The First Curtain Never Closes

As the final "necessary" alarm rings for the morning, I was looking optimistic towards the weekend ahead of us. Throughout the day, many ideas popped up into my head as to what exciting opportunities await us for Independence Weekend. However, before we were actually able to indulge in these newfound experiences, we just had one more class for the week.

I think that if you ask anyone in the professional world whether teamwork is vital to success, everyone would instinctively say yes. I think that everyone in school takes teamwork for granted, and I am victim to that as well. We were presented a video on "Teams that Work" and how teams require six characteristics in order for them to function. The video stressed the point in that without any of the six listed characteristics, a team will just crumble in a matter of days. Specifically, the six characteristics are:

1. A high level of trust.
2. A high level of respect.
3. Commitment to a clear and common purpose.
4. A willingness and ability to resolve conflict.
5. A focus on results.
6. Mutual responsibility and accountability for outcomes.

While I have been influenced to believe that a succesful team requires an operating leader, a true, functioning team requires that everyone are, in a sense, the leaders of themselves and everyone of their cohorts.

In the computer lab, we all made finishing touches to our business memo laying out our individual strategies for our CHESS Simulation hotel. I am really looking forward to how my hospitality philosophy and plan will reflect on a hotel.

After turning in my first major assignment, we all took our own lunch break before returning at 1:30. As usual, we all ate at the Trilium Cafe and the ILC cohorts and I actually garnered up a little surprise for Genvieve. We ordered a birthday cake a few days ago and made sure that it was served as a surprise to her lunch table. As one of the employees brightfully brought the cake, not just the table, but the entire room surrounded us as everyone chanted "Happy birthday!" for Genvieve. Just seeing that friendly warmth and energy from the room actually gave me goosebumps on her birthday!

Genvieve trying to cut the ice-cold ice cream cake with a plastic knife.

After returning to Statler Hall, my group and I went underway in composing our group presentation on Best Western. Thanks to Mark McCarthy's hard-boiled tutorial on using PowerPoint, we were able to make a very sleek template that looks almost as if it came directly come the corporate office! I mainly focused my research on the CEO of Best Western, David Kong, and the individual brands of the company including Best Western, Best Western Plus, and Best Western Premier. The one issue I always seem to have with research projects is that it can be difficult to find a good starting point for that much-needed information. It was nice to be assured by the professors that if it is difficult to find information on a specific subject, it may mean that this isn't of much importance to the company and eventually the project. While it may seem like a sweet escape from doing more thorough research, hearing it from leading experts in the particular field gave much needed comfort. I agree that in can be discouraging when a teacher believes someone did poor work on an assignment because they did not provide enough info, and so this instance further reinforces the need that teachers are well-informed and not just a simple robot reading from a textbook or teaching guide.

A preview of our upcoming intro page for our group PowerPoint.

To celebrate Genvieve's birthday and the weekend, we all visited Ithaca Commons, which is located in the downtown district. Just walking through, what can be described as the town's most busiest area actually didn't seem that busy at all. All around us were local shops and it was fascinating to see not a single Walmart or McDonald's in the area. While the town has such a quiet charm to it, the trip made me further yearn the need for action and activity in a busy city. While I may not connect with the Ithaca area, it has surely helped me realize what kind of place I would love to reside both in college and further in my career. Like I said, everyday is always a learning experience.