I’ve always loved Issuu as a way to showcase writing or page designs, and now the site has gotten a bit of an update. I thought I’d share a few writing samples via Issuu as well. View them here!
You can view the rest on my Work Samples Page. Enjoy!
The Results Are In: Runners Up in the Biscuitville Brand Your Biscuit Competition!
My roommates and I, as mentioned in my last post, formed a team called G.R.I.T.S. (Girl Roommates in the South) to create our very own biscuit, The Southern Sunrise. It was a part of the extremely fun Brand Your Biscuit competition held by Biscuitville.
As finalists in the competition, we were invited to attend this past Monday’s Business and Biscuits Breakfast in a penthouse ballroom in the Center Pointe building in Greensboro. It was STUNNING. Golden walls, gorgeous city views and trays of fresh biscuits awaited us as we anticipated the results of the competition. We also got to speak with local entrepreneurs and business professionals in our fields of interest, which was such a treat and a nice bonus of the breakfast.
When it came time to announce the winners, we were announced as the runners up and winners of Best Video! We attribute the video’s success to the catchy jingle we created on our couch back in March. We had a lot of fun making up the rhymes to that one and putting together the final product.
Along with our runner up status, we received $500 toward Elon. We were pleasantly surprised and can’t wait to donate the money to our wonderful college (and our home for just one more month)!
Fun with G.R.I.T.S. (Girl Roommates in the South) – The Biscuitville Brand Your Biscuit competition
Biscuitville is a North Carolina-based breakfast chain that serves up delicious, homemade Southern classics including many types of scratch-made biscuits, hashbrowns, grits, pancakes, muffins and more. Their coffee is also wonderful.
I got an e-mail from a professor earlier this year about the Biscuitville Brand Your Biscuit competition, a contest open to North Carolina college students to submit a new product for their menu – specifically a product that could appeal to a younger demographic. I immediately sent a mass text to my three other roomies asking if they’d like to form a team. Everyone got on board! Our team name was our favorite part – G.R.I.T.S. (Girl Roommates in the South).
The contest was also appealing to us because it went along with our respective majors. Two of us are studying journalism, and two are studying marketing, and we all love Biscuitville. It seemed like a great fit!
The product we came up with was the Southern Sunrise biscuit, a biscuit with a fried grits patty, bacon and cheese. We did a small-scale Facebook poll to help decide which meat to use, and not surprisingly, bacon came out with a win (quite typical for us college folk)!
We also looked at their current menu and pricing to make sure we weren’t straying too far from the down-home, Southern Biscuitville line-up.
We submitted an online form for the first portion of the contest, and soon came an e-mail that we’d advanced to the semi-finals. We then made a video for round two. We had a BLAST making it, and we even wrote a cheesy yet memorable jingle.
And recently, folks, we were named finalists! We were thrilled and honored to be able to give a presentation at the corporate offices of Biscuitville, and now we await the final decision (to be announced on Monday April 8)! In the mean time, enjoy our video above and our presentation (link below).
Go Local! { The North Carolina 10% Campaign }
The NC 10% Campaign is an initiative started at North Carolina State University to encourage businesses and residents to buy more locally produced foods.
People can take the pledge on their website to buy roughly 10% of their food locally, and in doing so they join the movement to stimulate their city’s economy and help the hardworking food producers who live a stone’s throw away from them.
Not to mention, local foods are fresher, healthier and haven’t traveled hundreds of miles to get to you. It’s not that much more expensive to buy, and the products are more diverse and in season. What’s not to love?
As a part of our Environmental Communications course, we made a video promoting the NC 10% Campaign’s efforts. It was recently featured on Planet Forward’s website – enjoy!
Movie Review: ‘Beasts of the Southern Wild’
A recent movie review for The Pendulum‘s Style Blog, élan:
Captivating. Moving. Poignant. Emotional.
“Beasts of the Southern Wild,” directed by Benh Zeitlin, is a movie infused with passion, both from the actors and the brains behind the film’s production. It debuted at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival and it’s gained a spirited and growing fanbase ever since. Its vibrant child star, Quvenzhane Wallis, was nominated for a Best Actress Academy Award, and the film itself was recently nominated for an Academy Award in three other categories: Best Picture, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay. It’s easy to see why.
The movie is set in a makeshift community in the bayou of Louisiana. It’s called the “Bathtub”, and it’s faced with a constant threat of flooding. This tight-knit cast of characters is mostly neglected by the “civilized” folk who live on the other side of the levee, but they don’t see that as an obstacle to their well-being. What other people call poverty they call everyday life, and they embrace it.
Wallis, who plays Hushpuppy, lives in the Bathtub with her father Wink, played by newcomer Dwight Henry. She’s motherless, her father’s health is declining and he verges on being abusive. But Hushpuppy has a brilliantly curious and strong mind, and she’s determined to make sense of her seemingly small life and find where she connects to the big world outside.
And boy, does she face some obstacles. There are situations I could never imagine being put in — mega storms, accidental house fires, a constantly shifting home life — but Hushpuppy’s resilience is always there as a cornerstone of the movie. She finds connections between people and the universe that most kids would overlook, and it’s truly inspiring. The movie even toys with the idea of mythical creatures that seem to be created straight from Hushpuppy’s 5-year-old mind. This was one portion of the movie that wasn’t as clear to me, but maybe that means it deserves a second look.
Wallis and Henry do a phenomenal job in their roles. They were both newcomers from Louisiana before being cast in the film. Henry, specifically, was recruited while he still worked in a mom-and-pop restaurant near New Orleans. He had a spark the director was looking for, and he brought a certain rawness to every scene he was in. It’s quite impressive. His acting undoubtedly drew on his own experience in Hurricane Katrina — he was there in neck-high waters, and he felt the emotional toll of that disaster. And Wallis is spunky and fearless. She is someone you can’t help but root for.
The film is also shot beautifully, with energy and whimsical imagery packed into each sequence. It’s certainly not a comedy, and it’s not a feel-good flick, but it has elements of both woven into the plot. You feel like you’re dipping your toes in something a little deeper, like you’re in Hushpuppy’s young but wise shoes trying to figure out the world. “Beasts of the Southern Wild” is refreshing, daring, heartbreaking and magnificent.
The Pendulum‘s rating: 4/5 stars
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College Voters 2012 – A Multimedia Journalism Project
For our final project of the semester in Multimedia Journalism, our group of five seniors created a webpage centered on the 2012 Presidential Elections. We focused on college student sentiment of the candidates and outcome, especially college seniors.
We each enjoyed contributing our own multimedia elements to the page and loved showcasing the final product.
My specific contributions were the rotating header images on the home page, the Storify piece, and two graphics about student debt on the “Facts & Figures” page.
Take a look at our project for yourself!
Linking Generations bridges gap between students and seniors
Elon sophomore Kendall Quinn gives a glimpse into her time volunteering at Blakey Hall, an assisted living community in Elon, North Carolina:
“There’s a misconception that older people are past their prime,” said Elon junior Caroline McSwain. “But the Blakey Hall residents are on their game.”
Blakey Hall is an assisted living community less than three miles from Elon University’s campus. Linking Generations, the student-run organization formerly known as Adopt-a-Grandparent, is made up of students from all four years who visit Blakey Hall at least once a month to mingle and build relationships with residents.
McSwain understands some students’ hesitation to visit Blakey Hall but assures her peers it’s more than worth it.
“It’s scarier to volunteer with older people,” she said. “But it’s enriching. It’s easier to do in a group setting.”
The organization, which currently has more than 25 members, facilitates activities like craft nights and coordinates holiday-themed parties and weekly visits to simply chat with the residents.
McSwain, now a co-president of the organization, got involved as a freshman. She volunteered for one of her human services classes but loved it so much she continued volunteering throughout the year, eventually earning 50 service hours at Blakey.
McSwain said it’s especially rewarding to visit the second floor of the main building, which houses residents primarily diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and dementia.
“It’s hard, especially with those patients,” she said. “But they are still carefree and full of life. Helping them be joyful and happy is really important.”
One of her Blakey Hall friends is Hazel, a woman with a sense of humor and an affinity for flashy necklaces, some of which McSwain helped her make during an afternoon of crafting.
Both McSwain and fellow Linking Generations member Kendall Quinn describe Hazel as a “low-key” person who enjoys the simple things, especially sing-a-longs.
Quinn, a sophomore at Elon, finds the residents charming and loves their passion for singing.
“They are all really talented at remembering lyrics,” she said. “It’s amazing to watch. They love singing the classic songs.”
Blakey Hall activities director Judy Simpson said both residents and staff appreciate students’ frequent visits.
“People don’t realize how much a conversation means to them,” she said. “We love having people come, especially when it’s consistent. These folks like to get to know you.”
Simpson said they especially love having students visit during holiday seasons, because residents’ families often can’t make it for every holiday, mainly Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Often, students serve as a sort of extended family for the residents. During McSwain’s sophomore year, she was close with a woman named Bea who lived on the second floor of Blakey.
“She was wild and young at heart,” she said. “ She always looked her best and wore jewelry, and one time she even carried a diaper of jewelry around because she knew people wouldn’t want to touch it and steal her stuff.”
But when McSwain returned to Elon for her junior year, she learned Bea had died in her sleep. She remembered the feeling as bittersweet.
“I was sad, but all my visits with her felt worth it,” she said. “I had had an impact during the last year of her life.”
She said her time at Blakey with Linking Generations has helped her understand her own grandparents more. She sends them frequent e-mails just to say hello, and she said her grandparents appreciate the fact that she cares about elderly people even with a busy college schedule. She said she genuinely loves the organization and visiting her friends at Blakey, and she loves the meaningful, two-way relationships she has formed there.
“It means a lot to them that somebody is there,” she said. “It’s similar to a relationship with peers. They’re friends, and the experiences they share are amazing.”
Dowd of The New York Times talks daddy issues and the human side of politics
TurboVote’s convenience a big draw for many Elon student voters
by Madelyn Smith
TurboVote wants voting to be easy for Americans and as “awesome as renting a DVD from Netflix,” it says on its website.
In August, Elon University supported this initiative and announced a partnership with the voter registration nonprofit to help ease the voting process for students.
Since then, 1003 people registered to vote through TurboVote at Elon, and there were a total of 1168 ballot requests from people ages 18 to 65.
North Carolina, Virginia and New Jersey were among the top states represented in Elon’s ballot requests and registration sign-ups through TurboVote.
The site’s usability certainly contributed to its success at Elon.
“It’s easy to use,” said Sharon Spray, chair of Elon’s political science department. “Especially for students who want to register to vote and participate in voting in a state other than NC.”
Many students in Elon’s large out-of-state population appreciated the opportunity to streamline the voting process.
Jessica Simermeyer, a senior from Finksburg, MD, had registered three years ago after her 18th birthday and did not plan on making the drive home to vote this year.
“All I had to do was log on and request an absentee form,” she said. “Then when I got the form in the mail, I signed off and sent it back. It was very convenient.”
Katie Hadobas, a junior from Fort Worth, TX, said she heard abo
ut TurboVote from an informative email sent by Smith Jackson, Vice President for Student Life. She said signing up for the service took her less than 30 minutes to complete.
“I registered one or two weeks ago,” she said. “I liked it because it’s really simple and it does the busy work for you and cuts down on time.”
Some students like Ryan Vet, a senior from Cary, N.C., experienced a few hiccups during the registration process. He said the directions were occasionally unclear.
“I put my campus box as my current mailing address, thinking it would register me in Elon,” he said. “But I was actually registered in Cary because I put that as my permanent address.”
Vet also said once he was registered to vote, he was inundated with the voting reminder communication TurboVote sent him, including texts and emails.
“They over-communicated a bit, he said. “So I didn’t want to act at times.”
Spray said some students like the simple interface of the website but said it was missing additional bits of information about different candidates.
“But that’s not the purpose of the site,” she said. TurboVote’s FAQ section says its main purpose is to assist with first-time and updated voter registration, absentee ballot submissions and voting reminders in the weeks and days leading up to the elections.
Despite some room for user error with the website’s instructions, Vet said the service is viable and an ideal tool for students to easily register.
“It’s still a good idea and I’ll still vote,” he said. “I’d recommend anything that gets people to vote.”
Elon, Burlington and the local food movement: Creating conscious consumers
After Sandra Sarlinga made the move from Argentina to the United States in 2000, she made a quick stop by a grocery store during her first few weeks in the country. She didn’t like what she found.
“I couldn’t smell any produce,” Sarlinga said. “I wanted the rich scents like at the markets in Argentina, but I didn’t get that in the store. It was upsetting!”
It’s a common scene in American grocery store chains today. Perfectly plump strawberries are stacked neatly against the reddest, shiniest apples, which sit across the aisle from the rich, green bundles of spinach. As is often the case, this produce is picked before it fully ripens to ensure its fresh look by the time it travels – often across the country – to local stores’ shelves.
“If your veggies look perfect, it means no other critter in the world wanted to eat them but you,” said Dr. Norman Wirzba, a research professor at Duke University who spoke at Elon University’s Fall Environmental Forum.
Wirzba’s talk, “Why Sustainable Agriculture Matters,” stressed the need for a real change in society’s mindset when it comes to food. He charged the carnivores and herbivores of the world to take a step back and reexamine where their food is coming from, because, as he put it, “we are the most food ignorant generation the world has ever known.”
“Do we have to grow our food with so much poison, so many pesticides?” Wirzba asked. “Is that what you want to feed yourself?”
For Sandra Sarlinga and her family, that was a definitive no. When she and her husband Fabian moved to Elon, North Carolina, they started The Farm Fairy, a farm which originally sold locally produced honey and now offers artisan breads, lavender, eggs, herbal teas, jellies and soaps, among other products.
Sarlinga’s quest to spread the joy of fresh, healthy food has taken her and her family to several farmers’ markets in the Piedmont area, including the Elon Community Church Farmer’s Market, which is held Thursdays from 2 pm to 6 pm from April to October.
At a glance, the market’s vendors seem few and far between. There are roughly eight to ten booths per week selling unique and locally produced goods like homemade jams, vegetables, jewelry and tie-dyed clothing. But each vendor has a personality and a story to tell, and a love for their craft is evident.
Michael Strickland, lecturer of English and environmental studies at Elon, said the most notable part of the market is that the vendors are largely located within 20 miles off campus.
“At places like the Company Shops Market in Burlington, which is a local food co-op, you’re writing out all the costs of packaging and shipping food that comes from far away,” he said. “You’re handing your money straight to the guy that grew your food.”
But what about that money? Many people are quick to point out the increased costs associated with buying organic and locally-made foods. Is it worth it to stretch your wallet a bit more for local eats? Is this a realistic lifestyle choice for cash-strapped college students?
Strickland says yes.
In his Sustainable Food Production class two years ago, he had students complete a study of grocery costs. Their goal: to determine if food prices at local chains like Harris Teeter and Lowe’s Foods were all that different from the Company Shops Market in Burlington.
The students were surprised to find the prices didn’t differ much at all.
After buying the same items at each type of store, they paid just 10 to 15 percent more at the co-op each time. With $100 grocery bill at Harris Teeter, for example, they paid, on average, about $110 at the co-op.
“I tell my students it’s doable, it’s not that expensive,” Strickland said. “If they would just cut down on those other weekly expenses like that one dollar beer or that fancy coffee and plowed their money into buying local food, it could work for them. They could make an impact and a conscious statement to other students about being informed, educated consumers.”
Wirzba said buying local is worthwhile because it helps sustain regional economies and contribute to local business growth. And smaller-scale farming and markets create a thriving culture, not just a thriving economy, he said.
Shoppers who practice “locavorism,” the umbrella term for buying and eating local food, also reap the health benefits.
“Health is an important factor,” Strickland said. “Take a gallon of milk you find at a place like Walmart. The milk comes from who knows where and is probably a mixture from ten different dairy farms. You’d be better off supporting a dairy farm ten miles away that you’re able to track down.”
But Strickland admits it’s often hard to find many local vendors outside of a market setting.
“There are certainly pockets of Burlington that are ‘food desserts,’” he said. “You’d have to travel far to find any local products.”
But he said that, if possible, it’s important to at least know the source of what you’re buying. It may take more effort to research local food vendors, but he said it is certainly worth it.
Living a local lifestyle is a win-win for the consumer and the vendor. For Strickland, the economic and health benefits are plentiful. For Sarlinga, the food quality and taste is unmatched. And for Wirzba, there are unique outlets for personal growth.
“Many jobs only require you to push buttons,” he said. “But with farming, producers and consumers can be connected. You have a wonderful opportunity with lots of local farms in North Carolina to meet the farmers and help them. This makes possible a more celebratory culture. You can grow to know food in a way you haven’t before. You become more grateful over good food. That’s one of the great joys in life.”
Story, graphics, video and photos by Madelyn Smith.
Madelyn Smith 
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