Amin's Blog

It feels so good to return for one more quarter as your campus blogger! I have so much to talk about. First off, I would like to state, that I now work at the Career Center as a Career Peer Advisor on campus. For those of you not familiar with this resource, together with other CPA's, I review important job documents such as resumes, and cover letters and by working with the student we improve on the formatting and content of the papers. We also provide students with practice interview sessions, in order for students to prepare for that always daunting job interview. We are located in the Library annex and you can schedule an appointment by going onto our website at http://www.bothell.washington.edu/careers/. So I ENCOURAGE all of you TO MAKE AN APPOINTMENT TODAY!

Did I mention that the CAREER AND INTERNSHIP IS THIS THURSDAY, April 17th. We will have two sesssions, one from 10:30-1:30 and another from 3:30-6:30.

It is located at the Northcreek Events Center. We will be featuring major employers, such as Boeing, GEICO, Verizon Wireless etc. For a complete list of all the employers that will be joining us tomorrow please go to the career center website at http://www.uwb.edu/careers/ and click on the Career Fair logo. This is a great opportunity to introduce yourself to company recruiters and even get hooked up for a job or internship this summer. Please dress business casual for the event. I'm already excited just thinking about this event and I expect to see all of you there!

By this time I am now fully acclimated to the daily grind of this quarter. I must add, that this quarter has been different for me due to the evening classes I am taking (my latest class doesn't end until 10pm). But I have found that I enjoy having courses later in the day because I have a longer period of uninterrupted time in order to get things done. My economics classes have become rather challenging and the course load for my law class as been extremely insightful yet intricate. If you are experiencing similar situations I encourage you to email me as I'm curious to learn how other students fare on campus.

Well I think that about wraps it up for me this week. I highly recommend that you go the CAREER FAIR even if it is for a brief period. Perhaps, you could pop in for about 30 minutes in the first session and then another 30 minutes for the second session. Either way, it is a tremendous plus that can have the potential to affect your future!

Amin Montgomery
Career Peer Advisor
425.352.8397
Office Hours: Monday, Wednesday 8:30am -12:30pm, Thursday 9:00-3:00
www.uwb.edu/career
Explore. Build. Connect.

aminm11@u.washington.edu

It feels so relaxing being on spring break. However, I am making the most of this opportunity to get prepared for the upcoming spring quarter by getting my books and doing a little reading on the classes I’m taking to familiarize myself with the coursework. I am so ready to start the next quarter at UWB because of the classes I’m taking (which I think I mentioned before). In order to contain my excitement I am reading a book authored by the former Secretary of Defense under the Kennedy and Johnson administrations Robert S. McNamara, entitled In retrospect: the tragedy and lessons of Vietnam. Since seeing the documentary (called the Fog of War) on this prominent figure, I am been increasingly enamored by his polarizing policies that continued to prosecute the war. By reading this book, I hope to gain an in-depth look as to how the intricate amalgamation of interrelated American foreign policies and objectives resulted in such a divisive war.

By the way, I just started a job as a Career Peer Advisor. I strongly urge you all to come in to the Office of Student Affairs (located in the Library annex) and have your resume and/or cover letter reviewed by trained advisors.

To make an appointment please go the Career Center website, which I have provided (please copy and paste this address in the toolbar: http://www.bothell.washington.edu/careers/ ). Not only do you gain information as to the appropriate formatting of a resume and cover letter but you receive help on how to improve the content of the documents. The Career Center staff is a great resource for students to utilize if you want employers to be attracted to what you have to offer, so who woudn't want to use this great source! Also be on the lookout for our weekly career newsletter (published every Wednesday) that contains information about various careers and internships.

Can you all guess what is happening on Monday April 7th? That’s right; students are invited for a special dinner with Chancellor Kenyon S. Chan in your honor. This is an opportunity for Dr. Chan to hear about your experience at UW Bothell. It could be what you love about the campus or what’s not going so well right now. Also you can provide suggestions for the future. The event will be hosted from 5:00-6:30 p.m. at the North Creek Events Center. They really would like every time come so you are welcome to come before or after class is you cannot attend the whole time. Please RSVP to studentlife@uwb.edu by Wednesday, April 2.

ALERT: Husky Hello, sponsored by the Career Center will be on Monday March 30th, so please stop by the Promenade for some drinks and snacks and perhaps say hi to me as well. We will be there from 8:00 to 11:00.

I am currently in the library right now and my time on the computer is close to expiring so I must bid you farewell, until next time my friends.

aminm11@university.washington.edu

Okay… so I haven’t really been keeping up with my blogs, so I am beginning to feel a little guilty so I’m going to write over the course of the spring break. Finals are over and with that the spring quarter comes to a close. I think I finished rather strong and I’m confident going in to next quarter. My classes for the spring are International Political Economy, Intro to Microeconomics, and Intro. to law. I surprised myself this time by taking more economics classes than political science because I have been fascinated by the current economic crisis happening in America and want to learn about the economy. I am particularly looking forward to my intro. to law course because eventually I want to become an attorney.

Aside from the finals I also had to write a few papers from my electricity and inventions class as well as my international relations class. For the latter, I had to write an 8-10 page critical book review on the book Holy War, Inc.

It was a great book in that the author Peter Bergen (who is also a journalist currently working as a CNN terror analyst) vividly describes the history behind Fundamentalist Islam and the threat they pose. He is one of the only Western journalists to have personally interviewed Osama bin Laden. My electricity and inventions essay was much shorter as I had to write about an Austrian physicist named Lise Meitner who practically discovered nuclear fission. You know…its amazing how hungry you get when you study for long periods of time. I didn’t have time to eat anything yesterday so when I finally turned in my paper last night, around 11:30 I was famished. I’ll just have to remember to work out extra hard this weekend when I go to the YMCA to burn off those stubborn carbs.

Oh the by way, for those of you looking for a job there are weekly newsletters (every Wednesday) from the career center about various jobs on or off campus. Often times there are internships as well for different companies within the newsletter. If you’re still not satisfied, visit the career center office, the career team there specializes in finding a job that suits your skills. So don’t hesitate make an appointment today!

I just got in to the IAS program on campus so I’m pretty happy. I want to eventually major in the field of global studies. Also UWB Scholarships are now available for the autumn 2008- spring 2009 school year! Remember the deadline is March 31, 2008 so here’s the website: http://www.uwb.edu/students/finaid/scholarships/. Don’t miss your chance for free scholarship money! I’ve decided that I’m going to apply as well, because I could use the money.

Miscellaneous: Aside from my studies, last week, I went to this restaurant in Seattle, on fifth street (I forgot the name though, but it was a great restaurant). I had a braised lamb shank (which is my favorite food). It was very delicious, and I’m looking forward to visiting that place again. We were initially going to go to the Cheesecake Factory but it was so crowded (what a surprise, it was on a Saturday night). I guess there was some kind of high school tolo so it just added to the chaos. But going back to my delicacies, aside from lamb, I do possess a taste for barbecued chicken, so as you can see I am a carnivorous eater!

That pretty much wraps up my hectic week thus far. Remember I will be publish a blog during the spring break (I know, my conscience always tends to get the best of me) so keep an eye out for that. I’ll talk to you all soon.

aminm11@u.washington.edu

Just a quick announcement before I tell you about my exciting weekend: Student Life is currently recruiting students for the following leadership positions:Campus Events Board
Orientation Advisor, Services and Activities Fee Committee, Student Technology Fee Committee, Student Retreat Coordinators. An information session will be held on Monday, March 10, 3:30-4:30 p.m. in UW1-103. Applications are due, Friday, April 4.

Also sign up now for spring recreation sports leagues. Registration is now open for spring soccer, softball and basketball.

And speaking of basketball, I went to the Lakers game a couple of weeks ago. For those of you that don't know the Los Angeles Lakers are my favorite sports team period and Kobe Bryant is unquestionably the greatest player that ever picked up a basketball (that's right he's even better than MJ). I went with some of my coworkers and we managed to get there about an hour before the game to see the players warm up. Usually the big time players never warm up with their teammates but Kobe was this time so I fumbled my way through a throng of onlookers trying to take snapshots of the talented player. I was literally standing two feet away from him! It was a rare moment and I took full advantage of it by taking a few pics rights next to him.

We had a blast, but we knew that this could be the last time the L.A. Lakers would ever come to Seattle again, because of the Sonics managements persistence in moving the team to Oklahoma (could you imagine the Oklahoma Sonics?! Yikes!).

Anyway...lets get back to business. I somehow managed to finish my papers for business class, which has led me to become mentally and physically drained. The papers were essentially reports on the Apple company which has been at the forefront of electronic technology. The success of their iPod is amazing as well as their other accessories such as the Mac. The next paper I have to write for that class is a report on a public company of our choice. I chose Starbucks because it is well known, and their mochas (while pricey) are still really good.

Anyway, that does it for me today. Go Lakers and Huskies!

aminm11@u.washington.edu

There goes another week of classes. I am so glad that today marks the end of what was an exhaustive week for me. There is nothing that can compare to the thought of having three days off (well, I do have work on the weekends and I also have to write 2 four page papers as well as a lengthy report on a company I am researching for in my business class). That reminds me I had a presentation today in my business class which turned out to be a really fun group project. We had to come up with a new invention that was somewhat feasible, and persuade the classthat there was a market for this product. I came up with the idea for my group to invent "Ice Cream Chips." Here was our company logo (click on the link):

Download file

I have to admit it doesn't look too shabby? The product idea is basically a potato chip wrapped in a layer of organic vanilla ice cream and then coated with a thick layer of either dark or milk chocolate, which is all frozen. Doesn't that just sound good? We added a late 50's theme to it and we decided to start out first on the west coast to test out the product and if it was succesful, gradually move across the nation. But since we weren't running on a budget technically we could have gone international. All in all, I think our group did pretty good and I was proud of the way we cooperated with one another despite the fact that we had two weeks to prepare. But ours wasn't the only great "invention," there were others which were rather interesting, such as a jacket that determines whether a person needed to be warmed up or cooled according to the individual's body temperature.

Oh I forgot to mention, on Wednesday, April 23rd from 10:30-1:00 the Bothell campus will be hosting a "College Awareness Day" for underrepresented students from local area high schools and I have been invited to serve on the panel to field questions from potential college bound high school students. I'm really excited about this opportunity to share what I've learned from college life and impart it to high school students. It was just last year that I was a wide-eyed college student yet to graduate from high school, so I can relate to what they will experience. If you would like to add your experience of college life and what you have gotten out of it then please email me.

Has anyone noticed the sun peeking through the clouds these past couple of days? I wished I could have stayed out in the sunlight last week but, unfortunately I had to work.

It was cool though, I still played some basketball with my brother to keep up my conditioning, but its hard maintaining a disciplined regimen throughout the quarter. I guess working though does have its benefits (besides for the pay). For example, if I hadn't been working just a few weeks ago I wouldn't have known about the lunar eclipse scheduled to happen that night. And in case you missed it here it is:

Time seems to fly when I let my mind wander. I better get back to this paper I was telling you about for my business class. I'll keep you posted on next week's events on campus.

QUESTIONS or concerns about this week's blog (or previous ones)? EMAIL me at aminm11@u.washington.edu and I will respond to your comment as fast as it takes for my brother to sink ten three pointers in a row, (which, for those of you that don't know, is pretty fast).