Berkeley College Graduation

I cannot believe that a week ago I was freaking out about graduation, and here I am an official Berkeley grad & alumni! I am so happy that I decided to walk at graduation! I know many of us had thoughts about not doing it since we finished much sooner than April, but I have to say, it's 100% worth it! There is nothing more rewarding than being surrounded by your fellow classmates and seeing all of the smiling faces in the crowd. The moment you walk across the stage, you just feel like a million bucks and there truly is no other great feeling in the world!

Unfortunately, I have a last name that falls all the way at the end of the alphabet, so my wait was much longer than others, but it was worth the wait. Where I was sitting, I had direct view of my loved ones so of course the whole time I was smiling and waving over to them. I was on candid camera the whole time....go figure! Those are probably some of the best pictures since whenever candid camera is happening, we are doing things not relevant! My brother also thought it would be funny to video tape me while I was sitting there--playing with my hair, looking at my cell phone, crossing and uncrossing my legs, etc., as he recorded his commentary over it! It led to some good laughs on the ride home & it was just another way to capture the moment.

I want to congratulate all of my fellow classmates who graduated last week and I wish you all the best for a bright and successful future!

If you were wondering if the graduation photos were posted from last week, they have been and here is the link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/54841332@N05/sets/72157629578081360/with/7132519587/


Now that graduation is over, and we are moving forward in our lives, where is everyone's college degree taking them? I'm coming up on my 2-month period at my full-time job & quite frankly, that's soooooo hard to believe! And the fact I'm heading my own department is crazy! Like I mentioned in my last post, I was finishing up an introductory video for the company! One of the many projects I'll get to lead & it really feels great and rewarding to see that end result!

I'm doing what I love & taking everything I've learned at Berkeley with me. We always sit and wonder in class, what benefit will this information give me? Well, it gives a whole lot of benefits! When you think about it, without sitting through those lectures or engaging in projects with fellow classmates, everything would just be one big blur! There is only so much you can use common sense for and that's the great thing about a college degree, you learn things & you expand by thinking outside of the box! That's one of the many benefits with the classes you take at Berkeley College-- the ability to try new things & think outside the box to see the bigger side of things. The professors at Berkeley College strive to make that possible for you, so the next time you feel like the professor is being too tough or assigning too many things at once, just think about the future and how you will be faced with challenges and deadlines every single day!

I will be posting the video I produced in an upcoming post as long as it's ok! I am really excited that I can share with you my experiences and projects I am engaging in on a daily basis!

Enjoy your weekend everyone & till next time....See ya!

What's Up Alumni Lyndsay?!

Happy Saturday morning to you all! I am so use to waking up early, that even my weekends result in me being an early riser! Oh well, I'll just get my day started quicker and have more time to do what I need to do! So it's been a few weeks since my last post and lots of happened in my crazy alumni life! I am officially just a little over a month into my job and I'm starting to feel much more comfortable around my co-workers and I'm really starting to learn more about the job! It's unpredictable in the marketing world, which I sort of like. I have many plans floating around, but when you talk to your co-workers and bounce ideas around, it makes it all go together much easier! I'll present an idea around the office or just sent out a quick email like, "Hey guys, what do you think about this?" and then we'd just go back and forth exchanging ideas to make the current idea a little more stronger or they would throw out to me a completely different concept. Either way, it makes my job a lot of fun because I spend numerous hours doing research and really trying to see what would work!


My biggest struggle in this would have to be the fact that we deal with many European companies. A lot of the things we do or have in American are completely different from over there. For example, my promotion I ran for the month of May, was for Earth Day. Earth Day is considered to be 100% American, even though European countries are very "green." However, I still stuck with my idea and the feedback the salespeople received from the customers was that they really liked the idea, so of course, I have to give myself a pat on the back. I guess the point is and I've learned this in my Marketing classes at Berkeley College, that you HAVE to be different and you HAVE to see what works and what doesn't work. Maybe my idea was cheesy, or maybe it was frowned upon, but I stuck it out and quite frankly, we haven't seen anyone else in our industry do something like this, so I take it as a big ole' success for me!


Since we will be closing out on the month next week, I'll start to get my numbers together for how many orders and Earth Day promo items went out, and we'll measure how well it went! For my first promo being ran, I am happy and I feel that if I wasn't happy with what I had done, I wouldn't be as excited as I am about it now! You have to try in order to be able to learn.


So like I said, Earth Day is coming up this Sunday, April 22! We should be treating everyday like Earth Day, but we do take one special day of the year to celebrate this. In my town, we have whats called Beautification Day in which town residents clean up the side of the roads, local parks, etc. and leave their bags of garbage out on the roads for the town to come pick up. We then all join the township down at a local park for a free lunch and some goodies. It's really a great thing for the township and it encourages people to help clean up our roads and town! If you have a free minute in your day, go outside, pick up some garbage, and help keep the environment clean!




I also want to share what my current project at work has been. I've been filming and editing an introduction video for my company. We decided we wanted to make an introduction video so that when customers come to our website, they can get a better understanding of what we are all about. This is also going to be the perfect way for me to lead into our social media. We are going to be starting a Facebook page, a twitter account, LinkedIn page, YouTube account, and a blog. The video will serve as our first post everywhere and be able to kick us off with a nice introduction. I took the lead on this project because even though I'm not a pro editor, I knew that as I went along with it, I would be learning new things and I will work on it even if it meant taking it home to work on. I have successfully got the majority of the edits done, and so far the feedback has been that they all really like it!


I actually picked up my editing skills from Berkeley and I have the professors to thank for that. I know we all dread when the professor assigns a project and you want nothing to do with it. Well, bottom line is, you begin to explore different aspects of your creativity, at least I know I did. I was assigned a project within the first few quarters of starting Berkeley and one of my classmates was heavily involved in video editing, etc., so it was suggested to our group that we use this classmates skills and make a video. Just by watching the process and getting a few pointers here and there, I was able to pick up the very basics of video editing. Since moving forward, I thought it would be pretty cool to be able to do something like this on my own, so I picked up an editing software package, and just started to play around with videos, one which I did for a local real estate team. And now that I'm working on this bigger project for my job, I am learning even more and finding tricks that I didn't know when I first started out!


This project at work has definitely been a lot of fun and I can't wait till I hit that final button "Make Movie," and show everyone the end result!

There's no need to ever doubt yourself and if you're a quick learner, I'd take advantage of the skills the people around you have because I did, and I couldn't be happier with what I've been given the opportunity to learn!

Happy Weekend.....I hope everyone has a very nice weekend & hey, maybe I'll even post the video when it's all said and done! As long as it's ok with my boss of course!

OH, MY FELLOW GRADUATES, SEE YOU NEXT WEEK! WE ARE FINALLY GETTING UP ON STAGE IN OUR CAP & GOWNS AND GRADUATING! BIG SMILES AND SEE YA THERE!

April Has Arrived!

Where has the time gone? It's a great month especially for Berkeley graduates, including myself, who will be walking on April 27th! Only a few weeks away and it will be here before we know it!



It will feel very rewarding to finally walk up onto the stage in front of all our fellow classmates, knowing that we made it this far and are obtaining our degrees! Congratulations to everyone! It's very well deserved and a great time to celebrate!!

Aside from that excitement, I have a lot of fun things going on at my new job! I survived my first sales meeting the other day, which I can't even begin to explain the nervousness I was experiencing. I knew I had so much to talk about, but being that it was my first month on the job, there was a lot of reports that needed to be generated and I had NO clue on what to expect! Luckily, the person training me got me through it and my boss said that I did a great job, which feels good. Sometimes supervisors just say thank you and you never really get feedback. I work with a great group of people, so I am constantly getting feedback about potential ideas and other things that are going on in Lyndsay's Marketing land! LOL!

For April, I decided to arrange an Earth Day promotion, which was different and unique for my company, since it's never been done before. The thing with trying new promos is that you can see if it works or not. My biggest challenge will be that we deal with a lot of European companies and other companies overseas, so Earth Day is more of an American thing. It doesn't hurt to promote it overseas, because from what I heard, they are very big on being environmentally friendly. It might open some eyes with this promo, which would be really cool to see! I'll have to record my success with that and share once the promo ends at the end of April! I am definitely really excited to see the results, but nervous all at the same time. I'll be bummed if it turns out to be a total flop, but good to know that the idea was liked!!

So keep in mind, Earth Day is April 22! Do something to make a difference in the world. Turn off the lights when leaving the room, shut down your computer when it's not in use, and remember to reduce, reuse, and recycle!



Well, that is my update for now! I hope everyone has a very happy holiday weekend! I luckily get a 4-day weekend, so if you do too, ENJOY IT while it lasts! It's going to be beautiful, so we are truly lucky!

Happy Monday To All!

Monday, Funday! Sounds pretty good to me! I bet it sounds good to a lot of you as well, since Spring Break is quickly approaching, as well as the end of the quarter! I know you are all ready for Spring Break at this point, especially with the awesome weather we have been having! 75+ degrees is where it's at! I'm pretty sure Spring starts tomorrow so Happy Spring!!



So since my last blog, I have started my new job! YAY! Big news & lots of excitement! One week in and I am having a great time! Of course, it's a lot of information to take in the first few weeks, but I am already starting to develop my own pattern for things! It's definitely a big transition for me, and while I am still in a bit of a funk with the time change and waking up much earlier than usual, I feel like I'm going to adjust just fine! I'm really excited that my first week on the job, I already got to start planning promotions and really use my creativity to any extreme I please!

Right now I am working on a promotion for Earth Day. I am looking into some environmentally friendly products, which will be included in some shipments that get sent out! Since the company I work for deals a lot with European countries, they are really big on the "going green" aspect, so it's the perfect promotion to run. It shows that we as a company want to make a difference in the environment, and we also want to spread the awareness world wide!

Along with the promotional activities, I am just getting the hang of all the daily marketing functions that need to be taken care of. There are a lot of things that are done in the beginning of the month, and then finalized at the end, so since I started right in the middle of the two, it's been a weird process since there still is a lot to learn! The company I work for sells electromechanical components. I know, sounds pretty complicated, but you come to learn that a lot of companies rely on these components to be available since many of them are obsolete. It's really interesting to listen around the office because the sales people talk to people all over the world, so the different languages are pretty neat.

So over the course of the next few weeks, I will have officially taken over the role as head of marketing and it will pretty much be my boat to sail! It's a lot of responsibility as you can imagine, but I feel confident that all will work out just fine!

Aside from all that exciting stuff, I will be visiting the Woodland Park campus tomorrow for the Graduation Salute! Yikes...scary to think about that actually! I was debating whether or not to attend graduation since I finished back in September, but I came a long way, how could I not walk in graduation? So tomorrow I will go and get my cap/gown fitting and hopefully see some old friends I haven't touched base with in a long time! Definitely looking forward to it, and then in a little over a month, I'll be walking myself down that aisle!

Well, I hope everyone is enjoying this BEAUTIFUL weather! Enjoy the rest of your week!

AND ONE LAST REMINDER: BOOK BUYBACK IS GOING ON NOW THROUGH MARCH 22! VISIT THE BOOKSTORE FOR MORE INFORMATION! PERFECT OPPORTUNITY TO EARN SOME CASH BACK JUST IN TIME FOR SPRING BREAK!

Celebrate Good times...Common!

Hi everyone! Well, since my last post A LOT, and I mean A LOT has happened! I officially landed my first FULL-TIME job since graduating from Berkeley back in September and I couldn't be more excited! A new career, a brand new opportunity, and just so much room to advance and grow! So what will I be doing you ask? I will be taking the title of Marketing Associate at a company who is an electromechanical components distributor. They are global and right now, they solely rely on the marketing department over in the UK. Since they are currently relying on them so much, they decided it was time to start a marketing department of their own on the American side, and it happens to be right here in New Jersey!

I have a lot to learn and I have a lot on my plate to get things off to a start for the marketing department, but I am ready to face any challenge that may come my way. I was really anxious to get started, so I started to research the company some more, get a feel for their parent company over in the UK, and just understand what the company is all about. One of the things they do to help with sales, are promotions for the sales people. As everyone in sales knows, you need to have some motivation to make a sale!

One of the major aspects to my position will be to come up with ideas for promotions and creative ideas on how to promote it! I will also be helping to launch their social media, which as many of you know, I LOVE TO DO! That means hitting the internet to set up a Facebook page, Twitter account, Blogging site, LinkedIn profile....all that fun stuff! I actually joined a group on LinkedIn called, Social Media Marketing, because there are a lot of people on their exchanging so many great ideas! I took some notes and then used that information to jot down some ideas of my own, in which I then forwarded over to my supervisor.

So there you have it! As I get started, I will be able to share more and more about my position, but I wanted to share my good news about this brandy new opportunity! Start date is set for March 12th, so only one week away! Eeeeeeeek! While I am sad to be saying goodbye to where I was interning & working part-time, I am happy to finally be taking all of my skills and advancing forward in my career! Like they say, one door closes & another door opens! I am very thankful for the opportunities I have had before this new job and I thank each and every person who has been involved in my life and helped me grow into the young woman I am today! THANK YOU!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day to all the love birds out there! We take our time to show our love and appreciation to our loved ones on this special day, but we should be doing that all 365 days of the year! Right?! It's just a very nice day to spend with your sweetheart and I hope everyone enjoys it!

I figured for my post today, I would share some ideas on how to make Valentine's Day enjoyable for the whole family! Whether you are a current student or an alumni with a family, you always want to find some special way to bring everyone together!

What about a simple art & craft project, or making your favorite cookies in the shape of a heart? Whatever it is, it's all about being together and having fun! I remember when I was in elementary school, we would always do something fun for Valentine's Day. I'm sure many of you remember the mailboxes we use to make and our classmates would walk around & put cards/candy in your mailbox. It was something fun and cute for the whole class to enjoy! It definitely makes you miss those days, especially when girls thought boys were gross, and girls had cooties, accordingly to the population of boys at school!

Whether you are spending your Valentine's Day alone or with your family, take a look at this website I attached for some fun ideas: http://familyfun.go.com/valentines-day/

They have craft ideas, recipes, games, cards, and so much more to enjoy! Plus, it's only 1:30PM, so you still have plenty of time to whip something up if you haven't had the chance to get something for your honey! They say that homemade gifts go a long way, so get cutting, baking, or whatever it is you are going to do to make your Valentine's Day special!

Aside from Valentine's Day, life has been busy but a good busy. I am still in the process of looking for a job, which I just recently had an interview, so we will see what happens. It's all about being patient and waiting for that perfect opportunity to come along. You usually get a feeling when something good is coming your way, so I am just hoping I get that feeling soon!

It's hard to believe that graduation is quickly approaching. It feels funny because I did already graduate & have my diploma, I just didn't get to walk yet! Everyone keeps asking if I am going to go, and of course I am! It will be nice to see everyone I haven't seen, and it will feel like an even bigger accomplishment walking up on stage in my cap & gown! Woo hoo!

I hope everyone has an enjoyable day & a great week!!

Happy Groundhog Day!

It certainly seems really silly that we rely on a groundhog to determine how much longer winter will last or how soon Spring will arrive, but we do it anyways! Regardless of that, HAPPY GROUNDHOG DAY!



So according to Groundhog Phil, there are 6 more weeks of winter, which if that's the case, I don't see that as a huge threat considering we haven't had much of a winter at all. It was 60 degrees yesterday, explain that one to me! Then, I hear that Groundhog Chuck, predicts we will have an early Spring! Whose Groundhog do we trust? I guess we will see what happens with the weather and go from there! I am definitely crossing my fingers that Spring comes sooner! How about you??

Can you believe that it's already February? I feel like we were just celebrating Christmas and the New Year! I also can't believe how fast time has gone since graduating from Berkeley! I am getting pretty excited though that I will be walking at graduation in 2 months...It will be so rewarding to see all my friends that I haven't seen in a while, as we all walk down the aisle to get our well deserved diplomas! Although, I already have mine, it will still be rewarding!

And only 3 more days until the big game! Who will you be rooting for this year? The NY Giants or the New England Patriots? I personally don't follow football, so I don't have a preference, but I will watch the game with some friends & family. We will also be celebrating a birthday, so there will be different events going on! Whoever you are rooting for, I wish your team the best!



So to catch you up a little on my alumni life, I am still working part-time where I was interning and also still part-time at my job over at State Farm. I was recently given a new project to work on, which involves creating and designing a newsletter for our clients. I've been spending a few hours getting our first issue together, and slicing and dicing it to get the most effective newsletter released. I am having a great time doing it, and I hope all of our clients will enjoy it! Life has been busy, but busy in a good and exciting way!

I am still going on interviews for full-time positions, so it's a matter of waiting for that right opportunity to pop up! Certainly hoping it happens soon, but with time, good things will come!

I hope you enjoy the rest of your week and have a great weekend! Get ready to celebrate the winning of your team!