Our Christmas Newsletter

Dearest friends and family,

How do people usually start newsletters? “Oh, what a year it has been!” “My, has this year flown by!” “Jeeze, the kids grow up fast!” “ I didn’t realize it was Christmastime until I got my friend Betty’s Christmas newsletter in the mail yesterday – I just haven’t been able to sit down for more than 30 seconds!” Sound good? Those first two are true, I suppose.

We’re doing swell though! School seems to dominate our lives (OK, who am I kidding? School dominates our lives), but we love it and we love the opportunities to learn and grow that we’re constantly given. Heidi and I both have a tiring but exciting tendency to volunteer for or attend every other activity we’re invited to participate in, but we’re all the wiser for it, right? Heidi recently wrote a blog post where she created a laundry list of all of the many projects, tasks, and assignments on her plate – and it was no short list. I feel I could easily create one like it – but let me repeat: we absolutely love what we’re doing. Both of us thoroughly enjoy our studies and the opportunities we’re provided for it.

Thanksgiving at M&J Binns

Heidi is immersed in her Sociology major (with an emphasis in Crime and Deviance), is a research assistant to a professor studying effects on recidivism (the likelihood that someone will return to jail) for juveniles, and is working on a separate paper with that same professor on the effects of family relationships on parents’ recidivism, which they’ll present at a Sociological Conference in Seattle this March. Pulling 18 credit hours per semester (the maximum allowance), she’ll be a wonder woman and graduate within three years, despite having spent most of the first of those three years working on a music education major.

On top of all of that school work, she’s working around twenty hours per week at BYU’s Signature Card office (Heidi provides support for the management of the credit card machines across campus) and playing the organ for our church on Sundays. She spends much of her free time on various crafty projects – from making earrings out of buttons to “refashioning” T-shirts. Her post graduate plans are still up in the air – we’ll get back to you about those once we have a clear idea of those ourselves.

Hiking the Narrows near St. George, UT

I’m keeping myself busy with my major in International Relations with an emphasis in Political Economy, which I’ve coupled with minors in Business Strategy and Business Management and a “Global Management Certificate” from the business school. If anyone asks what I study, I now simply tell them “International Business Strategy” – I feel that sums it all up fairly well. Our plan and goal is to work in management consulting, with corporate strategy being my back-up plan. I’m seeking an internship for this coming summer in management consulting, and next fall I’ll be competing for full-time positions at those firms to keep me out of trouble after I graduate in April of 2012.

And, by luck, I happen to keep myself busy outside of those endeavors. I’m a Vice President of the Management Consulting Club on campus where I’ve spear-headed a mentoring program for our members, I’m a research assistant for the professor who took us to Europe (he’s a strategy professor, so that worked out really well), and I’m wrapping up a part-time internship for a private wealth management firm down in St. George. On top of (or below) all that, I work for BYU’s Office of Information Technology in the business support side. I do a lot of business analysis, data crunching, and some training for the team

So, we’re happy. We find our schedules to be very fulfilling (some aspects less than others, like Heidi’s biology class and my econometrics class), but we readily admit we’re excited for whatever respite Christmas break is going to hold.

We also wanted to take a moment here to tell you about our trip to Europe through BYU’s European Business Study Abroad. We figured it would be unjust, and we’d be ungrateful, to not mention it and tell you about some highlights. The idea of the study abroad was to be introduced to many aspects of European business and culture throughout our six weeks there. We started in London on April 28^th and were in Europe until June 10^th. During that time we visited the U.K., France, Belgium, The Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, and the Vatican on the actual study abroad, then Heidi and I added Spain on the end for good measure (flights within Europe are mind-bogglingly cheap – it’s just the cost to get there in the first place that hurts, so why not take advantage of it while you’re there!?).

Leaning Tower of Pisa, Pisa, Italy

The “studying” part of the trip consisted mostly of business visits at firms like Maserati, KPMG, Barilla, BMW, a cheese factory in rural Switzerland, and John Deere, and discussions had in our coach bus before and after those visits. We didn’t take many pictures during those visits, so no one seems to believe that we did any legitimate studying while we were there, but we did – we promise! The “abroad” part of the trip was mostly free time where we could do essentially whatever we wished in the cities we were staying in. We visited monuments, cafes and pubs, flea markets, royal gardens, national parades, and lots and lots of museums.

The Collosseum, Rome, Italy

Neuschwanstein Castle, Hohenschwangau, Germany

It’s been a wonderful year in many, many ways. We just passed our year and a half mark of marriage, and are still very much in love. We’re excited for what the future holds for us, and we’ll be sure to keep you updated along the way.

With love,

Sean and Heidi Rose McQuay