It's Not the End, It's Just Another Beginning!

It's Not the End, It's Just Another Beginning!

I could not have asked for a better college experience. Period. Let's just say that the first year of college here at OU was completely dedicated to have a good time, being in a sorority, meeting as many new people as possible, and create a good academic foundation for myself. After having successfully achieved all of those goals as a freshman, I decided to enter into an internship that just so happened to fall in my lap, starting my sophomore year.

Public Relations was my major from the beginning, or at least I wanted to be somewhere at Gaylord. But honestly I didn't have a strong definition of what the field really was about until about two years ago. I said "sure" to being offered an internship working for the Athletics Department in Media Relations. As a sophomore, I totally thought that doing something "career-like" was distracting me from my social life/social development in college, but I found a way to balance it out, considering I only volunteered for 10 hours a week. Two years later, I stepped it up to 30 hours a week, paid, and in charge of covering a sport. As strange as this sounds, I got to the point where the more responsibilities I was given, the more I liked my job and the more I craved more challenges.

I am so blessed to have taken my internship that I took so blindly in the begging. I always say I had no idea what the heck I was doing when I first started, and I didn't know what sort of direction I wanted to head into in public relations. Luckily for me, God always does, and that's why I'm only excited about my future. Although I'd love to continue on about my crazy-good college experience, here are the top-three things I've learned through chasing my ambitions in public relations:

1) Always do what's right. PR is all about ethics, right? I have to say this is the most important item I hold on my list of things to do when it comes to my work. Doing what's right is a universal ideal that's honest and can put all of us to the test at one point of another. Each of us has the choice to decide doing what's right.

2) Know your surroundings and pay attention. As dumb as this sounds, I have recognized most recently that this is one of my downfalls. I'm not talking about walking alone to a car at night. I'm saying do research. Read the news, especially the local news, know the trends and get in as much information as possible, whenever possible. I admit I've always been lazy at this, but I'm improving as we speak (as I blog, really). I've always heard the phrase "knowledge is power" but I never really took it to heart. All I have to say is "better late than never." If I'm in public relations, I better be more in the know!

3) Finally, always remember what matters and what is most important. SO MANY TIMES I as a younger college student, I ran into a tough issue, a challenge arose, or I have been just plain annoying/irritated with someone. I don't know at what point exactly I decided to grow up and stop about getting frustrated about things that I couldn't control, or just the petty things, but I'm glad that I did. It's a continual challenge, but staying positive helps me work towards remembering what's important, even through the tough times.

I'm so excited for my future. As corny as this sounds, I'm really excited to continue learning. All of my life I've learned things from a textbook or in a classroom setting, and now I'm learning more from people. I never expected to learn anything about myself in the process, but I'm glad I did. Bring on the future!

Picture courtesy of the University of Oklahoma Athletics Department.

It's Been Fun

Time Well Spent

By Aaron Vossen

Throughout my time at OU I have ventured in many different directions. I have thought I would have been a doctor by now, an astronaut, an FBI agent, and at some point in my life I even thought I might be a SWAT guy. But none of these ever seemed to work. None of these were my passion; none of these seemed to fit. Then I began looking at what I do enjoy, conversation, public speaking, and fighting for what I believe in. The answer was Public Relations.

Public Relations had always been in the back of my head because of what my father does, but I had never taken it seriously. Now I look at my life, and I know it where I want to be. I have had a great time learning new skills, and honing in on skills that I never new I had but that I already had.

In my future I would like to work for a corporate company such as AT&T or some other big corporate office such as Devon, Chesapeake, or Conoco Phillips, but as far as I am concerned I would take anything at this point in my life because I have been trained and I can achieve these things but anything is better than nothing for a college graduate.

The last thing I would like to look at is my alternative. Here recently I have found myself wanting to practice law. I don’t know why this ambition has come to mind but for whatever reason I really, really want to. I would love to visit KU and get this because I am a huge Kansas fan. If it doesn’t work out then I have still had a fun ride and I hope others enjoy the ride as much as I have, no matter which ride they choose.

No More Questioning

No More Questioning by Katie Whittern

As I look back on my four years here at the University of Oklahoma, I sometimes wonder what my life would be like had I taken a different route. What if I decided to go to Oklahoma State University and major in Fashion Merchandising like I had originally planned? What if I had stayed a business major here at OU? What if I had decided against taking my internship at AT&T this past summer in Dallas?

I could sit for days and wonder how different my life would be had I chosen a different path. But to be completely honest with you...I'm glad I chose the path I did.

I'm glad I chose OU over OSU... all of my best friends and now roommates are from OU.

I'm glad I strayed away from the business college... honestly I probably would have failed out of all my classes and switched to public relations anyway.

I'm glad I put on my big girl panties and interned AWAY from home this summer... I grew up a lot, learned so much and met a lot of awesome people.

There are probably hundreds of decisions I have made over the years I could question. But, I don't. Why waste your time? As cliche as it might be, I believe that everything happens for a reason. I believe you make the choices you make for a reason. I believe everyone is right where they are supposed to be. Pardon the motivational speaker moment I just had by the way.

So, as I look back on my last four years of college, I am happy with the decisions I made. They led me to this exact apartment with these exact friends on this exact computer writing for this exact class for this exact major at this exact school... and I would not have it any other way.

As I bring this sappy post to a close, I have a few words of wisdom... if you want to call it that.

1. Be happy with where you are in life and if you are not, do something about it. 2. Always try new things to add some spice to your life. Don't let your life get repetitive and boring. 3. Don't waste your time questioning your past decisions. They are made. Move on and make the best out of where you are right now.

It's Time to Search for New Cheese

It's Time to Search for New Cheese

By: Katie Whittern

Today an article on the front page of the Oklahoma Daily told the story of a University of Oklahoma student that just would not take no for an answer… until he had to.

Last April, Jay Cooper, a petroleum engineering junior, was elected to serve his second term as vice president for the Housing Center Student Association. But, over the course of the summer, Cooper was removed from his position when a member of the HCSA administration realized his GPA did not meet the minimum requirement of a 2.5. Cooper believed he was treated unfairly because he raised his GPA over the summer and believed that since HCSA was not in full session until August, it should not have counted against him. When Cooper went to his advisers to discuss the situation at hand, they showed no signs of rethinking their decision. Cooper even tried to reapply for the position but the HCSA president did not accept his application or allow him an interview.

Although Associate Director of Residence Life, Johnnie-Margaret McConnell, gave Cooper 24 hours to resign before she removed him from office, he did not. McConnell had stated in an e-mail earlier in the year that officers serve from the time they are elected until the end of the next school year. Since Cooper did not meet the required GPA during the summer, McConnell had no choice but to remove him.

The President of HCSA, Hannah Moore, said the final decision was made by McConnell and there was nothing else that could have been done. Even after the decision was made, Cooper along with another member of HCSA, presented a bill to HCSA to overturn the decision, but that too failed. HCSA decided to elect Eddie Shimp, who was already elected to serve as programming director, as the new vice president for the 2009-2010 school year.

What Cooper is facing right now is a prime example of what happened to the characters in Who Moved My Cheese?" Cooper had already been a part of this organization for a year and had planned to spend another year, if not two, serving HCSA. His cheese was suddenly moved when he did not meet the grade requirement and was removed from his position. Although he did everything in his power to overturn the decision, he could not. Cooper must realize his "cheese" is gone and it is time to aspire for new and better cheese somewhere else. As the book says, "The quicker you let go of old cheese, the sooner you find new cheese."

Photo taken by Teeko Yang of the Daily

PR Everywhere

by Simone Fraid

PR is all around us. The efforts of people and organizations to get there messages across permeate our lives. This was especially evident at the free premiere of Observe and Report in Meacham on Friday night co-sponsored by CAC and UPB. There were free movie posters and mini giveaways everywhere, and surveys aplenty for those who were willing to participate.

The best part of the waiting game (it took an hour to get into the theater) was getting to see some of our peers in action. One of the Big Brothers Big Sisters groups was on hand to pass out fliers and then to speak to the audience briefly about the volunteer drive.

This group did a great job- their efforts were strategic, and will probably pay off for them. Their target is male volunteers, and they certainly had that audience at this premiere, where the audience was likely 80% male. Not only were they able to provide everyone with fliers, they also were able to make an announcement before the movie and speak directly to a theater full of people.

I just wanted to commend them on a great job, and it was nice to see a campaign in action. Best of luck to them, and all of the other groups as we go out into the "real world" and pitch our messages to the public.

On a side note, I don't recommend Observe and Report unless you can see it for free. That's my own little world-of-mouth PR.