Wow — what a weekend! I knew it would be rough with our Financial Accounting paper, presentation and final exam all due on Saturday. But, traveling out of town for work all day Tuesday and Wednesday did not help. Sleep was in short supply.
October 05, 2013
Wow — what a weekend! I knew it would be rough with our Financial Accounting paper, presentation and final exam all due on Saturday. But, traveling out of town for work all day Tuesday and Wednesday did not help. Sleep was in short supply.
Friday’s Financial Accounting class breezed by as we dove into stock dividends and cash flow statements, but everyone was on edge thinking about the final exam looming on Saturday. We’ve all loved having Dr. Short as our professor. He’s made accounting interesting and relevant — even for those of us who had never taken an accounting course before.
As classmates presented their accounting papers (which could be on any accounting topic of interest to you), it was amazing to see how classmates had taken what we learned in accounting and had already applied it to their businesses for immediate ROI. For example: Brandon leveraged the accounting advantages of leasing versus buying equipment; Collin and I had crucial conversations with our CFOs for the first time; Glen identified the impact of cash flow on his organization; and Mike identified an opportunity to save his own business thousands of dollars.
While we were feeling good about our papers, we were still anxious about our test. And, rightly so.
The Financial Accounting final exam on Saturday was tough. Even with access to our notes, it took me three full hours to work through and check the problems. Jamie (the only accountant in our class) was the first to turn in the exam, but most of us looked like zombies as we headed down for a quick lunch before our Transformational Leadership class started at 1 p.m.
Poor Dr. Peters had to bring us back to life and focus on influencing our organizations. We may have been a bit punchy, but we enjoyed working in small groups to identify how we could lead change initiatives in our companies. Next, we have to apply this to our group project and paper due this month. I love the books we’re reading for this Transformational Leadership class. I think that Stephen M.R. Covey’s Speed of Trust has been my favorite so far.
About 4:45 on Saturday, class came abruptly to a halt as announcements, lights and sirens started going off in the building telling us to evacuate immediately. Not sure what the cause was, but we were ready for an early reprieve. From there, many of us rounded up our families and headed to Old School Pizza and Suds in Arlington, thanks to an invitation from its owner and our classmate, Jeremy. We had a chance to meet parents, spouses, girlfriends, kids and grandchildren — and kick back after a full weekend.
Amidst our anxiety and talk about how we did on the test, you could hear and feel everyone reassuring each other that we’d all make it through and have each other’s backs on this journey. Just think, it’s early October and we’ve already completed two classes.
Has this piqued your interest in the Neeley Executive MBA program? I wouldn’t be doing my job as a marketer if I didn’t tell you to visit emba.tcu.edu or reach out to Director of Recruiting Kevin Davis at Kevin.Davis@tcu.edu to learn more about this amazing program.
