So Much to be Thankful For!

Keri S.

November 27, 2009 - 5:00 PM

For this Thanksgiving holiday, I spent the weekend with my family. My little sister was home from Spokane, and once again the house was full. I think my parents were both thankful to have us all home (...at least when we weren't fighting with each other.) The weekend was spent with family, friends, shopping, and a lot of food!

Thanksgiving started out as always-with a good old fashion Turkey Bowl. Four of my best friends from my high school soccer team came out to the park with my dad, sister, and a group of soccer friends to play in an annual soccer game played every Thanksgiving Day. Although the game was cold and rainy, I had such a great time.

After the Turkey Bowl and a very hot shower, I continued my traditional Thanksgiving Day by reading all the newspaper ads for Black Friday. As an advertising guru, I love the Sunday ads and will buy a paper just to look at them. As you can imagine then, I absolutely love the ads on Thanksgiving Day. As I read the ads, I watched the Macy's Thanksgivings Day Parade and feasted on homemade cinnamon rolls.

As my mom ripped ads out of my hand and demanded I go get ready for dinner, I changed out of my pajamas and into something more suitable for Thanksgiving dinner. My family then headed down to Albany to have an amazing dinner at my Aunt Mary's house. As with all of the dinners with my mom's side of the family, there was a lot of food, a lot of games, and a lot of noise!
Once we returned home to Salem, I braved the cold once again to go Black Friday shopping. My best friend, Annie, and I headed up to the Woodburn Outlet Mall to start our Christmas shopping early. The outlets opened at 10 PM, and we shopped until 1:30 AM. We went home, rested up, and continued shopping Friday morning.

Over this weekend, I realized I have so much to be thankful for. Although I won't bore you with a numbered list, I just wanted to thank all of those who have helped me in my journey so far as a duck. I have an amazing support group full of family and friends who have been with me through business school applications, group projects, ten page term papers, Alpha Kappa Psi rush, and finals. A special thank you to my parents who have been amazing and supportive so far while I have been at Oregon, along with all my other family members, friends, classmates, and professors who have made everything a little easier and a little more enjoyable!

[0 Comments]

I LOVE MY DUCKS!!!

Keri S.

November 22, 2009 - 11:00 PM

A double overtime win for the ducks against Arizona have made the ducks one step closer to their Rose Bowl game. Intensity has already started to build on campus, because whoever wins the Civil War Oregon-Oregon State match up will get a spot in the Rose Bowl.

About two weeks ago, a video broke on YouTube by a group of students called Supwitchugirl. This video, called "I love my ducks" features a rap about Oregon Football. Everywhere I go this song is being played: Facebook, the radio, Taylors (the campus bar). It is all over campus! But unfortunately, the athletic department is concerned that not earning permission from Disney to use the mascot in the video could hurt our ability to continue having Puddles as our mascot. Apparently, the video was well received by head coach Chip Kelly and by athletic director Mike Bellotti. However, Supwitchugirl was forced to take the video off of YouTube. This lead to national buzz on espn.com, sportsillustrated.com, and more. The song has caught wildfire and spread! As I said before, it is HUGE here on campus.

The rap itself is very catchy. I find myself walking to class with the lyrics running through my head "Holy moley, is that my boy Massoli? Cooking up the offense like he's cooking ravioli...."

This is a very sticky situation for the University of Oregon. Technically, it could be in violation of their Disney contract. However, it is getting so much publicity outside of the Eugene area that is hard to argue with it being taken off of YouTube. Only time will tell if the Oregon Athletic Department made the right decision. For now, listen to the MP3 if you haven't already and enjoy.

I LOVE MY DUCKS!!!

ps: Congrats to Eric Johansen and the boys at South Salem High School on their state championship win!

[0 Comments]

Excellence in Residency @ SOJC

Keri S.

November 18, 2009 - 7:00 PM

This week, we had a guest speaker in my Journalism 340: Principles of Advertising class. The guest speaker was on campus for a series called "Excellence in Residency", where the School of Journalism and Communications brought in professionals to talk to students about careers in journalism and advertising.

For my advertising class, we listened to Simon Mainwaring talk about his time at Weiden and Kennedy as a creative for Nike, as well as his work on the Toyota Pruis "Harmony" campaign. Below is a video Mainwaring showed us about the making of the "Harmony" commercial:

Listening to Mainwaring speak was so inspiring. I was in awe of him the entire time, thinking about how glamorous his life was and how unaware of it he seemed to be. Working on Nike advertisements would be a dream come true, and that is only a small part of his story.

I am glad I was able to participate in part of the Excellence in Residency program put on by the SOJC. Although I wish I would have taken the opportunity to attend more events throughout the week, the hour long lecture with Simon Mainwaring was so beneficial to me. I learned so much about what goes into developing an ad campaign, and how creatives, copywriters, directors, and all members of the team work together to create great commercials.

For more information on the Excellence in Residency series, please check out the School of Journalism and Communication blog. 

[0 Comments]

STUDY STUDY STUDY

Keri S.

November 15, 2009 - 9:30 PM

Today, I felt like I lived in the Knight Library. As a college senior, I have only been to the Knight Library a few times. Usually I prefer to study in Lillis with friends. Today started with a group meeting in the Knight Library to work on my sports business marketing plan project. After a two hour study session, I headed home for a lunch break. I decided to go back to the library to work on my journalism midterm paper due tomorrow.

Then this evening, my friend Brandi invited me to come and study with her in the library again. Since I found myself watching Desperate Housewives at home instead of doing my homework, I decided to join her in her study room.

The library is two blocks away from my apartment, so it is really close and convenient. It is open 24 hours on most days, and is a quiet place to study. For me, it is too quiet, so I always need to bring my headphones and iPod. It is nice to be able to rent a study room like I did with my friend, because we can talk without getting the stink eye from other studiers.

Although the library is nice, I think I will stick to studying in Lillis from now on. Lillis is my home base, and I like having a place to do everything in that building. I have my nook for when I need to make a phone call, a place to hang out with friends in between class, a study table to catch up on some homework, a table to sip a cup of coffee before class, and my favorite computer in the lab to type my papers. It's my home away from home.

[0 Comments]

What am I doing with my life?

Keri S.

November 15, 2009 - 10:15 AM

This week, I had a classic "OH MY GOSH! WHAT AM I DOING WITH MY LIFE?" freak-out. I have been student for the last 21 years of my life, and never anything beyond that. Now, I am graduating in the spring and have to get a job. The only problem is that I don't know what the heck I want to do after graduation. It is such a stressful situation. Luckily, I have a lot of people here at the Lundquist College of Business who can help.

First, I made an appointment with my academic advisor, Jeanne. She verified that I only need 8 more classes to graduate, so I am right on track. I also planned out my winter term and spring term classes and know exactly what classes I am going to take. This relaxed me, because now I know what classes I have to take in order to graduate. Things are more certain.

Next, I headed to the LCB Career Center. This was great too because they have some great books about careers in certain fields and what you can expect from these careers in terms of hours, salary, and job duties. This helped relax me a little too, because I realized I have so many choices. I also realized I don't need to make this decision right away. If I go into the job market open minded, I am sure I will find something that I will enjoy.

Finally, I went to the Career Fair on Thursday. This was amazing because there were so many employers I was interested in talking to. Although I was frustrated that the companies I wanted to talk with were not hiring spring graduates, I got great networking practice and gave my resume to a few employers. Thursday evening, some of the employers stayed on campus for an Alpha Kappa Psi event called mock interviews. In mock interviews, students set up to fake interviews and then get feedback on how they did. Overall, my feedback was positive, but I also got some great constructive criticism to help me polish my interview skills and resume.

Although I still don't know what my dream job is or what I will be doing after graduation, I can now rest a little easier knowing I am more prepared to make that decision. I am sure more freak-outs will happen before I graduate, but luckily I have a great support system here at LCB who can help me.

[0 Comments]