Jereme Murray
Welcome to "My Week in ESTEEM" where students reflect upon their experience in the program. This week's blog is brought to us by Jereme Murray who discusses the first full week of classes, the first Notre Dame football game, and the opportunities that abound at ND.
With ESTEEM classes scheduled from Monday through Wednesday this semester, the academics days have been full of homework assignments. More so than the previous semester, the class structure consists of more quantitative lessons in Data Analytics, Stats 2, and Financial Modeling. We have also been developing Chapter 1, the technical overview of the Capstone thesis. With the bibliography due this past Friday, the goal is to have a comprehensive written document describing the current world in which the technology lives, the specifics of our projects, and the proposed technological components.With the fall semester quickly in full gear, the excitement on campus has risen with the number of students on campus, alumni returning home, sales at the bookstore, and decibels inside the football stadium. Between ESTEEM academics, networking events, and college football, week two was nothing short of a marathon.
The pressure will surely be on to complete Chapter 1 by this Friday night. Our academic commitments ended on Friday with a bus trip down to Indianapolis with SAP to visit the state capital to gather information pertaining to our Data Analytics course. The trip was an interesting experience. Not only did we work with government generated data, but we toured the capital building, brushed up on our Indiana state history, and met Governor Pence before leaving.
During the end of the week, many of the ESTEEM students participated in a lot of networking events. Between Consulting Career nights and California Initaive events, we had plenty of opportunities to network with students, powerful alumni, and recruiters. The final event, the Entrepreneurial Dinner, consisted of people working on innovation with connections to Notre Dame (more so from California). Sponsored with big contributions by the Four Horsemen Society, Silicon Valley Bank, and Tim Connors, the event consisted of food, celebration, and interesting conversation, making it my favorite networking event of the week.
Once the books were shut, hands were shook, and business cards were exchanged, the Saturday football experience rolled through to top off an eventful week. With the Notre Dame Fighting Irish vs. the Texas Longhorns game beginning at 7:30 pm, the ND community had plenty of time to tailgate and enjoy company. Although the day had begun drenched in a downpour, the skies cleared around mid-day, and the festivities were on. Personally, I enjoyed two victories this Saturday, with the Holy Cross Crusaders beating Monmouth on the road (shout out), and the Fighting Irish making steaks out of the Texas Longhorns, with final scores of 27-19 and 38 – 3, respectively. The sights and sounds inside the stadium underneath the lights was worth the price of admission alone.
With Week 2 in the books, we look to hit the grind again with more academic work, networking events, and more football on the road at UVA in Week 3.