Enjoying Every Opportunity

         I cannot believe we are a month into summer. It seems like that went by so fast. It's already June. Whew! "When one door closes, another door opens." This couldn't be more true in the last few months of my life.
        My internship with the High Plains Food Bank is in full swing and I love it. I have a great staff and great tasks(sometimes). Window washing proves to be a specialty of mine. Just kidding. Recently, we've had a big golf tournament and a few fundraisers that have gone pretty well. I am happy to say though, that I have made a break into more of a social media role and I couldn't be happier. I never thought of myself as much of a social media person, but seeing as social media is so huge and relevant today, I have come to love it and specialize.

       My other job, Marketing for Jump-N-Jive is proving to be a challenge but nothing I'm not used to. I didn't realize how much effort running a full marketing program took. I am ready to see where this challenge brings me. Jump-N-Jive is an inflatable playground that is a very unique kind to the Amarillo area. Needless to say, both of my jobs are different but being passionate about both, I love it.
      We are now within 24 hours of being in Austin for our National competition for NSAC. I can say that while my jobs have been interesting, this has proved to be the most challenging and rewarding. Once we found out we made it to nationals, the high quickly wore off. The presenters knew we had a challenge ahead of us. Along with our plans book that was judged, we still have a 20 minute presentation and a 10 min Q&A. We had our presentation and lines pretty well rehearsed but the Q&A has been such a challenge for all of us.
      On Wednesday we had a presentation for family, friends and faculty that went amazing. For three weeks we have stayed up late nights, cried, laughed, threw thing and have been super frustrated but I can say on behalf of all of us that we are ready.
     I am so proud to be a part of the first of something. We are the first team from WTAMU to make it nationals for NSAC. We are competing among some of the top schools in the nation: UPenn, Johnson and Wales, UC Berklee, UCLA , just to name a few. We leave tomorrow and get to spend the weekend networking and preparing. How cool would it be if we could place at nationals?! Half those schools have no idea who we are.

     Despite being horribly out of shape, I look forward to getting back on the field next year. There was a time this year I thought I wasn't going to be playing again but with every workout I am getting stronger. Every time I get back on that field, I remember why I fell in love with the game and I am ready to finish up my career as a college athlete. 

     It's so amazing to see where God has led me in the last year and I am excited to continue this journey. There have been ups and downs but every single thing pays off. I've got great friends, family , teachers and just amazing people all around me. One year from now I will hopefully be moving away to pursue my dreams in my field and it's so crazy to think where it all started and the journey that I've been on. As for now, I'll enjoy this moment, and every moment. 

Oh, The Places We'll Go

          You know that moment when we were all kids and we would talk to our friends or our parents and say "I can't wait to be in college" or "I can't wait to be on my own." Flash forward to that moment in your life when your friends are graduating college and your graduation is looming upon you and you immediately want to go back to those kid years. I can definitely say that in the last month or two I have realized that I wish time didn't move so fast. Everything lately has happened so fast.

      I went from two months ago, not knowing when I would graduate, not having a job or internship, not knowing if I'd play soccer next season or again and just a lot of unknowns. I started realized that some of my closest friends I have made here were graduating and I kind of freaked out. It was those months that tested  my faith and we all have those tests:  when you realize who is there , and who isn't. I feel in these times that we really grow as people. I know I did.

     These last two weeks have been filled with nothing but glorifying moments. I got told by the Dr. I was released to play soccer next season. I am happily announcing that I will be doing everything in my power to step on that field in the fall and come back to my full potential as an athlete. I also got offered a job with the High Plains Food Bank for the summer. HPFB is an organization that gives back to the communities around the panhandle and helps a ton of people in need. Just in my first few days, I have learned so much.

     The biggest moment came when we found out some exciting news that would change our futures. After the National Student Advertising Competition was over and we received 2nd, we all realized that it was over. We knew we had a chance at the wildcard but, what small school from the panhandle would ever get chosen? WRONG. We, Buffalo Advertising, were chosen as the wildcard entry for the National competition in Austin. We are competing among the top schools in the nation. We present right after UCLA. Unreal right? This made us all realize how hard we worked and how blessed we are with talent by students and professors alike.

     They say, what comes up must go down and that is exactly what i felt these last few months. It is amazing what faith, perseverance and hard work will do. I, myself, have never been more overwhelmed than some of this news that I have gotten. I truly do believe that God has his hand in everything we do. His plan is so much better than ours.

    With graduating upon us (not me, but my friends), I just want to say what a blessing this year has been. I have made some friends that I know I will be friends with forever. This is one of the moments  I wish I were graduating so I could go on and do amazing things because I know all of you will. I'm not one to get too sentimental but I know that this chapter is closing soon for some and for me, I still have a year left to complete this chapter of my life. In eighth grade my teacher read us the Dr. Seuss book, "Oh, The Places You'll Go" and then I didn't realize the true meaning of that book. Now, I realize that the sky is the limit. Seeing my friends going on to do great things only makes me want to make them and the rest of my community proud. For now, we will all have the memories, laughs, tears, angry moments, mad moments and the good ones all wrapped in our mind. What a blessing this all has been. Congratulations to all of my friends, class of 2012. 

Opportunities of a Lifetime

             In the last week, I have had the opportunity to see the man that discovered the Titanic speak, Bill Clinton and got to help students see what they are passionate about in their major. As this semester is winding down, I’m amazed at how busy I was and how I even made it out alive.

            Seeing Dr. Robert Ballard speak was an honor. As someone who used to want to be a marine biologist (that worked out huh?), I was intrigued about his story and how he got involved into what he loved doing. He spoke to us briefly about the Titanic but also his other discoveries, which included ancient Mariner ships, The Yorktown and The Bismark. The thing I got most from his talk was to follow your dreams. He set out to find the Titanic and he did, along with so much more

            President Clinton was the speaker on Tuesday night. He spoke in front of about 5,000 people from Amarillo and Canyon here in our First United Bank Center. For a small school like WT, having a former president come is incredible. Actually, this was the second time this has happened in 102 years. Clinton’s speech was about a lot of subjects including the memorial of flight United 93, healthy food in schools and farming resources.

            My favorite part of the night was towards the end of his speech.  Clinton touched on how everybody is 99.5% water. We are all 99.5% the same, the only thing that differentiates us is our skin color, hair, eyes, personality, etc.  He wanted to highlight the fact that we all have the opportunity to make a difference and at one point he referenced the younger crowd saying that we are the ones that have the most influence on society. We hear this a lot from parents, teachers and friends but coming from such a loved leader in our country, it meant a lot.  Having both of these speakers at WT was such a great opportunity that I am glad I was able to take.

            This week, our Buffalo Advertising team was invited to go to the Midland Advertising federation to present. We had previously presented to the Amarillo Advertising Federation, which was amazing. Going to the Midland performance, we were all tired and it was a three and a half hour drive for our 20 minute presentation. I don’t think we all realized though, how humbling this trip would be. We arrived and were graciously greeted by the head of their federation. The room was set up nice and they wanted to accommodate to whatever we needed. We gave our presentation over lunch to a room of about 50 people. At the end, we could tell some of the students from Midland College or the high school had never seen anything like that. One boy asked “Why didn’t you win first?” and another question was “Are you all employed?” Our answer: No, but we would like to be! We got a few laughs for that one.

            They all commended us on our presentation and we got asked a few questions by some of the older members in the crowd which we have been so nicely trained to answer by our advisors. The real joy came when we were able to just kind of take our jackets off and talk with these students. They were hesitant to come up to us but once they did we realized that they looked up to us. There were four girls and one guy who were talking to us. Most of these students wanted to pursue a career in Mass Communications. They had questions and comments about our futures and us and mentioned how passionate we all seemed about what we did: and we are just that, passionate.  To all of us, this was very humbling. During the semester, things are moving so fast that we don’t realize the opportunity that we were presented with to be able to work on this campaign and to be able to present. To me, that has been the biggest honor. Presenting to people like the AAF and Midland makes all the hard work; tears and late nights come together for something bigger than just the presentation. They say you don’t realize how good everything is until it’s gone. I must say, with the Midland Advertising performance being our last one until we find out about nationals, it’s bittersweet. If you asked me if I would go and do this semester over again, I ‘d say yes. It was all worth it.

Pocket Full of Sunshine

           It's hard to put into words how great this last week has been but also how much I didn't want it to end. We set off on Wednesday morning at 4:00 am to Shreveport. I felt like a kid on Christmas morning, barely being able to sleep, because I was so excited. It had finally hit me: A year of hard work was about to come into action at the 2012 NSAC 10the District Competition.
         When we arrived in Shreveport, all of us were exhausted but so excited to be there. We had orientation where we got our first look at other teams. I think that is when it all hit us that we were about to compete against some of the biggest schools in our district. To name a few: Texas State, TCU, OU, OSU, Texas Tech, UCO, Texas A&M and many other schools. I know the jitters of being there for the first time was a lot for all of us. That night, we had watched the first three competitors go, two of which were so-so and one which was really good. This kind of put into perspective that no matter how hard we worked, other schools probably had worked that hard as well. The presentation team spent the rest of that evening practicing our lines and our blocking.
        The next morning came way to soon. Oddly enough, I was confident and just a tad nervous. We got ready, all got in our suits and made our way to the practice room. Our advisers were there the whole way, still tweaking little things, the morning of the presentation. As we made our way over to the convention center, I was so excited.
        Our set up time was 9:50 am leaving us 30 min to set up before we had to present. Needless to say, we got everything set up quick and at that time it all became real. There we were, standing on stage, about to present our campaign to judges and other students. The doors opened and people quickly filed in. This is when it really hit. I looked out to see my mom, a few other parents, our teachers and classmates, and a few local AAF supporters and then a whole bunch of people from other schools. The next 20 minutes flew by. We delivered our pitch confidently, hardly any mess ups (which never happens with us), and smiled the whole time we did it. I think at that moment, I realized that I had made the right choice in my career path. That presentation made our whole almost year long of work, come together and made it all rewarding. We had a 10 minute Q&A with the judges which seemed to fly by as well.
      We played the waiting game the rest of the afternoon. At the awards banquet that night, they announced the special judges awards and then it was time to hear our fate. As they announced Texas State as the 3rd place winner, we all cringed. Texas State was a good competitor and we had a feeling we might be top two, hoping for first since it was flawless. When second place was called, and West Texas came out of judges mouth, we went up for our trophies. It was disappointing, there were some tears, but there was also a great sense of pride. We were sandwiched in between two of the biggest schools in the state of Texas. Texas A&M went on to win first and we were eagerly waiting to see their performance the next morning since we had missed it.
      The next morning, we saw the judges score sheet and the comments made. Our presentation was 1 point under the winning teams and our plans book was about 7. We had a ton of great comments from the judges and one even wrote, "Good Luck at Nationals" hoping we would have won. Overall, the learning experience was amazing. NSAC has taught me more than any other class has probably taught me. I was talking to a teammate last night and he said "I miss it already" and I had to agree. The experiences we had, and the way we presented all amount to so much. It's hard to not feel sad and happy at the same time. Something so big in our lives ended but we all gained so much from it. I am very blessed to have been a part of something so great. I hope to keep this legacy up for Buffalo Advertising and keep the name going as one of the top schools in the district. We still have a chance to make wildcard for nationals. Fingers Crossed!

     
       

  

NSA....Who?

Background Analysis : NSAC

1.     This blog will advance NSAC’s communication efforts by getting the word out that West Texas A&M actually has a competitive advertising team.

2.     The challenges with this blog would be the grace period in between the actual campaign and the research.

3.     The primary for this blog is to gain awareness around the Mass Communication department and the rest of West Texas A&M for the NSAC team.

4.     Our primary audience is students in college and teachers.

5.     The ideas for this blog would include weekly blogs from certain members of the team. It would also include an instructor’s point of view and update every few weeks along with some of the progress and struggles the team is having.

6.     To measure the blogs success we could see how many viewers it is having. Another way to measure the success would be to see how many people interact with the blog via commenting or sharing/retweeting

4/10/12

A year ago, if you had asked me what NSAC was, I would have looked at you with a blank stare. Now when you ask me, a sense of pride comes over me and I will tell you just about every detail of my life for the past year.

NSAC is known as the National Student Advertising Competition. Schools all over the country get one client. They research this client, make up a multi-platform campaign and present it in front of judges at the end of the semester.

West Texas A  & M has had a NSAC program for a number of years now. The last three years have really been break out years for the program. Last year, the client was JCPenny. They ended up getting runner up in the competition and a prize for best promotion. Since the team did so well last year, this years team has had a lot of weight on our shoulders.

Our client this year was Nissan. Most of the people on the team have been working in research since fall semester. We have worked hours and hours on end. From staying up all night working on plans book, to working every free moment on memorizing lines, we have come such a long way.

Now that we are almost at presentation time, I look back to where a lot of us were a year ago. I, myself, was a beginner Ad/PR student in the Advertising Principles class. The presentation team came in to present to our class, and right after that, I knew this is where I had wanted to be.

In two days, my goal is a bout to come true. The amount of pride I have for this program, I can’t even put into words. Of course, we wouldn’t be anywhere without our advisors and all the help they have provided us as students.  I know I don’t just speak for myself when I say, the NSAC team this year is proud of all that has been accomplished. 

What a Ride

                I feel like this last month has flown by. So many things have been happening, it's hard to remember to slow down sometimes. This last month has been such a whirlwind of events. From NSAC, school, extra-curricular activities to my internship with the Bulls ending, it has been a ride.
                I have also learned a lot about myself and other people in the last month. I have learned that being tough isn't just on the outside and that your choices do affect your life in some big ways. I have some things to look forward to in this next month or two and I couldn't be more excited.
            NSAC otherwise known as National Student Advertising Competition, is just around the corner. I have been dreaming of this day since I started my first advertising class, a year and a half ago. I remember seeing last years team perform and I wanted to be one of them.
           For NSAC, you are presented with a client, this years client was Nissan. You essentially, make a multi-platform campaign including print, TV, radio, Public Relations and media. There are three teams: Creative, Public Relations, and media that made up our campaign as well as the research class. Most of the team has been researching since last semester and this semester we started the actual campaign. I was part of the creative team which was responsible for "The Big Idea" which fuels the campaign ( no pun intended). I can't reveal much but we are all really excited. I have never seen a group of 14 students work so hard, sometimes until 4 or 5 in the morning. A huge shout out to our professors who have sat with us through it all.
           We just received our final plans book today, which I had a big part in helping design, a long with a few other students who designed and a few who did copy writing. It was such a huge hurdle in the race for us to finish that book. We are now working on the presentation. 5 students out of the 14 in the class get chosen. I am so grateful to be one of them. In the next two days alone, we have a script to memorize and production to finish.
          All of these experiences are leading us to the next step in our professional lives. Within the next two months, we will have completed a full advertising campaign, finished one of the toughest semesters and hopefully feel a sense of great accomplishment.
          Not to mention, ACL recovery is coming a long slowly but surely. I am waiting for the day I am allowed back on the soccer field. Recovering this time around is a ton harder because of the extent of the injury. As for now, I am focusing on rehab, NSAC, school and finishing out this semester.
         I am looking forward to moving onto a new job or jobs( because we all know one is too little for me). Oh and fun tip of the day: I finally moved up in the world, I got an Iphone. That is all.

These are last years team awards. They received first runner up for their JCPenny campaign. Hope to follow in their footsteps.

Compassion, Excellence and One Compelling Story

       
            In the midst of crazy communication week in our department we have all been blessed with a little bit of grace. Every year WT hosts a distinguished lecture series. This year, as many would agree, is one of the best we have had. Liz Murray is the author of “Breaking Night” and the story behind the Lifetime movie, “From Homeless to Harvard.” Murray grew up in a home with drug addicted parents and wound up homeless; That didn’t stop her however, from dreaming big and graduating from Harvard. Her story is one that many would be honored to hear and we were granted that honor at WT.
         I must say, public speaking has only become one of the things I do while being a Mass Communications Major. When I took on the role to present Liz Murray, I was excited but so nervous. As you could imagine, I ran over my lines a whole day before the presentation ( procrastination at it’s finest). As I met Murray before the speech, I was overwhelmed with her kindness and willingness to learn about us as students. I knew at that moment what a great honor I had been given. With shaky hands and a room full of people staring at me, I gave the speech and was successful at introducing her. The story that would come next touched not only me, but every person in the room.
           Liz told her story of overcoming adversity but really catered to the room full of bright eyed college students ( me being one of them). I was inspired by her success after so much hardship and took so many lessons from her talk. The way she loved other people and the way she talked about her home life despite everything was overwhelmingly humbling.
         People can’t give you what they don’t have was one of the first things she talked about. I thought this was a great message because we often expect so much of others but we don’t stop to realize or think if they don’t have it. 
          Murray also talked about experiences  : how they affect you, how they change you and how meeting certain people can change you. I think we all have had a moment where we know that a certain experience in our lives changed the course of action. She also talked about the one person in your lives who has made you want to do better. Hers, Perry, was a mentor to her and was the one who held her to a higher standard than she believed was achievable. She also said, “Someone who loves you will hold you to a higher standard and will always tell you the truth.” I think these two things go hand in hand.
        I think the biggest thing that stuck out to me ( as if they all didn’t) was her story about “What ifs”. I think we all have then. What if I went to graduate school? What if I moved away? What if I could do this? To Murray and part of her message, if you always think “what if”, what if becomes that lifestyle for you. Don’t go make the difference, be the difference. How many times have we though we could do something and then never did it. What if we did? Murray also stated, “ No one knows what’s possible until they are already doing it.” These two things absolutely go hand in hand.
    The last and probably the most important to Murray and to the audience tonight was to never forget to tell the people in your life that you love them. Murray struggled with losing both of her parents to disease and she still was able to love them whole heartedly. I’m guilty of losing sight of calling someone who has helped me or just saying a simple thank you to people in my life and it’s easy to get caught up but a simple thank you or a phone call could change someone’s life.
           One of the best moments of the night for me was not only being able to present such and amazing lady but to have her look at me in the beginning of her speech and thank me for doing a wonderful job and for not looking down on her story but raising it up. I am honored to have met and been a part of that. I only hope that I and the people around me can have her outlook on life of just going day by day and not to get down with all the crazy things that happen. In her words, “ If you always to have something to complain about, you will never run out of things to talk about. Count your blessings. Think: I’m alright. Stop counting things you don’t have, be grateful for what you do. Don’t lose perspective of everything that is out there. Gratefulness = resourceful.”  I think today will leave a lasting impression on not only me, but to the people who were there tonight. I am going to turn my “What ifs?” into “I did.”