14A Halfway Reflection

1) I have acquired a lot of behaviors when interviewing others for my opportunity. It's crazy to think how specific you have to be with your audience when trying to appeal to your target. The behaviors I have acquired, I will definitely be using these behaviors when I run for office in the future. 

2) The times when I felt like giving up in this class was when I had to think of an idea that would be unique and appeal to other people in my group that would be reading my blog posts about it. I can say that I am not the most creative person ever so coming up with things on my own is difficult. This course however has allowed me to become more creative and openminded, allowing me to think in a way I haven't before. Seeing the positive responses on my posts has encouraged me to keep a positive mind as I get through this course and learn more about the basics of entrepreneurship. 

3) The tips I recommend for the upcoming students are making sure you don't cram the assignments in because it will take away from the learning experience, don't forget to declare the assignments, and as long as you keep up with the lectures and complete the homework you will be fine. As for assignment declaring, I hope I will be forgiven for the three assignments I did but forgot to declare on canvas. 

13A: Reading Reflection No. 1

For this assignment, I decided to do a reading reflection on Steve Jobs. As an owner of almost all Apple products, I thought it would be interesting to get to know more about him and how he was able to become one of the most successful people in the world.

1) A. What surprised me the most about Steve Jobs was that he was involved in 70% of Pixar's stake. I did not think Steve Jobs had any correlation to Pixar until I read this book. I also was surprised to hear that he was adopted.

    B. What admired me the most about Steve Jobs was how much dedication and drive he had to make Apple the best tech company in the world. I love how effective he was in persuading other companies, even Microsoft to work him despite the rivalry they have. I also really liked that with each criticism he received for his products, he went above and beyond to create something better and add something extra, such as when he received criticism over the iPad but then added the program Garage Band to it.

   C. What I least admired about Steve Jobs was that he spent so much time on his career that he neglected spending time with his family. I also did not like how he insisted on using natural treatments instead of treatments that would most probably guarantee him to live a longer life and allow him to be with his family. I thought that it was a little selfish of him. His family had to suffer his absence because of his career and had to go through the dismay of his lack of well being due to his cancer.

   D. Steve Jobs did encounter adversity and failure, but he used it as a lesson and learned to better improve himself and his products. For example, when he came out with the iPhone 4, critics were saying his prices were too high. However, him and his team proved them wrong and ended up exceeding the amount of sales than expected on the iPhone 4. I remember being in middle school when the iPhone 4 came out. Everyone was going crazy for it because it was the coolest thing on the market at the time.

2. As mentioned above, Steve Jobs competencies were that he had the ability to take failure and make it a lesson which would help him better improve his products. Also, he had an excellent skill in negotiating with different companies and signing contracts with them to do collaborative work. This helped him form connections and improve his brand with the skills he learned from others.

3. What was confusing to me was why did Steve Jobs biological parents put him up for adoption just because his mother's family didn't approve of his father because he was Muslim. Couldn't they just get divorced and decide who would take custody of the child? I just didn't understand why they put him up for adoption.

4. If I were to Steve Jobs two questions, it would be why did he only believe in receiving natural treatment for his cancer and if he kept a notebook of all his future ideas for Apple before he died that he left with the new CEO? The first question I believe is relevant because if he were to be open to receiving other types of treatment I believe that he would be able to live longer. The last question I also believe to be relevant because I'm just curious to know to what extent he has thought about the future of Apple's creations before he died. Also, it would be cool to know what was Steve Jobs's ideas and what is the new CEO's ideas.

5. Steve Jobs was a firm believer in hard work. In one of the last chapters of his book he wrote “I will spend my last dying breath if I need to, and I will spend every penny of Apple’s $40 billion in the bank to right this wrong. I’m going to destroy Android, because it’s a stolen product.” It showed that he was dedicated in making sure Apple was superior to Android, and he was willing to do whatever to prove that to the world.

12A: Figuring Out Buyer Behavior No. 1

Segment: For this segment I chose to interview students because they are the ones that are impacted the most by the grading policies at UF. Plus, some students are TAs in some of their classes so I would be killing two birds with one stone

1. 2nd year Female Engineering Major: I interviewed this girl who I normally see on the bus that is studying electrical engineering at UF. When I told her about my idea to propose a change in the grading system at UF, she expressed so much enthusiasm about how much it would benefit her. She was telling me that her semesters consist of constant studying and she feels like shes not getting the college experience. At times, she feels depressed because she's not able to have fun due to the excessive amount of work she has and the difficulty of her classes.

2.  5th year Male Political Science Major: I interviewed this random guy at the library, I spoke with him about my idea proposal and he thought it would be an amazing idea as well. He told me that he did 4 years of engineering but due to amount of stress his courses were giving him, he had to take a year off of school and then changed his major to Political Science. He said that if the grading system was not as difficult and he wasn't discouraged mentally because of the difficulty of his courses, he might have still been able to pursue engineering.

3. 3rd year Female Chemistry Major: I interviewed this girl that we share a mutual friend with. She is a Chemistry major as well as a Chemistry TA. She agreed with my idea as well. As a TA, she was saying how alot of the students come to her for help and some of them no matter what they do they aren't able to get that perfect 4.0 GPA for that class on their transcripts because it's so difficult. She was also saying that as TAs if their section does not get a certain pass rate they will be held accountable by not being asked to help teach the class again. Lastly, she was saying how many students are dropping the class and the curves are so high on the exams due to the overall low performance.

Report: I gathered that many students would agree with my idea and see many benefits for them if this were to get implemented.

Conclusion: This segment is one that benefits the most from my opportunity. Most students aspire to go to grad school after undergrad and are wanting to do their absolute best to impress grad school admissions counselors. UF is already a very difficult school, however the overall performance of students and their mental state should be taken account due to all the increased stress they are in.

11A - Idea Napkin No. 1

1)You:  I am a 2nd year Political Science student. I love learning about different places and traveling around the world. I also am a part-time blogger where I use it to write about different political issues. I aspire to become a politician and lawyer. As cheesy as this may sound, I want to be the change I want to see in the world, and pursuing these careers will allow me to do so. Regarding my opportunity, if I were to pursue a proposal about removing plus and minus grades in the grading system, I believe it will be a positive change not only for me but for other students at UF.

2)Offering to customers:  My opportunity offers students the chance to earn higher grades, which will benefit them if they wish to pursue graduate school. My opportunity also allows higher pass rates for courses which increases the professor's reviews and TA's as well. My opportunity also benefits parents because they witness the increased amount of stress their child is going through just to earn these really high grades.

3) Who are you offering it to: I'm offering my opportunity to the UF Office of the University Registrar, which records student grades. They are in charge of the grading policy so any new proposals have to be approved by them before anything happens.

4) Why do they care: Nowadays, many students are more sensitive and suspectible to excess amounts of stress, especially during their college years. Also, professors and TA's can have higher pass rates in their classes which increases their status among the university.

5) What are your core competencies: I believe as a a student I have an advantage in identifying this opportunity and making efforts to change the current grading policy. My changes will make a huge difference and leave a widespread impact on everyone at the University of Florida.

Most of my elements do fit together, and somehow aligns with my interests in politics and law. In politics, you are always trying to promote change in a society and do what it takes to help people live more comfortably. The only challenge about this plan is that UF being a top 10 university, it is very unlikely that they would want to lower their standards and make it easier for students to get the grades they want. The biggest challenge will be to try to convince the university registrar that making changes to the grading policy won't decrease the prestige of UF.

10C: Elevator Pitch #1

Hey everyone!

This is my elevator pitch for implementing a new grading policy at the University of Florida!

9A: Testing the Hypothesis, Part 2

9A: Testing the Hypothesis, Part 2

In my first post regarding testing the hypothesis, I introduced the proposal of UF removing the (+) and (-) in the grading system. This opportunity will benefit all UF students. I interviewed five people, ranging from parents, students and professors regarding this opportunity. Each individual has provided their own insight on the topic.

Outside the boundary

Who: Students who already receive straight a's and students of other universities

What: The new grading policy won't make a difference because these students are already getting straight a's. Also, this policy is only being implemented at the University of Florida so students at other schools won't be affected by it.

Why?: Some people expressed how this policy would lower the standard of the university, especially since our university is a top 10 and striving to be a top 5. Another concern people have expressed is that in graduate school these students will have a harder time because they have been given lower standards to abide by right now. Also, in top professions it is important to only have the best of the best that's why it's important to weed out the people who aren't as good early on so they can pursue something more appropriate for them

Inside my boundary:
- UF students pursuing harder majors
- Parents
- Professors
- TA's

Outside my boundary:
- Grad schools 
- Employers (particularly of professional careers)
- UF
  

8A: Solving the Problem

My opportunity of changing the grading policy at UF in not including plus and minus grades will have an immense amount of benefits. Allowing these new changes in the grading system will allow more students to get higher GPA's, increase the pass rate of the courses, and allow more TA's the opportunity to teach again because some are getting paid. The opportunity will mostly allow students to not stress as much about being a point away from an A- to an A.

For this opportunity to occur, the UF Academic Regulations need to be revised. First, the approval of faculty members and university officials would have to be requested until it can proceed. It could take probably a year to draft the proposal and propose it then become implemented into university policy. It is important that students are aware of these changes so they can try to endure less stress while putting in the maximum effort for their 4.0 GPA's.

7A Testing the Hypothesis, Part I

1) As a student at the University of Florida, I have witnessed many students trying to endure the stress of their difficult courses. Now that UF is a top 10 university, professors have made their courses a lot more difficult to raise the standard of the university. Therefore, an opportunity I proposed was that the university make amendments to the grading scale. Besides giving out A and A-'s, it should just be A,B,C, etc. This would help increase the pass rates of the course, and allow fewer stress for students.

2) a."Who" UF students
    b. "What" changing the grading scale
    c. "Why" to prevent students from getting completely stressed out, allowing them to have a higher GPA, and increasing the pass rates in the classes

3) a. The first person I interviewed was a UF engineering student. He expressed how beneficial a policy like this would be for himself and the rest of the students in his major. Engineering is one of the hardest majors at UF and many students are constantly studying but still struggling to maintain that 4.0 and end up dropping the course.

    b. The second person I interviewed was a TA. She also expressed how a grading system like this would be amazing because if more students pass a class with her, she will be able to continue being a TA, which she gets paid for.

    c.  The third person I interviewed was a UF pre-med chemistry professor. He actually disagreed with the system because he said that in the future when these students don't endure the stress and effort of these rigorous courses they will not be able to be successful in their careers. He thinks only those who can succeed in this course with or without the new grading scale should be able to pursue these intense, hard working professional careers.

    d. The fourth person I interviewed was a psychology major at UF. She stated that this new grading policy wouldn't really make a difference for her because she is already getting straight A's at UF anyways. She believes if someone is really dedicated to their schoolwork, they will do whatever it takes to be successful.

   e. The last person I interviewed was UF parent. He said that witnessing all the stress his son goes through he believes changes should be made to the grading system.

After interviewing everyone, it really helped me understand all the different perspectives on this topic. Personally, I believe this will benefit a lot of students and a little bit of a weight will be lifted off their shoulders.