“Travel the world so that you do not think that you are the center of it.”
I’ve always been a huge advocate of this mindset and try my best to fulfill it whenever I get the chance to. I went to Japan during the summer of 2008 for a language immersion program, I went to France for Spring break to learn about the Roman influence in Parisian architecture and today I leave for London to learn about “Corporate Communications in the UK,” which will be hosted by Towson University, and I am excited. Set aside the fact that I’ve been bent on going to London for as long as I can remember London is home to some of the best media outlets in the world, including BBC, whose broadcasting house I will be visiting this upcoming week. The course focuses on mass communication, and so we’ll be visiting The Guardian as well, but I think I’m more excited about the fact that we will also be going to Bacchus PR which focuses in public relations strategies and branding.
Speaking of branding, with the new year comes the opportunity to re-brand myself. I’m closing in on my third year of college this semester and I need to be ready for the professional world before I graduate. Here are a few tips on re-branding that I pulled from Mashable.com:
- Discover your brand: It doesn’t make sense to just create a brand for the sake of creating a brand. This will take time if I want to be effective. Create a mission, vision and personal brand statement (what you do and who you serve), as well as creating a development plan.
- Create your brand: Once I’ve figured out what my brand is, then I can go about creating it. It’s time to spruce up my resume and portfolio, update my social media outlets (especially my Twitter and my LinkedIn) and dress the part!
- Maintain this blog: This falls along with creating my brand, but I really want to emphasize it because I intend to keep this blog updated on the regular. I have a lot of things to look forward to this upcoming year including my new TA position for COMM232 (Editing for Public Relations) and my newly accepted role as stage manager for “For Colored Folks” for the Second Season at the Clarice Performing Arts Center at UMD. Having a running blog is also a stronger asset than having a static page as it gives insight on my professional growth and development.
- Showcase your brand: “If they build it, they will come” is irrelevant. No one is going to find me unless I reach out to them. Find the future internships and jobs that I want to work with and pursue them!
TJ Digital Creative 