Classes Taught

320 Assignments

total: 600 pts

Speeches (250 pts)

Showcasing You (50 pts)

This speech will detail in 2-3 minutes your short-term and long-term goals. You'll be graded on your ability to express not only what your goals are, but how you'll be achieve those goals. You will also be graded on your ability to follow basic speech requirements. Grading Sheet

Informative Speech (individual) (100 pts)

5-7 minutes

All session, you will work on networking with people you don’t know or don’t know well. It is estimated by the Bureau of Labor that 70% of people who are hired are hired because they KNOW someone. This is most often accomplished through networking. In these difficult economic times, it’s not necessarily only what you know, but who you know.

As discussed in class, there are different kinds of networking; however one of the best ways is to become involved with an organization in which you can learn more about people, a future career, and the possibilities for advancement.

Your assignment is to inform the class about one networking organization/group that can be found in the Washington DC greater metropolitan area and explain to us what it is, who can join, benefits of membership, and how it can help you and possibly others in the class. Each organization can be discussed by one person only, so sign up is on a first-come, first-served basis.

Use this opportunity to think outside the box. There are organizations on campus that can be discussed, but also include organizations off-campus that would be beneficial to people seeking jobs or advancements as they move through their career.

Your speech will include (obviously) an introduction, a body, and a conclusion. It will contain contact information (name & email) for someone within the organization (preferably an officer or membership coordinator), and the information you discussed with him/her for this assignment, information about the organization itself, and information about how it can help your fellow classmates. Be creative, be interesting, and really help us all to expand our knowledge base!

Grading Sheet

Persuasive Speech (group) (100 pts)

20-30 minutes

Congratulations on being a member of one of *the* most exciting companies in the world! Year after year, TRIP, Inc., has received rave reviews by industry experts not only as one of the best places to work, but also as one of the best organizations from which to gain valuable information for company travel and relocation in foreign countries.

Your particular Travel Service Office is one of the most important in our Partnership, having brought information about your country to thousands of employees over the last decade. In an effort to market ourselves more aggressively, you have been chosen to present a 20-30 minute presentation at the annual Travel & Relocation Expo in historic Washington DC. This Expo is attended by thousands of industry professionals and employees considering working in foreign countries. Your Office is well-known for its expertise and knowledge regarding your foreign country, from information regarding work culture and organizational practices, to the social aspects including customs and interpersonal communication.

Your goal during your 20-30 minute presentation is to persuade the Expo attendees to travel to your country for work. You should include information about business practices, cities/places to see, activities, entertainment, history of the country, and food as well as MUCH more! Creativity is strongly encouraged, such as dressing up in travel tour group uniforms, creating short videos, incorporating video clips, visual aids, and audience involved. Each member of your team must verbally cite a research source, as you cannot know everything about your country and must do some research for it. Get the credit and verbally cite them :o)

The focus of this presentation is to entice people to want to work in your country for a year. You will want to incorporate information in such a way that it is very persuasive (enticing!) and gives them something to think about as they make plans for their next career move. You will want to make their mouth water, their brains dream, and their hearts yearn for change.

Again, thank you for your hard work and for creating such a high industry standard in the travel and relocation industry.

Grading Sheet

Networking (50 pts)

Business Cards (10 pts)

Everyone should have a business card that they can hand out to people they meet while networking. You never know who you meet or when you'll meet them! Grading guidelines here

Meet Four New People (20 pts)

In this assignment you will meet four new people. Once you've done that, you'll send me an email with information about each of the four people and indicate their name and write a brief paragraph about how you met and what you chatted about. One email for all four people is desirable. I will then email you back your grade.

Cool Job Interview (20 pts)

Find someone you don't know (network through your friends and family) and find out about their job. This is commonly known as an informational interview. Email me the assignment using this form.

Travel Agency (150 pts)

Vision & Mission Statements (20)

Your goal is to come up with a Vision, Mission and Statement of Purpose for your travel agency. This will be discussed in class. Your grade will depend on your ability to achieve the criteria listed on the grading sheet. One copy is due via email by midnight on the day it's due.

Resume & Cover Letter (25)

You are required to write a resume and cover letter so you can get a job at a sister company in this class. Your resume should be truthful and reflect you, as this is something that you should be able to take from class and use to find a job.

You will exchange this with your interview partner.

You will take a separate copy into the Career Services Center here on campus and have both you resume and cover letter evaluated. You will be graded on both the original set that are marked up by Career Services as well as the creation of a new one. Both sets (new and old) will be turned into me for grading.

Resume & Cover Letter grading sheet

Hiring Criteria (5)

Before someone can hire anyone for a job, they need to know what kind of employee they need in their organization for a "best fit." Your team will come up with 10 hiring criteria that best represent what kind of qualities, values, and/or work ethic you desire in your new hires. Each group will email me a copy of their hiring criteria by midnight on the night it's due.

Interview Questions (10)

It's impossible to find someone who will fit into your organizational culture without interviewing them. And, the key to a discovering if they'll fit into your organizational culture is good interview questions. Your team will come up with a minimum of ten (10) interview questions that each person will ask during a job interview. Additionally, each person will have to create three specific questions they will ask their interviewee, based on the interviewee's resume and cover letter.

The team will send me one copy of the ten interview questions by email by midnight on the day it's due. Each team member will email me a copy of their three individual questions by midnight on the day it's due.

Interview Analysis (50)

Each team member will interview another team member from a different organization. Complete a +/- 10 minute interview. You must be professionally attired. During this interview, use the core questions that your team has developed along with any candidate specific ones that you created. Record the interview in a QUIET location (dorm rooms are fine!).

When the interview is done, you will upload it to YouTube.com, making the videos available to everyone in each group. Each team member will then watch the other videos pertinent to their group and will analyze certain elements of the interview using this worksheet: Peer Interview Checklist. These elements will be compared between each of the candidates during the decision-making process (see directly below).

Decision Making Process (10)

After each person has evaluated the videos from your interview cluster, you will gather as a team in class to determine the person who is the best fit for your organization. You will base your decision on their interview answers as well as your perception as to whether they'd fit into your company culture. This discussion should be as objective as possible, using the hiring criteria and the answers to the questions as your basis for evaluation.

When ranking your candidates, #1 will be the candidate you would most likely hire, #4 would be the one you would be least likely to hire. Please do not spend more than 30 minutes on this. You may only hire one person, so even if there are people who are equally qualified, it is your team's objective to choose the one person who has that one thing that sets him/her apart from everyone else and earns the spot at your company.

Interview Partner Evaluation (10)

While I hope that all interview partners work well together, occasionally there are problems. This evaluation gives you the opportunity to let me know praise or difficulties you had with your interview partner. Please fill out this form and turn it in to me by email on the day it's due.

Team Performance Evaluation (20)

Exams (100 pts)

Exam One (50 pts)

Chapters 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, & Appendix

Book Study Guide (online)

Exam One Study Guide

Exam Two (50 pts)

Chapters 3, 4, 10, 11, 12, & 13