SUNDAY FUNDAY - JULY 11, 2021

 SUNDAY FUNDAY - JULY 11, 2021

Ah - July in Central Texas.  I don’t think we’ve reached 100 degrees yet.  We even have had some rain - the grass is still green, the crepe myrtles are so colorful, and every day is a day closer to fall!!  (Okay, I’m okay with 80s and low 90s - but not a fan of 100 degree temperatures!!)

I hope you all had an awesome Fourth of July weekend.  Do those of you with pets find that they don’t like fireworks?  Did you go to see the fireworks?  Did you have fireworks?

*****

LOGIC PUZZLES

PUZZLE #1

Three friends went to conferences:  Paul, Ron, Gwen

There were three towns for the conferences:  Roanoke, Washington, and Denver.  They traveled by plane, bus or train.

Clues:

Paul went to Roanoke

The visitor to Washington arrived in town by train

Gwen used the bus

So, what is the solution:  

Paul went to ___________ by __________

Ron went to ____________ by __________

Gwen went to ____________ by ___________

PUZZLE #2

Three gardeners made floral arrangements - Kathy, Josie, and Paula

They made three bouquets using Dandelions, Daisies, and Roses.  Their bouquets have 5, 7 or 9 flowers.

Kathy specializes in daisies

The smallest bouquet is made of dandelions

The largest bouquet was made by Josie

Find each person’s creation and how many flowers it has.

*****

MUSIC

1956 - The Wayward Wind - Cogi Grant

I remember the song - but I sure didn’t remember the singer!!

“I was born the next of kin to the Wayward Wind”

1961 - Tossin and Turnin - Bobby Lewis

1966 - Paperback Writer - The Beatles
“I want to be a paperback writer”, “I could make a million for you overnight!!”

1971 - It’s too late / I feel the Earth Move under my feet - Carole King

“I feel the earth move under my feet, I feel the sky tumblin' down,

I feel my heart start to tremblin' Whenever you're around

1976 - Afternoon Delight - Starland Vocal Band

Country 

1956 - Heartbreak Hotel - Elvis Presley

“Since my baby left me, Well, I found a new place to dwell

Well, it's down at the end of Lonely Street, At Heartbreak Hotel

1961 - Heartbreak USA - Kitty Wells

1966 - Think of Me - Buck Owens

1971 - When you’re hot, you’re hot - Jerry Reed

1976 - The Door is Always Open - Dave and Sugar

Who won the Super Bowl in 

1971 Baltimore 16 Dallas 13

1976 Pittsburgh 21 Dallas 17

*****

More MUSIC

I was trying to pick my favorite albums -and realized they change day-by-day

Beatles - Sgt Pepper Lonely Hearts Club Band

Can you fill in the blanks?

It was_____ years ago today

Sergeant Pepper ________ the band to play

They've been going in and out of ______________

But they're guaranteed to raise a _______

Simon and Garfunkel Greatest hits

Which song is this from:

“Still a man hears what he wants to hear And disregards the rest”

Blood, Sweat and Tears Greatest Hits

What song is this from:

“Little girl what's your game?

Hard luck and trouble

Bound to be your claim to fame

Tail-shakin' heart-breakin' truckin' through town

Each and every country-mother's son, hangin' 'round

Drive a young man insane

Evil that's your name

Carole King

“'Cause you make me feel You make me feel

You make me feel like A natural woman

Creedence Clearwater Revival

“Early in the evenin' just about supper time

Over by the courthouse they're starting to unwind

Four kids on the corner trying to bring you up

Willy picks a tune out and he blows it on the harp

Mama and Papas

All the leaves are brown (all the leaves are brown)

And the sky is gray (and the sky is gray)

I've been for a walk (I've been for a walk)

On a winter's day (on a winter's day)

I'd be safe and warm (I'd be safe and warm)

If I was in LA (if I was in LA)

California dreamin' (California dreamin')

On such a winter's day

Kingston Trio

Well did he ever return?

No he never returned

And his fate is still unlearned (what a pity)

He may ride forever

'Neath the streets of Boston

He's the man, who never returned

Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young

Our house is a very, very, very fine house

With two cats in the yard

Life used to be so hard

Now everything is easy 'cause of you

Chicago

Waiting for the break of day
Searching for something to say
Flashing lights against the sky
Giving up, I close my eyes
Sitting cross-legged on the floor
Twenty five or 6 to 4

Carly Simon
You're so vain

You probably think this song is about you
You're so vain (you're so vain)
I bet you think this song is about you
Don't you don't you?

(And probably more)

What are your favorites?

*****

And - probably more specific to me:

Stravinsky - Firebird Suite (especially the Finale)

Shostakovich - Symphony #5 (I want to play the tympani on the finale)

Shostakovich - Symphony #7 - the first movement

Mahler - Symphony #2

Sibelius - Symphony #2

Grieg - Piano Concerto

Mussorgsky - Picture at an Exhibition

Beethoven - Symphony #5 

Brahms - Symphony #4

Tchaikovsky - Symphony #4

(and that also changes day by day)

NATIONAL DAYS

July 11th - National Blueberry Muffin Day

July 12th - National Different Colored Eyes Day

(I’ve only had one student that I remember with different colored eyes)

July 13th - National Cow Appreciation Day!!

July 14th - National Mac N Cheese Day

July 15th - National Gummi-Worms Day

July 17th - National Peach Ice Cream Day

Today in History

July 11 - Aaron Burr killed Alexander Hamilton in duel - 1804

July 12 - Geraldine Ferraro named vice presidential candidate - 1984

July 13 - John F. Kennedy nominated for President - 1960

July 14 - French storm the Bastille - 1789

July 15 - Twitter launches - 2006

I wasn’t much of a Twitter person although I did get an account.  I’ve become more of a Twitter person in the past five years after retirement

July 16 - First atomic bomb tested - 1945 

And then - about a month later, atomic bombs were dropped on Japan - effectively ending World War II.

WRAP-UP!!

Remember last winter?  Remember how you looked forward to summer?  Well here it is.  Don’t spend all your time in doors in the air conditioning.  Get outside and enjoy the summer!!

(I did get outside about three weeks ago, and a few days later, I started to itch.  Some friends said it was heat rash, others said fleas or spiders or bed bugs.  I think it is my old nemesis - poison ivy!!!  I’m not trying to itch and slowly it is going away!!!)

LOVE WINS!!!  Keep loving people, keep smiling, keep overbidding (if you are an opponent)!!!

Karen

SATURDAY STORY - JULY 10, 2021

 SATURDAY STORY - JULY 10, 2021

On Saturdays I write a story.  I’m going to use a graduate of Dakota State’s Information Systems program as a model - but change it all around!!  The first group of Citibank Scholarships (full-ride scholarships) was all male, so, I’ll use an example from down the line.

*****

Hi, I’m Carla Larson from Parkston, South Dakota.  As far as South Dakota goes, Parkston is kind of a typical small town - about 1,800 nice people.  It is mostly a farming community - where the town supports the farms around it with doctors, lawyers, banks, grocery stores, implement deals, schools, law enforcement, churches and all the typical small town functions. 

Parkston has four main churches, two Lutheran, United Church of Christ and a Catholic Church.  I grew up in Salem Lutheran Church - which was originally the Norwegian Lutheran Church and is now an ELCA church.  There is another Lutheran Church in town - Faith Lutheran which is the more conservative Missouri Lutheran Church.  

I was a good student - not the valedictorian, but in the top 10% of the class.  With a graduation of about 45 students, I was #4 in the class.  I wasn’t sure of my career.  My boyfriend, Carl Schneider, graduated a year ahead of me and went through Mitchell VoTech with an agriculture business program.  I wasn’t sure if I wanted to stay in Parkston- a great place to grow up - but not many great jobs.  I thought maybe a computer major at Dakota State University in Madison, South Dakota.  They had computer science (that I thought maybe was a little too technical for me), and a business oriented information systems program that I thought might be good for me.

I applied and was accepted (I had a good ACT score) and Kathy in the admissions office (who was originally from Parkston as well) suggested I apply for a scholarship.  I did apply and got a 50% Citibank scholarship.  I had saved my money from babysitting, and from working at the Subway in Parkston.  So, I had the funding, I had the desire, so off to Dakota State I went in the fall of 1996.

I immediately loved the campus and the program.  

I had a crazy professor for my first class.  Tom Farrell was a retread from being a coach and athletic director.  But, he knew his subject, loved his students, and stomped his foot when something important was covered.  I immediately loved Tom, and with his background knew some of my high school teachers and the coaches at Parkston.

Even my English, math accounting and other courses were taught by ‘teachers”.  Some of my friends had gone to the bigger schools and had graduate students teaching their classes - who just weren’t good teachers.  

Then I had business applications programming in my second semester with Lynette Molstad.  Lynette had a similar background to mine - from White Lake South Dakota - a little west of Parkston.  She also was so awesome.  She was an inspiration to me - similar background, three children, husband was a farmer, and she was a college professor!!  

The campus was small enough that I felt at home.  There was a Lutheran Student organization as well as intramurals, sports, and such a supportive community.  I could walk downtown to the grocery store and get pretty much anything I needed.  Madison isn’t that much bigger than Parkston - maybe 8,000 people.  Not like Sioux Falls which has almost 200,000 population. (A nice place to shop, but just too big for me - so I thought).

My days were full as were my nights - studying, writing programs (and debugging them).  I found I was good at programming and I liked the challenge.  I made friends from around South Dakota and from the region.

After my freshman year, I returned home for the summer.  I commuted to Mitchell and worked at Daktronics - a computerized scoreboard maker. Technically, Daktronics was headquartered in Brookings, but had a satellite office in Mitchell.  I worked on a team that was working on making brighter displays that used less energy.  Soon the team lead found I could do some programming, and I started to write code in a language I didn’t know before that summer (C++).  

Back at Dakota State for my second year, I took COmmon Business Oriented Language (aka “COBOL”) with Connie Daniels.  And, Connie was another person similar to me - married and living on a farm.  But she had worked at Citibank.  She became my advisor and we talked about Citibank and Sioux Falls. 

I also took maybe the hardest class of my college career “OS Interfaces and Utilities” (which was really known as JCL - Job Control Language.  The reality of computing became clear.  Computers were really simple machines - working with 1s and 0s - on and off.  I learned binary, and then octal (base 8) and hexadecimal (base 16), and worked on some horrendous problems on mainframe computers (or so I thought).  All my previous computing had been on PCs - personal computers.  The professor was a jokester, Dr. Bruce White - who was quirky but really awesome.  His tests were really hard.  He talked of this class as being a “rite of passage”.  If you could do JCL, you were going to make it as a computer person.  (Curmudgeon might be a better word for him).

During tests, Dr. White (aka ‘Bruce”) had such nervous energy that he walked around and kicked our bookbags into a pile in the middle of the room.  He too had experience at Citibank.  I think he was really checking us out for potential summer internships at Citibank.  

Spring semester of my sophomore year brought maybe my favorite course - also with Bruce - Systems Analysis and Design.  (How could he teach the hardest class and the best class I don’t know).  This really was the perfect business class.  Going from older systems to new and improved systems.  Build, buy, outsource.  It puts all the programming into perspective.

And, Connie Daniels (“Connie COBOL”) took us deeper into programming with databases and more in the advanced COBOL class.

In spring the BIG Job Fair was held in February in Sioux Falls at the Sioux Falls Arena (mostly since all of my friends were going and my teachers recommended it.  I ran into Tom and Bruce as they were talking up the program to employers..  I interviewed with several companies - but really wasn’t quite ready.  I told myself, “Next Summer I’ll take an internship”.  And, that was the case.  I returned to Daktronics in Mitchell and the project was artificial intelligent display systems.  (There were a few times that I pinched myself - was this really me - Carla Larson from Parkston - working on artificial intelligent signage for the biggest manufacturer of highway signage and sports scoreboards?).  This system could read a licence plate about a quarter of a mile before the main sign and by the time a car got to the sign could say “Larson family exit here for dinner at the ABC cafe”.  (It ran into some legal issues later with privacy concerns, but it was really cutting edge)

For my junior year, I became an RA in Zimmerman Hall (a ‘resident assistant” - which really meant my education was free - with this work, room and board, and my 50% Citibank Scholarship!!)

The last two years flew by - Database systems, electives, RA duties, grading assistant for Connie Daniels.  

And, yes, in the summer between junior and senior years, I interned at Citibank.  I shared an apartment in Dell Rapids with another intern and commuted the twelve miles to Citibank.  WOW - what an experience - working with a top ten multinational company.  

And, of course, after that summer, Citibank made me a glowing offer to return after my senior year as a programmer/analysis - my salary would be about $62,000 (more than my dad made on the farm in a good year).  

*****

So, here I am - twenty years later.  I’m a team lead in the new developments group at Citibank.  I make great money, I absolutely love my work and my team.  

My high school boyfriend (Carl Schneider) and I got married.  Carl and I moved to Dell Rapids and he became an ag lender for the First National Bank in Dell Rapids.  We have two children - Josh - who just turned 18 and is going to Dakota State in the fall, and Emily - who is sixteen and is happy being a cheerleader and a softball player.  

And, one more comment.  In that summer of 2000 when I graduated from Dakota State, I was put in a training class with 25 others - including some from Citibank-Nevada, and Citibank-Jacksonville - and we had six intensive weeks of training with Dr Bruce White.  

Life is so grand!!!  LOVE WINS!!

***********************

Okay, a Pollyanna story that is basically true with some literary enhancements.  I exchanged texts with Carla earlier this week when I wrote my Dakota State experiences.  

As a retired professor, I like knowing that so many have had great lives, and great successes and I was a small part of their successes.  It really was already inside them, and the other professors and I helped students grow and mature.  It’s been an awesome life!!!  (I used to urge the students to get great jobs so they could pay into Social Security for my retirement - which is truer than they might think!!)

LOVE WINS!!

Karen

FRIDAY, JULY 9, 2021 LOVE WINS!!!

 FRIDAY, JULY 9, 2021 LOVE WINS!!!

On Fridays I write something loosely about love wins.  

Today - non-violence.  I’m not sure if I’m any kind of an expert on this, but I’ll try.  (Thinking of the adage “Fools rush in where angels fear to tread!!!”)

*****

Sometimes they confront me.  I’m a lover not a fighter.  I will back down when somebody gets in my face.  

From Matthew 5

“You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well.

From Matthew 27

“Then the governor’s soldiers took Jesus into the Praetorium and gathered the whole company of soldiers around him.  They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, and then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on his head. They put a staff in his right hand. Then they knelt in front of him and mocked him. “Hail, king of the Jews!” they said. They spit on him, and took the staff and struck him on the head again and again. 

And, Luke 23

Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing”.

*****

The concept of non-violence has been around since Jesus’ time (or before).  In modern times, maybe the most famous was Mahatma Gandhi in India. 

People would spit on Gandhi as an expression of racial hate (Indian as compared to British rulers).  He was kicked out of a Christian Church in South Africa as a ‘non-white’ person.  (Love one another?) 

In 1930, protesting the law that Indians could only buy British salt, Gandhi organized a 241-mile-long protest march to the west coast of Gujarat, where he and his acolytes harvested salt on the shores of the Arabian Sea.  Britain imprisoned over 60,000 peaceful protesters and inadvertently generated even more support for home rule.  

Huge demonstrations ensued, and despite the arrests of 100,000 home rule advocates by British authorities, the balance finally tipped toward Indian independence. 

Gandhi didn’t directly fight the British.  He organized boycotts, sit-ins, peaceful demonstrations and marches.  (Can you imagine arresting 100,000 people or 60,000 at one time?  What jail could the authorities use?  How do you feed 100,000 in jail?)  

Turn the other cheek.  Yes, Gandhi, like Jesus, got spit on.  He was arrested, beaten, abused.  

Martin Luther King also recognized Gandhi’s non-violence stance. “Gandhi, King later wrote, was the first person to transform Christian love into a powerful force for social change. Gandhi’s stress on love and nonviolence gave King “the method for social reform that I had been seeking”.  “Christian Love” - with a Hindu Indian person, and a Black American.  That Jesus was a radical!!

I’m not sure I would like to be spit on (or flogged, beaten, struck). But, that concept of peaceful protests and non-violence seems to be in the spirit of Jesus as he said  “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing”.

And, a Proverb for good measure:

Proverbs 15:1 “A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.”  Don’t answer hatred with hatred, give a gentle answer (or no answer) when confronted.  

No, I haven’t been marching in protest events, no, I didn’t take part in Black Lives Matter or Blue Lives Matter.  I see racism seemingly still continuing.I am not a very verbal person in this discussion.  Yes, something has happened to me, but I’m not ready to “go to the streets” in protest.  I think my views go something like this:  I am a human being, all people are made “in the image and likeness of God”, I’m not looking for special treatment - but equal treatment.  

In a similar vein to discrimation against Blacks, Women, Hispanics, Muslims, Asians, LGBTQ folks, and others, I sense that Jesus’ comment to turn the other cheek, to let them spit on him, and still say “Father forgive them '' has been forgotten.  

So on this LOVE WINS Friday, I still am a voice crying in the wilderness “LOVE WINS”, violence does not win, hatred does not win.  

And, when LOVE WINS - we all win.   "Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

(From the New Colossus poem by Emma Lazarus - which is inscribed on the table of Lady Liberty at the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor!!)

LOVE WINS!!!

HUGS!!

Karen

THURSDAY, JULY 8TH, 2021 MISSION CHANGE AT DAKOTA STATE UNIVERSITY

 THURSDAY, JULY 8TH, 2021 MISSION CHANGE AT DAKOTA STATE UNIVERSITY

This week I’ve been writing about an event that shaped my career - the change of the mission at Dakota State University from primarily a teachers education institution to be computer technology oriented/Information Systems oriented.  We did the “impossible” - creating a new curriculum almost overnight, and then somehow, “if they build it, they will come” (a quote from Field of Dreams).  Dakota State is very successful now - thanks to Tom, Lynette, Tim, Rick, Jim, Connie, and so many others!!  Citibank, Schwans, Federated, and many others took our students willingly.  

I really want to give some perspective that makes the situation even more amazing.

Madison, South Dakota has a population of just over 7,000 people.  It isn’t in the top ten of cities in South Dakota.  It is about 14th of the cities in the state.  It isn’t on an interstate highway and is about 20 miles from the North-South Interstate highway in South Dakota - Interstate 29; and about 28 miles from Interstate 90 the East-West interstate.  

Dakota State does reasonably well in sports - but isn’t in the NCAA, but the smaller NAIA - National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics.  The campus isn’t as magnificent as others in terms of grandiose buildings.  

For those of you reading this who have no connection to South Dakota might have a hard time identifying much of South Dakota (other than maybe the Black Hills and Mount Rushmore, and Sioux Falls, the largest city).  The capital city is Pierre - on the Missouri River with a population about 14,000 people - but centrally located.  

I remember visitors to campus commenting about the lack of traffic “What happens if you break down on I-29 or I-90 in winter?”  It can happen.  It also can happen where the Department of Transportation closes the roads due to bad weather.  

So, here - kind of nowhere - a vibrant university rose from a humble background. It now offers degrees in cyber computing and much more - including doctorate degrees!!!  All because a politician made an unpopular move to change the mission of Dakota State and the faculty and community made it happen.  The graduates are snatched up quickly and get great salaries above the national averages.  

*****

So, I was at the “right place at the right time”.  I went from being an ‘instructor’ to a full professor with a doctorate in those years.  I also went from an insecure, scared of my shadow to a confident person.  I remember my first days out of college - as a high school math teacher at one of the smallest school districts in Wisconsin.  I thought “this is my role in life” - just to have a job and just to get by.  I can’t say it was ambition, drive, God, or luck that put me in that “right place at the right time”.  Coincidence?  Fate?  Karma?  God’s Grace?  

I really didn’t want to go for my doctorate.  It wasn’t much fun - the drive Sunday night back to Lincoln, and then the drive on Friday night to Madison South Dakota.  The writing of academic papers, the teaching of two classes at the University of Nebraska.  The act of doing original research?  Somehow I made it through.  I HAD THE CREDENTIALS.  (Or as a former Dakota State President said “I now had my union card”).  1990 is thirty years ago now and I sense there are more doctorates in Management Information Systems now.  Was I a pioneer?  Did I do something unusual?  What skills did God grace me with to get this degree?  

(**Aside as we started to teach online courses, we were called “Pioneers” - so my colleague Tom Farrell got us Pioneer Seed Corn hats!!!) 

I was like a baby bird being pushed out of the nest.  Fly - or - die!!  But, somehow I learned to fly.  I “bought in” to my career.  By the time I left Dakota State in 2000, I supposedly was the highest paid professor on staff.  Maybe the combination of being in the right field at the right time. Maybe it was taking the mantle that was placed on me, maybe it was the ambiance of an amazing place at an amazing time.  

After I left the Dean’s position, I became active in my professional world.  I got involved with what used to be called DPMA - Data Processing Management Association - and EDSIG - the EDucational Special Interest Group of DPMA.  I chaired the ISECON conference four times (prior to me, nobody had done it more than twice).  I got to go to different places (I chaired ISECON in St Louis, San Diego, Orlando, and Newport Rhode Island).  

The Citibank Experiences helped me teach and helped me gain confidence as a “real” information systems professor.  

I was a big fish in a small pond - just starting on the third leg of the academic “three-legged stool” of teaching, service, and scholarship/research.  I would have retired from Dakota State (as an emeritus professor except my wife wanted to get away from South Dakota).  So, one application (to Quinnipiac), one interview, and I was hired at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut.  There my service continued as I got active in the accrediting groups, I learned to write and publish, I developed nationwide colleagues and recognition as the EDSIG “Educator of the Year” in 2012.  

I can remember being scared when I came up for academic review at Quinnipiac that I didn’t have good enough publications and scholarship - and somehow God blessed me with Bart Longenecker, David Feinstein, Bill Tassel, Rick McCarthy, and many others for joint publications.  For the kid who in his undergraduate education got only three “C” grades - two of which were in Freshman Composition and the other in a one-credit gymnastic class - could write well enough to be a scholar.  (It still amazes me).  And, even today, to write a daily blog - that a few people read.  

And, that God has worked on me - and is still working on me.  “Who am I God that you should take an interest in me?” 

I have tripped and fallen a lot.  I somehow managed to get up again.  I spent four days in a mental hospital for depression  and thinking I had no value and that the world might be better without me.  

This hasn’t been the life that the 13 year old boy imagined when he said he wanted to be a math teacher.  I didn’t know much then (and, even yet, I don’t know much).

I’ve been through the wilderness, and I’ve been on the mountain top.  (My preference is the mountain top) but I seem to learn and get corrections in the wilderness.  

Nobody knows the number of years allocated to them.  This morning I was reading Genesis 5:24 “Enoch walked faithfully with God; then he was no more, because God took him away.”.  I have grown to love everyone - because I had to.  What is to become of me, I don’t know.  I’m still trying to get a life coaching mini-career going - hopefully to listen, support and encourage others.  Ask me in five years how that is going.  

*****

But, back to the theme for the week, somehow, God (or the Source, or the Force) blessed me and refined me during those eighteen years at Dakota State.  Yes, I was at the right place at the right time (or did ‘fate/God’) put me in that right place at the right time???

Tomorrow - a love wins blog; Saturday a story and Sunday a fun-day blog.  At this stage I have no idea what I will write about next week (but it will be awesome!!!) [maybe!!!]

LOVE WINS!!!

Karen

WEDNESDAY, JULY 7, 2021 - IT CAN’T BE DONE - PART III

 WEDNESDAY, JULY 7, 2021 -  IT CAN’T BE DONE - PART III

This week I’ve been looking at the Mission Change at Dakota State College.  And, a comment.  This campus was Dakota State College until 1989 when it became Dakota State University!!

By 1990, I had a doctorate, the college had become a university, and things were rolling along.  It seemed like we were always in the hiring mode.  We were adding students, our numbers were growing, and covering three (or four) different classes) was getting harder to do but now we were getting some multiple sections which helped the preparation.  

I stepped down as Dean of the College of Business and Information Systems in 1990.  (Actually, I had a minor conflict with the Academic Vice President over wanting to help some transfer students, and he suggested (urged, mandated) that I step down.  

I had been on a 12 month contract - so again, my wife was worried about our income (she was doing some work at the Interlakes Community Action Agency), and my check would stop in June.  So, I hustled and called a friend at Citibank in Sioux Falls, SD.  Thus started a great experience for me - and for my students - and for out alumni.

To this point I had been a teacher - an academic.  I taught computing, I didn’t do it!!!  (There is an old expression - “those who can - do; those who can’t - teach”!!)

I got put on a team in the accounts receivable group.  The project was to create a third backup system. At this point in time, the Citibank credit card data was stored in Sioux Falls, South Dakota and in The Lakes, Nevada (a suburb of Las Vegas).  If a tornado took out the South Dakota processing/data center, all the data was stored in Nevada, and if an earthquake took out the Nevada data center, it was stored in South Dakota.  But, what if something happened to both of the data centers?  We credited backup files in New Jersey.  There were all kinds of JCL, security, data naming conventions, and processing.  There were implications across other product lines.  Could customer service access these other files if needed?  Could collections use the data and would it be exactly the same as the other two sites.  

Not only doing the analysis, design, development and implementation (that is, the things I taught in Systems Analysis and Design class), but working with people in multiple sites.  We had weekly status meetings with data center management, group leads, and others.  

And (whew), our project worked.  I also learned about the whole batch process environment at Citibank’s Credit Card processing.  The daily run, the billing, the online files that were created, the feeds for collections, customer service, the weekly runs, the monthly runs, the reconciliation processes.  AND … everything had to be accurate.  This was a multimillion dollar company that was under various watchdog agencies.  Fraud was NOT allowed.  (Note, batch systems are almost always more secure than online systems.)

One story that came out of this first summer was communication.  My team got a memo from a manager with three paragraphs - the first paragraph said “this is a good project”; the second paragraph said “we have some concerns”; and the third paragraph said “scrap this project”.  Note it was not in the easy language I just used but with nice vague language that had three distinct opinions in the memo.  

I returned to Citibank for twelve summers.  There were many DSU alumni in the Credit Card processing group - many that I had mentored during their four years at DSU.  In addition, I got to be an extension of the Citibank Human Resources group.  (Under the radar, I would be asked about hiring person A or person B and I would give my candid opinion to my HR person).  I also supervised the Dakota State (and other) interns and coached them for their final presentation.  

I worked one summer in statistical analysis - were the many processes taking longer with more accounts?  How might one speed up the processes?  (Such as when would Citibank need larger and faster computer systems and/or faster storage and data transfer?)  

And, I learned - really learned operating systems and job control language.  I even got to be part of a rollout to a new operating environment - and got sent to Las Vegas to teach the crew there.  Another time, I was sent to Jacksonville Florida to do some training.  

One summer they hired a class load of new employees and I was their trainer.  We did a lot of COBOL and JCL and systems.  (And, nobody complained about their grades!!!) 

I even got to code.  I coded a small process in a collections unit module - following the specifications given by systems analysts.  I sat in on review meetings, I knew most of the people on the floors and made good friends.  That might still be in production - using the concept “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”.  

I also commuted from Madison to Sioux Falls - and then spent an hour down and an hour back every day with interns and former students on their commute.  (Much better than driving alone).  In particular was my time spent with Jerry and Laree (that resulted in being Godfather to their son).

*****

Takeaways:

For my academic colleagues:  I firmly believe in getting real world experiences.  Academic institutions have sabbatical programs where every seven years (or so), a professor should take time off to “catch up” to the changes in the field.  For example, a medical doctor needs to keep on the best trends and processes for assisting patients.  A hundred years ago, maybe the best process was to have leeches suck blood - that is NOT used today, but a doctor who was trained in the process might still use it.  

Keep up, get out in the field.  Marketing professors - go work at a marketing company (like Cecelia W); Accountants - go work for an accounting company.  

In my case, they paid me almost as good as Dakota State, my wife was happy, and I was learning and growing - not just teaching some summer class.

For me, the change of pace was amazing.  For the first month (late May to late June), I didn’t want to see any students ever again (okay- that is hyperbole).  But by mid-summer, my brain was working on new ideas for my courses - techniques that I should bring into class.  And by early August I was salivating to get back in the classroom again - all refreshed.

And, back on campus in the fall, I had new stories from the “real world” to share; I had new ideas to try out.  My teaching benefited greatly from my Citibank summers!!! 

HOW ABOUT YOU?  Do you take some time out to refresh your batteries? Many Americans don’t even take their allocated vacations.  Get away from your regular environment - maybe like some people do when they go to retreat houses and pray and m for a week.  All work and no play make Jack a dull boy.  This wasn’t really play, but it was definitely time off!!

LOVE WINS!!!

Karen