Black Tie Lounge

Tommorrow is my first night to attend a class in PR Theory! I'm excited but I feel like I have to shine because PR is my area of study. That and plus my advisor is teaching it. I've gone through the readings and this is what I think. The first article takes a look at perspectives on PR history. I finally realized that this article is not an overview of PR history but some different views of its history. I understand that Hiebert's perspective outlines how PR is seen as a way to reinforce democracy. The safety of democracy depends on people making sound judgements and these judgements come from information which is supplied by PR efforts. I genuinely agree with this. The focus here is PR as a way to get information to the public. In a large way this is one aspect of public relations. I think this perspective describes journalism more than public relations because it does not take into account the relationship and on going communication with a specialized audience or stakehol...

I'm having trouble. If someone asks me why I want to do something I take a step back and internalize it for awhile. Right now I'm working on internship applications and the first question that was asked was why am I interested in public relations. Can you believe, I have been studying this field for over 5 years and now I am having trouble articulating what should come so natural. Trust, I struggled with this for a bit because I know my purpose extends beyond PR. Still so much of my purpose is in PR. Why? Because it is stretching me and all the skill I'm gaining, I can use to benefit others in the grander scheme of life. So one reason I know I'd like to go into PR and no other area of business is the variety. I will loose my mind if I am doing the same thing for too long. Knowing that I have a variety of tasks to do that are diverse in nature keeps me on my toes but allows me to feel accomplished when I complete it. It is a work style thing. I will end up gaining so man...

I experienced a phenomenal event at the Inauguration. But I returned to a tragedy in Blacksburg. Police found Xin Yang, an graduate student in accounting, decapitated in a cafe in the GLC. Hiyang Zhu, doctoral student in agricultural and applied economics, was charged with death. As much as I want to report on this as a journalist, I'm going to refrain. The night of the murder I was in Squires, a building right next to the GLC, and could see flashing lights of police cars parked outside of the GLC. The GLC and Squires are close to downtown Blacksburg, so I figured they were regulating parking as they usually do around that hour. It was not until I got home and checked my messages that I saw the VT e-mail alerts. My inbox was filled with text messages from alumni and colleagues wondering where I was and what was going on. I turned on the news and even still the story was in such an infancy stage that there was not much to report except that there was stabbing. The first thing I thou...

I'm moving through the first few chapters of this book for the second time and I want to share my thoughts. So far the book has talked about how segregation has played a major role in the plight of the urban underclass. It explains how the ghetto was created and maintained by white society as a way to keep blacks from advancing. Catch this, during The Great Migration there were federal and local efforts to keep blacks out of better neighborhods through redlining and home improvement associations. These were attempts to organize the community into sections based on financialy means. Correct me if I'm wrong but redlining, which classified the poorer areas as red that also happened to house the majority of black residents--was a way to keep bank money and development from taking place in black neigborhoods. The book talks about how although there has been an increase of black suburbans it does not compare with the grown of the ghetto. European ethnic ghettos were temporary and his...

Yes we did! I made it to the 56th Inauguration. I'm actually surprised that the trip went as smoothly as it did. Myself and four other members of the Black Graduate Student Organization left Blacksburg at 10:30 pm. I had every intention of sleeping the whole way up. Some how I did not. Maybe it was because I was afraid our driver would fall asleep behind the wheel. The Young Jeezy and Jay-Z songs about Barack Obama and Busta Rhymes single "Arab Money" kept me awake as well. This in addition to the conversations about how the Boondocks is a political and social satire of our time, and my sharing my life story with everyone contributed to me not sleeping. To our fortune there was no traffic what so ever on 66E. We made it to the Vienna metro station without a problem. We cheered as we tried to pull into a parking lot that only let visitors out and not in. We were second in line, behind a compact car whose driver decided to park and sleep until the gate open. Our car was p...

I'm going to the Inauguration. Yes I'm doing it. I'm leaving with a group of graduate students at 10pm from Blacksburg and arriving in DC God knows when. O trust-- you will hear about it . Part of me thinks we are crazy as hell for deciding to do things this way. Then another part of me just wants to see what happens. I'll be doing both so you know. In other news, classes start on Tuesday. Here I am. As far as I'm concerned this is the last first day of classes I may have for awhile. I've got my boss upset with me and really trying to evangelize me to the PhD. If you don't know, I work for the McNair Scholars Program. The program is designed to increase faculty diversity by mentoring undergraduates so they pursue a PhD. I benefited greatly from the program: the connections I made got me into grad school; the connections that came about definitely got me funding; had I not been a scholar I probably wouldn't have the job I have now. Oh there is a but! I do...

Not even a week into 2009 I figure its time to run your ear off with my rambling. This past Christmas break was probably the last Christmas break I will have unless I go into teaching or get a PhD --I know for where I am now that dream is a long time coming. The reason behind that is because I'm ready to step into new territories outside of academe. December 9 I successfully presented my internship project-- a project that I was one step from putting on hold for 2009 because I almost couldn't pull up the strength to finish. With some encouragement from my advisor, some cutting and pasting, I was actually farther than I expected. With that out of the way it freed me up to close out the semester on a better note than before. NYE ATL was fun. I won't be partying like that for quite some time so I enjoyed it while it lasted. As much as Tech rags on UVA I have some good people that graduated from there. I joined one of my boys and his people--we were about 16 deep. Hit up PF Cha...

Just a thought !! Til then.