1. Talk to as many classmates as you can, as early as you can.
2. Don’t be late to Professor Rein’s practicum session (it wasn’t me).
3. MSC lunches are delicious.
4. Professor Roloff will help you identify the Machiavellian personalities in your workplace.
5. The United States needs updated legislation for consumer privacy (I’m the only one who learned this, but I wrote 20 pages on it…so I might as well give it some air time).
6. Establish a schedule for MSC homework (Monday and Wednesday nights for me).
7. Have a few classmates edit your paper before you turn it in.
8. Learn for learning’s sake. Don’t worry about what it “gets” you right now.
9. Classes/professors are engaging.
10. Before you know it, the term is over.

I think it would be fitting to apply what I’ve learned in class to my initial blog post. In Change Management, we learned about elements of persuasion. As it turns out, one element of persuasion is physical attractiveness. It works like this, if you perceive someone as attractive, you are more likely to consider that person as a knowledgeable and trustworthy individual (they call this the “Halo Effect”). Using that logic, I need you to take a moment and imagine the most attractive person you know. Did you do it? Great. Now, imagine that I’m that person.
Without hesitation, I can say that the first half of the Fall Term has been incredible. The cohort is great; so many fun and engaging personalities. The class content is accessible and applicable without sacrificing academic rigor. In particular, I appreciate the interdisciplinary approach each course takes. It doesn’t seem to matter what line of work you’re in (and we do have a diversity of professionals in the cohort), the theories and content can be intuitively applied. I sometimes feel that my coworkers are getting a Northwestern education because of I bring up so much of what we talk about in class. In conversations with classmates, I am not unique in this regard. In short, it’s been great.
If you don’t believe what I’ve said above, remember, I’m very attractive.

The MSC class of 2015 is nearly two months into the program – I don’t know about anyone else, but it’s hard for me to believe! I spent months anticipating the start of classes, getting excited to meet the cohort, and becoming apprehensive about fitting the course load into my schedule. But since class began, it has been amazing to me how easy it has been to engage with the subject matter (and amazing how quickly I remember the feeling of relief after turning in a midterm). What’s even harder to wrap my head around than the fact that I’m a student again is how fast I know this year is going to fly by.
As I watched the Chicago Marathon runners make their way past my apartment last month, it struck me that I can approach this year in one of two ways: as a marathon or as a sprint. In ways, it will feel like both. We will all need to pace ourselves so that we don’t experience “worker burn out” (Thanks for the term, Roloff), and in other ways we’re going to need to fully throw ourselves into our classes so that we can squeeze as much out of them in this short time as possible.

I think we have a choice here, though. Will we look back on our time in the MSC program as a well-paced, long jog to the finish, or will it be a flash-in-the-pan, all-out sprint? I’m going to work with every fiber of my being to choose the former. Just from sitting with you all in class, chatting at lunch, and emailing about assignments, I’m quickly realizing how quickly this year will go and I want to not only enjoy it but to actually remember it! So I’ll see you all on Saturday with my coffee mug full and my typing fingers at the ready – and maybe later on with a beer in hand at happy hour! (After all, we’ve got to have some fun alongside all of that brilliant thinking, right?)