My last post as a student!

  14th December 2019 officially marked the end of my university journey, I became a University of Wisconsin-Stout graduate! I have finally completed my degree in Real Estate & Property Management concentrated in Retail and a minor in Business Administration with Magna Cum Laude (CGPA 3.87), two Chancellor's Award and two Dean's list award at this university.

Time flies and I could not believe all these happened in a flash. I started preparations for graduation back in summer this year, I applied for graduation, booked my guests ticket for the ceremony, got my gown, purchased flight ticket for my parents, as well as planned for the ultimate trip with my parents the next day after the ceremony. Not only that, I have also got my graduation photos taken by my friend - Carol in late October before the snow start falling and the sky turns grey (it happens alot during winter in Menomonie). I have been looking forward to this day for a long time!

I found this at my work place, so sweet of them!

My parents arrived at Minneapolis International Airport (Minnesota) on the night of 13th Dec, Tony and I picked them up from the airport and went out for a dinner together. It was the first time they met each other, everything was smooth. We drove home for an hour and 30 minutes, the roads were slippery as it snowed at the afternoon, the dawn also turn the water on the surface into ice when it gets below 0 degree Celsius. The next morning, we took them for breakfast at one of the typical American breakfast chain - Denny's. My dad missed the pancakes and the hash brown (it is different from the hash brown we have in Malaysia) the most, he has not eaten from Denny's for years, for your information, my dad loved Denny's when he was attending university at Ohio about 20+ years ago.

For the first time, they visit my "home" for 1.5 year. It was super cold that day (for them), they requested to walk around my apartment building and guess what they came back after 10 minutes saying that it was too cold to walk outside hahahah, it reminds me that I stayed outdoor for 45 minutes on the first week I arrived Menomonie. My mom helped me to curl my hair using my roommate (housemate actually but they called it roommate in USA) - Jessica's hair curler. I did the make up by my own, brought them walked around the school and get everything ready before 1pm.

S for Stout was carved with ice at the hall.

This was taken in front of my apartment building.

This was the building that I had most of my class.

Look at that amount of snow, at least 15 inches accumulated.

We made our way to the ceremony venue which is the Johnson fieldhouse, where I met up with the rest of our class. There were approximately 750 graduates for Fall 2019. We had to wait quite a while for the commencement to start but time went quickly as we were all just too excited. It started with us standing up for national song, several speech from the chancellor, dean of college, and student speaker. It was surreal when the host called my name and I walked up to the stage with my hand shaking. I was so nervous that when I hug my program director, my graduation cap fell, and I clearly hear my friends shouting at the audience seats hahahah. Such an embarrassing moment. I then quickly pick it up and proceed in collecting my certificate, check the video here, sorry for the bad quality. They took my graduation picture right before I get off the stage, fortunately the photo turned out to be not so bad. I bought two pieces home eventually. I watched the rest of the ceremony, it was lovely to see my course mates to get their diploma on the stage. They directed the graduates to a court for reception with food and drinks provided after all the student has done. Looking at my photos I realized I look terrible with my cap on so bear with me hahahah.

Got these pins from one of my professor.

I bought those flowers and wrap it by myself because the florist here sucks.

Can you believe my foreigner friend found my mom without meeting beforehand?! I never introduce them to each other! I guess we just look very alike hahahaha!

From the left: My program director - Fredderick Prassas, Myself, My professor - John Sobota, Tony, and another professor that I do not know.

Once outside. I found my parents and my friends, received warm greetings, cards and gifts from them. It made my day knowing that they cared for me so much. It was such a surprise that I also received a gift from Jin Yee on that day! Thank you and it means a lot to me. I spent the evening celebrating with my family at Applebee's for dinner and the night with my friends. Tony bought a cake the night before, it was a tiramisu cake which is my favorite! My parents and I depart from Minneapolis to San Francisco the very next day even though it should be my final week. However, I have completed everything I needed and spent the rest of the month with my beloved family at California. To check out our trip, please stay tune for my next post. 

Shout out to Jin Yee for being the sweetest friend!

Now that it's all over, I have had the time to reflect and really take it all in. It is absolutely a day I will never forget, I feel so lucky that I was surrounded by some of the most important people in my life, cheering for my new chapter of life, who made the day even more special. A huge thank you to all my friends and family for always believing in me and supporting me no matter how. I wanted to share this day with you as you have been a part of this journey. Through my years at Stout, I have experience so much. I am proud to say that it has made me into the strong, independent, confident woman I am today.

For the birthdays I have missed, the people I could not be there for and for everyone who has put up with me for this long, this is for you. Happy graduation to myself!

Loves, meLodyyap.

Internship at USA

So I was looking for an internship this year summer which is my senior year and my only time to be available for internship or else I will need to delay my graduation. I applied to many companies that mostly do property management and a few appraising offices, I finally got an offer 2 weeks before my summer break. Below are some of my insights and experiences during this fabulous internship with the Dakota County assessing office.

this is me trying out my new office lady look

The workplace I was working at located in Hastings, Minnesota. It takes me an hour and twenty minutes to get there every morning and I start at 7am. Hence, I will be waking up at 5.30am and leave by 5.45am in order to arrive on time. It was some extreme exercise hahaha but I handled it well with zero late attendance. My main duty is to helping out with the assessment process by inspecting residential real estates and verify it's characteristics. The first week of my internship was excited. It was fun to met some new friends in a new environment.

this was my id card that allows me to enter the building

the "hastings" sign at the riverside downtown

For the first 10 days of my internship, I was able to learn the basic of this industry. The interns were taught to use different software such as globespotter, pictometry, GIS map to conduct reassessment on townhouses and single family homes. I had to double check the characteristic of the real estates to see if our data matches the reality. Besides that, I also need to check if there was any factors that affects the value of the property and discuss it with one of the senior appraisal to find out if I need to add any value to the particular factor. And look, I found a heart shape lake from the bird-eye view located at Eagan!

I am glad to have a chance to sit with different accredited appraisers from both residential and commercial assessing department, helping out with their duty. I get to have a brief idea of what they do on a daily basis. The licensed appraisers were knowledgeable and clearly understand what they were doing. It was fun to talk and learn from them. Senior appraisers brought the interns out for residential properties inspection at Rosemount, Minnesota and assist with the reassessment on the value of the residential properties we visited as well as getting the measurements of new construction homes. The interns were taking notes of the add-ons to the houses and put those into the county’s database. It is also important for us to learn drawing sketches with angle and curve as we need to ensure the square footage matches the physical building. Most of us did a couple mistakes but it does not stop us from doing better at it.

this is the sketch I will need to draw or re-draw for houses

Taken when I went out to assess newly built houses

I interviewed one of the senior appraisers this week to ask about his career. I got to know that he had to take 3 levels of examination in order to get the title of senior accredited Minnesota appraiser (SAMA). There is a ton of workload to do working for government department as it conducts mass assessing service. After the interview, I think I should figure out which area I am interested in, and start deciding whether to work in private sector, appraising residential or commercial properties.

Multiples studies shown that over half of the American population eats their lunch alone during work. In fact, having lunch with colleagues can boost performance, increase productivity as well as maintain a close relationship within the team. The interns set designated time to eat lunch together for almost everyday. It allowed us to chat and get to know each other on a personal level, building real friendship out of work. We would either plan to bring our own food or head somewhere for lunch as a new setting can be the refresh we need to get through the busy afternoon. On my first day there, the girl who sat beside was so amiable and invited me out for lunch even though she brought her own lunch. We had chipotle that day, she was telling me the fun stuff they were doing before I joined them as the fourth intern (they all started 1 week earlier than I do). It was nice getting closer to my colleague.We would also take breaks in-between, we like to walk around the building for 15 minutes twice a day, one in the morning before lunch and one before getting off from work.

the 4 interns

we like to sit under shade enjoying the wind breeze as well

one of our favorite lunch place, we took turns to drive here

I have built a handful of the business relationship and even personal relationship during this internship. One of my colleagues is a friend of the regional manager of Lincoln Property Management. She introduced me to them and we spent a wonderful evening together giving me career choice advice. It is eye-opening to shadow a regional manager for half a day at 4Marq Apartments, downtown Minneapolis. Her responsibilities is so much more than I thought it would be, she has to take care of the properties she in charge of, the staffs that working under her supervision, as well as the super-ordinate. I found that it is always thought-provoking after talking to someone with experience in the field that I am interested in.

My friend who works for Dominium property management group took me on a tour at one of their signature property. It is the A Mill Artist Lofts, a historic restore building in Minneapolis by the Stone Arch Bridge. It is fascinating to see such a property as they turned a flour mill into apartments while remain most of the unique structure, giving a new life to this 1900s building. A Mill is also eco-friendly as the water wheels from the previous flour mill generates electricity providing a clean. renewable energy source for up to 70% of the apartments needs. Super cool property and it is even cooler if you learn about its history. What surprise me is this photo was fortunately enough to be a background photo on the homepage of IREM by UWSTOUT website.

The office made us a treat table on our last week of internship as a small parting gift. Most of the appraisers chip in and bought various snacks such as cracker &salsa, artichoke and spinach dip, cheese and meat plate, nachos, fruits, rice krispie bars, donuts and more. Other than that, we also went out to Me & Julio, a restaurant in Hastings for lunch on our last day. On my last day of working, I decided to bring 2 packs of candy and write a thank you card back in favor. I also went to the summer party after work alone as all interns has ended their period, however, the party was super fun and brought me closer to my supervisors and the upper board. We spent time grilling sausages and talking to each other about almost everything. I wish they had it earlier so that the other interns can join us for such an amazing gathering.

Our professor required us to have a talk about our internship experience in basic class (Principle of Property Management) and our high school to promote UW-Stout and the programme. Since my high school is all the way at Malaysia, I have decided to join my roommate, Jessica to her high school and talk to the kids there. Her sister and her friend was the only students that shows up for our speech. Super nice of them hahahaha! It was a wonderful summer with them, I am definitely going to miss the workplace and the coworkers. I have learnt a lot about myself and what I want to pursue during my time here.

our visitor pass for the high school

Loves, meLodyyap.