Summer Lovin’

So here we are, at the very end of the school year. What does that mean? That means SUMMER, and moving back home.

Which I actually enjoy doing unlike most people my age. My parents are cool, my friends are fun, and Enumclaw has a lot of fun things to do.

So that is what I am going to share with all you today, what to do if you are ever in the Enumclaw area this summer.

My personal favorite, going to the Green River and soaking up the sun and swimming and jumping off rocks. If you are in the area and ever feel like heading to the river, the best spots are the Green River Gorge, the Cumberland bridge, and holes.

If water isn’t your thing but hiking and nature is. Head up past Enumclaw to Green Water and enjoy some beautiful hikes that extend off logging roads (also great places for camping). 

If you are really feeling adventurous keep going up past Green Water to Crystal Mountain where you can ride the gondola up to the top where you will see a beautiful view of Mt. Rainier and the Cascade Range, as well as the Summit House, the highest elevation restaurant in Washington State.

Other things that I enjoy doing in the summer time is hitting up the Enumclaw Golf Course, for a nice and cheap 18 holes. 

Or going to the Enumclaw Rodeo, the King County fair, and the Enumclaw Street Fair.

And the best event of the summer is always Hometown Throwdown put on by 100.7 the Wolf, at the Enumclaw Expo center. There is good food, good beer, and good music.

 

If country music isn’t your thing, head to the White River Amphitheater for good music all summer long.

Some other things I enjpy doing is running at Deep Lake, hiking Mt. Peak, fishing and camping up in Green Water.

Also Enumclaw will never let you down on a good bonfire, or a good night at the bars.

Long live Enumclaw. (Jk, but I do love it).

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European Travels: A Recap

Almost a year ago today I was getting on a plane to travel to Europe with two of my very best friends.

So I have decided it is about time that I share some pictures and a little bit about our amazing experience.

To begin, I think that if you ever have the opportunity to travel abroad you should take it. Yes, it may be expensive (trust me I know I am a broke college student) however, it will be worth it every time.

So, Kimmy and I were lucky enough to join our best friend Hannah on her graduation trip. 

The three of us planned our entire trip, and decided we would travel to Spain and Switzerland, people always question our decision on those two places, but I am so pleased that those countries were what we chose.

Our first stop was Madrid, where we stayed in I think has to be one of the nicest hostels in the world, TOC Hostel, Madrid. 

In Madrid, we did not have too much planned so we did a lot of walking and exploring. Getting to see many many sites and eating lots of tapas and drinking lots of sangria. We also visited some magnificent museums. 

We also took a day trip to Toledo, Spain, a beautiful old town with an even more beautiful cathedral. 

We then, took a train from Madrid to Barcelona, where we stayed in a not as nice hostel, and shared a room with a 70 year old man. Yes unfortunate, but we loved Barcelona all the same. Even getting to experience an old bath house, Aire de Barcelona, which I would recommend to anyone and everyone. 

Next we flew to Geneva, Switzerland, then took a cab across the boarder to France where we stayed in a small countryside town for the night, before we got on the train and traveled to Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland. 

Here we stayed in a cute little AirBNB, and went exploring each day. Taking the train up to different locations and hiking around.

We also loved the Swiss cows, and the pub with lots of beer and men telling us about their base jumping stories. 

After our stay there, we trained to Zurich, where we stayed a night and day, before we returned home.

The two and a half weeks absolutely flew by. And we had the most amazing time, it is a trip that none of us will ever forget.

A Case Study: PR in Mexico

Mexico has been characterized by sex trafficking, drug cartels, and tainted alcohol at resort locations.

The “Mexican drug cartels and the gruesome media coverage portrayed around the world, horrifying potential travelers to the country’s beautiful beaches and historic cities” (It’s Another Tequila Sunrise, 2013). The perception of Mexico to travelers from all around the world was at an all time low. People were too afraid to visit a country that seemed to have a corrupt police force, extensive drug related crimes, and who is unable to contain criminals such as Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán.

Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, the Mexican Drug Lord who headed the Sinaloa Cartel and Mexico’s top drug kingpin, added to this horrifying perception of Mexico. The Sinaloa “gang is the country’s largest cartel, based on the volume of drugs it moves” (Kellner and Pipitone, 2010). El Chapo, was wanted by the United States, even offering money to get him. He had escaped prison in Mexico multiple time, once just by bribing security guards (Wikipedia). El Chapo’s image was not good for Mexico as a whole.

The Mexico Tourism Board was set on changing the perception of Mexico and recovering the number of tourists visiting the country.

The Mexican Tourism Board enlisted the help of multiple different Public Relations agencies in Mexico, as well as the national agency Ogilvy Public Relations (It’s Another Tequila Sunrise, 2013).

The agencies decided that “Instead of promoting the typical attractions like Cancun and Tequila, the campaign invested in promotion of swimming with ocean wildlife, beautiful underground rivers and waterfalls, and Mexico’s remote beaches” (It’s Another Tequila Sunrise, 2013).

The campaign titled “The Place You Thought You Knew” was a huge success. It showed tourist that Mexico is more than drugs and all-inclusive resorts, it is a place of travel and history, “these environmental factors highlight the importance of the culture as a primary factor” (Garcia, 2016).

This was important because it helped to broaden the world’s knowledge of Mexico. This campaign reached a global audience through news networks: CNN, Newsweek, and Bloomberg, as well as integrating social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, and sparking blogs from all over the world (It’s Another Tequila Sunrise, 2013).

Highlighting sightseeing instead of partying helped to change the perception of what people think when they think of Mexico. The campaign was a huge success and the year after the campaign was launched “marked the best year in Mexican Tourism with over 27 million international visitors” (It’s Another Tequila Sunrise, 2013).

All in all, Mexico’s Tourism Board did an amazing job showing their audience that Mexico is more than what meets the eye. This case study is extremely interesting since it shows Mexican Public Relations at work across the globe. They implemented their ideals, for a global audience.

 

Sources

Garcia, Cesar. “De-Westernizing Public Relations: A Comparative Analysis of Culture and Economics Structure in China and Mexico.” Asia Pacific Public Relations Journal, vol. 17, no. 2, 2016, pp. 9–27., (Global Alliance for Public Relations and Communication Management, 2010)

“It’s Another Tequila Sunrise – Mexico’s PR Campaign for Tourism Revival.” bobby1221- Global Communication, 6 Dec. 2013, bobby1221.wordpress.com/2013/12/06/giving-the-media-a-mai-tai-mexicos-pr-campaign-for-tourism-revival/.

Kellner , Tomas, and Francesco Pipitone. “Inside Mexico’s Drug War.”  World Policy Journal, EBSCOHost, 1 Mar. 2010, eds-b-ebscohost-com.ezp.lib.cwu.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=2&sid=9dbdf4b2-e595-4882-874e-5148795f7f63@sessionmgr101.

“Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán,” Wikipedia.          https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joaqu%C3%ADn_%22El_Chapo%22_Guzm%C3%A1n

A Rant: By Me

Here I sit in a two hour long lecture.
I come only because attendance is a part of my grade.

I sit on my phone the entire two hours. Switching back and forth scrolling through different social media’s.
Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, Facebook
Repeat.
Throw LinkedIn in the round every once in awhile just because I’m now bored of my other social media’s.

(and now I writing this blog, so throw that in the mix as well)

You might think I’m wasting my time. And I couldn’t agree more.
I am also wasting my money.
Yet I am required to take this course to graduate.
And I think that’s dumb (for lack of a better word).

The professor teaches me nothing that I don’t already know, yet I am still forced to be here.
I get A’s on all the tests without ever purchasing the book or listening to the lectures.
Again, I am wasting my tuition money in this.

Why are students forced to take classes they do not need?
I can go up in front of the class and give a speech right now. Yet I have to sit through four hours of lecture a week just to get the credits to graduate.

There has to be a better system than this. A system where I can somehow opt out of classes such as this, classes where I am not learning anything, classes where my knowledge is not being expanded.
Now don’t get me wrong. I think college is important and I have learned and grown as a person through many different courses.
Yet I should not be forced to take a class, where all I do is sit in my seat in order to get my grade.

Can you tell I’m annoyed?
Definitely a waste of two hours of my life (every Monday and Wednesday).

I hope you didn’t waste two hours today.

Covey Summary: Installment #3

 

Welcome to the third installment of my Covey summaries:

In this chapter of the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, the habit discussed is: Put First Things First. Covey discussed how things need to be prioritized. Not prioritized in the way of making sure things get done, but prioritizing things you like to do over things you do not like to do. We need to focus on not what is the most urgent, but what we think is most important.

This chapter builds on the last habit, about determining goals -which I discussed in  my previous blog- this chapter is about actually achieving these goals. Covey talks about managing ourselves, not managing our time. We need to stay on track with our goals and prioritize them in our lives.

I can use this habit in my everyday life to help me prioritize the goals that I have. I am very guilty of missing out on things in order to stay home and do homework, or even stay home and watch Netflix or do something useless.

On the other hand, I am also guilty of going out and doing things with my friends in stead of things that I should probably do first, like homework. Overall, I need to get better at prioritizing things that I want to do, but that also help me stay on track with my goals. I need to know what I want, but I also need to know when it needs to be done.

I think being in college it is important to have fun, and it is important to think about myself before others at times. But it also important to get things done that need to get done, especially my school work. All in all, I can use this habit to help better schedule myself and my priorities.

So there you have it, my third installment of Covey summaries. The next will be coming your way in the near future.

Covey: Installment Two

As promised previously, I am adding to my installments of Covey. If this is the first time you are reading my blog, I have been reading 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey, and I have done summaries on each of the chapters I have read.

So here is my next summary: 

This week in the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Covey spoke of the second habit. That habit is: begin with the end in mind. Covey started this chapter off by using a thought experiment.

What does your funeral look like? Who’s there? What are people saying about you, etc.

This exercise is used by Covey so that you can think about the type of person you want to be in your life, the type of accomplishments you wish to make, and the impressions you hope to leave on the people around you.

That is his whole idea in the chapter, begin with the end in mind, set goals to achieve, not just short term, but long-term goals that you can strive towards.

If we have these long-term goals ahead of time, we can truly make steps in the right direction, steps that have meaning, not just coating through life without a distinct purpose behind what we do. Covey suggests that we can use this habit in any part of our lives, personal and professional. All in all, the habit of beginning with the end in mind, can be applied to all parts of our lives.

After reading this chapter, I can use this habit in my personal and professional life. I can make goals now, that I can achieve over my lifetime. Goals such as, one day having a husband and children, one day working for a professional sports team, and one day travelling to even more destinations.

If I have goals set, I can also set up how I can achieve the goals. This will help me to be a better student, friend, an employee. Overall, I like this habit because it really makes you sit down and think about what you want from this life.

So there you have it, my second installment of Covey summaries, my next will be coming soon!

Interview

Since I am nearing my last year of college, I decided to interview one of my very best friends, and find out a little more about her job experience, and the best way to land a job post grad. Enjoy!

1. Tell me about yourself, where are you from? What college did you go to? What did you do in college, work, sports, etc?

My name is Hannah Calvert I grew up in Enumclaw, Washington and graduated from Seattle Pacific University. Growing up I loved competing and participating in athletics including basketball, cross-country, and track so I went on to run in college. In addition to running, I had a job as a part-time nanny, part-time sales associate at a running store, and by my senior year a marketing internship. So, a lot of different things at once but I like staying busy, so it worked out.

2. What company do you work for and what is your job title?

I work for Oiselle, a by women for women running company. Oiselle designs women’s running apparel, sponsors professional runners, and has a non-professional club team called the Volée. My job title is Marketing Associate.

3. What kind of things to you do on a day to day basis?

On a day to day basis I attend various meetings including marketing meetings, brand meetings, a weekly one-on-one with my supervisor, and occasional meetings with other company representatives or race executives. When I am at my desk I’m usually building blog content for our website, completing PR requests for product to be sent to various publications, reaching out to our athletes for content requests or social media prompts, or building briefs for the marketing team. I also serve as a project manager for our photoshoots, so I organize photoshoot samples, organize flights and Airbnb’s for our models (our athletes) and manage the shot list. Since we are a smaller company I wear a few different hats so my day-to-day isn’t redundant and I have the chance to take on a variety of projects.

4. Do you prefer your work with marketing or PR, what are the differences in both day to day for you?

I would say they go hand in hand for me. Both involve a lot of creativity and strategic thinking. I get to spend a lot of time brainstorming execution for race expos, product launches, and blog content which I really enjoy.

5. How important do you think are internships, what was yours? What was the biggest outcome?

I think internships are extremely important since that’s what led me to my full-time job post-graduation (also the biggest outcome of my internship).

6.What do you recommend to students that are just now searching for internship possibilities?

Don’t be afraid to be a little annoying. I knew I wanted to work for Oiselle and they didn’t have an internship opening, let alone an internship program, but I still found a connection, introduced myself to someone who worked for Oiselle at a college track meet (literally right before my race) and sent off an email saying I was looking for an internship. They kindly replied they didn’t have interns but had a position at the store available, so I took it thinking at least I have some way in. Four months into working at the store and I got an internship position. Following up is never bad and sometimes persistence really pays off.

7.What is one tip you would give to college students prior to graduation?

Start on a path that leads to your dream job even if the starting point isn’t the most compelling. I watched a lot of my friends weighing the pros and cons of different job offers. Some knew the field they really wanted to end up in, but the starting point seemed intimidating/hard to break into, or they felt like they would have to start at the very bottom. Their other offer was usually something that they had zero interest in but was a big company with a big salary. Needless to say, a lot of those friends that chose the big money spend their weeks counting down to the weekend.

I had zero desire to be a sales associate, but it was for a company I dreamt of working for, so I took it on with excitement and stayed focused on where I wanted to end up. One year later and I am exactly where I hoped I would be.