A short introduction

Hello, my friends! My name is Alex Kieslich and over the next 3 months I will have the privilege of writing about my experiences working abroad with Mr. Price Group in Durban, South Africa. Before we start talking about what I am doing here, I thought I would start off with a short introduction about myself, just to let you know a little bit about who I am.

I am originally from Joplin, MO, a small town of roughly 50,000 people. Usually, Joplin is a very quiet city with not a whole lot going on; however, Joplin has recently received a lot of attention due to the largest storm in U.S. history destroying nearly a 1/3 of it in mid-May.  In total, over 140 people lost their lives, appx 7,000 houses were flattened, and over 1,000 businesses were destroyed. The destruction was overwhelming, but the city’s pride and determination will overcome it. It is amazing to see everyone supporting each other through this crisis and I know when I return home that Joplin will be recovering from this disaster.

I graduated college from Missouri Southern State University, also in Joplin. Luckily, the university was not harmed by the storm and it became very useful in staging recovery efforts. At MSSU I pursued a BSBA in Management and 2 minors in Total Quality Management and HR.

After I graduated from MSSU I continued to work with my family in several small businesses. However, I wasn’t working long before I realized that I wanted to continue my education so that I could pursue a career with a large CPG company, preferably out of Joplin.

That is when I decided to apply to several MBA programs. After visiting each of the schools, I felt that the University of Arkansas really stuck out from the rest. It turns out, I was right! I had a great time at the U of A and had lots of opportunities I do not believe I would have had elsewhere, including this internship. I will talk more about the University of Arkansas and the experiences I had there later on.

This spring, while searching for a full-time position to start after graduation I came across this opportunity with Mr. Price Group. With several great opportunities for full-time employment in the works, I, at first, blew-off the email from Heather Sprandel, the director of the career center. In fact, I wasn’t even planning on applying until I ran into Heather in the commons and she really made me see the advantages of pushing back the job search and applying for this internship with Mr. Price Group in Durban, South Africa. After all, when is the next time I will have the opportunity to work in South Africa? So, that night I wrote a cover letter and applied for the position. A couple of short discussions and a Skype interview later, I had decided to take the once in a life-time opportunity. A few days after I had accepted I learned that another student at the U of A was also offered the opportunity. Qiaofeng ‘Jason’ Wu, a 1^st year MBA student studying logistics, had also decided that this opportunity was too good to pass up and joined in on the trip to South Africa. Later, I will get Jason to post his thoughts on being an international student at the U of A and his position at Mr. Price.

We arrived in Durban a few days ago and thus far everything has been great! The next time I post I will talk a little bit about Durban, Mr. Price Group, and the day to day life of living and working overseas.