10/29/2014 Journal Question

I can't believe that Hurricane Sandy was two years ago. I remember being so mad because I couldn't go trick or treating with my friends on Halloween because they lived across town and my mom didn't want to drive that far at night because there were no street lights. I was without power for 9 days, but my grandparents had power, so we would go there to charge our laptops and phones. My favorite part about Hurricane Sandy was no school for two weeks, during which I finished three books I actually wanted to read. I remember walking to Great Hollow with my brother every day to play soccer, having to dodge down power lines and tree branches. I remember walking through my neighborhood, seeing huge trees uprooted, taking people's entire front lawns with them. I remember anticipating the power going out, sitting in my living room watching the news until the TV suddenly went black. I remember eating ice cream sodas for dinner, because we needed to get everything out of the freezer before it went bad.

For the most part, I have good memories of Hurricane Sandy. Besides having to rake up leaves and branches that fell and the inconvenience of no power, I wasn't that greatly affected by it. I know, however, that there are still people cleaning up from the damage Hurricane Sandy caused to their homes.

10/29/2014 Current Event

This article is about the role of Public Relations in today's society, and how PR has been essentially taken over by marketing departments across the board. The annual conference of the Council of Public Relations is scheduled to meet this Thursday to discuss the changes that have affected the PR industry. The rise of social media, such as Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, have given PR representatives greater opportunities to show their skills, because these sights are connecting a client base directly to the company, and are therefore part of "public relations". The downside to this is that people want an "honest and spin-free" campaign, so it makes it difficult for "an industry that wants to influence the directions of conversations and, ultimately, consumer behavior." The conference is being held in the United States, but the PR firms that will be attending, such as Edelman and Fleishman Hillard, serve companies internationally.

I thought this article was interesting because I think business communications has a lot to do with PR. I again learned the magnitude of effect social media has had on all industry. In essence, social media has changed the way everyone does business. When I thought of PR rep, I think of someone who comes out to hold press conferences and make statements when there has been a major scandal in a company. Also, I used to think that PR and Marketing were one in the same, and this article both confirmed and denied my notion. They are the same in that they both want to persuade a customer, but this article taught me it was more so the responsibility of the PR representatives to form a bond between customer and company. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/22/business/media/pr-groups-soul-searching-leads-to-shifts-in-strategy-.html?module=Search&mabReward=relbias%3Ar%2C%7B%222%22%3A%22RI%3A15%22%7D

10/27/2014 Journal Question

Fall is my absolute favorite season, probably because it is the best outfit weather. It's just cold enough to layer clothes and wear boots, but not too cold where your outfit is ruined by a bulky coat. In fall there is Halloween, and best of all Thanksgiving (Turkey and sweet potatoes all day long, baby!). Fall is the best transition season. It's not like spring where you are sick of school and just want it to be summer, but instead it's an exciting and gradual lead up to Christmas and New Years. When I think of Fall, I think of City trips to Central Park with the leaves changing and everything a blur of orange, yellow, and red. I love going with my family to Stony Brook Village to look at the Scarecrows, and walk through the labyrinth. The air feels so good; it is cold enough to feel refreshing, but it's not uncomfortable. Even though everything is dying, it feels so new at the same time.

10/23/2014 Journal Question

I am running the Italian Honor Society booth for Safe Halloween, and we are doing World Cup Soccer which is going to be fun because "calcio" is a big thing in Italy. I can't remember being to any Safe Halloweens when I was younger, but I my mom swears I have been to them. I am glad that it is not on Halloween this year because when it is on the actual day, a lot of kids don't come because they would rather go trick-or-treating.

10/22/2014 Journal Question

Since I am already applying to 13 colleges, I wasn't really interested in researching new colleges. My goal was to network with the representative who would be reading my essay, so they could get a better sense of who I was and recognize my name even before they saw my application. I talked to the representative from the Scranton booth, using the people skills I had learned from Citibank this summer. I introduced myself, shook her hand, and asked her a few questions about her experience at Scranton as well as about the application process. I also mentioned my visit and meeting at the campus, and the full ride scholarship, so she would I know I was seriously interested in the school. Since all early action applicants are considered for the Presidential Scholarship, I hope mentioning it to her will make her give me greater consideration for it.

10/21/2014 Journal Question

I think that the idea of creating different tracks is a good idea because not every student is a "student", so to speak. Some people just do not test well, and therefore struggle and resent school. Besides this, the jobs of the future are largely based in Technology and Business, so this will give students a greater advantage when they get to the workplace. This switch, however, means that schools should start to offer a broader range or class options, and the CTE department should get more funding and be regarded as just as important as the core subject areas. I would love to see more engineering classes or even healthcare classes offered in the high school, because those are the career paths of the future.

On another note, I do not think that the Board of Regents should be making the existing tests easier. For example, there is a vote to make the global history regents on only the second year of the course. I do not think it is right, or fair, to make the test less challenging in order to get more children to perform better. Instead, the time and energy spent making a new test should be allocated to developing new ways to help kids learn and understand this material. New York State is the only school to have regents exams, and even though I hate taking them every June, we do have high literacy rates as a State, so maybe the testing is necessary.

10/20/2014 Journal Question

I think that this is a progressive and effective campaign for McDonald's. With everyone becoming more food conscious, it is the only way that they will be able to retain customers. Personally, I have always wondered what was in a chicken nugget, or why Big Macs taste so good. Although there is always going to be backlash from disclosing so much information, I think that it is the only way to protect the future of the company. I do not know, however, if people want to be sitting in their living rooms and all of a sudden a commercial pops up showing the processing of beef patties, so they are going to have to find a way to censor the information so people aren't disgusted or offended. McDonald's is probably the first company to disclose so much information about all of their food comes from. A lot of time, companies like Wendy's advertise their fresh salads with farm grown berries, but they never say anything about their cooking oil or where their burger buns came from. All in all, I think this is a step in the right direction for McDonald's.

10/15/2014 Journal Question

Find a video that shows similar issues as yesterday's videos but from the male perspective.  If you can't find any state so and state why there aren't any.

Not that I was surprised by this, but there were no ads campaigning male empowerment. I think this is because we have a notion that males are already dominant, and that we as a society don't need to build their self esteem. To some extent I think this is true because throughout history, males have been the dominant power figures, however, I do think that there are issues plaguing the confidence of teenage males, just like their are for girls. For example, I know that boys feel pressured to be good at sports or act tough in front of girls. In this way, there are double standards for both genders.

Journal Question: Shine Strong Campaign

10/14/14

This campaign really made me think. Two seconds after watching it, I bumped into someone with my chair and said sorry. Apologizing for something has become the social norm, particularly for women who feel that they don't have a right to interrupt men. Women apologize because they are too self conscious. An apology is for when you do something wrong, not for everything you do. Now I am going to be conscious of how many times I say I'm sorry.