Smeal Events

For those students who attended the taping of CNBC’s ‘Mad Money’, it was nothing short of a total blast. Mad Money is particularly attractive to college students because Jim Cramer is smart, fast-talking, outspoken, and doesn’t tolerate B.S. I think a lot of students can relate to him because he wasn’t born into his fame. He hit a rough point in his life, but eventually found his way to where he is now. Jim’s high-voltage energy made for a lot of audience participation in the packed Eisenhower Auditorium.

A few members of our own Nittany Lion Fund put their reputations on the line and asked Jim his opinion on selected stocks. Much to their relief, Mr. Cramer generally agreed with their picks, and provided additional stocks for them to take a look at. To close up the show, Jim took a few questions from the audience and gave some final thoughts.

Mad Money is really geared towards young people interested in investing in their future, as it is fast-paced and chock-full-of useful tidbits of information. Prior to the Penn State taping of the show, I had never seen a single episode of Mad Money. I now find myself fascinated with Jim’s honest opinion, genuine interest in hearing what we at Penn State had to ask, and eagerness to help us pick the right investment options for ourselves.

Attention all females with a business major – could your career benefit from a fun professional development opportunity? With future internships and full-time jobs on the horizon, are you looking for a chance to network with successful female Penn State alumni? Who isn’t?!

In celebration of the organization’s 10th anniversary, Women In Business will be hosting The Powerful Women Paving the Way Conference from March 27-29, 2008. I can guarantee this is an event that you will remember and an opportunity that you should not pass up.

The conference will present inspirational perspectives from accomplished women leaders. Dynamic speakers will provide issues-based insights and knowledge that can be applied to your own professional and personal life. Think about how much this will help you when you have to answer tough interview questions!

This event is a great professional development opportunity with a personal touch. Interact with successful alumni and connect with the next generation of women leaders. I have attended similar events and can attribute my latest internship to the skills and knowledge I have acquired from talking to women who are currently successful in the “real world” positions that I am seeking. I bet that without a doubt, you will gain more from this experience than you probably expect.

For an overview of the agenda (which includes meals and interactive activities) and for more information, check out http://www.smeal.psu.edu/powerfulwomen.

For those of you who live under a rock, get yourselves to Smeal and pick up tickets for CNBC’s taping of ‘Mad Money’ at Penn State, which is happening on March 26 in Eisenhower Auditorium. Jim Cramer (the host of ‘Mad Money’) is stopping by as part of his ‘Back to Campus’ Tour. Don’t have any money? Perfect!! The event is free for Penn State students with a valid ID. Come on, when’s the last time you ever had the opportunity to attend a taping of a nationally televised show?

I recently attended a seminar on Affirmative Action, where Associate Dean and Smeal Professor Gus Colangelo tried to set straight any assumptions many of us have regarding Affirmative Action Policy. For those of you who live under a rock and have never heard of Affirmative Action, it is a policy established to ensure that underrepresented minorities (including women, African Americans, Latinos, Asians, etc.) are given their fair chance in the workplace and at college. This doesn’t mean that less qualified minorities are given jobs that should go to more qualified white men. In fact, just the opposite occurs. A study was done comparing the entrance MCAT scores of accepted Med School Students at Yale University. Originally, there was an unwritten rule that women could not be admitted into Yale. After some time, policy was established to ensure that women were considered for admission. The lowest MCAT score of a med student admitted into Yale after the establishment of this policy was considerably higher than when it was a “white men only club”. This indicates that ensuring minorities are represented actually increases competition and means we’ll have better doctors, lawyers, etc.

Gus wanted to firmly establish that Affirmative Action doesn’t lead to preferential treatment of minorities. He mentioned numerous occasions when someone had made a comment to him that “she only got that job because she was a women/black/Asian/etc.), and that those people are just sore losers, trying to justify being declined anyway they can. I encourage you all to take a closer look at Affirmative Action policy, and get the big picture of what it’s trying to accomplish.