Back on track! Boo-ya!

Globalization through Finance Lecture

The first event from this last week was an absolutely amazing lecture by Dr. Frannie Leautier, Senior Vice President of the African Development Bank. It was honestly a bit sad to see how small the turnout to the event was. I think a lot of my fellow classmates are in the field of finance to gain the lifestyle of the rich and famous and don’t consider a lot of fields because they are not as glamorous as a high-rise in NYC.

The theme of the lecture was how finance is necessary in order for less developed countries to benefit from globalization. Being that it was hosted by the African Development Bank, the lecture was focused around Africa and the incredible goals the development bank has set for the entire continent. Overall, the bank has five goals they hope to achieve within the next ten years:

She talked in depth about these issues and how the bank has taken steps towards their goals. What many may not realize is that finance is an integral part of each of their goals and that the area is lacking in highly educated individuals to help bring change to these enormous populations.

Everyone in attendance agreed that the talk was truly enlightening and very inspirational and the students in attendance asked incredibly intelligent and insightful questions. In the end, I think Dr. Leuatier was impressed and excited by our level of interest and engagement and invited us all to stay in contact in the future. Considering her “everything she touches turns to gold” track record, I think I’ll take her up on the offer.

Student Parliament

The night of the election (it really felt like the night before with the time difference) we had our own little political evening at the Frankfurt School. The Group Speakers from all of the different programs within FS gathered for student parliament. Our President and CEO Prof. Dr. Udo Steffens was in attendance and for the most part it was an opportunity for him to gather firsthand feedback from his students.

In short, it was a learning experience as I think there is quite a big difference between these types of events in Germany versus the US. I think it’s a common joke in America that Europeans love committees and sub-committees and that stereotype was definitely affirmed at the meeting. Overall, it was a good discussion which was celebrated with some beer and conversation.

Election

I already wrote a lengthy post on the subject here so if you are interested in my view of the election, check it out. I tried to keep that post as academic as possible so I want to briefly cover my personal experience with the election here.

Basically, I was able to sleep pretty well on election night but I randomly woke up at about 5 am (Berlin time) and couldn’t go back to sleep. When I woke up there was still a slim chance Hillary could pull through and she was still leading slightly in Pennsylvania. I basically woke up just in time to watch that all go away. It’s safe to say I couldn’t get back to sleep.

A lack of sleep led to the ultimate coffee struggle.

The next day I went to campus very tired and a bit red in the eyes and received a fair amount of support and condolences from my peers. Even though I didn’t cry over the results, I was still very emotional throughout the day and every once and a while I would pull my phone out to check Facebook and something there would make me tear up in public. I’m sure I looked like a hot mess.

That night I couldn’t sleep until about 4 am because my mind was just so busy trying to process all of the information that was coming forward. This caused me to sleep through my class the next day and the night after, even though I was so exhausted, I still couldn’t get to sleep until about 2 am. I think I am finally back to some sort of normalcy in my sleep  schedule and emotions as I write this Sunday evening, but every so often some horror will come across my Facebook feed that brings out the tears and emotions all over again.

Homecoming

With all of the stress of the weeks events, the Homecoming party Saturday night seemed like the perfect way to relax and have fun. It was a great event with tons of alumni present. It was really well organized and everyone seemed to have a really great time. I unfortunately was just a bit to tired and pensive to enjoy myself properly and decided to head home early.

That was week number nine in review. Week ten looks a bit empty but I think I will be heading down to Darmstadt to visit a friend. We’re also starting to get towards the end of the semester so study time will be increasing exponentially. I have a group project next week that will need to meet so I think my calendar is a bit decieving at the moment. Either way, I think I might have some extra posts lined up so stay tuned.