Personal Reputation - Fraternity

I mentioned in class while Professor Arvan was discussing cooperation among individuals that I was the social chair of my fraternity during my first three years of school. I have not written a blogpost about my experiences within the fraternity even though I have seen a lot of blog posts regarding Registered Student Organization; therefore, I want to elaborate upon how my personal reputation grew internally and externally among the fraternity, the University of Illinois' campus, and campus' around the United States.

As a freshman, I did not think that rushing a fraternity was important at all. However, after casually rushing fraternities and taking advantage of free food and free drinks and socializing around with different people. I learned that there are benefits of joining a fraternity. These benefits include networking for obtainng a job in the future, having close friends who can meet up and work on homework together, meeting up with sororities on campus at a social event, and several other benefits that a fraternity can bring to oneself. So after rushing multiple fraternities, I narrowed my list down to three fraternities. One fraternity said that after my first semester, I would become the head social chair because they saw the potential I had to grow the social side of the fraternity. The reason that I would become the head social chair after my first semester was because the sophomore was going abroad his second semester. Ultimately, I thanked the other fraternities for rushing me but joined the fraternity that offered me this position.

Once I became the head social chair, I took full advantage of the position by contacting all of the bigger social sororities on campus and inviting them over to the fraternity house for some type of an event. During my first semester, I was not able to do this as much because I wanted to be apart of the events but I did not live in the fraternity house so it was more difficult to attend the amount of events that I could have if I lived in the fraternity house. As time went on, I strategically became close friends with the sorority social chairs of sororities like Theta, DG, Gamma Phi, and Tridelt so that my fraternity friends would be able to socialize and become close with the sorority social chair's friends. After a semester of events with about a half dozen of the same sororities, my fraternity became tightly knit with these same six sororities for the remainer of my time in the fraternity, especially the 4 semesters that I was living in the fraternity house.

My fraternity friends thanked me for taking the lead in creating social bonds with several sororities to make their college experience more exiting and essentially more favorable if I did not go out of my way and take the time to always be in contact with several girls while most of the other fraternity members did not take any lead, even though when given the opportunity, they helped the social aspect of the fraternity by interacting with other sorority members. I could have "cashed-out" after obtaining the title of the social chair of the fraternity by excluding my fraternity members from consorting in the events with sorority members since the sorority members would know who I am from the initial contact I made with the sorority social chairs after explaining that I am the social chair of the fraternity. However, I took it upon myself to include other fraternity members as this would become a domino effect and everyone would benefit more by socializing and interacting with each other. Furthermore, the sorority members were also thankful of my actions to create bonds between my fraternity and other sororities so they can have exciting experiences. Finally, nationwide, our fraternity after three years raised up in the national rankings as a social fraternity, allowing my fraternity to obtain a grant for the future generations of the fraternity, which allowed for the current social chairs to realize that not "cashing-out" is the optimal action to take as the head social chair of the fraternity.

Financial Representative & The Principal Agent Model

Over the summer, I interned at Northwestern Mutual. Northwestern Mutual has its financial representatives create holistic plans for individuals. This means that the financial representative will obtain clients and have a financial plan be put in place which includes life insurance, disability insurance, health insurance, long term care, mutual funds, stocks, bonds, 529 educational plans, 401K plans, and several other plans that the client feels that will best suit his or her financial plan.

The financial representative has a responsibility of managing and making money for both the company and its clients.  My boss over the summer was Joe Guin, who is one of the top producers in terms of the amount of money he brings in for the company and himself. If he never worked a single day for the rest of his life, he would bring in a million dollars since he has so much money in his assets under management.

He brings out the example of a standard principal agent model, as he found the balance of making money for himself, his clients, and the company. Northwestern Mutual takes in a certain percentage of the money that Joe brings in, and Joe makes the remaining percentage of the money that he brings in for the clients. The clients keep the profit that the whole life insurance policies bring in during the long term, as well as the profits from the bonds and stocks that are in place. Joe found the balance of bringing money in for Northwestern Mutual, himself, and his clients.  He is the perfect example of how to deal with different goals or views and bring them all together: everyone wants more money.

1 vs. the U.S. Government (Fictional prompt)

In the latest season of 24, a TV show starring Kiefer Sutherland as Jack Bauer, the American Government believes that Jack Bauer has gone rogue. Jack Bauer is a former Counterterrorism Unit special operative, and in the first episode of the 12 episode season, the CIA headquarters in London captures Jack Bauer because there have been suspicion among the U.S. government that Jack is working as a terrorist. There are rumors going around that a terror group will be attacking London on this specific day, so the CIA does not hesitate to bring Bauer in for questioning. However, Jack's plan all along is to help the American government stop these terrorist attacks in his manner, because he does not agree with the way that the American government is carrying out the operation.

When the CIA captures Jack, he gets away since he planned on getting captured so he can release his friend from the CIA to help him stop the terror attacks on his own. Jack's friend knows how to track the hacker who is carrying out the terrorist attacks which are carried out by the terrorist via a hacked American drone which created a scapegoat named Tanner who was in control of the drone. When Jack tracks the hacker, the CIA simultaneously tracks Jack, and the hacker gets away on the run with his girlfriend because the CIA interrupted Jack's mission. The girlfriend kills the hacker because the girlfriend's mom, Margot Al-Harazi is the leader of the drone terror attack operation and wants the hacker's computer. On Jack's pursuit of Margot Al-Harazi, he wants to meet up with Tanner and question him about what his computer was doing when it was being hacked. Once again, the CIA interrupts Jack's mission when he enters the U.S. Embassy when the Marines come after Jack. The U.S. government puts Jack under arrest, and the only person who has a hold on the entire terrorist attack is now unable to perform his duties. The U.S. government, which is in conflict with a superior counterterrorist operative, is holding itself back.

Once the first bombing from Al-Harazi's hacked drone occurs, the conflict festered up to its breaking point, and the President reinstated Jack Bauer into the U.S. government operations with CIA. Jack Bauer couldn't have acted any differently because of his past which made him seem like a rogue operator from previous seasons in the series even though he is the good guy all along and needs to do things his way or else the government will get in his way; however, this conflict was inevitable because the U.S. government has certain protocols that Jack had to break to counteract the terrorists. Once the president gave Jack full power to do what he wants in counteracting the terrorists, he ends Margot Al-Harazi's attempt to terrorize the United Kingdom and its ally of the United States. Jack exhibits that he was the superior mastermind in counteracting the terrorists, and the conflict was ultimately solved.