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What’s the holiday season without a little baking?
Of course if you’re Carol Muñiz, buttering up the baking pan has more to do with getting good grades than fa la la’s. A choice of cookies or brownies is definitely a fair trade when asking a fellow student for help on a project in Organizational Staffing and Career Management.
“I’m really a hands-on learner. I was in the computer lab working with Excel and I was about half way through what I was doing when I couldn’t get to the next step,” Carol said. “Without the help of one of the guys, I’d be cursing somebody somewhere. That’s what I like about being at Ambler. There is always someone willing to help.”
For Carol, midterms have come and gone and smiles remain. So has a history paper on Nixon, Watergate and the press, which included a 20-minute classroom presentation, and a 10-minute presentation on The Godfather for Modern Social History. Spanish class, for anyone keeping score, is moving along just fine too.
Outside of class, her role as president of the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) has been filling up a lot of downtime. In keeping with the brownie theme, Carol made Halloween brownies for a fundraising bake sale.
On November 5, SHRM hosted a Food for Thought lecture series event on corporate philanthropy that attracted about 60 people.
“I think one interesting fact is that often businesses will more often choose to support what their employees are already involved with,” Carol said. “If their employees are taking part in Habitat for Humanity, that is where their employer is more likely to choose to put their money.”
SHRM members and friends chose to put their money into a raffle for an Andy Reid signed football that netted the group close to $190. The drawing was held at an event at KC’s Alley and Human Resources professor Dr. John Deckop went home with the game ball.
Carol was among the students that attended a student government meeting that included a special guest — (then) Temple President David Adamany — on October 27. She suggested to the President that additional business courses be offered at Ambler for students, such as herself, that “don’t have the time or ability to go downtown every day.”
On November 17, Carol used up about 30 seconds of her 15 minutes of fame when 6-ABC ran a feature during the 5:30 p.m. news about the Fox School of Business’ Dress for Success Fashion Show at Ambler, which gave students a look at both fashion dos and don’ts. She was a fashion “do” by the way.
“There was no way I was going to be a don’t,” she said. “It’d be silly to be in my 40s and not know what to wear.”
Now with all that out of the way and both the holidays and finals looming, Carol was looking forward to Thanksgiving and maybe a little bit of a breather…if luck was on her side.
“My husband and I decided to go into the city Wednesday night, stay over and then go to the Thanksgiving Day parade the next morning. I have never and will never shop on Black Friday,” she said. “Then we had a soccer tournament that weekend. It’s a nice break from studying.”
Now Thanksgiving might have been calm, but Christmas — not so much. How’s this for a bit of coal in your stocking — spending Christmas with 11 complete strangers. So much for a holly jolly Christmas.
Carol did her civic duty, filled out her jury duty forms and just like that she got an invitation to U.S. District Court in Philadelphia — the kind you can’t refuse. Instead of hanging out with family trimming trees and decking halls on December 22, she might be hearing testimony.
“I filled out the court form back in September. January would have been fine; May after I graduate would have been fine; but three days after the semester ends?” she said. “I was completely shocked; I’ve never known anyone that was called to federal court before — that’s the major stuff. If I get picked for a grand jury, I’m taking my Temple bill with me. They screw up my graduation date after all of this time and you’ll hear the scream all the way across campus.”
For someone whose life is scheduled pretty much down to the minute between family and school, this is definitely throwing everything off big time.
“I’m going to have a house full of people! My son is coming home from college; my husband is off the entire week” she said. “I normally host the family party!”
This is no little gathering of people close by either. From Carol’s husband’s side, there are 20 people alone and 30 overall. Her brother-in-law is returning from serving overseas during the conflict in Iraq. Other family members are coming from Texas, Florida, and New Jersey.
“I’ll be able to see them one week out of the year and I won’t even be there,” said Carol with a nod of disbelief.
Now even with all of the drama, Carol still has a holiday game plan.
“Buy for the kids first and the adults last,” she said from experience. “If a kid wants a particular toy, you better find it early or you’re not going to find it at all. With adults, it’s a lot easier to replace a gift if you need to.”
This is the second part of an “A Year in the Life” feature on Carol Muñiz. Carol, 44,graduated with a degree in Human Resource Management at the time of the series.
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