Most Promising Minority Students Class of 2012

It has been quite the whirlwind of a month so far and it's only February 6th. These past few days I have been in New York City with 49 other Most Promising Minority Students in advertising w/ the American Advertising Federation. It was an incredible 3 day event, I got to meet anyone and everyone I could possibly work for in advertising, as well as future colleagues. 3 days filled with lots of hand-shaking and talking up my skills and visiting  3 awesome agencies: Digitas, Deutsch, and DraftFCB. It opened a lot of doors for me to get my foot into the big leagues in the industry and even led to an official job offer. I now know that moving home jobless is definitely not going to be an option, now I just have to choose what I want to do and where I want to move.

Lessons learned from MPMS:

1. In advertising, the day you stop learning new things, you're done.
2. The connections you make with fellow MPMS'ers are just as important as the ones you make with the recruiters. It's all about networking.
3. Focus on what you want to do in an agency and strive towards it.
4. Advertising is way too time-consuming if you're not passionate about your work.
5. Handwritten card or email doesn't matter, as long as you follow up and maintain that relationship.
6. Recruiters hire people, not paper. Show your own personality in everything you do.
7. Keep a relationship with the recruiters by coming up with conversation topics including keeping up with recent agency news: new business, losing business, awards, etc. 
8. Always ask for feedback, whether you get the job or not. Especially not. 
9. Planners must have a naturally curious.
10. Be prepared with good questions, always.

I got back from MPMS on Saturday, hopped off the train in Providence, put on a dress, and went to Snoball. The next day I hopped on a plane to DC. Now I'm here for my 3rd CPAC a few days early to help the ACU staff prep for the conference starting Thursday. I'm shadowing the Communications Director again this year, should be an awesome CPAC since it's an election year. Now I am standing at a crossroads in life. Madison Avenue or the Hill? We'll see.

Dress

Dress (see more one shoulder dresses)

Home

My oh my, where has this week gone? I've got to start packing up and heading back to real life on Sunday. The end of breaks always give me a weird feeling. It's hard to be happy to leave home but also excited to go back to real life. Coming home is like slipping back into the past. I get all the perks of being a kid without the responsibilities I once had while living here. I get to enjoy sleeping in, eating my mom's cooking, watching re-runs of old teen dramas I used to follow, and hang out with all of my old friends. It's like living the dream until reality sets in and realize that I didn't actually step back in time or stop time for that matter. The world is still going on, I'm in the middle of a trimester, I have ongoing responsibilities in RI, and my friends have lives here as well.

The feelings are extra weird this time around because I don't know when I will be back home. It could be after graduation, or it could be a year from now. It's funny how I've spent my entire life wanting to be an adult and thinking I'm an adult, but the sooner that becomes reality, I all of a sudden get the Peter Pan syndrome I never had.

Nevertheless, the show must go on.

2011 Highlights

Facebook timeline has made it really easy for me to look back at this past year and reflect. 2011 was an incredible year. Sometimes I get so focused on the present that I forget to appreciate the past.

Highlights from 2011 (in no particular order):

• Really formed those "life-long friendships you make in college"
• JWU Ad Team #3 in the country
• Re-branding UIB 
• Traveled to LA with the Special Events Society
• Spent a week in Stockholm, Sweden and worked with the incredible talent at Berghs School of Communication
• WaterFire Providence

2012

My new years resolution is to start blogging again. I miss it, but I find it more and more intimidating to report on my life, especially when times are actually eventful. For the past week I have been home in Oklahoma for the holidays and it occurred to me that is my very last Christmas break forever. Sure, I'll have a few days off but I won't have a full 2 weeks off and have very minimal responsibility. I have been taking advantage, spending my days watching old television shows on DVD and Netflix as well as spending time with old friends. 

2012 is a very exciting year of my life. Exciting because for the first time I am entering a year without any certainty of where I will be standing this time next year or 6 months from now. Of course, we never know what life will throw at us from day to day but usually you have at least an idea of how things will be. 2012 will be the year that I graduate college, start a career, and start a new life. And the rest is still up in the air. I feel pressure from society and more so the adults in my life when they ask me "So do you have anything lined up after graduation?" No I don't have anything lined up yet. And should I be panicking just yet? It's January. There are some days when I get that question to where I am just trying to take care of what I need to take care of for that day. Sure, it would be comforting to have job security 6 months ahead of time, but what's the fun in that? I like the excitement of not knowing where I will be packing up and moving at the beginning of June. It may be across the country or it could be across town, who knows. Stay tuned.

 

Dormcubator Week 1 (June 28,30)

This summer I was asked to participate in a 6 week pilot program run through the RI chapter of the Association of Independent Colleges and University (AICU) called the bRIdge and/or Dormcubator.  The program participants consist of students from colleges all over Rhode Island including Bryant, Roger Williams, Brown, RISD, and RIC. When I first heard about the program, I was told I would be helping develop a smartphone app to help college students navigate the city and to find events going on and networking with people in the community. The perks were that we were all to stay in the Snowden Hall for 6 weeks and given a meal plan. My thoughts were that I would have somewhere with A/C to sleep, meals, and an opportunity to meet some new people. The program was thrown together last minute and you could tell that no one knew what was to come of this. We are nearing the end of the 6 weeks and me being the flaky blogger I am, I thought I would back track and blog about my experiences.

The first meeting awkward as usual, especially since nobody knew exactly what they had gotten themselves into. We realized who all of involved in this and we met our group leader you could say, Andy Cutler. I am not really sure how he got involved but he seems to be quite involved in the community in many capacities. The soon found out that the program was an initiative to reverse "brain drain" in Rhode Island, meaning to convince students to stay in RI post-graduation. The theory is that if students wander beyond the gates of their university and engage with the community and the businesses in the community, they are more likely to stay. After we went around the table and introduced ourselves, Andy asked us to go around again and tell him what we wanted to get out of this program. We all said the same thing, we all wanted to expand our networks. So through the next weeks of the program, Andy did his best to expose us to his wide network of people and organizations.

Turns out Andy is on the board of the RI Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (RI-CIE) which hosts many programs that have to do with helping local entrepreneurs and they have an incubator program called Betaspring which is a start-up accelerator for young entrepreneurs with a business they want to develop. They hold networking events weekly (I think) and that was our 2nd outing. We met the group Hope Street Media who we would be helping develop their smartphone app and many other start-up companies as well. I met someone from DealBird and Sexy Period just to name a few. Many of the students are from the Brown engineering program but also students from schools all over the country. I met a group of nice guys from Kentucky too. All of them have one thing in common, they have taken a problem and fixed it using technology the free market system. Good thing I had WaterFire to talk about, otherwise I would have had nothing to talk about with these people with start up companies.

While the networking event was awkward, it did restore my faith in traditional liberal arts education because while they do learn for the sake of learning, right now, they are the innovators. Through a career education, we learn what we need to learn to do a job, but not necessarily to create a new kind job titles, unfortunately. 

to be continued...

Jet-setting and Apartment Dwelling

Again, I have proven to be a flaky blogger. An entire month has passed and so many things have happened. Exactly one month ago, I was killing time in Westport with Professor Ure while we waited for our second chance to catch a plane over to Sweden after missing our first one due to a series of unfortunate events. Within the last month, I have traveled a combined 50,000 miles between Providence, Boston, Stockholm, San Diego, and Oklahoma. I can't even tell you the hours I spent on an airplane. But the stories I have to tell is worth every minute spent in airport security, waiting for transportation, and time spent crammed on an international flight. After my travels, I started my internship with WaterFire, started settling into my new East Side apartment and my friend Madison came to visit! I apologize for the long post...

Just to give you the highlights of each trip:

Stockholm, Sweden (May 22nd-May 30th)
When Professor Ure and I finally got to Sweden a day after the rest of the group, we jumped right in and got to work. Despite our big plans to get all of the work done in the 11 weeks of class before the trip, we of course put it all off until we left the country. It was our second year to partner with Bergh's School of Communication in Stockholm (one of the best communications schools in the world) and they were phenomenal. They were able to get us an awesome opportunity to create a marketing communications campaign for Electrolux, pitch it to them at their world headquarters and showcase our project at the Bergh's Annual Exhibition. The Bergh's Exhibition is a showcase of their students' final projects for other companies around Sweden and the opening night draws in a crowd of VIPs in the communications world around Sweden and Johnson & Wales played a part in it. After much dispute, our booth turned out wonderfully and we made it through our pitch to Electrolux. I have to say that I am truly disappointed in us for blowing that awesome opportunity. I do admit that I got caught up and completely spent on JCPenney and the Ad Team project, I just did not put in the effort the Electrolux campaign deserved.

Luckily, our schedule allowed for the ad team presenters to enjoy the city for the weekend after completing our project. I must say, Stockholm is a beautiful city with fantastic food, great people, great transportation, and beautiful scenery. I do hope to visit Sweden again.

One minute it was sunny

The next, it was raining

San Diego, California (June 2nd-June 4th)
After taking a short breather after getting back from Sweden at Professor Ure's house, Addy, Christie, Ure, and I were off to the airport once again to go the American Advertising Federation's (AAF) Conference called ADmerica and the National Student Advertising Competition (NSAC). This time we met up with the other key ad team members and Prof. Monahan (Tom). We flew transcontinental on JetBlue airlines...which I love, watching tv really makes the trip fly by. We checked into our hotel and decided to explore San Diego's Gaslamp Quarter before starting the conference the next day. In the midst of all of the excitement of making it to the nationals, we had to try really hard to not forget what we were there to do, to win.

Our first few run throughs were a bit rough and people were getting nervous for the presenters, but after some quiet time away from the rest of the group, we pulled it together. The day of our presentation, we slept in, ironed our outfits, ordered in room service, visualized success, and catch a little bit of the national spelling bee before heading downstairs to compete. It was just what we needed!

Mmm room service breakfast

Visualizing success

Ryan's motivational speech

3rd Place!

We delivered a flawless presentation and once again became a crowd favorite (Addy especially). Once we were done presenting, the rest was up to the judges. The next day, they announced the winners at the luncheon. After much anticipation, they announced 4th place as Butler University, then us as the 3rd place winners! Ithaca College won 2nd and Miami University got 1st place (well deserved). The professors and a few students flew out that night and the rest of us had Saturday to enjoy San Diego and fly out later that night. Saturday was very fun, we slept in, ate lunch, and rented a boat! Made great memories and bonded with our fellow ad team members more than ever.

We're on a boat!

Tahlequah, Oklahoma (June 6th-June 12th)
After one strange day spent in my apartment on the couch, I got on another plane and headed home for a visit. The point of the trip was to unwind from the craziness and spend some time with my family and friends because I wouldn't get another chance to go home for quite some time. And I went home to see my oldest friend, Ben, get married. My time at home was exactly what I wanted it to be. I got to see all of my friends at home, spend time with my mom, and got to relax. I didn't have anything to do but hang out all day for 6 days. It was fantastic. I got to reconnect with one of my best friends, Katelyn. We used to be neighbors when we were kids and we started drifting senior year of high school and then I left for college. Glad to have spent time with her reminiscing, we walked the neighborhood, went to the river, and she came over and watched tv with me then stayed for dinner just like old times. I also got to spend time with Janessa before she left for Falls Creek and got to see Emily and her son Declan. Unlike most of my trips home,

I barely saw my guy friends except for at the wedding. When I got to the wedding with my mom, I realized all of my friends there were in the wedding party...a bit awkward, but we made it through. It was a very nice wedding in front of the historical Murrell Home. Right before the ceremony began, heavy clouds and wind moved in and looked like it was going to storm. Luckily it never did rain, it was actually a blessing because it cooled the weather and made the outdoor wedding not so hot. After that, I boarded on my last plane for a while and headed back to my real life, not in Oklahoma.

Ben & Ceyeli Corbett
June 11, 2011

Providence, Rhode Island (June 12th-Present)
The rest of my time has been spent settling into my apartment. I spent a lot of my free time browsing Target, Home Goods, TJ Maxx, Marshalls, and IKEA looking for just the right things for my new home. It's such a womanly instinct to want to create a home. I loved every minute of shopping for things. Madison flew in for a few days to come visit and help me settle a bit. So glad she got to come. It's cool that we both don't live in Oklahoma anymore, but I can say with full confidence that we will be friends for a very long time. Also I have a summer roommate, Nicole Bomba. She's great! She's subletting for a few months and although we had never met before, we have mutual friends and get a long great.

I also started my internship at WaterFire. As the development intern, I get to see a completely different perspective of putting on an event. My department is all about finding the funding for each WaterFire and building good relationships with sponsors and donors. On my first day, I sat down with a list of phone numbers of restaurants and hotels in Providence and asked for them to offer deals to our best donors. This is going to be really good for me to learn to not be afraid to ask for something. That's always been my one fear, asking a question that I do not know the answer to, and getting an answer that I do not want to hear. Still no paying job...but it's gonna be a great summer!


That's all for now...until next time...