Red Sox v. Nats!

All of my New England friends were jealous when I shared (bragged) that I'd be seeing the Red Sox play today!



Sure it was a preseason game, and they killed the Nationals 6-1, but it's definitely not possible to get great seats at Fenway for only twenty bucks!  It's kind of sad that there were more Boston fans than Nationals fans, but there was actually way more DC gear than I expected to see.



Also a few kite festival pictures from last weekend.  Some of you might know that I like to call the National Kite Festival one of my favorite days of the year, and this one did not disappoint even though it was a bit chilly.  I love the kite festival because it involves cherry blossoms, the National Mall, thousands of kites, great people watching, and usually one of the first really nice DC spring weekends.





(requisite WWII memorial picture..I have this picture in at least 5 forms)

Why I Like Social Media (& why you should too!)

In this post, I'll detail my reactions to a classmate who was adamantly against Twitter and talk about why I like using it from a personal standpoint.  

Recently in my PR Portfolio class, a classmate attested that she was "abstaining" from Twitter.  She fully intends to work in the PR realm come graduation in a month, yet instead of taking advantage of the chance to embrace new technologies (at an age where that comes intuitively) she was afraid.  I felt awful for her..but also glad for me that my experiences have really let me embrace social media as it's become increasingly more important in PR.

The biggest question I get from people outside of PR (and even some within PR) goes something like this: "Why do you like Twitter?  Do you really need people to know that you ate a tuna sandwich for lunch?"

My answer is usually:
a) I don't eat tuna
b) You obviously don't understand social media, but that's okay because I'll explain it to you!

Anyone who knows me well knows that I am a current events junkie.  It all started when I was Editor-in-Chief of my high school newspaper- since then I've been a rabid devourer of news.  I love getting news online because it's easy, I can do it anywhere, at anytime (ie multitasking while at work), and between my Blackberry, laptop, and work computer, I almost always have internet access.


While I adore consuming news, between work and school I certainly don't have the time to sit down and watch television news with any regular frequency.  I also don't find it necessary to sift through stories I am not interested in in order to find the things I want to read.  This is why I love Twitter!

Media is becoming more and more decentralized: as larger newspapers fold and layoff staff, blogs and news aggregates pop-up every day.  Cuts in journalists on specialized beats make for an increased demand for niche bloggers, and geo-tagging via foursquare (and Twitter itself) lends itself to more hyper-local blogs than ever.


So what do I personally like about Twitter?

It lets me get my news, fast.  My tweetdeck desktop has columns for personal friends, DC specific tweeters, PR/social media, general/breaking news, and skiing.  This means I can get a comprehensive, real-time look at the news, trends, and blog posts in the news realms that I am interested in almost instantly. 

If you're one of those scared folks who hasn't tried Twitter yet, give it a shot!  I always tell people that you have to use it a bit before you truly understand its capabilities: everyone uses it a little differently and has to find their own comfort level with it.  Go for it!

Cruisin' the Caribbean: Spring Break 2010

I hope you like pictures.

Three friends and I went on a Caribbean cruise for our last spring break of college! We also happened to all study abroad in Paris together, so naturally as pro travelers we had so so much fun.

We took the Carnival Victory from San Juan, Puerto Rico to St. Thomas, Dominica, Barbados, St. Lucia, St. Kitts, and St. Maarten. A different port every day meant no day at sea and very little sleep time! Flying Spirit Airlines meant absolute hell on the way there and back- but we made it on the ship on time so all's well that ends well!

I'll let the pictures tell the rest of the story.

In St. Thomas it was a bit overcast, but we went to Magen's Bay, one of the top 10 most beautiful beaches in the world:

If you're not seeing all of the pictures, just click the title of this post to expand it!

Education Fact Sheets

My PR Portfolio class is essentially a capstone class for all of the senior Public Communication majors at my school.  We get to work with a real client and gain real experience in addition to what everyone's gained at their internships and jobs. 

My class is working with America's Promise Alliance, which is focused on ending the high school dropout crisis.  Throughout the country- in cities especially, there are schools referred to as "dropout factories" which have very, very low graduation rates.  Over 300 nonprofit organizations are members of America's Promise Alliance, all working towards the common goal of creating educational environments and experiences more conducive to graduation.  

The class is divided into groups, and each group is developing community toolkits for two of the Alliance's twelve target cities.  My group was assigned Detroit and New Orleans, both of which face incredible circumstances that mean that a high school student is more likely to dropout than receive a diploma.

Recently, I designed and developed city fact sheets for each city based on statistics from 2008 and 2009.  What my group found was arresting, and I thought they would be valuable to share.  Ideally, this is the sort of thing that could be shared with members of the media if they are interested in a story related to America's Promise.  I really enjoyed making them because I hadn't worked on a design project since last semester!  Please check them out and let me know what you think!  (Click for a larger version!)

Detroit Fact Sheet

New Orleans Fact Sheet

SNOWPOCALYPSE (part 1)

In case you've been living under a rock, this past weekend DC got spanked with a snowstorm affectionately referred to as:

a) snowpocalypse

b) snowmageddon

c) snOMG

Awesome satellite image from the storm:

The forecast didn't faze me- at first. But even as a true New Englander, I couldn't imagine what over 2 feet of snow would look like in a city completely unprepared for it. It was still snowing when I took the picture below:

Grocery stores were..just a little frenzied:

Despite all of the panic, it turned out pretty gorgeous:

Cars parked on the street were either completely and utterly covered in snow, or, for the less fortunate, crushed by fallen trees:

Luckily, everyone I ran into was in good spirits-- snowmadeggon part 2, which is supposed to start any minute now, might be met with some less than happy DC dwellers. Roads have been plowed pretty well-- main roads at least. Side streets are still a bit of a disaster-- only room for one car at a time, with 2 feet of slush and sludge at any intersections! Sidewalks have been shoveled for the most part-- but the plow passing through means climbing a 6 foot snowbank to even get to the sidewalk!

Babysitting was cancelled for me on Friday-- all weekend plans were postponed (besides Superbowl plans!), class was cancelled Monday, and I didn't have to go into my internship today because snowpocalypse part 2 is starting mid-day. It's almost certain that I won't intern or have class tomorrow (Wednesday)- and possibly no class on Thursday. Can you believe it!?

With any luck, I'll be shoveled out by March so I can go on my cruise!