I am finally done with final product!!!!!! I honestly didn't think I would be this prepared at this date and time with everything but what a relief it is! 

This week I am just finishing up on final touches for my actual presentation next week so my stress level is much lower than others. I am very pleased with how my years work has turned out and its crazy to think I'm literally about to cross the finish line with it all. Feels like yesterday I was struggling to find my first interview. I am very pleased with how far I have come especially with just the confidences level I have gained with interviewing and talking to professionals. 

I am excited to share how everything turns out soon!

This past week was great!!! I finally decided exactly where on what direction I wanted to take for my commercials and what a relief it is! I presented it to my mentor with nothing but positive feedback from him. He also gave me some more ideas on details concerning my product that were very helpful. I just feel so prepared for my final presentation and honestly it's all do to my mentor. At the beginning of all this I had to create a timeline along with my product proposal, I had to give my mentor a copy of it and he has really made sure I've stuck to it. So many other students I know of have barely even started and though I know theirs will come out good Im sure the stress might be running high. By taking this project a little further each week I am able to stress on the little things thankfully. I'm ecstatic for final presentation night to finally come! This year in ISM has really been fun but at the same time a lot of work.
This week I am fixing the parts of my rough draft that need to be touched on as well as adding the detail my mentor and I discussed last week. Will update next week! :)

This past week I presented what I have thus far along with the parts of my final speech I already have as well. It came out to be over 30 minutes long which is right on schedule of where I need to be at! I was also one of the first to go so I felt even better about it all knowing that I am prepared and on the right track.
Unfortunately I was not able to meet with my mentor visit but it will not hurt my schedule on my final product time line luckily. There are a couple weeks on my timeline in which I am just doing a little more reflecting on my previous work so I can't get too far behind.
This week I will be presenting my rough draft to my mentor and start editing it! I am so excited to be getting closer and closer to my final piece of work!!

This past week was AWESOME! I had the opportunity to not only meet with my mentor but also his right hand man when it comes to commercials. I was able to share with him my ideas and get some great feedback! I am growing very confident in my final project the more I work on it and learn. This week I am working on my rough draft and so I am constantly thinking about exactly where I want this commercial to be heading. I know I will come up with something I am proud of at the end of the day no matter which direction I move. Not only will I be presenting my rough draft to my mentor but also my teacher. I have been talking to my teacher daily of how excited I am and the amount of progress I have made so finally letting her catch a glimpse will be fun!

Everything is coming to an end so fast!!!

This past week I started to develop my ideas for my final product. Due to all the research I have done I have feel I have come up with useful and logic ideas. My final project is very similar to my Original Work and actually where I got the idea of it all.  In my Original Work I only came up with an idea for a football commercial. Now I not only have a football commercial but also both mens and women's basketball. It is cool to see how much different my vision is from my original to my final work! I didn't go into my original work analyzing and watching past commercials of multiple conferences multiple times. My goal for my final is to impress my mentor so much some ideas of for the real commercials come from me.

I really think I am on the right track with my final product and am looking forward on continuing it.

What a busy last few weeks I have had and it is only going to get busier from here! Last week I conducted an analysis over the other four major conferences and their use of commercials in the last five years.

This research was actually fairly difficult.  Finding these commercials was the hardest part. I ended up only finding less than 10 too. The ones I did find were pretty helpful and I think I have a good understanding of things to complete my final project. Every conference had their own unique style and it was obvious. So many factors go into these commercials but the biggest is money and that was also obvious.

This week I am brainstorming multiple ideas on how I want to approach my final project and I already have a few directions I can go with it all. I also have my ISM Portfolio check this week so I will be busy putting that all together too.

Write ya later!

This past week was great and eventful! I worked on gathering information on the past five years of Big 12 commercials for football, mens basketball, and women's basketball. It wasn't too too difficult to find the commercials. I was able to gather everyone I needed and fully analyze them. I pointed out key words and images used throughout them all as well as what I felt was received better from the audience than other things.

I was also given feedback on my press release in which I will create another draft for. Along with working on my press release I will be conducting more analysis on the other major 4 conferences and their commercials through the years. Researching the other conferences might be a little more difficult due to the fact they all have their own networks so the use of youtube and other interment outlets might not be crucial.

Will keep you updated on my progress in working on my final product!

This past week was definitely more eventful than the last! I was able to put my final product proposal together and present it to my Mentor along with the projects timeline. He was very pleased with what I had come up with and so I am thrilled to start working on it. This week I will be putting together an analysis over my research on the past Big 12 commercials to look at what has already been done these past 5 years. In my analysis I will address the wording used in each seasons of commercials as well as the actual video and overall message. With those things being looked at I will also go back and look at the results of the previous season that made them choose to go in the direction they did and also to results in that season. I am very excited with the final product I hope to come out with because I feel the hands on experience will be very beneficial. I am also already looking at forward to my final presentation and brainstorming ways to illustrate it to my audience in the best way.

I will be updating next week on how my first analysis goes!

These past two weeks were not busy for me at all. We only had school a couple times and then were out for spring break the week after. Due to weather and schedule conflicts my mentor and I were unable to meet. This week we will no matter what so hopefully I can get this ball rolling again. I am getting closer as to what I would like to produce for my final product and plan to propose that this week. I was thinking on expanding and finishing my original work where I created ideas for how to approach the 2015-2016 sports season.  I feel that I can do well and show the skills I have earned so far through this project too. Next Mondays post will definitely be more interesting so I look forward to telling you all about this week!

What a boring week this last one was. Due to weather I only had two days of school and my mentor and I were not able to find a time to meet. All in all I really didn't do much for ISM but this week is different! Thursday I am going to be sitting in on my mentors department meeting and I can not wait! So far it has just been me and him sitting in his office talking and now I get to see how the whole conference works. I also think by sitting in this meeting I will be able to get a better idea as to what I want to do for my final product. The final product is probably the biggest thing in which I am confused on. I have no clue what I want to do where I would first gain the most experience and second get a good grade on. I will write next week on how my visit this week goes!

I can not believe what all I have learned so far. I wrote my first press release and although it wasn't awful I did not nail it. There are definitely things I am having to tweak to it. Writing a press release was actually pretty fun. I didn't dread it like other writing assignments I encounter. Once I started typing the words just started to flow. I think I do better when I am writing actual information pieces. 

I showed it to me mentor and he seemed kind of impressed with it being my first one and all. He gave me great pointers and suggestions on how to make it better so I am very excited to back in a few days and share the changes. I hope to get good enough I am able to tackle a real topic.

This past week I had another great mentor visit. I am constantly learning more and more about communication and public relations each time I step into my mentor's office. The advice I am given is priceless and makes me eager to continue on my ISM journey. I have now been assigned to attempt a press release by my mentor, a task I have been wanting to tackle ever since I sat in on a junior PR class at UNT. A press release is immediately what you think of, or at least I do, when you think of public relations. They are published everyday and are used not only by those in the sports field but also in other professions. I know with a little guidance from other press releases I can really do well on this assignment. Can not wait to blog all about my results next week!

Busy, Busy bee! That is what has been describing my ISM experience lately. I turned in my original work and am now onto thinking about my final project. 

Things are moving too fast!

At the moment I have do not have a clue as to what my final project is going to look like but I now it will come to me sooner or later. What is cool, but very hard, about ISM is there is not much for you to go off of. Everyone studies something different so there isn't much of sharing and collaborating taking place. What is cool about being so on your own and independent is that you can use your imagination and go about assignments in your own way! You see yourself becoming more creative than you once thought you were. 

Looking forward to my mentor visit this week and sharing on how it goes.

This past week was unfortunately not too eventful. Due to weather and my driving recorded in situations in poor conditions I wasn't able to have a mentor visit. Instead I will have two this week so my next blog post will actually be worth reading! At the end of this week I have my original work due and I am freaking out about it. There really isn't much criteria to go off of or even an example for what I am studying. I can always improve my original work further down the road when I gain more knowledge on my topic too. After the original work next thing we know our final work will be due and ready for final presentation night will be happening! Wish me luck on this busy week and I will update on how it all turns out next Monday.

This past week was my very first official mentor visit. I had a great time and am so excited to start going weekly. Right out of the gate I stated to learn things and there is still so much more of it to be done! This week I really need to nail down and do my original work though. My plan for it is to develop a few questions and the media might ask the company I am working with and address those questions. This original work was actually thought up from my mentor and it definitely beat my original work idea. What excites me the most about doing the work I am is the fact that in college next I might have a similar assignment and I will be well prepared. That feeling of being lost and clueless will now be a thing of the past due to the experiences I am receiving. I am thrilled to keep my blog updated with my progress with not only my original work but also my progress with my final presentation. 

Last week I was able to finally nail down my mentor visits as well as narrow down on my original work. My mentor is having me concentrate on working to develop a possible campaign in regards to some controversy the company has been experiencing. I thrilled due to the project being focused on a present situation and me having little reference on how to approach it. I will be meeting with my mentor for our first official visit later this week and am looking forward to his feedback on the homework assignment he has already given me. 

One of the best parts about starting the mentor visits is being able to do assessments on them and reflecting on what I was able to take from the meeting. The assessments also help me retain the information and little things I was able to pick up from the visits. I cannot wait for my post next Monday and talk able my visit!

Long time no talk! Winter break is over and the second semester has started. The last week before break we finally had our winter showcase. It went great!! We had a great turn out and every student’s display boards were fantastic looking! I was very proud of the work I put out and am already excited for our next and final showcase in the spring. 

The best part was being able to talk to others about my study in sports PR. Not only did I talk to people there that I had invited but also just random people who I hadn't known and were just drawn to my table. I am very proud of how I set up my project. It was at a perfect point of getting my point across and sharing great information without it being hard to read with too much wording. Not only did I have my display board but also my laptop to the side playing sports high lights providing a little more excitement. I am happy to be back at school and continuing to work on my ISM.