Forte Forum - The MBA Proposition

A couple of weeks ago, I attended the Forte Forum - the MBA Proposition. Before I even started my undergrad, I knew I wanted to get a MBA. I signed up for the event on a whim. I guess Forte Foundation got my information from a women's business conference I had attended, so once I received the e-mail, I went ahead and looked it up. Turns out the event was only two days away, but seemed pretty decent as the admission fee was only $10 and seemed to have a good structure for gaining information. It's always better to start early, so I went ahead and paid the $10 and put it on my schedule.

I got to the event about fifteen minutes after it started and headed to the first table for the school I knew the most about - Washington University's Olin School of Business. First off, why Olin? My parents moved to Saint Louis a few years ago, and left me behind in the South :( At the point they moved, I was half way done with my undergrad and had a pretty sweet deal (I paid $0 for my tuition) so I stayed. Aside from being in Saint Louis, Olin is BEAUTIFUL and is a very good school. Albeit expensive, but it seems all business schools are. However, I have been saving up for a while now and have a small (but hey! It's something) amount saved up. I was really impressed with their representative. Although he was a male at a female event, he was super friendly and dynamic. He gave me a really good feeling about the program and the kind of people that work for the school. After attending my undergrad, I realized how important it is to have a dynamic staff. I realize now I should have done more research beforehand, but the rep was great at answering any questions and giving me general information to start my MBA quest. After talking to him, I felt confident to talk to the other schools.

I then talked to the rep from U of Illinois - Urbana-Champagne. Again, close to Saint Louis but also close to Chicago. My uncle (who is a professor) really looks highly on this school, so that counts a lot in my opinion. For this representative, I should have been more prepared, but I did grab some materials and have paged through them. Need to follow up with more research.

Rescued Australian Shepherds

The Humane Society rescued 95 dogs from a lady's house outside of Atlanta last Friday. The vast majority of the dogs were Australian Shepherds - both miniature and regular. I washed over 20 dogs with one other volunteer. The two of us had a hard time lifting the bigger Shepherds as we were two smaller girls. I have attached a picture of one of the shepherd girls. We washed four babies, 4 teens, and the rest were unfixed adult dogs. There are a couple theories on what the woman was doing with that many dogs - a breeder where things got out of control, a puppy mil or a rescue where things go out of control. Unfortunately, she had none of the dogs fixed. The dogs smelled awful and were super dirty. I told the main volunteer not to tell me why they smelled or what had happened to them until after we were done, otherwise I might freak out and refuse to wash and interact with the dogs. I was happy to find out that all of the dogs were super sweet. As soon as you put them in the bath, they cuddled right up to you, and when they got out, they wanted to play. I was surprised at how skinny they were once they were wet. After we were done, they told us that the dogs had lived in and under the house with little to no food and water. The dogs were also all covered in their own waste. The puppies had that semll of rolling in something dead. I felt so bad, but there were so many people coming in to get the dogs. I have been watching the adoptions page and have noticed they have put up about 40 shepherds already and only 4 have not been reserved. Most of them are gone from the site within 24 hours. I really like volunteering there, but being a greeter was super boring. All I did was direct people around, and the people who work in adoptions are a little to intense for me. Downstairs is processing, and it reminds me a lot of your office. When you first walk in, all of their girls have their desks right there and have a really good time together. They are also a lot more gentle and a lot friendlier. Each of the girls were responsible for feeding two of the Shepherd babies that were less than a week every two hours. I tell everyone there some of your stories, and they really like to hear them. I think they think it gives me more credit too! Oh, I almost forgot to mention the day after they rescued the Shepherds, they rescued forty Malteses with mange from a puppy mill. Eventually, they will be really cute, but the people with the spacesuit-like gear have to make sure they get healthy first!

1st Volunteer Experience

I spent my first day in animal processing Sunday. When I got there, there were 7 one pound kitties that needed baths. They were feral kittens as well that had gotten into their litter and food during the night and decided to have some kind of food fight! There were two torties, two white kittens, and one black and white kitten. It was a learning process, but I learned quick! I would fill the basin with a bit of warm water, get the kitten a little wet, and then apply the shampoo. The hardest part was getting out all the food from their heads. It was caked and dried on! Then I rinsed with new warm water because the old water was soooo dirty. I had to hold each of them and dry them off for about 10 minutes each because they were so small and got so chilled. The poor black and white one had to be the test kitty - he definately took the longest and didn't benefit from having the other kittens to cuddle like the rest did! It was so cute when they were huddled together and licking each other to speed up the drying process. On the white kittens, I did notice some black spots. I couldn't figure out what they were until I tried to scratch them with my finger nails, and they squirmed away! I told the volunteer I thought the kittens had fleas, and she confirmed they were, in fact, fleas. I had never seen a flea before, but I think it was a good thing to learn what I am looking for! After I was done, they told me I was the official bather. The staff told me most people would have had scratches and had a lot more commotion. I told them if they had told me that before I started bathing I probably wouldn't have done it. Ha ha. I am supposed to start being a "greeter" the weekend after next. Basically, that means I stand at the front with a dog or a cat and show people where to go. The hands-on training is all filled until mid-November! I can't ever picture my "princess" going back!