University Marketing

I thought it was really interesting learning and reading about universities and the different things they have to think about when marketing. Not only are they marketing to prospective students but also to prospective faculty and donors.

Every university is different in what the emphasize to their target audiences. Some really push a specific program that they are known for, others find that showing off their campus brings more people. Regardless of what marketing technique they use a university's primary goal is education.

Books, Books, Books

Throughout this semester there were three different books that I was assigned to read for my social media class. "Share This", "Real-Time Marketing" and "Measure What Matters" had a lot of overlap in topics but also had some individual insights.

My favorite book was probably "Real-Time Marketing". As an art administration minor there were a lot of things in the other two books, especially "Measure What Matters", that I had learned in my minor classes. "Real-Time Marketing" had a lot of new information that I really enjoyed learning.

It was also a lot of fun this semester as I learned about different aspects of social media and then utilized some of the ideas in my officer position of Kappa Phi. I was in charge of the Facebook page this semester and I also created a YouTube account.

Sing-A-Thon in Media

For Sing-A-Thon this year I was in charge of keeping the Facebook page updated and posting videos and pictures. It was a lot of fun trying to pick the best moments to record and post. I decided to put everything together into a montage to try and capture some of the highlights of the weekend.

Life in High Gear

Life has been so crazy. Not only did I only get about four hours of sleep over the weekend because of Sing-A-Thon but I've also had to stay up late trying to get homework done. There are some things that I'm not sure how I got them done on time.

Sing-A-Thon was so much fun this year. Not only did my boyfriend get to come for part of it but I also got to spend time with a lot of my sisters and found out that I was going to be getting a little. The raffles that I put together went over really well and a lot of people bought raffle tickets.

I had a huge research paper due on Tuesday so Monday I worked like crazy to try and get it done. I stayed up late and still had two more pages to write before class. I somehow managed to get it done in the short break that I had before class and even had just enough time to run to the library and print it out.

That night I also got my little as well as Kappa Phi initiated twelve new sisters into the sisterhood. It was a lot of fun and our family got several new members. We got lots of pictures and stayed out probably a little later than we should have but we had fun and that's what matters.

Hopefully the rest of this week will go smoothly. I'm so ready for the semester to be over. I just have to get through two more days of classes and a few finals. I'm so excited but I'm also exhausted. Good luck to everyone!

Kappa Phi Sing-A-Thon!

Every year my sorority, Kappa Phi, holds an event where we invite the campus and others to join us for 24 hours of singing to raise funds for a charity or cause voted on by the sisterhood. This year we are raising money for a little girl who lives in the community, Amelia Griffin, who has Neuroblastoma. All the funds will go to helping her parents with Amelia's healthcare. Organizations on campus sign up to sing for half hour slots and there's games and raffles and just a good time hanging out with friends until random hours of the morning. We're always exhausted afterward but it's a lot of fun and a good time to relax before dead week and finals.

This year we're doing a Frozen theme and I'm in charge of the raffle. I've had a ton of fun putting things together and I really hope they do well. I scoured the Internet looking for ideas and finally narrowed it down to a reasonable amount of items. I consulted my sister for advice as well as she always has some fun ideas.

We're also selling snowflakes this year as an additional way of raising money for Amelia. It's kind of like when grocery stores sell hot air balloons or other shapes and you can put your name on it and they put it on the wall. I designed snowflakes which we're selling and then sending to Amelia along with other goodies and some pictures and videos after Sing-A-Thon. 

I'm really excited for Sing-A-Thon this year. It'll be a lot of fun spending time with my sisters and friends while raising money for a sweet little girl and helping to give her family a blessing this Christmas.

Kappa Phi Sing-A-Thon
December 4, 5 pm - December 5, 5 pm
Mac Activities - Ohio Northern University

If you'd like to make a donation to Amelia feel free to contact myself or Claire Beadle at c-beadle@onu.edu

Another Tough Week

So after everything that happened after my last post I went home and was able to reconnect with some old friends. It was great seeing them. One downside is that I ran into my ex but it wasn't the worst situation. Just a little uncomfortable and my anxiety started to act up. Luckily my friends saw that I was anxious and took me away from him and we sat and talked for awhile.

It's tradition that my sister and I go over and help my grandma cook Thanksgiving dinner the night before so Wednesday night we both went over and helped her prep. I'm always in charge of making the Mac and Cheese so I made a giant triple batch and we made a little extra to eat that night.

The next morning, Thanksgiving, I slept in then had breakfast with my family while we watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. My grandma said that my cousin, who lives with her, was sick so I decided not to go over as early as I had intended in order to lessen the chances of getting whatever she had. I did go to my grandma's a little early in order to help her get everything ready. We had a smaller Thanksgiving this year which was nice. Normally there's anywhere from 15-17 people but this year we only had 9 which was a record low. There were several people sick so that made the number lower too. It was a delicious meal and we all helped clean up before heading home.

Black Friday I had to work so I got up at some crazy hour early in the morning and went to work. My boss knows that I love straightening and organizing the store so this year she had me do something a little different. Instead of running around doing customer service and ringing people out she had me work without a uniform and just in my normal clothes. I was in charge of restocking, straightening and organizing the store while the other employees helped the customers. I had so much fun. Whenever I go home and work I'm always in charge of refolding all the t-shirts. Apparently I do it the best. Our back room was also looking pretty crazy so I was also able to make that look better.

After work I went home and ran some errands before my boyfriend came to visit. He only got a little lost in the dark and once he got there we sat down to dinner. After dinner he wanted to look through my dad's Magic the Gathering card collection so I sat on the couch while he sat on the floor looking through cards. As I sat there I started to feel a little weird, like dinner wasn't sitting well, so I took a Tums and sat back down. A little while later my mom and sister said something about feeling a little off. A little while later I heard one of the run to the bathroom. In less than an hour all three of us were swapping in and out of the two available bathrooms. My poor dad and boyfriend were great and took care of us three sick girls.

By Saturday morning I had stopped emptying my stomach but I still felt absolutely horrible. My poor boyfriend, bless his heart, had slept on the other end of the couch from me and woken up every time I got sick. He took great care of both me and my sister and without him and my dad there is no way us three girls would have made it through the night. We spent all day Saturday just sleeping on and off and watching movies. All of us were exhausted and us girls could barely eat anything. My boyfriend and I watched some Supernatural as he is still flying through it. He just hit season 8. After falling asleep on the couch again I finally felt good enough to move up to my bed.

Sunday morning my mom and mentioned going to church but I was just not feeling up to it. She made breakfast and I was starving, I didn't get very far into it though before I realized that I still wasn't up to eating much. I ate a few bites then gave the rest to my boyfriend who always gets my leftovers. Our family always gets our Christmas tree over Thanksgiving break so that we can have it up before my sister and I get back from finals. That way we can enjoy it the entire time we're home for Christmas. We mostly felt up to it so we all piled in the car and went to find a tree. We were all exhausted so we didn't spend too much time choosing a tree. My boyfriend carried into the house for us and then promptly managed to try to pick it up and it fell on top of me. It was quite the scene and we were all laughing and my sister told us to stay still so she could take pictures.

After expending energy with the tree I was exhausted so we relaxed for a bit then slowly started decorating the tree. I could only stand and help for a short time before I had to sit down and rest. With four of us helping it didn't take long to decorate the tree even with all of us needing a break now and then. We watched our Holiday favorite, White Christmas, then my boyfriend and I headed home.

It wasn't till Tuesday that I finally started to be able to eat again and even then I was still having issues finding something that sounded good. I also couldn't eat very much before my stomach starting feeling off. My dad and boyfriend both ended up getting sick after we did as well. When my dad researched what we had he found something that mimics food poisoning that stays in your system for up to 21 days or something like that. I really hope that I don't continue feeling this exhausted and unable to eat normally until almost Christmas but at least I can eat now.

Tough Week

This last week has been one of the hardest weeks I've had in a while. It started out with multiple days with migraines hitting me at random intervals. This made getting homework done or focusing at all extremely difficult. Then our department found out we had lost one of the theater students to suicide. It hit all of us really hard and I, once again, wasn't able to get much done. Needless to say I was grateful for my professors being understanding and giving me extensions on certain projects.

Thankfully my weekend was much better. My boyfriend had been telling me for a while he had a bunch of surprises planned for this weekend. When I got there the first thing he did was give me an adorable stuffed cat. We were able to hang out for a little bit and then he had to go to work. I hung out with his family and watched a couple of movies. When he got home I helped him heat up some dinner and then we talked for a bit before heading to bed.

The next day we relaxed for most of the day and watched Supernatural. I only recently got my boyfriend to start watching it and he's managed to watch 5 seasons in less than two months. We tend to binge watch it when we hang out. It's a lot of fun. He took me to Denny's for lunch and for dinner we went on a double date with two of his best friends who are dating. On the way to the restaurant we stopped and my boyfriend got me 2 dozen carnations in my favorite colors. For dinner we went to a Japanese Steakhouse which was a new experience for me. We sat at a hibachi grill and the food was cooked right in front of us. It was delicious. I'm definitely going to have to go back some time. 

On Sunday we went to church together for the first time which I really enjoyed and then we ran a few errands and relaxed at home. Monday I had planned to head home but first my boyfriend took me out to the store and said I could pick anything out from the jewelry counter. I chose a gorgeous snowflake pendant with blue topaz accents.

His car had been in the shop so I dropped him off to pay for it and pick it up. While he dealt with his car I drove home ahead of him so I could pack up my things to head home. I was only there about ten minutes when he called me and asked me to drive over to him. He then told me his car was on fire. He had been driving his car home from the garage and all of a sudden flames had started to come up from under the hood. Thankfully he was fine but the front half of his car was completely melted. I stood with him while the firemen finished putting out the fire and the tow truck hooked it up. Then I took him home and we made hot chocolate and got something to eat while he called everyone he needed to about the incident. I postponed going home for a couple of hours so I could be with him and make sure he was okay and then I took him to work before heading home.

Despite some things not going exactly to plan this weekend turned out to be a wonderful end to the week. The week may have been rough but being able to spend time with people I love and care about makes everything better. Even if things do go a little crazy at times.