|
Carol Muniz is on borrowed time.
In less than two months, she will don cap and gown and receive her diploma from Temple University — not bad for a mother of two who decided that the path of her life led directly through a series of classroom doors. You’ll probably be able to see her smile from the back row of the Liacouras Center on May 20.
“We’re going to have a party at my house from noon to whenever on May 22. I’ve already started inviting people and telling everyone to hold that date,” she said with a laugh. “My husband asked me what I wanted for my graduation; that was easy. “I just wanted all of my friends together who have helped me get to where I am now. My youngest son is just happy because he gets the day off from school to go to my graduation.”
According to Carol, this last semester is all about time management.
“Time management is crucial. If you don’t understand an assignment you’re going to get behind and in the blink of an eye, the time to catch up is gone,” she said. “I have two night classes and two day classes — I get home at 10 p.m. and I’m right back in class at 8:30 a.m. the next morning. If I don’t manage my time, if I don’t put my afternoons to good use, what am I going to do, start typing at 11 p.m.?”
Quite a dilemma and it’s not the only one Carol is facing this semester, but then that’s the whole crux of a Business and Ethics course isn’t it?
“We had to do a group presentation on the ethical dilemmas of promoting someone from within a company,” she said. “There are five of us in the group. We’ve put together a PowerPoint presentation on the pros and cons — how a position is posted, how someone gets promoted, the written rules within a company — that sort of thing.”
Carol also has a debate coming up on “transnational sovereignty” Just try saying that 10 times fast.
“If you are working overseas, do you follow the rules of the United States or the country you are working in? It’s a complex question — in some countries it’s legal to offer a bribe to get what you want,” she said. “We have to be ready to debate both sides, which I think is actually a good thing. Then you have a solid basis in all sides of the issue.”
In the near future, the Business and Ethics course will be a required course for all business majors at Temple University, something Carol is certainly in favor of.
“It’s talked about in every course today. Look at Enron, Tyco, WorldCom. Ethics in business today is essential,” she said. “This course is about everything someone in business should know to make ethical decisions. I made this course fit into my schedule.”
She also made her Business Policies course fit into her schedule as well — kind of important since as a business student you can’t graduate without it.
“It’s really the last class that you take and every business student takes it. The students that you take the class with aren’t necessarily from your major; you’ll have classes with marketing and accounting majors,” Carol said. “You work on a group project based on a case study you are given — you find the problems within a company and set about fixing them. Basically everything that you’ve learned in a business course so far is applied in this class.”
Carol said the project assignment creates a working environment very similar to a real world firm.
“You’re partnered with people you’ve never met before, working under specific deadlines to accomplish a specific task. It’s a true-life project,” she said. “Our group of four is made up of a human resources student — me — an accounting major, a marketing major, and finance major. Everyone brings different skills to the table.”
Any real-world experience while still in school is a positive experience, said Carol. It’s why the Society for Human Resource Management student organization established a “Shadow Week” over spring break to give students an opportunity to shadow a mentor of sorts at an area company.
“We had five students participate and they were involved in a variety of experiences, from employee relations to recruiting to benefits assistance to legal affairs. You got to see what a business employee went through on a day-to-day basis,” she said. “Classic example — during a team building exercise with a brand new employee, the group at this one business recreated the FISH! philosophy video, basically a motivational video to show that you can have fun at any job. They started throwing an actual fish around right there in the office. There’s definitely something fishy about that.”
No one ever accused Carol of having any shame.
“We’re really hoping that this shadow week experience leads to summer internships for some of our members,” she said. “It’s a chance to see how a real business works from the inside and gives that business a chance to assess future employees. That’s win-win. It really gives you some insight into what a recruiter is going to be looking for.”
This is the third part of an “A Year in the Life” feature on Carol Muñiz. Carol, 44,graduated with a degree in Human Resource Management at the time of the series.
|
