Maria Elena Santos

My experience in tom’s class
P.S.  tom doesn’t do capital “t’s”

Any class you take with tom is going to be different, in every way, from any class you have ever taken before.  I mean, have you ever had complete control of a class?  Unlike classes where the professor decides what will happen for the rest of the semester, tom’s class is designed in a way that lets the students decide how the semester is going to run, obviously with a little guidance from him.  Weird right?

Because my class was a Management class we had to view our class as an organization, and decide what were the key elements that would make managing our ‘organization’ the smoothest and funnest process possible.  Our class revolved around a 7-person group project, in which we had to pitch a business idea.  So, not only did we have to manage our class, but we also had to manage our project groups.  If managing 7 people was hard, you have no idea how hard it was to manage a group of 30!

But we did it.  It took us a while and it wasn’t the easiest process, but we reached our goal and learned a lot from the process.  One thing we realized was that for an organization to be successful there has to be groups dedicated to different areas; if everyone is in charge of everything, everything is going to be chaotic . . like our first few weeks of class.  For example, I was part of the scheduling group, my group was in charge of scheduling the due dates of our pitches and readings.  There was a group in charge of grading, another in charge of in-class activities, another in out-of-class activities, etc.  This way, we held each other accountable for everything that went on in class.

Another thing we realized was that for an organization to be successful and easy to manage, the members have to get along and trust each other.  Thanks to this aspect of the class, I am able to say that we are all friends and still talk to each other after MGT 101.  We were that close with each other and tom!  We had team building activities inside and outside of class, that made class fun and, essentially, made managing our organization ten times easier.  When you trust everyone around you, you aren’t afraid to talk, you learn to trust the process; and that made our process a lot smoother.  Being in charge of class was hard, just like being the manager of a group of people or an organization.  But, that was the whole point of class, learning how to do it.

When you think about it, being in charge of what happens sounds like every student’s dream.  Well, you’d be surprised with the amount of people that hated it.  I realized that our education system has gotten so into our heads that we dread the chances we have to take control, just because we are so used to being told what to do.  Isn’t college supposed to be preparing us to be in charge of our own destiny?  To be the leaders of tomorrow?  That is exactly what tom does, he guides you to figuring out what process works best for you to reach your dreams and goals.  I will always be thankful for that!