PSA For Ad Club

To me, the Ad Club for Penn State has given me a lot of interest and help in my desired major of advertising. They do a great job of informing students about internships and jobs and also finding students the same internships and jobs. I highly recommend Ad Club to any advertising major, as it is a great resource. With its new donation from a very kind alumnus, I think it is time that Ad Club reaches out to a new audience of people.

One of the most valuable resources an individual can posses is, in my opinion, a strong education. I know that along with myself, my piers are getting some of the finest education in the country, but there are others who are not so fortunate. There are those that do not even get the chance to attend a higher educational school such as Penn State. For the most part, it is not the students fault that their education is not strong enough to draw them into the importance of learning. I believe that the Ad Club can make a PSA movement pushing for improved education for high school and middle school levels. High school and middle school are the most sensitive times for students when it comes to education. At this level, students are either drawn in by the importance of having an education or they are repelled by it. I believe that if education has an improved strength, more students will be drawn in by its importance.

Ad club is fortunate enough to be second to none when it comes to creativity and marketing in Penn State. The members of this club know how to draw attention to a subject, where to put an advertisement for said subject, and how to make people legitimately interested in a certain cause. The senior members of this club have had multiple internships dealing with huge brand names and advertising firms, so the experience in advertising is high.

Because technology is so incorporated in day to day life, an ad asking for donations to educational organizations would be made for the internet and television. This would be a video ad with an emotional appeal to it. It would be somewhat similar to a ASPCA commercial with the hurt animals, only it would not lead the viewer to tears. This ad would stress how valuable a middle school and high school education can be in life.

Study Abroad

So far the speakers for our seminar class have been very useful and interesting, but they have always had to attract my attention. Before I had no interest in learning about the rules and guidelines at Penn State or how to utilize resources on Angel, but the study abroad speakers did not have this issue. Ever since I went to the Dominican Republic for an outreach trip with a club at my high school I have wanted to study abroad. The feeling of being immersed in a completely different country was thrilling to me and I could not wait to stay in another country for more than a week. After the Dominican Republic, my abroad interest was further peaked by a surprise trip to Europe with my grand parents. We traveled in Switzerland, Germany, and Italy. The different culture astounded me, and  I needed more. The only problem was that I had no clue how to get started.

The study abroad speakers answered my questions very easily. They gave references to Penn State websites on all of the different programs that are available. I initially thought that there was only one kind of abroad experience, but I was severely mistaking. The only kind of abroad program I knew of was that of a student living in a school like building with other students from all over the world for a semester. I soon found out that students studying abroad can live with a host family and even live in an apartment. The thought of living independently already gives me chills of excitement, so the thought of living independently in a foreign country blew me away. I do not know if I would get an apartment in a foreign country, but the thought of it is truly crazy to me.

When my excitement began to subside, the rational side of my brain started asking about the price of studying abroad. At the moment I had that thought the speakers went on to the prices for each program, which led me to believe they were mind readers, but that was not my focus. The speakers showed the class a chart of the prices and I found that the only extra expense was a plane ticket. What was more exciting for me was finding out that visiting a country in Latin, South, and Central America is actually cheaper than a semester at home. Meals for a whole day only add up to a few dollars. My dream of returning to the Dominican Republic was revived with this new information. I originally wanted to visit a French speaking country because of my interest int the French language. However, the thought of a cheaper and nostalgic abroad trip has made me very anxious and excited to do more research on my potential study abroad experience.

The only part of the studying abroad trip is that my intended major is not taught very much outside the US. At first this really concerned me because I want to take specific advertising classes and certain times so that I can participate in AAF events. The speakers did do a good job of showing the class resources for study abroad timing and class schedules. I think that a summer abroad trip or a three week study abroad will be the best options for me, but the speakers for the study abroad trip will definitely be hearing from me in the near future.

Advertising Club

The best decision I have made as a college student so far has definitely been attending the student run Advertising Club. I have a very strong interest in the world of advertising, especially in the creative and account branches. This was one of the few clubs I signed up for that I knew about prior to the involvement fair in the beginning of the year, and it was number one on my list. My first experience with this club was at the involvement fair, and it raised my level of excitement quite a bit. Coming from a high school where clubs just meant hanging out with friends, I was very surprised to hear what this club was really like. When I asked the president of the club what we would do, she told me that the club offered a plethora of opportunity. That caught my attention very quickly. The president of the club told me that the club was created to assist advertising majors in learning about how to find internships and jobs. My prayers were answered! I have always had the thought in the back of my head of,”How the hell do I find an internship?” I hadn’t even attended a meeting, and I was in love.

On the night of the first meeting I was trembling with excitement and intimidation. I have had the urge to learn about advertising for quite some time. Ad club seemed like the way to cheat the system of taking all your gen ed classes first, and I was going right to the good stuff. I noticed that most of the people in the club were sitting farther in the back and I took this as an opportunity to make my presence known. I talked to the chair members for fifteen minutes before the meeting started and they seemed to like me a lot. Talking to them really helped with the intimidation I had and I felt even more comfortable.

The meeting began shortly after my conversation with the vice president of the club ended and it was time to get down to business. The first half of the meeting was introducing all the executive chair members. I was very jealous to see the internship experiences that all of the chair members and I still stride to match their accomplishments. The next quarter of the meeting was talking about important organizations some members should join. The most important organization seemed to be the AAF. The AAF is the best way to find jobs in the advertising field and to stay connected to the advertising world. It was advised to join this organization as a junior or senior, so I still have some time. During a sidebar, I asked one of the executive chair members how to get more involved and he said that I could become a sub-chair member by assisting a chair member. This was my time to really get involved, and I was going to do anything to get the sub-chair position.

“Anyone who wants to be an assistant to a chair member raise your hand,” said the president to all of the new members. Along with myself, three others raised their hands for the position, and I found my competitors. I had no clue how the voting process worked or what requirements this position needed, but I told myself I would do everything in my power to try to get it. “Ok, everyone who raised their hands, come to the front and tell your piers why you should have the position,”is what followed, and I was terrified. I do not have the strongest public speaking skills, but that was not where the problem lied. I had no experience, no real advertising knowledge, no real reason of why I should get the job. The only tool I had in my arsenal was the fact that Ad Club was one of the two clubs I joined. This meant that I would have no other commitments and I could focus all my attention and efforts on assisting the chair. This strategy seemed to outshine the two people that were after me, but the last one of my competitors had it all. He was a transfer student from Altoona who already had two years of advertising knowledge under his belt. On top of that Ad Club was also the only club he joined. As suspected he won in the landslide vote, but that is alright with me. This club has done more for me than any other club I know of would, and it is teaching me how to network. I have a good feeling about this club, and I am excited to see where it takes me.

Know the Code

I was excited to find out that we had a speaker in seminar today, it meant no work and who can be upset with that? The speakers we have had in the past have been a tad dry, but they did well with their job and shared a lot of useful information. I did not have a chance to check the syllabus before class, so the speaker was going to be a complete mystery to myself until he or she introduced his or her self. There happened to be two speakers for us and they seemed very promising. They both were young, almost a fresh out of college young, and that gave me an idea that they were not going to give us the typical “bull” that most older speakers gave. The fact that they were young made me feel related to them, it gave me the feeling that they know where I have been and they were not going to be afraid to tell it how it is. I had an exciting and eager feeling as they began, I did not want my standards for these speakers to have been too high. It was time to find out who these two people were.

My fear had come true. The main speaker introduced herself as a member of the “Know the Code” team and as a board member who helps figure out the punishments and consequences for breaking school policy. She was a part of the team that has punished a few of my poor friends who were cited for breaking the code. I would like to admit that I am not the kind of student who goes out and binge drinks every night of the week, or even on weekends for that matter, but I have had my share of fun in my duration at Penn State. I know that the citations some of my friends have gathered here were not the university’s fault, but their own. Having said that, I still had the feeling that this speaker was part of the system that has created the seemingly endless bound of rules that this university has, and I almost felt betrayed. Luckily for myself, that feeling soon changed and I began to listen to what she was talking about.

At first she talked about the certain punishments alcohol related incidents could have and the prices that stack up with them. I was intimidated to hear this because that kind of problem can really impact a record and is expensive. Although this was intimidating for me, I have heard it all before and my worries quickly subsided. The next part of her speech was about the rights of the victims. I did not know that victims had rights. This captured a lot of interest from the class. We learned that there is in fact a defense we could have if the code of conduct is broken. There are alternatives to being suspended and options that could significantly cut down on the fine costs. I hope that this will never apply to me, but it was nice to know that I have rights.

The next part of the speech was more applied and by far the most fun I have had in a class. Very applicable questions involved with alcohol, sex, and drugs were placed on the projector and we had to describe what an average student such as ourselves would do in certain situations. I was fortunate enough to be called on to describe to Dr. C what “pre-gaming” was. I knew that no judgement would be passed in this class atmosphere, but I can definitely say I was uncomfortable. However, I was not the truly unlucky student in the room. The guy sitting next to me had to describe to the speakers and professor how he asks for consent in sexual situations. The poor guy had no clue how to answer the question, and it certainly made for an uncomfortable situation. However, from this whole uncomfortable series of events came a very good revelation. It was better for us to feel awkward and learn the rules rather than us feeling awkward and being in trouble with the school or even the police. Knowing the rules is an advantage for students to follow them or at least act in a more responsible manner, and I am glad that our speaker shared this knowledge with us.

 

Library Meeting

Yesterday instead of meeting in the usual classroom, the AD/PR freshmen seminar had a field trip to the library. The purpose of this field trip was, again, to learn about the vast resources Penn State has to offer to its students. This was slightly different to our meeting with Nikki the previous week. This time we were not learning how to make blogs or how to find tutorials, but instead, we focused on finding careers. That may sound like a tad of an exaggeration, but to me that is what this lesson felt like. In this lesson we learned about how Penn State resources that drastically improve students’ chances of finding a good job.

At first this lesson felt like every tech lesson I have ever been apart of in high school. People were trying to sit as far away from the teacher as they could. At first people were trying to get on Facebook, Twitter, or using their phones to talk to friends. At first I thought I had the best seat in the house. I had to the back row so no one behind me could look at my screen and that immediately changed as soon as Dr. C sat down right next to me. The librarian in charge of teaching this class then introduced herself, thus beginning class. One of the first things the librarian talked about was the topic that many students dread; databases. When it came to databases, I knew of their importance but never really used them. I always thought that search engines would do the job perfectly for me, and never gave any kind of database any thought. However this librarian quickly changed my attitude towards them.

The librarian began to stress how important databases can be for research and assignments, but then she started referencing them in the same sentence as careers. I have always had a fear that I may get a job that I will resent all my life, so when the topic of a career came up I stood at attention. The databases and search engines we learned were all about advertising or communications careers. I have never really known how many different subfields of advertising jobs there were, and my mind was about to be blown. The options seemed limitless. When I clicked on a job that seemed familiar to me four more jobs in that first job’s subfield would appear. It seemed like jobs in advertising were like a hydra, you cut off one head (job) and four more appear.

I was getting lost in excitement with all the options that had presented themselves to me. I mean there are so many jobs there has to be one perfect for me, right? As I was searching I looked up and realized I was completely ignoring the lesson. I had so many overwhelming feelings I physically did not know what to do. After some assistance from Dr. C, I was all caught up with the lesson. I did not want to leave my search, but I did want to respect the librarian teaching and her lesson so I followed with it. The ending of the lesson was not the most exciting in the world, but it was the one obstacle holding me back from my job search. That wait was so exciting for me I felt that if I paid better attention the lesson would move faster and I could continue. Unfortunately, the lesson did not move aster, but I can at least say I learned quite a lot from this lesson. Now that I am in the higher level education, I am convinced that databases can make all the difference.

 

connolly-ahern13-3

Nikki Moore

This past week, the tech assistant Nikki Moore came to our class to discuss the multiple assets that the Penn State ANGEL website can offer to students. I will willingly say that I am not very computer savvy so this experience was somewhat intimidating for me. Penn State has one of the largest student bodies in the country, so my expectations of the online resources were not bright. However as soon as Nikki began talking I felt comforted. She seemed like the type of person that was in the same boat as me at one point in her life. She spoke with so much simplicity that it made me feel like I was Steve Jobs, and for me, that was a good start.

Nikki first showed the class a site called lynda.com. This site was basically a search engine for tutorials on various types of computer softwares. This especially caught my interest. As a photographer, photoshop is a highly needed tool and I do not know how to use it very well. Nikki went over to the examples of what software was on lynda.com, and lo and behold the first example was for photoshop. At that point almost all my anxiety and frustrations with my current technology knowledge disappeared.

After her brief introduction to lynda.com, Nikki began to show us the different navigation tools in ANGEL. She made it seem so simple, I almost could not believe that I had no understanding of it beforehand. I will admit, the content was not the most exciting in the world, and it definitely did not seem to get the class to sit on the edge of their seats, but it was informative. Nikki did exactly what she needed to do, and I really appreciated how she stayed away from getting into the excruciating technological details.

Finally, with about roughly thirty minutes before class came to an end, Nikki went into the meat and potatoes of her lesson: the blog. I have never blogged before, and for me at least, blogging seemed like something twelve year old girls did when they had nothing better to do. You could say that I was not very excited. However, Nikki came through again. The customization options of our own websites was what really grabbed my attention. Again, Nikki emphasized the simplicity of creating these websites and blogs which kept me from a frustrating experience. I give my thanks to  Nikki, with her visit, I became a functioning member of the technological society.

 

connolly-ahern13-2

Interaction Fair at Penn State

This past week was quite an exciting one, especially for the upcoming freshmen. Not only did we all get to participate in the excitement of moving into a college and obtain the long awaited independence from our parents, but we all experienced what Penn State has to offer. The first weekend started off with a bang of social interaction between all of the new Penn State students; between going to parties and trying to make a good first impression with the roommate, the campus never slept. Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end, and thus began the first day of classes.

There was excitement in the air on Monday morning when students began traveling to their classes, but the place that drew the most attention was the HUB. Every year the HUB host the Interaction Fair for all Penn State students. This fair consists of all the clubs Penn State offers, all of them eager to have new members.The fair went from the late morning to early evening Monday through Thursday and had new clubs every day. Those who came the earliest had to endure the line stretching all the way to the steps leading downstairs, and the late ones had to squish there way into the small auditorium where all of their fellow pupils were ahead joining countless clubs.

Upon entry to the Interaction Fair, my heart began to pound with excitement. Penn State is very well known for the countless clubs it has, and to finally have the ability to join those clubs was a very special feeling. After swiping my student ID and receiving my free Penn State planner at the door, all my thoughts were drowned out by the sound of excitement, as my fellow students were joining the clubs that peaked their interest. I just did not know how to start this experience. With all of the signs, club boards, and rows, I felt overwhelmed and excited. After a rapid eenie meanie miney moe game in my head, I chose a row in the middle of the auditorium.

Walking down the first row was tough. I am only a freshman and I did not want to make any bad impressions with peers, so I walked defensively. Finally, the first interesting booths. It only took about five minutes of shuffling and letting people trample all over me and I finally came to a booth of interest. “So you’re interested in ballroom dancing, huh?”, said the president of the ballroom dancing club to me. I have never ballroom danced in my life, and I still am unsure about what a ballroom really is, but I had such an excitement of trying something new I replied,”Well, I really want to try it,”.

I finally broke the ice. I joined a club. I have never felt such a release of weight from my shoulders in my life, and I was addicted. I signed up for the courses that I wanted to from the start like the advertising, marketing, and photography club, but then I lost control. There were so many clubs I was interested in, I just had to join them all. Next thing I knew, I joined the Phroth club, a THON organization, and even a cartoon club. I know I will not be able to balance all of these clubs with my social life, but I really want to try. I guess all I can say is that the next few weeks are going to be busy.

connolly-ahern13-1