Tiffany – COM Ambassador Blog

Tiffany: Signing Off

It’s been an unforgettable 4 years.

As my time here as a BU student comes to a close with graduation right around the corner, I find myself spending a lot of time reflecting on my experiences and have come to the realization that throughout my time here, I’ve been given a lot to be thankful for.

I’ve had the privilege of learning from brilliant professors whose success in their respective fields reflects the invaluable knowledge that they bring into the classroom. Even more so, I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know many of these professors on a personal level as they’ve mentored me through my academic endeavors and provided guidance and support as I pursued opportunities in the working world. They have cared more about my personal success and wellbeing than I ever anticipated college professors ever would. So to all the professors who have ever taught me a thing or a two about strategy, design, or even life for that matter, I thank you.

I’ve had the opportunity to make my mark on this campus and community by partaking in various student groups and activities. Through Fusion, my dance team here at BU, I’ve been able to refine my craft, perform all around campus, represent BU at competitions across the eastern seaboard, plan events, and most importantly, lead a group of talented individuals who I am proud to pass the torch onto as they carry on our team’s legacy of hard work, creativity, and family-like fellowship. Through the COM Ambassador program, I’ve had the opportunity to share my experiences with admitted students in hopes of helping them make arguably one of the most important decisions a person will ever make. I’ve also been able to mentor COM freshmen, providing guidance and endowing the insights and knowledge that I learned along the way. Fusion and the COM Ambassador program have given me the opportunity to learn and grow as a leader, and pay it forward to this community that has been so good to me over the years. So to Fusion and the COM Ambassador program, I thank you.

And finally, I’ve met some incredibly awesome, down-to-earth friends who I know will be my version of The Goonies for a lifetime. Together, we’ve taken on this adventure called college and fought off all the monsters that have come our way. We’ve shared some incredibly fun-filled times together and as a result, have made memories that are simply unforgettable. So to all the friends that I’ve made along with way, I thank you.

BU and COM, thanks for an incredible 4 years.

Signing off,

Tiffany

Tiffany: COM Open House!

Congratulations to those who were recently accepted to apart of the COM Class of 2017! You have now been faced with the important decision of where you should attend college and spend the next four years. On Saturday, April 13^th and 20^th, COM is having our Open House events for our admitted students. Even if you’ve already visited BU before, coming to these Open House events could be a major game changer and help you decide whether BU is the school for you or not.

Four years ago when I was a senior in high school, I came to COM Open House having little knowledge about BU and COM and quite honestly, only came because my mother insisted. To me, the Open House event seemed like it was nothing more than a basic college visit. Little did I know at the time, I was very wrong.

On April 13^th and 20^th, you’ll not only be able to walk around our campus, you’ll also be given insight into so much more than that, specifically that is relevant to the college you’ve been admitted into. You’ll hear all about COM from the Dean himself, meet the department chairs who lead their respective programs, have lunch with my fellow COM Ambassadors and myself in one of our student dining halls, and have the opportunity to pick the brains of a panel of students regarding any questions that you might have.

I came into Open House four years ago with very little interest in COM because I didn’t really know what COM was all about. But when I was on my flight home back to California and reflecting on the weekend I had just spent at BU and in Boston, I knew that attending the Open House event was a good idea. It is because of Open House that I made my decision to attend college at BU. As I finish out my last semester here at BU four years later as a graduating senior, I’m sure glad I made the decision that I did.

Open House is a great opportunity to not just see the campus, but more importantly talk to students and professors about their experiences. Listening to these testimonies could really help you get insight into what its like to be a student at BU and COM and decide for yourself whether you could see yourself in those shoes.

COM Class of 2017, I hope to meet you at either of our Open House events this month and look forward to seeing you here on our campus soon!

Tiffany: Producing Elements XIII–A Hip Hop Dance Competition

On Saturday, February 16^th, a year’s worth of hard work and planning will come to fruition as my dance team, Fusion, hosts the largest hip hop dance competition on the east coast for the 4^th year in a row. For an entire year now, my fellow teammates and I have been working out logistics with our show that include, but are not limited to, carefully selecting teams to compete for the $1000 cash prize, recruiting exhibition teams including crews who have been on MTV’s America’s Best Dance Crew, coordinating with lighting and sound production, promoting the show, and so much more.

I’m so thankful to have the opportunity to head such a large production within the confines of my own school that supports its student organizations with a plethora of resources for success. The planning process has taught me a lot about teamwork and has allowed me to implement many of the skills that I learn in the classroom such as design for promotional material, branding, and budgeting. It is opportunities on campus like these that I believe have refined my skillset and given me a unique experience to put on my resume.

My dance team has not only given me the outlet to dance and introduced me to a group of amazing friends who share my common interest, but has also has also given me real world event planning experience that will be invaluable as I enter into the work force in a few short months. It has been a crazy roller coaster ride of a year planning this show but I am nothing but excited to see it all come to life. Wish me luck!

Tiffany: From TV to Tablets

Welcome back to school, everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful first week of classes and are excited for the upcoming semester. I know that I sure am looking forward to making this semester (my last semester) an extremely memorable one. I’m particularly excited for my last chance to learn from the incredibly knowledgeable professors we have here in COM, spending my final semester dancing with Fusion, and sharing all my experiences one last time with you all.

This semester I’m taking a new course that COM just launched, called “TV To Tablets” and I couldn’t be more excited about it. After attending the first day of class and discussing what we had in store for us in the next semester, I knew immediately that it would be a challenging course in that it was unique from anything I’d ever taken in the past 4 years. The class, taught be Professor Luber, discusses how brands have created new revenue sources to align with the new digital consumer while leveraging a multitude of media platforms as strategic business solutions that have proved to be successful. This class pulls from all different topics in the communication world and expects students to think in terms of advertising, branding, television content, production, revenue, public relations, law, and basically a culmination of almost anything you could study in COM.

Although I am a senior and am on my out, it greatly excites me that COM is always creating new courses and altering already existing courses to ensure they are staying relevant and up-to-date with today’s dynamic society. Stay tuned for more updates from my last semester here at BU and in COM and I wish you all a wonderful spring semester!

Tiffany: ‘Tis the Season

As the semester winds down, most students are preoccupied with final exams, projects, and papers and often forget how beautiful the city of Boston is during this time of year. Although academic assignments are of the utmost importance, take some time to explore and cherish the city during the holiday season. Here are some of my favorite places to visit and activities to do in Boston during the month of December:

Ice Skate on Frog Pond

When the air gets cold enough, Frog Pond in Boston Common freezes over and is open to the public for free skate. For $5 you can spend the afternoon skating around with your friends in the middle of the Commons and experience the park in a whole new way.

Faneuil Hall

This historical landmark is beautiful at this time of year as it’s lit up with lights and holiday decorations. Enjoy the festive scenery and grab a bite to eat at Quincy Market.

Boston Ballet Nutcracker

Performed at the Boston Opera House, the Boston Ballet’s annual production of the Nutcracker is always a treat!

Downtown Crossing Holiday Market

Explore the Downtown Crossing Holiday Market and you’ll find local artists and designers selling everything from crafts, jewelry, to holiday decorations and treats. You might also find Santa Claus roaming around the market as well!

Best of luck wrapping up the academic semester and happy holidays, everyone!

Tiffany: Fusion Practice Makes Perfect

Although midterm season was full of hectic and busy days, the hard work does not stop at the end of midterms. Right as my midterms wrapped up, my dance team, Fusion Hip Hop Dance Troupe, kicked it into high gear to prepare to debut our new set. Each semester, my dance team produces a new set that includes 5 to 6 pieces, which typically takes us nearly the first 2 months of the semester to prepare and to become stage ready.

But despite the craziness and stress that comes along with putting our new set together, it is always so rewarding to finally perform the final product on stage. This week is our final week of preparation before we debut on Friday night and will be full of long nights of rehearsal. I actually, strangely enough, look forward to this ‘hell week’ because it usually brings our team closer together. The endless nights of rehearsal all throughout the week force our team to collectively work together as a team to push each other to our own personal best that allows for us to be the best possible team we can be. Looking back to my freshman year, ‘hell week’ was what truly made me realize that I had joined the right student organization on campus that gave me a sense of family here at BU. At rather large universities like BU, student organizations are the perfect way to make a big ocean seem like a small pond where the water is shallow and safe. Each semester’s Fusion ‘hell week’ takes me back to my freshman year where after much adjustment, I truly felt at home in Boston and at BU.

Wish me luck at Fusion’s first big performance of the semester and more updates about Fusion and other happenings of my final year here at BU soon!

Tiffany: Midterm De-Stressers

It’s about that time in the semester where the academic work load has gotten heavier with midterm exams/projects that won’t seem to end until its time for finals to begin. But not to fear because I have come up with a list of some of my favorite midterm de-stressers! Just because I have exams and projects due does not mean that I don’t make the time to still enjoy the things that get me out of bed each morning and keep me going. Here is a list of how I keep sane during midterm season:

1. Practice with my dance team, Fusion

Taking part in student groups on campus is a way to not only meet new people, but also help take the mind off academic stress. I personally use my dance team’s practices to temporary forget all my worries and channel my energy into something that I love, while spending time with my friends in a proactive manner.

2. A walk along the Esplanade

Autumn is my favorite time of year and taking a walk along the Charles River, admiring the changing color of the leaves, is the perfect way to ease my mind. Stretching the legs a bit with some exercise also does great things for the body and mind!

3. A warm beverage

Whether it is a freshly brewed cup of coffee in the morning or a cup of milk and honey before I go to bed at night, a warm beverage always makes me feel good. During midterm season, I often like to treat myself to a warm almond milk tea from one of my favorite cafes, Infusion Tea Spa in Allston. The walk from my apartment in Stuvi is only a few minutes away and the reward of a delicious warm drink makes for a great study break.

4. Baking with my roommates

My apartment-mates and I have started this weekly tradition where we always bake together on Thursdays. As midterms started creeping up on us, we were a bit worried whether our hectic schedules would allow for us to keep up our tradition. But with good time management, we made sure to make time for Baking Thursdays as spending that quality time together is important to us. Though social-hour may happen a bit less during midterms, it is still important to have some fun and enjoy time with friends!

So if you find yourself overwhelmed by the craziness of midterms, think about some activities that you truly enjoy and utilize them to ultimately make your study time more productive! Good luck to all with exams and projects!

Tiffany: There’s Always Time to Eat!

Only have a quick break in between classes? Growing bored of the dining hall? Just want something delicious and affordable to eat? You are in luck because the food trucks outside the COM building are the perfect solution! Everyday there is a food truck located right in front of COM that serves tasty, affordable, and quick food to get you what you need and want in a matter of minutes. Having a good, satisfying meal is what keeps me going throughout the day, especially as midterms, class projects, and essays are picking up speed. You’ll also often run into professors here and it’s a great opportunity to casually chat and bond over food. Here are some of my favorite food trucks that park their mobile kitchens right outside:

Clover Food Lab: Mondays & Tuesdays Lunch

Vegetarian friendly (no meat served)
Personal favorite: Chickpea fritter and rosemary fries

Bon Me: Wednesdays Dinner

Vietnamese style food
Personal favorite: Spiced-rubbed-all-natural chicken rice bowl

Mei Mei Street Kitchen: Thursday Lunch

Chinese-American food
Personal favorite: Porky rice ball

The Dining Car

American
Personal favorite: New England pulled pork sandwich

Whether you’re in a hurry to get a quick bite to eat or you just want to mix it up with something new, check out some of these food trucks and I promise your taste buds won’t regret it!

Tiffany: Document Everything

I hope you’re all enjoying your last weeks of summer before school begins in just a few short weeks!

As my senior year is quickly approaching (yikes!), I’ve found myself having many talks with friends about how great the past 3 years were and trying to relive the memories through photos, Facebook wall-to-walls, old blog posts, and anything we could get our hands on to remember those days.

I’ve decided that for my last leg of college I’d document the adventures, hoorahs, good times, lessons learned, mistakes (let’s hope there aren’t too many of these), and all the beauty that comes with being in college by starting a new personal blog. While revisiting some of my old blogs I found it rather fun to be able to meet my younger self and wished that I had been more consistent with posting throughout the years. But thankfully, for those times I wasn’t so active in writing about my life, I had plenty of photos to fill in the gaps.

Many of you are about to start a whole new chapter in your lives that we like to call college.

Take it from me, someone who is unfortunately on her way out, document everything! I’m choosing to do it through a new blog, but any way you can or prefer will do! Write about it, photograph it, save mementos from special events, anything! Take advantage of the fact that we live and breathe in the digital world, so what we write online is written in something more permanent than Sharpie and will always be there (assuming the internet stays alive forever!) for us to stumble upon whenever we want to take a stroll down memory lane.

You should all be so excited because there really is no other time quite like college. It’s full of fun, adventure, friends, and so much more. So take my advice and DOCUMENT EVERYTHING!

See you all very soon and shout to #district7! Let the #COMGames begin!

Tiffany: My Summer at Digitas – Mad Men In Real Life

Greetings from one of those big, tall, fancy buildings in downtown Boston!

This week marks my 7^th week interning at Digitas, a leading global advertising agency that pioneered the digital age in advertising. I along with 24 other interns from all sorts of different backgrounds, universities, and interests are working across the many different capabilities within the agency such as marketing, project management, account planning, art direction, copy writing, user experience, media, technology, and more.

I’m specifically interning in marketing, or what some other agencies might refer to as account management, on a Fortune 100 financial services client. In particular, my team works on corporate social responsibility for the client, meaning we tell their story as a brand and manage their overall brand image through our work.

For those who are die-hard Mad Men fans out there, I hate to break your hearts, but agency life isn’t quite how Don Draper lives it out. In many ways, the hit TV show has portrayed agency life spot on in that sometimes in order to be productive, one has to be unproductive first and let the creative juices naturally flow. My team in particular, has set up a nerf gun battlefield throughout the floor to help each other through those frustrating times and just have a little fun. It’s not quite like how the agency in Mad Men likes to be unproductive with their 2 hour oyster lunches, cigarette breaks, and excessive alcohol consumption, but we take breaks as often as necessary and look to each other to join in on the unproductivity to ultimately help each other be productive.

Which brings me to one of the aspects of agency life that Mad Men doesn’t quite portray as well as it maybe should, which is the importance of teamwork. Throughout the 7 weeks I’ve been interning here, I’ve been blown away by how fluidly the different capabilities work together towards a common goal. They all genuinely look out for each other and not only have the client, but also each other’s best interest in mind. With this, the work is just that much better and everyone walks away a little saner and with a bigger smile on their face at the end of each day. Despite their differences in specialties, the Photoshop genius of an art director, the organized marketing manager, and the number savvy analyst all work together to help give the client the best recommendation possible by pulling together their strengths and trusting each other to fill in the holes on their own capability’s weaknesses. So whether its providing the client with our point of view on a certain campaign move or participating in a floor-wide nerf gun fight, everyone is part of the team and looks out for each other no matter how big or small the task/problem at hand.

I’m honestly quite sad for the internship to be more than half way over, because I’ve become an integral part of this hard-working yet silly, nerf-gun playing team. However, I eagerly am looking forward to the remainder of my time with Digitas as I still have much to learn! More updates on my insights in advertising life in a few weeks!

Happy summer, everyone!