Arizona Trip!

     The “chosen” business scholars got to go to the Arizona trip the weekend of Halloween (Thursday – Sunday). We all met at the Salt Lake City international airport at 1:30 and our plane departed at about 2:30. All seventy-ish of us occupied a whole section! Once we got on the airplane we finally set off towards the Grand Canyon or Copper state (whichever you prefer). Upon arriving, we were greeted with VERY warm weather! It was nice getting out of the cold climate in Utah and going to Arizona, it was like revisiting summer.

Getting ready to leave the airport

     We got on very nice rental buses with outlets for our phones, which I thought was great. We stayed at the Marriott hotel, which was about 20 minutes from the Phoenix airport. It was nice to relax and swim in the pool at the Marriott. The business scholars had about 3 hours of free time.

     We then went to eat dinner at Lo-Lo’s Chicken & Waffles! We were warmly greeted and served. Now, I’ve had my fair share of fried chicken but Lo-Lo’s chicken was very, very good. Not to mention the drumsticks were HUGE. The waffles were great as well. I thought it was an odd combination of food but it definitely tasted great. After being stuffed with fried chicken and waffles, we all went back to the Marriott hotel and rested for the night.

Lo-Lo's chicken and waffles, I recommend eating here whenever you're in Scottsdale AZ!

Here's a picture of Buzz, my friends, and I waiting for our food!

     On Friday we got up and ate breakfast, ready to tackle the day and go on our 4 company visits. The group I was in got to go to PING and Discover, while the other group went to Swift and Potter’s House Apothecary. PING was a very great company visit. Their staff walked us through the different departments PING had and we got to see how the company operated and made their golf clubs, bags, etc.. Now, I don’t know how to golf but PING sure did make me feel like learning! It was great seeing the passion the employees had doing what they do.

     After leaving PING, we went to the Heard Museum. It’s a museum about the Native-American tribes that used to live in Phoenix. It was really neat; it also didn’t look like a museum at first glance!

    

Heard Museum

     Once we were done with lunch, we went to our last company visit, Discover! It was 95 degree weather at around this time, and we were all professionally dressed in a bus with its A/C not working properly for some unknown, reason, but we survived after about a half-hour of driving! 

     Discover showed us around their facility and then brought us into a conference room where the V.P. of fraud management talked to us about Discover and a very cool internship program they offer to college students that are interested in working there! One of the human resources employees talked to us about how she got involved with Discover with their internship program and how much she loved it. The V.P. also talked to us about why it’s so important that we know how to work with other people.

     At the end of the conference he gave us all Discover polos and t-shirts from a shop they have there! They also have a gym at their building, which I wasn’t expecting.

     After leaving Discover at around 4 we had a little bit of downtime until it was time to go kart racing at K1. It was really fun and a nice time to relax and bond with each other. We were served unlimited Dominoes (or it seemed like it), ice cream, refreshments, etc.. There was also a competition between the “best of the best”. The 10 people that got the fastest times raced against each other and Buzz was one of them! After an intense race, 3 business scholars came on top and won trophies from K1! We all then went back to the hotel to rest for Saturday.

 

Getting ready to race

Winners!

     On our final day, we had breakfast at McDonalds (yes, all 80 of us) and then went to the Sonoran Desert Museum. It was about a two hour drive, with lots of cacti to see. It was really hot and dry. The museum had a little aquarium at the beginning and then tracks that led you around the desert. I saw some coyotes too!

Panorama of the Sonoran Desert

     After leaving the museum we went back to the hotel and got ready for a luau!

It was awesome, the Polynesian food was great, especially their otai, which is a kind of juice. After a few numbers were danced to us, we all headed to the ASU vs UofU football game.

 

Business scholars being taught the Haka

It was a great game, but our Utes lost as well as some of our voices. Still Ute proud!

ASU stadium

The Business Scholars trip was amazing! Until the next one.