EUROPE!!

I can't believe my college career is over!! I just graduated in May with a BBA in Business Management, a minor in Public Relations, and an emphasis in Special Events Management.

Now, to treat myself to a little gift- A TRIP TO EUROPE!!

I went May 17th-27th and it was CRAZY the amount of stuff I did and saw! I went with my friend, Lisa, and we started off in Dublin, Ireland. We were in Ireland for 3 days and saw the green fields, sheep, and castles. The image to the left is the ruins of Trim, which holds Ireland's largest and oldest castle.

The next stop was England! We saw Windsor Castle, Stonehenge, Oxford, Parliment, Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, Tower Bridge, the London Eye, and many many more. My favorite place was Stongehenge, which is pictured to the left. We were only in Enlgand for 2 days and I probably took the most pictures there... haha.

We went for a day trip to Amsterdam and saw the red light district and Anne Frank's house. Unbelieveable. The

remainder of the trip was spend in France, which was BY FAR my favorite place. We saw the Lourve, Notre Dame, the Mona Lisa, the Eiffel Tower (pictured left), and went to Versailles.

It was quite an adventure. In those 10 days, I was on and off 7 different planes and what felt like hundreds of busses and trains. I may have to go back soon when I have more time to travel :-)

Busy Busy Busy!

Finishing up Senior year may be a little harder than I thought! Along with classes, tennis has started up again. I'll blog about it in a later post because it's late! Just wanted everyone to know I updated all my tennis lessons for Summer 2010 so check it out and get signed up! www.michelledtennis.webs.com

So long for now!

-Michelle

Job: Full-time Student-Athlete

I've always been told that playing tennis and having a strong passion for it was a good thing, but not good enough to put on a resume. It was strange to think that my years playing in middle school, making Varsity as a freshman in high school, playing in the line-up my freshman year in college, and leading my team to multiple conference and sectional championships as captain, would later in life, mean nothing.

Maya Mapp (shown left), the Training and Development Specialist for CareerAthletes, came to UW-Whitewater last night and showed student ahtletes what work skills their sport gave them. Not only do college athletes spend 30-40 hours on their sport, but they have to balance a school and social life as well.

Maya helped the student-athletes realize that they possess 25 traits that their years of training and head-to-head competition have helped them aquire. My top five traits I have learned from being a student-athlete are:

*a strong work ethic
*being self-motivated
*seeking and loving a challenge
*a competitive nature
*and incredible time management.

I learned that these are some of the strongest skills I possess, and I have learned them from playing tennis. Thanks Maya for the great advice!!

Let Me Catch Up!!!

Phew, what a busy winter break!!

The day I finished finals, I drove back to IL for the Ultimate Entrepreneur Holiday Party in Schaumburg. The party was for GKIC Chicago Glazer-Kennedy No BS Chapter led by Steve Sipress. This was a VERY interesting party and I met a lot of successful and driven people here. I also learned how to better market myself as well as my tennis business (http://www.michelledtennis.webs.com/). :-)

Jim Fleck, CEO of Instant Profits Marketing, Inc, was the surprise speaker at the party and taught us how to market quicker and easier! I also left with a signed copy of "Ultimate Entrepreneur Success Secrets" by Dan Kennedy, Bill Glazer, Lee Milteer and Steve Sipress.

Another great connection I made over break was with Michael Hopfner. He invited me to a presentation by Dean Kosage, a life coach and owner of Kosage Motivation. Dean had a lot of strong information about personal growth and network marketing. I don't want to share too much, but I highly recommend him if you want to get your life and business moving up.

Michael and Steve have been great connections for me and I hope to continue to learn and network through both of them once I finish my last semester here at UW-Whitewater.

In May, 2010, I'll have a Bachelors of Business Administration Degree in Business Management, a minor in Public Relations, and an emphasis in special events management. I'll also have a strong background in marketing and entrepreneurship. LET THE POSSIBILITIES BEGIN!!

Please let me know if you know of any job openings in the Chicagoland/surburban area for when I graduate! michelle.daciolas@gmail.com

Above is a picture of Jim Fleck at the Holiday Party. You can almost see me, I'm the blonde head right above the woman in blonde on the far left side. Haha

Snowing 6-12"

NO SCHOOL TOMORROW!!!! SNOOOOWWWWW DDDAAAYYYYYYY AT UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN- WHITEWATER!!!!

Cindy Hamilton: Nike PR Manager

I wish these blog posts weren't so far apart, but the semester is coming to a close and that means FINAL EXAMS!! I just have to share who else I learned from over my Thanksgiving break.

I met with Cindy Hamilton who is the PR and Community Relations Manager at Nike, Inc. at the Chicago headquarters. The building was a little hard to find at first because it was just a tiny door on the street. Don't judge a book by its cover because it opened up to a multi-level, spacious headquarters. They even had a floor dedicaded to showrooms, which was very interesting.

Hamilton said she spends most her time dealing with the media. She follows media outputs on Nike, processes requests for journalists, pitches to the media, and responds to the public and journalists.

One of her favorite tactics for reaching out to the public and media is through press kits. She showed me an interactive press kit Nike put out for the Nike Lunarglide+, a new running shoe they had launched. The image to the left shows different parts of the Lunarglide+.

Hamilton said the biggest thing she learned the hard way was that you can't please everyone. Some people will just prefer other brands over Nike and she can't try and make them change their mindset. She also said that in media outlets, she would choose quality over quantity.

I learned a lot of other very interesting things from her and was glad she took the time to meet with me. I found it very beneficial talking and learning from someone with so much experience in a field I'm extremely interested in! Thanks Cindy!!

Michael Berk: M&M The Special Events Company

It's my favorite time in November: THANKSGIVING BREAK!! And I made the most of it by meeting influential people in the Chicagoland area. I am a Business Management Major, Public Relations Minor, and Special Events Management Emphasis. All of these categories hold a strong interest for me and I wanted to learn more about the industries.

On November 25th, I had a great opportunity to meet with President and Chief Creative Director of M&M The Special Events Company, Michael Berk. M&M is a special events rental company that rents lights, florals, tables, chairs, tents, etc. to anyone looking to hold an event. Berk holds everything from corporate events and social events to weddings.

I was intrigued by the story of how he got his business started. Berk was the vice president of marketing for a major coffee company. He explain in Special Events Magazine how it happened:

"One day in 1980 I woke up on the wrong side of the bed, went to my comfortable corporate job and had a bad day. I walked into the president's office and told him that I quit. I hadn't planned this. I didn't even have a job lined up."

He did have a lot of experience in trade shows, conventions, and employee events so he began to start planning local events with his wife. M&M's headquartered office are in Carol Stream, IL, but he also has locations in Naperville, IL, and Dallas.

One of the questions I asked him was what made him decide to create another location in IL and then another in Texas. His answer: stupidity. He said someone once told him that in order to survive you either needed to be really small or really big. That's when he took the plunge and it all worked out for the best.

The most important thing I learned from him was that if you're unhappy with something in life, DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!! It makes sense, but not a lot of people follow this rule. Whether it's a job, a habit, or personal opinion, if something makes you unhappy, do something to change it.

Michael Berk is a very interesting man and I'm glad I got the chance to speak with him! He can be contacted at 630-871-9999 or check out their website at http://www.mmspecialevents.com/.