoyed eating 3 meals a day for under $6. The weather was great in Mazatlan. We were able to get in some volleyball games and even some football games on the beach. I’m glad I took 4 years of Spanish in high school and a semester at TU because we ended up venturing out in some parts of town where no English was spoken. So after enjoying 90 degree weather all week , I come back to Tulsa which was covered in Snow.

gfd

cg

After springbreak , the semester was pretty much downhill. I only ended up having one final and just a couple more SA events left to plan. This was my last semester with participating in SA and it will be something that I will miss. I loved being involved with the planning and programming side of things, but it will be interesting to go to a tailgate just as a student. My final year at TU I will be President of the Association of Black Collegians. I’m very excited to be taking on this position and ABC’s executive staff has great things planned this year!

So I think I’ve filled you in on the past 4months or so. Now I can talk about the present. This summer I am back in Bakersfield, CA interning for Chevron. A few of my friends are back as well and its sure to be a great summer. Chevron is really great about plpanning networking events outside of work. For the interns, HR puts on several events through out the summer. The first event we had was a Volleyball/Ice Cream Social Event. I think I represented TU well by wearing the SA springfest Shirt created by T.Coye.

GG

vll

BASS
We also had a gaming tournament. I’m not the biggest gamer, but I will say that I do dominate in Mario Kart (N64). The main office at Chevron has huge screens usually used for big presentations, but that night they were used for Call of Duty, Halo, Mario Kart, etc. There was a ton of pizza and other unhealthy food at the event. I made sure to get my carbs up before I dominated in Mario Kart.

SS

Another event that we had was the leadership BBQ. This event gives the interns an opportunity to meet the upper management of the company. I had the opportunity to speak with managers who had the opportunity to live in Indonesia and Nigeria. Both managers said that working abroad was a great experience for them and their families. Aside from the networking part of the event, we also played some picnic games.

DD

We started off by having a water balloon toss and then followed by an egg toss. We played a couple rounds, and then things got interesting when someone threw a balloon at the HR head. I remained clean the entire time,but lets say there were a few people who weren’t so lucky.

bbq

SS

Our most recent event was held only a couple nights ago, “The Dine and Dance.” “The Dine and Dance,” was held at the Buck Owens Crystal Palace. I actually don’t know who Buck Owens was, but he knew a lot of people and his establishment was huge. The walls were scattered with pictures of Buck and celebrities such as Robert Duvall, Dean Martin, and Brad Paisley just to name a few. We had a great dinner and then the dancing followed. I’m the not best line dancer, but that didn’t stop me from getting out there. I forget the name of the band that was playing that night, but they played a song called Tulsa Time which wasn’t that bad.

ADD

VV

Maybe admissions can play the song during TU’s Tulsa Time. Anyway, I’m going to try and keep this blog updated as much as possible this summer because my friends and I have lots of trips planned this summer. So enjoy…until next time!