For my practicum, I took the course ENES210, which is Entrepreneurial Opportunity Analysis and Decision-Making in 21st Century Technology Ventures. The general premise of this course is to formulate an idea for a startup company and to identify and make decisions regarding the set up and features of the company. In this course, I have had to do research surrounding my chosen market, have had to focus on the structure of my team and advisers, determine costs and marketing strategies, as well as focus on sales and funding for my startup company. I found my practicum by looking at the list of available courses that could be taken in order to fulfill the practicum requirement. I found ENES210 to be the most interesting out of the options, and it fit best with my schedule. From my practicum, I have learned all of the tasks and steps needed to take in order to create and establish a successful startup company. I have learned how companies determine their costs and how they split their equity among founders. This course has been interesting, as there has been some overlap with my major, which is economics, and it has been enriching to be able to apply my knowledge in my practicum class. Additionally, though I haven’t taken any courses for my general business minor yet, the course material has to do with aspects of business, which makes it even more applicable to my future course studies.
In my practicum, I have grown as a student and a professional because I have become more familiar with excel spreadsheets. For one of our class assignments, we had to create an excel sheet with the revenues and expenses of our startup, and incorporate formulas into the individual cells that would change based on the numbers imputed into other cells, and I have included an image of this assignment below. Prior to this assignment, I had limited experience with excel, put this task enabled me to become more familiar and comfortable with working in excel. Having this experience will benefit me in my coming years as a student in the business classes that I will have to take. Additionally, this will further assist me in my professional career as I will likely have to encounter excel sheets in my career field. My practicum experience has given me knowledge that I can apply to both my life and career moving forward. It has allowed me to gain insight into starting and running a new business, and having this understanding can be extremely beneficial in the field of economics and business. It will allow me to perform better in my job because I will be able to recognize the decisions made by businesses and their reasonings in doing so. With this insight, I can then guide my actions in my job to best perform my given tasks.
For the rest of my time at UMD, I plan to continue my studies in my major, economics, and my minor, general business. I hope to get more involved in the Women in Economics club here on campus as we return to in-person activities and classes. In terms of post-graduation, I hope to have a career that aligns with my major and my minor studies. Some of my fields of interest and prospective careers include banking, consulting, possibly working for the Federal Reserve System, or holding an economic advising position for a company. As with many careers, I will have to work my way up to my desired position through similar positions that are lower in ranking. I have also attached my updated resume for reference.