Summer so far...

Wow! I simply cannot believe that it is almost August. We start classes back on the 20th of the upcoming month, and while I'm definitely excited to get started again, I can't help but start to reflect on my summer so far. If you've been following my blog, you've seen that I was able to travel to China for two weeks with the Walton College MBA program on a tour of the retail landscape. Visiting with Goodmark-Asia, Li & Fung, Walmart-China, P&G, Unilever, a Yantian Port Terminal, and ARC China, provided our tour group with a comprehensive retail tour from product conception and planning to manufacturing to store. I learned so much and gained invaluable insight in the retail industry and international business.

In addition to my study abroad, I've also been able to continue my graduate assistantship with Kellogg as a full-time Sales Analyst intern with the Ready-to-Eat-Cereal team supporting Walmart. Transitioning from part-time during the school year to full-time during the summer has really given me the opportunity to maximize my time and learning experiences at Kellogg. In addition to my responsibilities tracking sell-through of our merchandising events and other forms of consumption, I've been able to take on some special projects measuring incrementality, gauging non-compliance, evaluating attribution characteristics, and planning sustainability scorecards. For the snacks side's Cheez-It Friday launch of the "Shake-It to Make-It" mix, Kellogg even had Kirk Herbstreit come into the office and talk college football with the whole team and sign autographs. He even hinted that College Gameday *might* even make a stop in Fayetteville this year. :o)

As a part of our internship credit with the MBA program, students develop posters and presentations about our summer experiences and learning outcomes. All of the students compete before a panel of judges to summarize their internship and answer questions from the judges. Then all students will again share their posters at the networking competition held at the Alumni House. The winners of both the presentation competition and the poster networking session will then be announced and awarded trophies.

Unfortunately, our trip to the Heifer International Global Village through their Passport Program in Perryville, AR has been cancelled, but there is some hope that we will still get to participate with Heifer over Spring Break next spring. I have been able to do some traveling, however, with MBA Women International through my role as National Student Director. This past weekend, I was in Dallas with the organization at the Professional Chapter's Executive Board Leadership Retreat. I was able to learn so much about MBAWI and the way that the professional chapters operate. I took away a lot that I think we will be able to apply this year to the student chapters nationally, and even with our own chapter at the U of A. I'm so excited about the year ahead!

How is your summer going?

- Tammy :o)