Ready, Set, Sell

Hello Everyone! My name is Kim Ziarko and I am a junior majoring in Foods and Nutrition in Business. Tuesday night I had my final presentation of the semester in my Selling Agriculture Business class (AGECON 331). This special night is called Ready, Set, Sell-or RSS for short- where it gives students an experience in professional selling. We all were asked to dress business professional, network and present our sales pitch to sale professionals. Assignments for the class were picking a product or service in a field of your interest and develop a professional sales presentation on it. I chose Organic Coffee Beans from El Salvador! To gain selling skills, you are asked to interview a sales professional and spend a day with him/her at the company to get a feel for their product or service. I was able to visit Uncommon Grounds Coffee Roaster in Saugatuck, Michigan. It was so much fun to see the shop and what they deal with on an everyday basis. The rest of the homework also leads up to RSS to prepare you for every step of the presentation. You might think, “How does this relate to me?” Easy. At one point in our lives we will all be selling ourselves to accomplish one of our goals in life. It could be asking to receive a grant for an experiment or trying to sell a new product you helped concoct in the test kitchen. This class helped my selling skills and did a great job preparing me for the future when I will need to make a professional sales presentation.

Life flies by!

I can not believe I am down to just about a month left of college! It just flew by...people were not lying when they told me, "you think High School wen by fast?! College goes by twice as fast." Looking at my decision to come to Purdue, I could not be more thankful with my decision. The life-long friendships that I have made, lasting memories, life lessons, and preparations for my career could not have been better at any other university!



Also, I am thankful to have gone to Purdue, especially in this poor economic time. Majoring in Selling and Sales Management here, I was put ahead of many other students from different universities because Purdue is one in just a handful which has a specific major in sales. I interned last year for an insurance brokerage, Arthur J. Gallagher, in Itasca, Illinois and absolutely loved the company and the type of work. It was perfect for my personality and interests. From that internship experience, I was offered a full-time position, and accepted in December! Since then, I have been able to focus on my studies and enjoy my last semester here at Purdue to my fullest potential!

I am going to miss Purdue and all of the friends I have met here. I have grown extremely close to all of my sisters in my sorority, but plan to keep in contact with them well beyond college!

Between philanthropies, dances, and various events within the sorority such as: sisterhood events like handing out Valentine's to the other fraternities and sororities on campus and Mom's weekend, I have had more wonderful memories at Purdue than I could have imagined.

Next weekend is our annual Mom's weekend. I can't wait!

This is when all of the mother's of the girls are invited up to the sorority to participate in weekend-long events. On Friday night, we have a dinner planned followed by an all day brunch and raffle on Saturday. On Saturday night (which is my favorite!), one of the fraternities invites all of the Mom's over for a long night of dancing and singing. It is a blast! I will update later with follow up on that and pictures!

Until next time,

Shannon