So, I'm Not A Pediatrician, But...

When I was young, I wanted to be a pilot, an actress, and a pediatrician.  (Not just one of those.  All of those.)  By the time I made it to 5th grade, I had decided to settle solely on being a pediatrician.  Then I saw Legally Blonde and decided I wanted to be a lawyer.  But mostly I still wanted to be a pediatrician.  I wanted to help people, especially people in the small variety.  But as I went on through school and discovered my intolerance for blood and other "gross" things, my feelings waned.  And when I had to dissect a mink in A&P my junior year of high school, I gave up all hope of ever becoming a doctor (and instead became a vegetarian for 3 years...)

My interests then led me towards business.  I guess in hindsight, that all makes sense... I played a mean game of Monopoly as a child.  (The only person that would ever beat me was my grandpa, because he wouldn't trade me his railroads.)

So now I'm getting ready to graduate and this summer I'm gaining a taste of the "business world", which is not always known for being particularly kind or in the business of "helping people".  But I'm finding that it can be.  In the last few years especially, several corporations are participating in philanthropic activities.  And they're not just donating money, they're donating useful resources.

It's absolutely a priority that I work for a company who is not just morally sound, but proactive in their communities.  So Target wins another point for being at awesome at doing just that.  Not only does Target donate 5% back into communities (which amounts to almost 4 million dollars a week), but they coordinate community events and improvement projects.

Last summer I participated in Operation Food Search St. Louis:

And last week I kicked off the Target community service for the summer by helping out at a local school that is going through re-structuring:

So yeah, working and making money is cool and all.  But it's really all about it not being all about you.  I don't know what I'll do with the rest of my life, but I hope that I can at least remember that much.  I think it's possible to find opportunities in any occupation to make a difference, and to truly help people.  

But mad props to all the doctors out there.  Srrsly.  

Mini-apple & the Corporate World

This past week and a half has been nothing short of overwhelming.  Moving to a new city, meeting tons of new people, and starting a new 8-5 job.

Back in September, after a previous internship with Target (as an Executive Store Intern) and another round of interviews/tests, I was offered a position for this summer as a Business Analyst Intern at Target Headquarters in Minneapolis, MN.  The whole thing seemed so far away until a couple weeks ago.  It wasn't until I got back from all of my travel adventures that I realized the eminent was finally here, and that I desperately needed to start packing (and schedule gatherings with all of my friends from home one last time).

Last Saturday morning I found myself at the Southwest check-in counter with 5 bags of luggage.  I had packed practically everything that I owned (because I would never want to leave anything behind) and set off for 10 weeks in Minneapolis.

Saturday was filled with un-packing and meeting my new roommates, and Sunday consisted of tours of the city and continuously meeting more people.  This week was dense.  So dense.  There is a lot that I could talk about.  We'll stick to the basics for now:

Living Arrangements
So Target hired about 350 interns, of which 200(ish) are not from the area.  Anyone who isn't from MSP was placed in special Target intern housing, which happens to be these sweet fully-furnished apartments right of the U of M campus.

I'm living in a suite with 3 other girls, in which we share a kitchen and living room area.  Then each of us has their own bedroom and bathroom.  The apartments are pretty nice, there is a fitness room downstairs (which I probably won't use because I'll take advantage of the mild summer and gorgeous Mississippi river trails to run outside as much as possible) and a media room, along with a lot of "common" space.  So basically I'm at college, but I have a job instead of class.  And no papers or homework.  And I'm getting paid.

Transportation
For those of you paying attention, you might have noticed that I said I flew up here.  Despite it only being a 10 hour drive (I realize that's a lot- but completely doable), I opted for the plane ticket instead.  At first I didn't want to even entertain the idea of not having a car all summer but as I thought about it more... I realized that it might be kind of interesting to see what it's like to not own a car.  Ideally, my first couple of years as a "grown up" will be spent living in a city without a car.  (I'm going to spend my first couple of working years setting aside money for my Mini.)

So yes, for the summer, I am the proud owner of a bus pass... which I'll figure out how to use better this week *hopefully*.  As of now, I know how to get to work, the lake, uptown, and the Mall of America.  So I have the basics covered.  The only thing that is a slight pain is grocery retrieval... but I'm finding that you just have to alter your shopping behavior to fit the situation.

Target HQ
Target Headquarters is located in downtown Minneapolis, on Nicollet Mall (which is a large outdoor center of stores, eateries, and corporate locations).  About 15,000 people work in Target's downtown HQ so it is a really exciting atmosphere.  There isn't an anti-picture policy but I didn't want to look like "that" intern taking pictures of everything... so I don't have a lot of photographic proof to show how incredibly awesome the building is.  But it's a fun, fashion-forward atmosphere at HQ.  There's a caf and a Starbucks (with a forever-long but oh-so-worth-it line), an extravagant central meeting location called the Grand Hall, a Target history museum, and of course floors and floors of offices and tons of fun Target things.

I am on the 13th floor working in the Dry-Dairy-Frozen department and I am specializing in frozen foods, particularly healthy stuff like frozen vegetables, veggie burgers, and health conscious single serve meals.  But of course I found some random frozen pizza boxes (sigh... how fun would THAT be).

Internship Structure
Target pretty much has the internship thing down.  It's one of the most structured internships programs out there, and is usually recognized as being a top opportunity for business students.  But with that comes a lot of expectations and hard work, which I'm super excited about!  I love a good challenge ;)  Throughout the internship, orientations and trainings are mixed with personal mentorships, leadership development, group projects, career exploration, job shadowing, and job execution.

My title is "Merchandise Planning Business Analyst Intern"... blank stares, right?  What a MPBA does is basically support the buyer for their department and actually place the product orders at the right time and in the right quantity for each of Target's 1700+ stores.

This first week was training heavy- there are a lot of computer programs to learn, as well as being coached on the Target culture and way of doing things.  After becoming acquainted with the business, MPBA interns embark on an in-depth group project to improve an opportunity that exists within the department.  My project involves improving the efficiency of the supply chain of Lean Cuisine and SmartOnes dinners for "diet season" (the month of January).  I've been paired with 3 other fantastic interns to work on this project, which we will present for our division director during the first week of August.

When we aren't working on our project, we will take on the role of a full-time MPBA by job shadowing, scheduling "coffees" (Target lingo for "Get-to-know-you's"), attending meetings, and learning as much about the business as possible.  It's a great introduction to the role of a full-time employee, which is a definite possibility for next year (so exciting!!).

Fun, Fast, Friendly
Target's culture is fun, fast, and friendly (FFF).  Through this culture, Target aims to the "Best Company Ever" - for its employees, guests, communities, and shareholders.  I think that's a pretty solid mission.  I'll probably address this as the summer goes on, but I'm excited for a lot of the FFF events that Target has prepared for us, including dinners, community service events, baseball games, etc..

But the best part of FFF are the people.  Everyone working for Target this summer is amazing.  I've had such a great time getting know a ton of cool people so far!  Minneapolis is an amazing city with so much to explore.  This weekend, I ventured to Lake Calhoun to lounge "beach"-side and to the Mall of America (I'm going to have to make a couple more trips back there....)

The weekend sure does fly by fast though!  Now that I feel more settled, I'm totally ready for week 2! 

Stay fabulous!

Hey girl, ...

I haven't written in a couple of weeks (besides that hockey post a couple of days ago - but let's face it, that wasn't me. If I ever know that much about hockey, it's because I've moved to Canada and become the all-star hockey mom).  I know that you missed me, but I was waiting for some interesting things to accumulate before I set off to writing again.  I've also been faced with a slight case of post-marathon blues and an end-of-the-semester procrastination kick in the butt.  (In all actuality, this blog post itself is a procrastination technique.  That economics of law final at 1:30 that I haven't looked at yet?  Meh.  Later.  Like after I chug this diet coke.)

So let's talk about life, shall we?

Marathon related.
Zero week was sort of all about recovery.  When I woke up Monday morning after the marathon, I'm pretty sure that my first words were "Help".  My legs just felt like bricks.  I had stayed in St. Louis that night, so I had an early drive back to school for my first class at 11:30.  Of course I was able to swing by SBucks to grab a venti cafe misto (which, you know.. everyone else just calls cafe au lait.. ne pas Starbucks).  Monday was a long day because Mondays at Truman love me.  That night I engaged in an intense and painful foam rolling sesh.

Classes were cancelled Tuesday so I went to get gelato with some fellow Cardinal Keys that also ran marathons/half marathons that weekend.  I got nutella flavored and it was amazing.  It was so fun to talk to other people about the whole ordeal and to celebrate our successes.

On Wednesday I finally decided it was time to stretch out my legs with some light cardio.  I hopped on the elliptical and went at a moderate intensity and pace for an hour.  Oh my goshhhh, this was a heaven send.  After this, I felt back to normal.

Since then, I've been doing a lot of cross training (Oddly, I missed the rec soooo much!)  I didn't go on my first run until tonight, 2 weeks later.  It was an easy 6 miler.  And now it's actually time to start training for the Red, White & Boom half marathon that I'll be doing in the Twin Cities on July 4th.  I'm so excited to run in Minneapolis!  It's supposed to be a great city for running.

School Related.

Finals are this week. Uhhhh yeah.  Finals are dumb.  BUT today was fantastic because my Target Case team presented for Target executives and we won!  Our case was to build a business strategy for Target's expansion into Canada, and we came up with some pretty shweet ideas.  And we won the $2000 prize!

My hair is nutso because I got caught in the rain right before our presentation.

Other school stuff.... yeah, it doesn't matter.  I have to finish an econ development paper, and take my econ law and consumer behavior finals.  It's really not too bad, I just don't have motivation to study as per usual.  That's why I especially loved the Target case study and spent so much time working on it, because it was hands-on work and allowed me to avoid doing other things.  

Miscellaneous Life Happenings

I'm going on an Eiffel Tower tour.  Vegas next week and France the week after that.  I'm beyond excited.  

While abroad, I want to check out a couple of grad schools.  The program I really have my eye on is "Strategic Fashion Marketing" at the London College of Fashion.  It's a school that lets you create and execute your own project as a part of your Masters thesis.  I'd be really interested in doing some work in the marketing of sustainable fashion.  I'm also looking at Cass Business School (London), the London School of Business, Hult (London), and HEC (Paris)... all of which I'd be going after a Masters in International Business.  We'll see.  The hope is that I'll feel inspired enough to write a compelling personal statement while I'm over there.  And travel time can be devoted to studying for the GMAT, which I'm taking this summer. 

Related to all of this (sort of.. at least that's how I rationalize it)... I bought an iPad!  

I had been toying with the idea for a while, and when I heard that my tax refund was approximately the same amount as this lovely gem (thank goodness the new iPad came out to help push the 2nd gen's price down...), I decided I would make the purchase.  

I'm not a "Mac Head" by any means, but I have a high level of respect for Apple as a company.  They make truly beautiful products.  And honestly, the last Apple product I purchased with an iPod classic, 4 and a half years ago.

You can really use the iPad for so much.  I already downloaded all of the apps that I'm super excited for... like TripIt (which organizes your travel reservations, plans, maps, phone numbers, etc), Epicurious (basically a cookbook), Netflix, Gmail, Chegg (for renting e-textbooks), GMAT Prep, Facebook, Linkedin, and of course.... BIG ANGRY BIRDS. 

I feel so business-y now.  Which brings me to my next point of excitement...

I can't wait to work here! It's just a month away!  

But with the approach of summer means that I'm leaving all of my friends :(  Most people will be in STL this summer.  

Shoutout to this girl for turning 21 last week!

Cardinal Key initiation last Sunday!

Huge Group of Girls.

Wahhhh.  I'll probably write a goodbye blog post to all of my graduating senior friends.  I don't want to be sad yet.  

And now.  It is time to study.  

Thanks, Ryan. 

Missoni for Target : Fabulous and Finally Mine!

In 7th grade,  I got a subscription to Teen Vogue and my life was forever changed.  For the first time, I saw fashion as not purely functional but as an aesthetic.  I learned the names of designers and developed an appreciation for their art.  Italian designer, Missoni, especially struck a note. 

In a short period of time, Teen Vogue published photographs of both Mischa Barton and Nicole Richie (halfway relevant celebrities back in 2004) wearing Missoni dresses and I was in love (with the dresses).

Missoni is known for their signature zigzag patterns, bright colors, and retro feel - all of which I all love.

But here's the kicker.  Missoni is going to run you somewhere around the ballpark of $50... FOR A PAIR OF SOCKS.  

Socks!!!!

And thus, my 13 year-old, Teen-Vogue-reading self was defeated.  No Missoni for me.

Except all of that changed this past summer, when I stumbled along a fashion blog trumpeting yet another affordable designer-collaboration line at Target.  

**For those of you who are unfamiliar with designer collaborations, here is a diddy from their PR site:

Designer Collaborations is an expansion of Target's existing designer fashion program and each collection is available only for a limited time. Designer Collaborations is a unique program that features well-established designers who draw inspiration from a collaborative partner, muse or creative element. It is a new and exciting way of delivering the latest styles to our contemporary female guests at the prices they expect from Target.

Sounds gooooood to me. 

Last summer, I had been absolutely delighted by Target's Liberty of London collaboration:

(which I bought way too much of), so I was excited to see how they could possibly follow that up.  Well...

EEEEEK!  TOO.  EXCITING.

The collection was to be released in stores at a set date in September, and I was excited to get me some.

Except, small problem.  I knew I'd be in Kirksville in September.  Kirksville does not have a Target (try not to be too surprised).  In fact, the closest Target is an hour and a half away.  Since the collection was to come out on a weekday, I considered the option of making the early morning drive before my 9:30 class to snag what I wanted when the store opened at 8, but ultimately decided against it.  I figured I would just wait for it to go on clearance in a month and grab some the next time I went home for break.

...

I had no idea that this would happen:

And lastly, the most sad:

Do you think that lady was going to personally wear all of that Missoni? 

Of course not!  She was going to sell it on Ebay.  In fact, the day after the Missoni launch, there were 30,000 Ebay listings for the highly coveted items, all fetching outrageous prices.  

Today, there are approximately 12,000 current Missoni for Target Ebay listings.  

Demand for the Missoni collection didn't only affect business inside of the retailer, but also managed to cause an unprecedented amount of traffic on the Target.com website which the server was unable to handle.  The website crashed, and those trying to purchase online (directly from Target) experienced extreme difficulty and were rarely successful.  

Between the website crash and the hoarding/Ebay issue, the whole ordeal created a PR mess for Target, which I won't really get into now (Doing a quick Google search will come up with several blogs and news articles which have addressed all sides of the issue).

I was honestly super bummed that I was unable to get a piece of the Missoni collection, but I refused (on a fundamentally moral basis) to purchase any of it from the Ebay sellers.  I wanted no part in contributing to skeezy profits. 

A couple of months have passed and I had begun to get over the pain of missing the Missoni for Target collaboration.  I am currently home for Thanksgiving break and so with an abundance of time, and a slight shopping itch (unaccompanied with an abundance of $$), I decided to drop into my local Goodwill store.  I had already been completely successful in my finds, snatching up a pair of The Limited dress pants and a pair of loafers when I nearly had a heart attack. 

This...

.... Was staring me in the face.

With the tags still on.

In Goodwill.

And this is one of those moments where you don't ask "how" or "why" or "for realsies?!", you just grab it and buy it as soon as you can, so that you know it can and will be yours forever.

Curiosity did lead me to look up this little gem on Ebay, just to see how much I could sell it for...

50 bucks. I paid 4. (Retail was $23.99)

I would never sell it. 

So a sad story turned less sad and I am finally the proud owner of the infamous zigzags I have admired for 7 years (35% of my life, mind you).

How fabulous is that.