Nikita Amelchenko
For the 2015 - 2016 academic school year of ESTEEM, each one of thirty nine current students will write about their past week’s experience in the new series titled, “My Week In ESTEEM”. This will be the first post of the series where, through some casual blogs posts, anyone can learn more about the ins and outs of the life of a current ESTEEM student. This week Nikita Amalchenko writes about the start of the fall semester.
After a hectic and busy summer semester to begin the ESTEEM program, a well deserved two week break was very welcome. Those two weeks came and passed quickly however and we are now back in the swing of things. Luckily, the first week of the semester hasn’t been too bad but that will surely change.
Before the academic portion of the week began, the entire class was honored to attend Mass at the historic Log Chapel; a replica of one of campus’ first buildings before being destroyed by fire. After Mass, we were fortunate to attend dinner at Mr. & Mrs. Murphy’s house not too far from campus. This was a wonderful opportunity to begin the school year and catch up with all of our other classmates after our short summer break. Mr. & Mrs. Murphy proved to be gracious hosts as everyone enjoyed the evening.
The leisurely “syllabus week” was mostly full of administrative details and introductions to courses. All the classes introduced so far have certainly seemed promising. The classes only run half the semester before switching to a different module; something I had never experienced in my undergraduate years. Comparing the two mini half semesters to that of the summer semester, I’m assuming it is going to be very fast passed but this will mean it will remain exciting and interesting throughout the entire time. Whether it be Professor O’Rourke’s Business Presentations class or Professor Huebner’s Advanced Statistics, we will be learning a lot this semester. I’m looking forward to Professor Kitz’s Technical Marketing class the most. It will surely be interesting to learn how to grab people’s attention and make them want your product.
But even syllabus week can’t go perfectly without some small hiccups or a reminder of the ever looming thesis project when our Assistant Director Sunny Shah communicates our first assignment for the semester: a bibliography containing at least thirty sources pertaining to the technical analysis of our thesis project. Our first meeting of the Data Analytics proved comical as thirty nine different students attempted to install the required software on their laptops; few accomplished the task by the end of class!
With the end of the fall semester’s syllabus week comes the onset of this semester’s workload. There will be ups and downs through the fall but in the end, just as with every semester of our undergraduate years, we will get to the light at the end of the tunnel. Everyone is highly anticipating the year’s first football came against the University of Texas. It will surely be an exciting first game for those that have never experienced football at a university with as hailed of a program as Notre Dame’s.Aside from the required business classes, everyone in ESTEEM is also required to take a technical elective. This class is supposed to aid with the development of our thesis project by obtaining a deeper understanding of the technology. Unfortunately, we did not have the opportunity to sign up for this fall class when the rest of the school had signed up in the spring. This caused some concern as several of the more popular classes were filled up before we even had the opportunity to register. Luckily however, everyone was able to get into their desired classes by the end of the week.
Go Irish! Beat Longhorns!