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Freshman Year to Junior Year

Every now and then I like to look back on my time as a freshmen at Auburn. I can sit and ponder my actions, mostly good, or Facebook stalk myself and check out my freshmen year album. Either way, there are some fond memories. But, with those memories they are definitely some I could say that was a total freshman move.

I am pretty proud of the way I held myself together as a freshman at Auburn. I surrounded myself with a community of friends, made good grades (to begin with), found a church home, and got involved on campus. I didn’t slow down. Life was moving at a steady pace and I was speeding on with it.

 So lets start with the advice. Here’s a few points I have to give my freshmen self:

1.     Watch what you eat: I did gain some weight. My biggest fear coming to college was that freshmen 15. Well I let my fear get the best of me and I did put on a few pounds. So that one night in my dorm alone studying and I’m hungry, I’d say no to ordering that pizza I did not need. How about a salad, or maybe cereal.

2.     Football players are not celebrities, not matter what pick they are in the draft: Yes, I love sports and everyone knows it. One night on the intramural fields my Alpha Chi flag football team happened to be playing Sammie Coates’s girlfriends team. After the game I marched my freshmen self over to Sammie and asked him for a picture. NO. WHY. The seniors warned me that was weird, so I would say listen to your elders.

3.     Fraternity and Sorority Swaps: This is not something I regret, but you’re only a freshman once. Go to the swaps. I was a stubborn freshman and only attended three swaps because I thought they were dumb, which they were. My friends talk every once and a while about memories at swaps and I’m out of the conversation because I was not there.

4.     Rodeo: Do not go as a freshman. I like country music and all, but that is not what rodeo is. I was in for a rude awakening and quite frankly should not have been there.

 Second semester I made some choices I wish I could take back, but I can just laugh now. My grades went down because I looked at my first semester and was satisfied. I learned really quickly you couldn’t just stop doing schoolwork. I found myself in teacher’s office hours (which do indeed help) every single day trying to find a way to work on my grades. Over Christmas break freshmen year I made the choice I would live at home that summer and work for the YMCA for a second summer. That was probably the worst decision of my freshmen year because come March, I was informed I wouldn’t be hired back to the YMCA. If I could go back I would join my friends with interviewing for camps to work at over the summer. My summer ended up working out, but if I could go back I would find myself working at a camp in Texas with my friends.

 Some of my best memories from freshmen year come from being in the library at the wee hours of the night. The library was used for social hour rather than studying and I would be there until 1am almost every night. I don’t think I have ever regretted the times I sat in the library just laughing about being out so late. Those are memories that can only be created as a freshman in college, past that it’s just weird. Some of my other favorite memories come from lunch after church. Freshmen year I would leave for church around 10:15a.m. and I wouldn’t be back to my dorm until about 2p.m. After church my friends and I would always go to lunch and talk about the sermon, our lives, football and the week ahead of us. Now days I am so busy that I cant ever find time for lunch after church. The community I built from those times is a memory I hold dear to my heart. Those friends have been the group I have done life with at Auburn since the beginning.

 Freshmen year is a time for fun and memories. You are just freshmen in college and it’s made to be a time of mistakes, big decisions and a lot of fun. I enjoyed my time as a freshman, but I am thankful for the maturity that has grown within me the past few years at Auburn.

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Coming into Auburn University, Public Relations was my chosen career path. At that point I could not even give a clear definition of what that even meant. I just knew some lady who worked for ESPN mentioned Public Relations one time and I took that term and ran with it.

 “So what do you want to do with your life?” As an 18 year old that may be hard to answer, unless you’re one of those athletes that goes professional or a computer genius.

 The hard part about being underclassmen are those horrible classes that everyone is required to take. I think to myself, “Where is formula for slope ever going to face me in life?” Well, luckily for Public Relations majors there are only a few of those. With this degree there are minimal math and science requirements. The pre-major classes are focused more on writing and journalism.

 Public Relations doesn’t define one single job. There are many elements that make up the profession. The special thing I take away from the program at Auburn is the availability to have a focus in a specific industry. For me, I want to work in sports. So, Auburn has multiple classes that I can take to ensure I get experience with sports media in Public Relations. Professionals in the industry have taught all the sports classes that I have taken. This is unique because they can give better insight to lessons they are teaching. I have known others to pursue a focus in government, non-profit and entertainment.

 In major classes, students have the ability to really get to know the professors. I have never been in a specific Public Relations class when there were more than 20 students. Less students means more time to meet with a professor. Office hours with professors, if used frequently, can improve the student-professor relationship. By doing this, it gives the professor a reason to recommend you for a job after graduation. Also, with less students its easier for a professor to spend time working with an individual who may want extra help with his or her work.

 Though I have not taken the next two classes I am about to mention, I know the impact they have. Style and Design is a class where you work on many different skills including writing, Photoshop, website creation and coding. Every semester I look forward to seeing the published websites by the students in this class. The websites lead into my next point, connections. The Public Relations program requires each student to complete an internship. Auburn has a broad range of alumni that work in many areas of the country. Through internship evaluations and alumni clubs, Auburn and the Public Relations Department make it easy to connect with professionals in the field.

 As you can see there is a spot for everyone in this major. An interest in politics can lead you to law school, an interest in non-profit can lead you to the Red Cross and interest in sports can lead you to ESPN; the opportunities are indefinite.

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Spring Break 2017

Spring Break is here and I have my floaters ready. I will be spending my Spring Break on a cruise ship that is south bound to the Bahamas. I am traveling with 46 of my closest friends, otherwise known as the Alpha Chi Omega 2014 Pledge Class. Alpha Chi has a tradition that is never broken when it comes to Spring Break. Every year the junior class of Alpha Chi goes together on a cruise. I have looked forward to this trip from when I first stepped into the Alpha Chi chapter room.

 Of course I want to be sure and have a good time on this trip but my main goal is to relax without any distraction relating to school, work or internships. This semester has been the busiest of them all since my time at Auburn. I want to be sure that I take this week to let the stress of school and work pass by me. I do not want to be constantly on the search for an internship, but rather enjoy the presence of my friends and the ocean.

 My objectives are as follows: To ensure I relax on this trip I am leaving my laptop behind, to relax by not having access to the internet and to eat whatever I want because food is unlimited. Considering we will be in the middle of the ocean, we will have no cell phone service.

 I plan on implanting each objective through a set strategy. On any normal day you can find my laptop within 100 feet of me. I do work and school from it everyday, and its time to take a break away from that, so it will stay in Auburn. As for my cell phone, there is the option to buy Wi-Fi on the boat, but I will choose to defer. There’s only a few times where food is unlimited for four days, so I plan on eating ice cream each time I see it, and not worry a thing about the calories.

 To have a good time on this cruise and relax, my friends and I are holding ourselves accountable to what we want to take away from this trip. There are very few of us taking work on the boat, therefore we can account for each other to be in the moment.

 To remember all the fun that will take place, I am taking a Go Pro that I can attach to anything. By taking the Go Pro it will decrease the chances of me wanting to take my phone everywhere I go. The GO Pro also allows me to enjoy while I am recording it, which is a benefit.

 I believe my goal will be easy to achieve once I get on the boat next week. If I follow each objective, strategy and tactic that I have written up, my trip will be successful. It may be weird to not be connected to the world at my fingers, but we all need a break from reality sometimes. Bon Voyage!

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Valentines Date Social

Annual Valentines Date Social

          Some may wonder, is there a method to asking a boy to a sorority function? We, as girls, flipped sides with the boys once we left high school. In high school the boys asked us, but now the ball is in our hands. So, how do we do it? I like to think that we use a little process called the diffusion theory. Lets take a look at it.

Step 1: Awareness

Here we are, a Wednesday night in January sitting in the chapter room waiting for the social chair to stand up. “Alpha Heartbreakers is February 9th at Sky and it’s a date social,” she says. The chapter room lets out a big sigh and thinks to themselves, “Here we go.” The confirmation of the day and location means its time to start looking for a date.

 Step 2: Interest

Now it’s time to scroll through Facebook and see who is single and ready to mingle, or just hangout for a night. Statements that might be spoken in this process include:

“Oh he is cute but I think he has a thing with so and so.”

“I don’t know him well enough.”

“I just want to take someone I’m friends with.”

“Oh! What about him? Do yall think he would be a fun date?”

“Has anyone asked him yet?”

 Step 3: Trail

We want to go through a trial with our friends before we go through it with a potential date so we can avoid any error. In this process, we don’t want to make any errors. So we do a trial run. Once we have chosen who are going to ask to the social we do a little bit of thinking. Yes, as a junior we have asked a guy to a social numerous times, but we still need a little help from our friends. “Hey can you look at this text and tell me if I should send it?”

That’s a typical question you may get from a friend a few weeks before the social.

“When should I ask him?”

Well the social is in a month, but we want to time if perfectly. If we wait too long, then someone else may ask him. If we ask now we may seem a little too eager.

  Step 4: Evaluation

Now, before we send that text we are going to evaluate the situation one more time. Keeping in mind that this is the Valentines Day social, is it still okay to ask this guy? We don’t want them to feel like we are asking them to be our Valentine, but hey we need a date! We evaluate the pros and cons of our potential date once again.

 Step 5: Adoption

It’s time to get some confidence and ask away! We have gone through the process of learning of the idea, finding interest in it, trail and error, and evaluating the idea. Now, it’s time to press the send button and ask this boy to the Valentines “Alpha Heartbreakers” Social.

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Farewell to London

This trip so amazing. I experienced so many different things. I got to see the business world, tourists world, and even meet some friends a long the way and see the real world. One of my favorite parts of the trip was attending business visits. I thought it was so cool to hear the different aspects of the PR and journalism world in London. Some valuable things I learned on the trip would be the things I learned in the business visits. Each speaker gave different suggestions and comments that will be helpful in my career. One of the speakers talked about how we should narrow our studies down and focus on one main subject and I thought that was a valuable thing to hear. I also learned how to deal with money. This was my first time out of the country so had the chance to experience currency exchange. I learned the exchange is very frustrating. One cool experience was running into Auburn friends. I ran into Auburn students on two different occasions while on the trip. I ran into a former classmate while sitting at a cafe in Paris and then I ran into a friends from church sitting at a restaurant in London. The study abroad experience is something I would suggest to everyone.

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Brighton

I really enjoyed Brighton, England. I thought it was cool to experience a town with a beach. The pier in Brighton reminded me of the pier that is in Santa Monica, California. I absolutely loved all of the little shops that were in Brighton.

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May 22

Today we had an excellent visit with the PR firm Oglivy. Our speaker, Marshall, was so energetic. He really grabbed our attention by asking a lot about us and what we wanted to do in the future. He is an American living in London. He has had experience in politics and crisis management in Washington D.C. He showed many great clips during his presentation of ads that him and his team have created. He puts the emotions that people sometimes people do not want to acknowledge into his commercials. He gave great advice to get started in internships early. He told us to remember that you can not go straight into working for a big firm or company. You have to start lower and work your way up into a big position. Marshall explained that he was a competitor. He said that in his meetings people comment on how he talks competitively. Marshall told us that this competitor attitude will win arguments in the PR world. He put a lot of emphasis on the question why. Why do this work like this? Why are you passionate about this? Why does this work this way? In the middle of the meeting he asked me, "What are you passionate about?" So I responded with no hesitation, "sports." He said that wasn't specific enough so I narrowed it to football, and then was told to make it even more specific so I narrowed it to Auburn Football. Then he told me to make an argument for Alabama football. I then had to on the spot talk about how great Alabama football is. He told us if we are passionate about something we need to be able to argue with what it is opposite of. Another point he gave us was to make friends with the press before we need to make friends with them. This visit was very informational. I throughly enjoyed hearing about the PR experience of Marshall at Ogilvy. #AUCMJNLondon

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Today we visited BBC and the Jacksonville Jaguars. I was in amazement at both places. First stop was BBC. BBC reminded me a lot of CNN so it was cool to see the British side of it, When we first walked in we got to look over the newsroom. This was so cool seeing everyone down on the floor working to produce this show. I really liked how the backdrop to the live news was the newsroom, it showed the work that was being done while on air. The lady that led our tour and presentation was very intelligent. She had a lot of background in media. I could tell she really loved what she did. The presentation that was giving was excellent. It included clips of the actually news to show how they broadcast their information. BBC does a good job of reaching a specific audience. They will format a news article into a way that a certain age group or culture group would best receive it, They are so diverse in how they present their media. Each person on their team brainstorms different ways to showcase stories. It was cool to see what they have done with top stories over the past few years. As we walked through the newsroom she showed us the different areas of the room. There was an area for worldly news and domestic news. It was so organized. It was cool to see how just across the room there was stories being made on multiple countries. What I thought was really neat is in the elevators, or lifts as they call them in England, voiced different stations from BBC. One elevator could be the sports talk radio, one could be the pop radio, and one could be news radio. My favorite part of this visit was getting to walk in and around the newsroom.

The next visit of the day was with the Jacksonville Jaguars. Being the sports lover I am, I was in awe as we walked in the building and saw the sign for the NFL. I was in realization that I was about to be in a business meeting with a representative of the NFL. The lady who led our meeting had a passion for sports. She had worked for man different teams in many different sports. She gave a very detailed explanation of the main goal to help the fan base of the Jacksonville Jaguars. They Jaguars are based in Florida but they play one game a year in London. The NFL is using the Jags as a test in their research on adding NFL teams to Europe. So far there has been good success. Each game that is played in England is sold out. The Jags are the only team to have commercial rights. By the time that commercials come out for the Jags in England, the tickets are already sold out for the games. The lady we spoke with said this is one of the main struggles with getting the word out that the Jags are in town. She said when the tickets are already sold out, they encourage families and fans to come out and be a part of the pre game festivities so they can learn more about the team. My favorite part about this visit is hearing the plans the NFL has to further the sport of American football.

#AUCMJNLondon

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May 19

Today we visited with Strix. Strix is  PR firm that deals with Aerospace. i wasn’t sure how the visit would go considering I was not very interested in the topic. s we walked into the building I was very impressed. The staircase leading up to our meeting room was beautiful. The company was very prepared for us. As walked in we were offered tea, coffee, and cookies which was very appreciated. Our speaker was very good. He was a knowledgable man with a lot of experience. I wasn’t sure at first if he was American or British because he sounded American. He explained to us that he grew up in America and worked in DC for a little while. He was a journalist in his younger years then had then went back to school for Public Relations. He has a lot of background experience in how to get into International Public Relations and Journalism. He gave us excellence tips on how to get involved in the PR world. He told us to network, or always remember those who you meet and keep in touch with them. His advice was to also learn a foreign language. He said to focus on one country and learn that language and that would help us to better find a job. Another tip he gave us was to focus on one subject matter of that country whether it be politics, aerospace, sports, etc. I felt as though the information he gave us was very helpful and answered a lot of questions. I am interested to see how these tips will play out in my journey in the PR world. 

#AUCMJNLondon

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The business men covered this market. They were on their lunch break and all having a beer together. This was something that I thought was very neat to see.

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May 15, 2015

Today we visited The Daily Mirror and Amazon Prime. We woke up this morning and the weather was perfect. The sun was out and the wind was mild. The temperature was very comfortable. Our first stop of the day was The Daily Mirror. As we pulled up in our bus to our building I was very impressed. People everywhere were in suits and looked to be important. We had to sign in at the front before we could go any further. The reception area we waited in when we got to our floor was very professional. I felt like I couldn't talk unless spoken to. I loved the set up of our meeting room. We were on a high floor of the building and it was just like a business meeting room you would see in a movie. A glass window covered the wall and you could see birds flying right next to it. The first guy who spoke was interesting. One communication thing I picked up on that is different here than in the U.S. is that they are more open to talking about their political parties than we are in the U.S. He was not afraid to say what party he supports, or what party the paper supports. The second guy who spoke seemed very good with people. He was fun and interactive. I thought it was so cool walking through the newsroom. Walking right past people writing articles to be featured in the paper or online was so cool. We were shown every aspect of the room and what exactly goes on in every corner. Walking through this was my favorite part of that meeting. The second meeting of the day was with Amazon prime. Hearing from an Auburn grad working in London for a major cooperation was very eye opening. Seeing for myself that people from Auburn really do go on to work for big cooperations boosted my confidence level for any job I may want in the future. This guy told us how important it is to know people and remember those people because you never know when you will see them down the road in your career. What stood out to me is when he talked to us about how many available jobs there are in London. Unlike the U.S., he mentioned you could basically choose what company you want to work for because there are so many available jobs. Today's business visits surpassed my expectations and I can't wait to see what the others hold! #AUCMJNLondon

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First full day in London!! Wow! When I got here yesterday I thought “this doesn’t look like London! It rains in London!” Well, I got the full London affect today. It was a rainy, cold day. I’m glad I got to experience London in its stereotype. I got to wear my rainboots and hop around in puddles in the streets of London. Big Ben, The Tower of London, and all of the Royal building are a lot closer to each other than I realized they would be. In one of my pictures you can see through the raindrops a group of school kids. I thought it was so cool seeing a group of natives walking around in their school uniforms. Also in one of my pictures is me and a telephone booth. When I think of London I think of people taking pictures in these booths. I had to be the tourist I am and get a picture in one. It was a great first day in London just seeing the city as a whole and I can’t wait to see what’s ahead! #AUCMJNLondon

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Sarah Beth speaking

Today as I sit in the Birmingham Airport I begin my journey to London, England. Never thought I would hear those words. I have been planning this trip since December 2014. I am joined by a group of Auburn University students and a professor. Also tagging along just happens to be one of my sorority sisters. 

In the next two weeks I will be blogging about everything I see, hear, or just want to talk about in London. I tend to run in to a celebrity almost everywhere I go, so stay tuned for my picture with the Queen herself.