Brita F

Defending Pink Slime

I can't believe the end of my first year at Georgetown is almost here! I'm getting excited and nervous for my internship at American Express, but luckily I have plenty of school work to keep my mind off of it for now! I've had the oppoturnity to take a really fun and challenging class this mod - Defending the Bottom Line. We've been learning different strategies to use in defending companies that are the target of media attention during scandals. Now we're applying the strategies in mock press conferences. For the first press conference, we were assigned different companies to represent and our teams had to write an opening statement and then take about ten minutes of questioning from classmates who were acting as reporters. My team was assigned Mattel, which recalled millions of toys when lead was detected in the paint and plastic. It was really difficult standing up for a company that had definitely made mistakes in choosing suppliers and checking the safety of their final products before shipment.  The reporters did not cut us any slack and were looking for any and every hole in our argument. I returned the favor when I got to be the reporter for the Toyota group.  Our professor, Lamar Reinsch, had video cameras set up so that we could watch our performance afterwards - scary!

For our next press conference, we'll be representing companies individually - so no help from teammates! We got to pick our companies this time and the company had to be currently involved in a scandal. I chose the USDA and the "pink slime" scandal. I've been doing a lot of research on it over the last few days and - wow - I don't know if I'm going to be able to eat beef again any time soon. I'm sure I'm going to get a lot of questions along the lines of - would you feed your children pink slime?  Well as a representative of the USDA, I'm preparing to say "Of course - it's delicious and safe!" My friends in the class are representing the Secret Service and Best Buy. Should be a really interesting and entertaining few classes coming up!

For all of you who were able to attend the second welcome weekend - it was so great meeting you! It seems like there will be a really great group of students starting in the fall. The picture above is of me and my classmates heading out after the first day of Welcome Weekend. We had beautiful weather!

Why B-School Prom is Better than High School Prom

Despite all the hard work and stress, business school is really fun.  A lot of the fun comes from planned social events. For example, every Thursday after class is finished, one of the clubs will sponser "Kegs" in our common area. It's exactly what it sounds like - a keg party. Really, it's just a chance for everyone to unwinde after a tough week and catch up with people that might not be in the same classes.  Besides Kegs, there are big and small events sprinkled throughout the mod, including two formals - one in the spring and one in the fall.  Two weeks ago we had our Spring Formal (or Prom, as my friends called it) at the Mayflower Hotel in downtown DC.  It was fabulous! First of all, the Mayflower Hotel is a beautiful (and notorious) building right on Connecticut Ave in Northwest.  There was a DJ, two bars, amazing food, a photo booth and an area set up for those who wanted to watch the March Madness games. By the end of the night, two guys had split their pants dancing, one of my friends was singing the Kentucky fight song into the DJ's  microphone and my husband was doing push ups in the middle of the dance floor (I'll never know why!).  There was no Prom King and Queen, but it was such an amazing night to cut loose with friends.  Georgetown is definitely about working hard, but we know how to celebrate too!