10 Things Learned

As this college experience comes to a close, I am filled with joy and excitement about the future. I can't believe these past four years have gone by as fast as they have, but I guess life will pass by before I know it. I am excited about the journey that I will take.

I have learned many valuable lessons throughout my college days especially through the department of Mass Communication.

10. Never count on a shady local restaurant to cook and deliver 100 hotdogs on the day before a Hotdog Eating Contest.

9. Learn to work well with others. Everyone is different, therefore you must cooperate with each other well.

8. Take initiative. Don't step back and wait for other people to do it. Sometimes you have to do it yourself.

7. How to write a wonderful and interesting blog post

6. Tweeting on Twitter (and the use of social media within public relations)

5. The art of writing a great press release

4. How to plan a successful campaign

3. Never procrastinate when planning an event, things go much smoother when planning ahead

2. Don't stress out (like when you don't have any cupcakes for The Relay For Life birthday party!)

And the number 1 thing I have learned throughout all of this is...to be FLEXIBLE! (like when you are assigned a campaign and the plans fall through six times!)

Thank you Dr. Miller for all of your insight. It's been a pleasure working with you throughout these past two years. Hope you never forget your PR Fantasy Football Team of 2010!

~Cassie S. Melvin

Class of 2010

It's almost here. The day I never thought I would make it to - College Graduation! Some people say that graduating is bittersweet, however, while I will miss the friends I have come to know the past four years and the times we have spent playing volleyball, hanging out, going out, etc., I could not be more excited to walk across that stage to graduate on May 8! I have worked hard throughout my schooling career, but I look forward to being able to focus all my hard efforts on a job that I enjoy. Kyle and I will be moving to Colorado on May 18, and we are both very excited about the adventure. We will be working a good bit at internships and other job opportunities, however, we will be able to enjoy a fresh new place, new jobs, and each other.

I guess the only sad part about this time is that I will be leaving my family for six months, but they all understand. I have always wanted to travel and experience new things, and now, I am finally able to!

Here's to the Class of 2010!!

~Cassie S. Melvin

Digital Bridges Open House

It appears as if we pulled off a successful campaign! All of our hard work we put in this semester payed off this past Wednesday at The Digital Bridges Open House. Everything ran very smoothly and we had a great time as well.

For starters, we advertised the event with flyers, posters around campus and local businesses downtown, press releases in newspapers, and radio advertisements. Each person in my group did a fantastic job of getting the word out to friends and peers at the college about the event. The Open House was supposed to begin at 1 p.m., but people were piling through the doors by 12:45! In total, we had around 300 people attend this event. We were able to show them around the center and explain to them what Digital Bridges is all about.

Just to prove how many people came through the doors, we ordered 20 large pizzas from Dominoes, but had to order 12 more by 1:45! 13 WMAZ even came out and interviewed people about the center. Click here to see the video.

I am very proud of our group and how the event turned out! Even with all the hardship we had to endure at the beginning of the semester, I believe it was well worth it in the end. I look forward to planning similar events in the future!

~Cassie S. Melvin

Politics everywhere!

For the last couple of months, I have been working with a group of girls from my PR Campaigns class to create an event for a local small business called Digital Bridges. Sadly, we have hit many road blocks along the way. It all began with us creating an event called digital inclusion for people within the community who do not have much access to computers much less the internet. We were excited to get started since we were told that we would be able to create a press packet for the community explaining the cheap internet connections they would be giving away to 250 people. After creating a brochure and a couple of other documents, we were told that we were going to go in a different direction. I was actually pretty pleased with this news since the chamber had not given us the internet accounts therefore we were not accomplishing much.

The next thing we began planning was the Ribbon cutting ceremony which would have been held on April 22. We already had an invitation, food, decorations, entertainment, and giveaways planned. After much deliberating with the college, the president, the chamber, and everyone else involved, we hit a wall when the college told us that we would not be able to plan the event. So... here we were again. Stuck with nothing.

We met again today and finally nailed down what we are going to do. It will be an event that we are in charge of! One that will not involve different parties and politics. Digital Bridges will host an open house on Wednesday, April 21 from 1 - 4 p.m. We will provide refreshments and fun! The first 100 people through the door will receive a free jump drive with Digital Bridges' logo! We look forward to planning this event. It should be a huge success!