Imprint was easily the most beneficial iProgram I have attended. It was my first iProgram so I did not know what to expect, but I have heard rave reviews from my friends that have attended previous iPrograms. They enthusiastically said that if I had to select one iProgram to attend, it would be this one, and I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of the half-day seminar. I was able meet students, alumni, faculty, and staff from different majors and walks of life, from being assigned to a group (i.e., Group 1), and getting to know students from the Accounting, Business, MSTM, and PMBA programs on both a professional and personal level as we progressed through the seminar, sharing our experiences and insights regarding how to manage successful transitions, requirements for successful change, how the emotional and rational side of the brain operates, developing, maintaining, and sustaining my personal brand, and having a speed networking session with other students and alumni. By the end of the seminar, I was able to cultivate skills to manage change, apply those skills (i.e., Chip and Dan Heath’s elephant, rider, and path framework, in which the elephant and the rider will have to work together to maximize chances for managing change well) instantaneously in group activities, and learn how to develop and maintain personal and professional networks from alumni who are leaders in their field, particularly Carol Stuff Stanek and Tom Nolan, whom I immediately reached out to after Imprint. I have gained invaluable insights and advice from both individuals, being given the opportunity to have individual chats with them, and was able accelerate my job search process via applying their advice, such as having a specific description of the type of work and industry I aspired to pursue and how to effectively and efficiently network with others, including C-Suite. I continue to maintain good relationships with both alumni and am truly grateful for their help, particularly in regards to offering to kindly connect me with other individuals in their professional and personal networks. I am thankful for the Gies College of Business alumni network and I hope to pay it forward soon and be able to help other students who are currently or will be going through the job search process.

I was really looking forward to The Rolls Royce Innovation Iprogram as it focused on skills related to innovation, creativity, and diversity of ideas as it applies to problem solving. Similar to the Imprint Iprogram, I was assigned to a new group, that consisted of an even more diverse group of individuals from Mechanical Engineering, Business, Psychology, Accounting, English, and Social Work, whom brought unique perspectives regarding how to go about solving problems and finding solutions. Each individual’s thought process was interesting as there was positive correlation that it was shaped by their major and their personal innovation style. Specifically, I found the Stanford University’s D School Innovational Model (i.e., Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype, and Test), crash course in Design Thinking, and Lotus Blossom beneficial as additional tools for finding new solutions to both existing problems and unmet needs. The Rolls Royce Innovation Iprogram was a pleasant breath of fresh air in terms of having the freedom to be truly creative and innovative in approaching problems and finding solutions, having been confined by rules and restrictions, whether it be coursework guidelines and project scope as an Associate Consultant, to avoid scope creep. Moreover, the Kirton Adaption-Innovation Inventory (KAI), which indicates one’s preferred style to solve problems and manage change, either more adaptively or more innovatively, provided a more concrete picture of how I can leverage my style in managing group dynamics, to foster a communicative and collaborative team environment and enhance team cohesion and engagement. There was a particular activity where individuals whom had similar Total KAI scores would group together and discuss the benefits, areas of improvements, and preferred ways of working, which would be shared with the larger group, which was a reassurance for me as they were people whom had comparable innovation styles. Overall, the Rolls Royce Innovation Iprogram was key to achieving my innovation competency goal as mentioned in the PDP.

I participated in HackCulture from February 2nd to March 1st, 2019, an interdisciplinary hackathon that encourages collaboration across various UIUC majors, to build a community of peers and mentors across campus. I attended three out of four 4-hour sessions, specifically data literacy, data cleaning, and data analysis, which included a different team-based challenge every session, where I was able to practice and improve my leadership, teamwork, data analysis, and project management skills. For each session, I intuitively took on the role of a project manager for that team-based challenged. I helped lead a team of three to four individuals from different backgrounds and majors via utilizing a structured way of working, such as communally developing an objective or hypothesis, having idea sprints to generate the most ideas or ways to solve a hypothesis, then delegating tasks before regrouping to discuss key findings, implications, and refine the final presentation. It was a challenge to work with new people whom I have just met at the event, and not all projects were seamless. In the data analysis project in week three, there was some tension as we could not agree on a project objective. Some team members wanted to focus on the holistic view while one in particular was very detail-oriented. I attempted to be a mediator and find a compromise between both approaches. There was a team-based challenge each week to prepare for a final challenge, to be presented and judged at the March 1st finale. I helped lead the team in terms of setting objectives for meetings so they could be efficient, and the objective could be accomplished within the allotted time. Furthermore, I proposed ideas and approaches to analyze the data, developing a draft of the presentation and storyline, then assigning tasks to each individual based on their current skillset. I also had the opportunity to practice the Group Dynamics leadership competency, being able to adapt personal leadership styles when working with diverse teams. Working with four team members from the MIS, PMBA, Economics, and MSLIS programs, the project's objective was to assess the credibility of cryptocurrencies using statistical methods to investigate potential relationships and correlations between select economic indicators, and addresses if cryptocurrency values correlate with the global economy. The proposed hypothesis was that a currency’s credibility can be scored by how well its’ value correlates with select economic indicators. The degree of correlation can be used to determine its’ possible use case and financial strength in the global economy. To assess the credibility of cryptocurrencies, regression analyses were completed using Microsoft Excel and correlation and clustering analyses were completed using R. The project received a second-place award, which was judged based on data analysis, design and creativity, relevance and utility, and presentation.

As a Graduate Building Supervisor at the Illini Union, I was responsible for overseeing all activities that take place in the Illini Union and represent the Illini Union Administration in the event of its absence. Essential accountabilities were to interpret and enforce policy in the absence of administration, manage meeting rooms, including set up, daily additions, and troubleshooting, provide meeting room and building tours, oversee traffic control at catered events, author a daily report, and other duties as assigned by the Assistant Director of Operations. I was able to exercise my decision making and leadership skills by carrying out tasks without being directed, unless ad-hoc assignments were assigned or needed to be addressed immediately. I helped with the fingerprint and keys access for a new Illini Union employee although I did not initially know how to do it. I took the instructions sheet on the graduate building supervisor desk in the event services office and helped the new employee setup his finger print in order to obtain access to the appropriate key set, and informed him of the procedures of what key to get and how to put it back into the key vault, when I could have said that I did not know how to do it and that the individual should wait for a person of authority. Another example in which my leadership skills were applied on-the-job were in terms of decision-making. Overall, while I was able to make immediate decisions without assistance, or would promptly revert back to the client within 5 minutes if I was unsure, there was a client that insisted on changing the room layout, which was not possible as the Courtyard Café involved moving a lot of people, tables, and chairs out. I informed the client that the Illini Union was short of Building Service Workers (BSWs) as they were setting up for other concurrent events, but the client came back to the event services desk 10 minutes later and insisted that she wanted the setup changed so attendees could feel more inclusive as 2 rows of tables were on the left side of the café while another row of tables was at the far right end next to the elevated platform. I informed the client that I would see what I could do to help, but could not guarantee that there be any changes due to the last minute changes. I talked to the BSW Foreman, saying that if we could help the client to make their event run smoothly, their experience with the union would be positive so we can retain them and they will potentially use the union’s services in the future. The BSW Foreman agreed and I proceeded to inform all the students in the area to kindly leave the c to prepare for setup rearrangements and helped move the tables and chairs so the event started on time.