Dear Class of 2009,

Firstly, my sincere congratulations! You do not deserve to be graduating during this time, so don’t get yourself down about the job market - it’s not a reflection on your achievements, but rather a reflection on the economy and mismanagement. As my friends always say, ‘What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger!’

So, be strong and be brave because after every down there is an up and you aren’t the only one on this stressful roller coaster. You know that for the past 5 months I have been job searching and believe me, it’s only the beginning for a lot of you.

I have a few words of advice though. Don’t sit still… keep moving. It’s honestly about who you know not what you know (obviously a degree is a requirement) but put yourself out there. If you want to work in politics, move to DC. Take the jump, volunteer, get involved, sacrifice yourself because it will benefit you eventually. Now is not the time to be picky, if your internship requires you to fetch coffee, make the best coffee you’ve ever made in your life. If you have to pick up xerox stuff, do it with a smile on your face. When it comes to them reaching out to a new candidate for a position, who do you think they are going to choose?

There is a link to a video my dad sent me (be sure to press play) but it is really interesting and may give you some insight into where to go, and why you shouldn’t beat yourself up over the fact that you are one of the 82% of graduates graduating without a job.

Be brave, hold your head up high and good things will come - I promise.

http://tipstrategies.com/archive/geography-of-jobs/?ref=patrick.net

Well, it wasn’t exactly daytime, but the view was beautiful (even at 2am in the morning). However, I would like to see the electricity bill! Talk about being a green city!

So, if you’re not on Facebook yet, it’s time to get with the times, and take that bold step into the realm of the unknown. Facebook is a great way to meet other Lynn students, and also become a fan of one of several Lynn University pages.

Become friends with Lynn University:

Become a fan of our pages:

Facebook has a great chat feature, so you can get in contact with current students, or even Lynn University itself.

We have professors, staff, and students on Facebook… what a great way to get to know who you’re going to be spending time with over the next four years! So, request me as a friend, ask any questions you may have, and let the “Facebook addiction” take effect.

So, I don’t mean to boast by any means, but I must say that I do have the most interesting, exciting, and captivating job around. And if you thought I wasn’t lucky enough to actually enjoy what I do, I also work for the best, most interesting, and most generous team ever. Working in the Office of Marketing at Lynn, I know has just set me up for disappointment when I enter my next job. I have really landed myself a winning position in the Office of Marketing. What other team would send a graduate assistant to a three-day seminar in Miami?
I know, I know, I am a very fortunate Graduate Assistant, and believe me, I appreciate it! Laura and I left Thursday to arrive in Miami in time for registration. The introduction for the event was great, Laura and I did some networking, and then got to bed in time for a good night’s rest.

The Conference was hosted by the Public Relations Society of America. The first session I went to was ‘PR with the “King”‘ and the speaker, Amy Wagner, basically spoke about the Burger King commercials and what made Burger King change from being a failing burger joint, to a successful franchise. I found this very interesting, as it truly tied in to my International Advertising course I am taking with Dr. Grodzki. So, I recently did some research on Burger King, and really loved their advert: Whopper Freak out. If you haven’t seen it, it really is funny and worth a few minutes of your time.

The most interesting of the sessions was the “Social Media - it’s not web 2.0 or web 3.0 - It’s life” by Peter Shankman. I absolutely loved this speaker. He was so funny and entertaining. Shankman had so many really great points he touched on. Firstly, he gave us his rendition of ‘the future’, which was really something to think about. He then spoke about how the world has become so ‘me-centric’ and how success will come to you if you just ask yourself, ‘How can I help this person?’, rather than ‘how can this person help me?’ His last quote really resonated with me: Be the change you want to see.

Be the change you want to see. What a perfect world the world would be if we all did abide by this ever so simple quote, or life lesson. Well, I’ll start it off!

So, all in all the conference was a great success. What I learned the most was that Lynn University is truly strides ahead of everyone else in regards to social media. I’m not sure if you’ve noticed yet, but Lynn University has a few facebook pages. Actually there is a link from our blog launch page. Even these blogs are innovative! So, Kudos to Lynn University and a big thank you to the Marketing Department for sending me to such a phenomenal conference!

Laura and I taking notes and listening intently to speaker Amy Wagner from Burger King.

When I first agreed to become a Lynn blogger, I never ever thought that one day I would be the administrator of the Blog Squad, neither did I have any idea of how successful the blogs would be. Yesterday evening, the Blog Squad and two new bloggers we will be bringing on next semester and over the summer, congregated for a pizza evening.

Every meeting we discuss if everyone is still enjoying blogging and whether they would like to continue (every one said yes) and we also discuss video posts and photo posts. Generally, we update each other on what is new in our lives and what our plans are for the break. I also hand out a statistical rundown of each blog, which shows the amount of views our pages have, where in the world those viewers are from etc. This is always very rewarding.

Mostly, yesterday, when I looked around our meeting, at every one laughing and talking, catching up and having fun, I began to realize that the one thing I least expected from becoming a Lynn blogger would be that I would make such wonderful friends. When I gazed at the group, it dawned on me that the Blog Squad is more than just a group of students with their blogs in common, we’re much more than that. We’re more than friends. We all read each other’s blog posts, we are all up to date on what has happened in each other’s lives, and we all care about one another.

As Gene said, if you don’t try something, you won’t know what you could have possibly achieved from it. And he’s absolutely right. I never imagined that becoming a blogger would not only unite students, but also spark friendships.

This photo is especially for Morgan and her infamous red shirt!

So, this weekend was a lazy weekend. My boyfriend is recovering from the flu, so we watched kids movies like ‘monster house’ and I made brownies (which we consumed both for breakfast and brunch!). On Sunday we decided our balcony needed some more greenery… so we bought a bunch of flower pots and a selection of our favorite herbs. I never realized how much fun it would be potting herbs! I lack the secret ingredient of ‘Green Fingers’… but with a little singing and some Mozart playing softly in the background, Basil, Cilantro, Rosemary, Chives, and Parsley may live a happy 9 days and 21 hours. However, with fun always comes cleanup… my balcony looked like a marsh after we were done.

So, thinking that my homework wouldn’t take that long this weekend, I left it all for President’s Day. Bad idea! Somehow it took a good 17 hours longer than I had anticipated. Okay, to be fair, the procrastination monster did wave the TV in my direction for a good 40 minutes… and the ‘I may be hungry’ temptation dragged me to the kitchen on more than one occasion, only to stare blankly at a fridge full of healthy food (which didn’t have the same kick as the previous day’s brownies). Well, somewhere around 3:30 am I dragged myself to bed. I can’t sleep if I haven’t finished what I started… plus it is due today and I have a full day at work. And then I lay in bed for a good 30 minutes wondering if I should change some of the wording in my project.

So, when I woke up at 7:05 this morning, it is understandable that I am not looking as cheery as usual.

Anyway, back to work… after a quick cup of coffee (or five) to keep me awake!

Yesterday evening, as some of the bloggers have mentioned, we all met up for a casual meeting to discuss our lives as bloggers so far. I had everything organized for the meeting - food and all - and then the rain came down in buckets!

In drips and drabs my poor soaked bloggers arrived! As Morgan said they looked as though they had just stepped out of the shower! I should have taken a photo! But, that is what I call dedication! Rain or shine the blog squad is there!

Our meeting was mainly to tell them how fantastically amazing they are. I even printed out the stats. of the blog readers, showing them where in the world their readers are from. I find it amazing that there are people in India, China, Morocco and various other places following my story and reading about me.

Just to encourage all the other bloggers to upload video… the next post will have to be a video upload!

On Sunday, I went to the National Horse Show in Wellington. I have been a rider almost all of my life, except when I came to the US, as it was too expensive here. I rode for the South African Team and spent every weekend at horse shows, and most afternoons training. It was so odd going to the horse show this weekend and being on the ground! I half wanted to put on my jods and steal a ride!

Well, I dragged my poor boyfriend there, who says going to horse shows is like watching paint dry! Anyhow, he endured it, and luckily we ended up sitting next to another South African Family. The show was amazing. It’s incredible to think of the amount of money that goes into that sport. I think most of it gets consumed by traveling costs, vet costs, and general fees! My dad always used to say you should never invest in something that eats while you sleep.

I went to watch the Finals, which was an international event. It was incredible.

So, I recently wrote a story for the Ipulse about having a green holiday (and I’m not talking about the adjective).

I thought I’d post it as I really think its something every one should think about. This holiday season, I decided that instead of having a christmas tree, I’d decorate my potted tree (Rather pathetic looking tree as I always forget to water it… which reminds me!).

A Green Christmas
By Ashlea Evans

The holiday season is a time for giving, so why not give back to the environment? When you set out to celebrate the holidays this year, consider going green. Christmas takes its toll on the environment, with tons of extra garbage, millions of chopped-down trees and megawatts of flashing lights. But, it doesn’t have to be that way. When you set out to celebrate the season this year, take a little time to consider how you can make your Christmas a green Christmas. “Most countries produce too much waste,” says Bernard Londoni “It is only through recycling that we can help diminish the waste amounts. Many of the plastic products we use today are either recyclable or made of recycled materials.”
Before you rush out to pick your Christmas tree, there are a few things to keep in mind. Fake trees are non-recyclable, while real trees can be recycled and used for much more. The best option would be to have no tree at all, and rather decorate a potted tree. Wrapping paper and gift boxes can be recycled, as well as all the glass and plastics collected over the holiday. Why not replace your old string lights with low energy lights, such as LEDs? The U.S. Department of Energy completed a study and found that if everyone replaced their holiday lights with LEDs, in a month two billion kilowatt-hours of electricity could be saved, that would be enough to power 200 thousand homes for one year.