Jill Yellock

Graduation Countdown

The official countdown has begun. I graduate in May. I feel like I am being put out to pasture so soon. All leadership positions are beginning to transition to 1st year MBA students. As of February 3, 2007, I will no longer be president of Tepper Women in Business. I enjoyed the leadership capacity, and hope that the class of 2007 was able to contribute to the development of the class of 2008 in women's issues in career. We primarily focused on Organizational Theories and behaviors i.e. women's communication skills and making them stronger, how to negotiate, how to deal with transitions in careers, etc. We still have several more events that we planned that will persist through the end of year even after my term is up. Wow, this is becoming sad. My Tepper life is slowly ending. :-(

China

During winter break, I traveled with classmates to Beijing and Shanghai China to meet with government and business people. That was a very interesting and eye opening experience. I love to travel, learn about other areas of the world, and hear about others successes and challenges. I plan to return to China in about 3 years in order visit Southern and Western China. The trip was amazing. I got an opportunity to bond with some of the 1st year MBA students that attended as well as reconnect with 2nd year MBA students. There so many details and so many things I learned, it is hard to cover it here within my Blog. I can say the most surprising event was Hooters in Shanghai.

I have never visited Hooters in the USA. I never had a sincere desire to go. I was so captivated by the idea there was one in Shanghai that a classmate and I had dinner there. I was expecting it to be a conservative version of the USA version, well according to my classmate, it was the same--EXCEPT at the one in China the women cheer, dance and are willing (pretend to want) to take pictures with the male patrons. It was very curious to see. The staff was extremely nice. They seemed very concerned that I was not eating the chicken wings. Well, I will say that the wings were the only food I rejected in China...believe me I enjoyed everything else I ate there i.e. eel and a few unknown meats. However, the wings...UGH. They were not the little wings that I enjoy when I go to wing places here in the states. They were gigantic CHICKEN WINGS. Ha ha

The great thing about the China trip is it may be offered as an annual trip along with an option to visit India. If you come to Tepper...GO!