Let Me Show You

Well that title sounds entirely morbid, but I swear it’s not! It is just the end of my last semester as a full time student and what a relief that is. This semester has been nothing short of stressful. From class projects to running recruitment for my sorority and of course capstone- there was a lot going on. Weirdly it was not my hardest semester though and I think that is thanks to making sure I was only taking three classes with capstone.  Today I will be delivering my capstone presentation to our client Marathon Petroleum Corporation. The problem statement came with the goal to hire more diverse talented individuals to the MPC team. To do this we had to come up with an integrated marketing communications plan after conducting a bunch of research and surveying real people for their preferences. The project was both given plenty of guidelines and limited guidelines at the same time so as to ensure the teams were being creative and kept an open mind throughout the process.  T...

We are officially in week 13 of the semester, making next week Thanksgiving break, followed by two more weeks of class! This semester has flown by so quickly yet so slowly at the same time. August to the end of September went by in the blink of an eye. October to now has felt fairly slow, but with lots to do. The past two weeks have gone fairly quickly with more evening tasks and more hours at work.  So far, the last two weeks of class are going to look a little bit like: paper, presentation or pitch over the paper and thankfully only one final. I’m currently in three classes and capstone. One class is principles of finance which only has a final exam to wrap up the semester. My other two classes are in public relations: issues in PR has a reflection paper on our CliftonStrengths with a five-minute presentation; while social media strategies and campaigns- the class I write these blogs for- will be writing out a planbook for our client and doing a pitch presentation on what we thin...

Not only was this past weekend Homecoming but another sorority tradition- big little calls. Both my little and my twin got littles this year so we are preparing for Big Little Reveal this coming Saturday. That means lots and lots of crafting! Each family has different crafting traditions, but overall, most littles get a tie blanket picked out by their big, a few sets of letters, some canvases and whatever other traditions the family has.  Painting the canvases and the sets of the letters is my favorite thing to do. Most of the time, canvases will have inspirational quotes, lyrics to the little’s favorite song or relate to one of their interests. It’s fun to not only make them, but get to know them in the process of making them. Plus, a lot of the time, we will write a meaningful note on the back of it that says why we chose the design or how it made us think about them.  Last year, I got my little— Isabelle— and it was so much fun to put all of her crafts together. I made her ...

Fall break was this past weekend and I will say: it was beyond overdue. The weekend prior, I briefly went home to visit my brother who was in from Seattle, but that wasn’t long enough of a break. This weekend was full of time well spent, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t have a schedule. Friday night, my boyfriend and I visited my house to spend time with my mom. This was done the best possible way we know how: eating food on the couch while watching Grey’s Anatomy. Mom and I were five episodes behind on the last season… so obviously we binged all five of those episodes including the two-hour season finale. All this while my dad was blissfully socializing with some old friends at a retirement party. Saturday morning my boyfriend and I went to First Watch for a delicious pancake breakfast. I always enjoy going there when I’m around and it’s never gotten old in all 21 years that I’ve been going. Mom and Dad had taken us there since the siblings and I were just babies, but I remember be...

This semester, alongside social media strategies and campaigns, I am taking another public relations course: issues in pr. This class has been far different from any class I’ve ever had, but certainly not in a bad way. On the first day of class the professor said it would be a lot like book club and by now, I can’t imagine she’s wrong. So far we’ve read all the way through one book- Stamped: Racism, Anti-racism and You- and mostly through a second.  While part of our grade in this class is to lead discussions and contribute to them, we also have a few writing assignments, one of which is a book review, which, for the first book, I think is worth sharing: Stamped: Racism, Anti-Racism and You written by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X Kendi, is a critical analysis of America’s history through the lens of racist ideals. Reynolds and Kendi’s arguments throughout the book were continuous and often directly stated: (1) this was not your ordinary history book, (2) America was built on racism ...

I am finally in the home stretch! Beginning last Thursday was the three formal rounds of sorority recruitment. As the vice president of membership for my chapter, I was in charge of everything encompassing each night. From selecting outfits to house decor and conversation topics to pairing who from our chapter the potential new members would talk to. Recruitment is truly a science and while I certainly enjoyed it, I’m glad it is over.  Planning recruitment had to come close to what it’s like when planning a wedding. I only made that connection when going into work and talking with a newer employee whose wedding is in 10 or so days. Thankfully, I didn’t have to deal with any food, but many aspects are just as rigorous. When planning a wedding, seating arrangements are extremely intentional. You don’t want to pair anyone who you don’t think would get along. In recruitment, this same principle is applied to pairing potential new members (PNMs) with current members. We try our best to ...

Last year was my Junior year of college and every day I walked to the Starbucks at the front of campus to grab myself a ham & swiss croissant and a venti iced white chocolate mocha with oat milk. As we all know, Starbucks is expensive- my polar points quickly ran out and my boyfriend graciously offered up his own polar points when they did but on days where I couldn’t snag his card, I used the loyalty app and started collecting stars. What does this mean? Free drinks? Free food? No, free cups. For one, the cups are pretty. I liked the patterns and that some of them had a metal interior to keep my drink cold for longer. For two, I hated the cups they gave in store. All the flavor that made me buy the same coffee drink every day was at the bottom. The sippy lid didn’t cut it and neither did the amount of plastic waste I would generate getting the drink every day plus a straw. So I got a cup! And then another. And pretty soon I had one cup for every day of the week. I was a little bit...

It is the day before Welcome Weekend starts at Ohio Northern University. You’re frantically opening an Amazon package to find out what goodies you will using and how to set it up. You put a phone harness on your chest but the video isn’t stable! It’s bouncing all over the place and you can’t see faces! What’s next? There’s a harness that goes over your head? But the weight of the phone is too heavy! It’s grabbing your hair and falling! You think of an idea- “if it is falling because it has nothing to grab onto, why don’t we get a helmet to strap it to?” THAT’S IT!  You rush to Walmart with your coworker. You’re in the bikes and helmets section when… there’s so many choices. You were told to get a skater helmet, but you know it would move around— not stable enough. You see other adult helmets. This one has a gear on the back to fit the shape of your head! You put it on, desperately trying to figure out if this is the one! You fasten every strap and you mount the phone to the helmet....

As an avid foodie living in Ada, I’ve got to say, times are tough. Back home, my mom is always making something new or the family is always finding a new restaurant to bite into. Luckily, Columbus wanted to be renamed “Flavortown” for good reason. Some of my personal favorites are the delectable burgers from The Pint Room or a good porky fig pizza from Dewey’s Pizza.  But Ada isn’t all bad. There’s a solid four pizza places, two Chinese restaurants, a Mexican fiesta and a few run-of-the-mill fast food joints. Also, it wouldn’t be a college town if it didn’t have a few bars. Viva Maria’s, the Italian restaurant in town is known for absolutely massive portions of food. A kid’s size spaghetti may be served on a smaller platter, but it forms a small mountain. Thankfully, it is delicious too. With an extensive menu and virtually any pasta dish you can think of, it’s hard to be dissatisfied with your visit. This is also one of the four pizza places in town. Served on their signature thin...

  The most recent project I’m working on is creating virtual tour videos for every campus building . Currently the focus is on the academic buildings. We just completed the video for the Pettit College of Law which turned out beautifully. It created a whimsical atmospheric feel to the law building and its features which fit nicely with the wooden facets of the building. My boss created that initial video and now I must copy the look and feel for the remainder of the buildings. However, with this project the approach feels like the opposite of one step at a time. Currently I am putting together two tour videos and a facility tour video for the football portion of the Taft memorial building. The facility tour is, of course, a different style from the other three videos, but thankfully is supposed to match the feel of the esports facility tour that I initially created the look and feel of. I know I will enjoy that project when I get the chance to add in the fun sporty attributes. Howe...

  Because I opted to not be an orientation leader this year, I applied to be a mentor for incoming students in the Dicke college of business. The mentorship program specifically looks for sophomore or higher student leaders of the business college. The background required for this includes leadership positions held in campus organizations, in the workplace or the general attitude of a leader in the classroom. Personally, this is something I really enjoy and hope to get even more involved in on campus this year. This week I found out that I was accepted as a mentor and I couldn’t be more excited to get involved!  The Dicke mentorship program is incorporated in the freshman year class- Ethical Leadership, taught by the mentorship program director Dr. McHugh. I had the pleasure of being in her class this past spring (my sophomore year) and luckily was paired with an awesome mentor, leading me to get involved. The mentorship program holds several events in order to get to know the...

As ONU prepares for new student orientation here in the next week or so, things are looking pretty different. To start, this year is ONU’s sesquicentennial anniversary- also known as its 150th birthday. To celebrate and promote the occasion, various colorful banners have emerged on campus. These include ONU colors, fonts and images like we’ve never seen before. Meaning, we want this year’s branding to stand out.  For the past two weeks, I have had the honor to create and edit together the videos being used for orientation. I am super excited for the incoming class to view these videos and get hyped about becoming a part of the polar bear family. The orientation theme this year is ONE ONU. This is to emphasize the close knit polar bear pride felt by all our current students and alumni. With 150 years under our belt, we've developed a university built on collaboration, community, excellence, diversity, faith, integrity and service which we’ve emphasized in the video. This video was ...

Since being in college, I’ve taken on a whole new view of what the experience is, and I’ve concluded that being a college student is character development . The popular social media platform TikTok has thousands of viral posts about being “the main character,” and “romanticizing your life” all with edgy voice-overs and building music. And I think that by the end of college, I could absolutely curate one of those viral posts that show how much I’ve changed and made myself the main character in my world.  I am now a junior at Ohio Northern University, and I can say with total confidence that I have dramatically changed within these past two years. My freshman year, I was still finding my groove, as most other freshmen are doing. I was independent already, but I was finally independent on my own, living in a space mostly my own, and navigating what I wanted to do next, on my own . At first, I had no clue how in the hell to do that. But then, the first semester passed, and I changed m...