Where Will You Be On October 21st?

I can tell you a GREAT place to be, if you haven't already made some spectacular plan (which in my opinion, you could cancel it for this fun-filled event instead)!

Why not come on down to the Berkeley College Paramus campus for our 8th Annual Charity Car Show & Family Fun Day! This will be my 3rd year attending this event and it gets bigger & bigger every year! Bring your friends, your family, and wear your Halloween best because from 8AM to 2PM, the fun will just not stop!

The great thing about this event, is that all proceeds will benefit the Boomer Esiason Foundation (esiason.org) and the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation (cff.org) to find a cure for Cystic Fibrosis. There will be a variety of things to do, see, eat and drink throughout the day, while you support a worthy charity.

Are you sold on joining us yet or should I go on? Ah, what the heck, let me go on!

Here is what else we have in store for you:

- Antique and Exotic Cars, Trucks, and Motorcycles
- Live bands and DJ
- Blood Drive
- Kids' Activities
- Halloween Costume Contests: awards will be given to the best costume and the best vehicle costume (Like I said, wear your Halloween best!!)
- There will be a variety of specialized vehicles on display too!

Car enthusiasts are invited to register their vehicles for display.

Registration is $20. Only vehicles registered by October 15 will receive a participant trophy. Donations will also be accepted.

General admission for spectators is a $2 donation, children under five enter free. (Again, these proceeds get donated to a VERY special charity!)

Anyone interested in helping out the day of the event is encouraged to contact the Paramus Admissions Department @ 201-967-9667:

Tracy Welch ext. 1706 email - TEW@BerkeleyCollege.edu
Rob Oddo ext. 1701 email - RMO@BerkeleyCollege.edu

Please contact Tracy Welch for registration/donation forms or with any questions, or use the link below:

http://www.berkeleycollege.edu/CarShow/2012.htm

Need the address, well, I'll hook you up with that!

Berkeley College Paramus NJ Campus
64 East Midland Ave, Paramus, NJ


If I haven't sold you on joining us, then this is the exact reason I'm not in sales! But anywho, I urge all of you to come out, whether it be for an hour or so, just to make a contribution to these great charities! There's so much to do and so much to see! In the event you can't make the event, I'll be around snapping photos, so I'll be happy to share those after the event!

I hope everyone is having a great quarter thus far and I hope to see you at the car show!

Alumni Reunion Weekend!

Attention to all Berkeley College Alumni & Friends of Alumni! Berkeley College will be hosting an Alumni Reunion Weekend on the weekend of September 21st and September 22nd!


This two day event, held Friday in Woodland Park, NJ and Saturday in New York, NY, will feature a variety of engaging workshops, presentations and social events.


Faculty Mixer and Hudson River Dinner Cruise

There will be a marquee event on Friday evening, a Faculty Mixer and Hudson River Dinner Cruise onboard the Spirit of New York. Catch up with professors while enjoying spectacular views, dinner, dancing and cocktails for only $42.50 per person!

If you have any questions regarding this Alumni Reunion Weekend, send an email over to: alumni@berkeleycollege.edu as they will be happy to answer any questions you may have!

To be directed to the Alumni Reunion Weekend page, please follow this link: http://berkeleycollege.edu/alumni_bc/4072.htm

Unfortunately, I have a wedding that weekend, so I won't be able to attend, but I encourage all Alumni to check it out if you don't have any prior commitments! I'd love to see pictures too if you attend, so be sure to share them!

As Time Flies...

Wow, so much has been going on in my hectic alumni life, that I felt this was the perfect opportunity to hop on here and catch everyone up! I have to first say that it was only one year ago that I was dwindling down on my final quarter at Berkeley College, not knowing where I would be or what I would be doing after graduation. I was totally pumped and excited to know that within a months time, I would be closing those books for good! I won't deny that it feels great, and I mean REALLY great to be done with college and have my degree, but I sure do miss it. Graduation just means moving on to bigger and better things in life. I myself have definitely felt the benefits of moving on to these exciting aspects of life.

I've been heading a marketing department for just about 5 months now and I can't even begin to say how much I am enjoying it. Every month I have been learning a whole bunch of different skills that improve my daily work functions. It's been such a learning experience both for myself and the sales team at my job because they've never had just one person solely focusing on the marketing. It's rewarding for me to hear that everyone is happy with the way things are going, because it means I'm doing something right! I always look for critiques because I want to know what needs to be fixed or even if it's a suggestion for future marketing plans, I just rather know so I can make any necessary changes. Over the next few months, I am going to be taking on some additional marketing projects with our sister company to help establish their marketing plans & strategies for the upcoming months.

For July into August, I decided to plan a promotion around the Olympic Games. What I decided to do was to make a promotion that was a little more interactive, rather than just setting a target for an item and that being it. What I did was since it's the Olympics, I decided to select the XBOX 360 Kinect Sports Bundle as my prize. There are 2 drawings for this promotion. The 1st drawing is based on a survey, in which our customers had to click into and answer 3 very simple questions based on how many medals will the US win, how many medals will China win, and how many medals will Russia win? Those answers needed to be submitted by July 27th, since after that date, the Olympics would be in full swing. Then, for the second half of the Olympics, I set it up as any requirements or request for quotes that come through, we would award them with ONE entry into the drawing for the XBOX 360. If that requirement turned into an order, we will award an additional 10 entries. So far, it's been quite an interactive promotion and everyone has been giving really great feedback.

I'm also working on re-designing our website, so there is so much going on that I am looking forward to continuing with. This is just my update as to what's been going on! Work has been very exciting and I'm still finding it SO hard to believe that I've been there 5 months already. Like they say, time flies by when you're having fun!!

I hope everyone is having a great summer!

Where has the time gone?

Hi everyone!

It's been forever since my last blog post, I know! I graduated officially and forgot all about you! No, just kidding! I have been busy, busy with my new job! I've been there 3 months already and that is just crazy! Time is flying right on by and you can't get a moment to catch up with it! I know my last post I was talking about what I was doing at work and how I created an introductory video for my company. It's finally complete and I will post it below for all to see! That was a huge accomplishment for me being that I was just starting fresh at the job and was able to kick start with my creativity through a video!

So now that I am 3 months in, I am finally getting the swing of things and feel really confident in my work. I am doing a lot of new and exciting things for the company and we are all working together to make sure we are developing a great marketing strategy. My next big project, that I am currently in the works of doing, is redesigning our website. A lot of time and dedication is going to be going into this and so far, I am really enjoying it! I've been spending the past few weeks doing a lot of research on our competitors and seeing how their webpages are set up. This will help me get a feel for what I like and don't like and to see what stands out to me.

It's important for a company like mine to have a website that will grab the attention of the person(s) visiting our page. If there's too much or too little going on, it distracts you and you have no interest. It's basically a first impression, and we know first impressions mean everything.

As I gather my findings and review our current website, I will slowly start to put together a sample of what I'd like to see on our new and updated website! I'm going to work through this so that everyone in the office will get a say about the website since everyone can bring different concepts the table. My overall thought process was to create a powerpoint presentation with my mock-up of an idea for the website and then present it to my team members. This way, everyone is in the room with me and we can take some time to really get the best out of it and make changes where necessary. I like to involve everyone in my projects in marketing because there are many things that people have noticed worked in the past, and they could bring some benefit forward again.

So that is my new project in the works now....We put a timeline on it of about 6 months, so I really can spend a lot of time looking through things myself and working with a designer to help carry out this process. It's a very exciting opportunity for me and I'm really looking forward to the outcome!

Aside from work, I just hang out and continue to do the things that I enjoy! I'm in the middle of paying off my student loans, so by contributing a fair amount each month, I will slowly be eliminating those. I'm sure many of you are in the same shoes as me, but the quicker we can pay them off, the better off we are. It's much easier for me now too because I still live at home, so my expenses right now are very minimal and I can focus more on eliminating all that student debt! It's totally worth it because I got my degree and I am now working and doing something I love....It pays off in the end, but of course, we have to pay it off ourselves!

I hope all my fellow graduates are doing well and that all the new and continuing students are having a great quarter thus far! Don't forget to enjoy summer a little bit though, even if you're taking those summer classes. Get your work done on time, but also give yourself some relaxation & beach time!!!


And here is my introductory video I promised to post....

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!