It was a long four weeks after being out of school due to Hurricane Florence. At first I was thinking we might be out for a week but then once Florence got closer and closer I started to really take it more seriously. We see natural disasters happening on the news in various places but we never think they’d actually happen in our back yard. It has been a tough transition getting back into school mode, I would say for most of us, but with the help of this blog post I think it will ease the pain. I realize that we all have our own way of staying organized but these are just a few tips to take with you.

 

Start fresh

            That’s right. It’s time to clear your mind of what we thought was our Fall semester’s due dates. Until Flo happened.

If you haven’t already threw out your planner, it might be best to get your beer pong arm ready and SINK IT in the trash can. I know, especially us ladies have spent at least $10 on our planners for the year but it is not worth keeping at this point. It will only stress you out even more considering you will have to scribble out what’s irrelevant at this point. For the men that never carry planners, that is okay. I realize that if you open a planner in class you might get starred down by a few of your classmates. A solution to this would be to use the Reminders App that comes on your IPhone. That way you can still maintain your manly imagine while staying up to date. Be sure to check your revised calendar’s and get planning!

 

Set deadlines

Now that you have fresh pages be sure to write down any due dates at least a couple weeks in advance. By having everything noted early it will limit your stress and you can get work done early since you are aware of what you have to do. Have plans to go to a NC State football game but have 1,000 things you have to do before the weekend? No problem. Your planner is already 3 weeks up to date and that just shaved off hours of figuring out what you have to do before you can leave for the game on Friday!

 

Take some time for yourself

           Yes, you should put the books down if you have been studying for a couple hours and get some exercise. It can be something as simple as running. Even if you absolutely can’t stand running at least go for a walk to get the blood circulating. Or do some yoga. Anything that involves moving will pump up your endorphins. According to Mayo Clinic, “Regular exercise can increase self-confidence, it can relax you, and it can lower the symptoms associated with mild depression and anxiety”.

https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/stress-management/in-depth/exercise-and-stress/art-20044469

 

Utilize what UNCW has to offer

Don’t freak out it’s not too late!

UNCW offers a variety of learning tools that are there for us when we need them. The writing center is a great place on campus to get help with school work. It doesn’t matter if you are a freshman or a senior it is included in your tuition so you might as well get as much use out of it while you are still a Seahawk.

 

Communication is key

            Lastly, as Communication Studies major’s we all know that communication is key when you are in college. As sad as it is to say, Wilmington went through a tragedy. Hurricane Florence was no joke and it is still taking some time for families to get back on their feet. If you are going through a hard time from Flo, email your professors. Set up a time to talk with them during their office hours and they will help you figure out a way for you to still get the education that you need.

-Katie Woodard

Have you ever noticed how much influence images have over our minds?

Just a couple days before Hurricane Florence struck the east coast, NASA released an image of a satellite view of the hurricane. After seeing the photo, I returned home, only to find myself glued to the TV. Never before had I watched the Weather Channel more religiously. Seeing that photo made it real to me that this was not just another hurricane. Fear began to creep in as I awaited anxiously to see the aftermath of the storm.  I did not know what to expect, but something in me knew it was not going to be good.

Images play both positive and negative roles in our perspective. Seeing the gigantic category four hurricane come straight for Wilmington conveyed differing messages to locals, UNCW students, and more. While students brought home items from college, others tried to take whatever valuables they could. Homeowners did not know whether to stay or to leave with what they could.

But there’s another side to images. Images only speak volume to what actually occurs within society. While volunteering with post cleanup, my roommate captured this photo of me. I did not notice how high the water had risen until I looked back on this image. We had torn down over eight feet of drywall over an hour and a half period of time.  In a world of visuals, this gave me perspective. If I had been in the room during the hurricane, I would be underwater, which is crazy to imagine!

Looking back over my time during the hurricane, I realized how selfish my thought process was. All I wanted to do was get back to normal. I wanted to be back in Wilmington, enjoying my senior year with my friends. It was not until I came back, that my thought process changed. What I saw was devastation and heartbreak. I was able to see the why UNCW had shut down for so long, how tired and worn our neighbors were from debris cleanup and more. Most importantly, I saw a need for community. While written messages were helpful, images gave a much clear visual.

While we were out of school, I volunteered with Samaritans Purse. Our main objective was house clean up, taking down dry wall and general yard clean up. Walking down streets and seeing piles of neighbors belongings made me count my blessings but also offered a sense of hope. The image below speaks power to the rest of the world. It communicates the need for people of all ages to help. More important, it is a call for college age students. As the next generation, we have influence over how the world operates. Workers were surprised to see college aged students volunteer their time, however, they were grateful for the support.

So go out. Serve in your community, Seahawks. In times like these, we need to show the world we are capable of more! Media coverage may have gone away but that does not stop the fact that the Wilmington area needs to come together as a community. You never know what the person beside you is going through.

While the worlds tells us it is a messed up place, we have influence! We have images and messages of hope and community to share with the rest of the world! Together, we can change that perspective. Changing our external communication starts with an internal change in our communication habits. If we tell our self there is something better, then we believe we can accomplish anything we put our minds to.

-Andrew Williams

Say what you want about millennials, or even the up and coming iGen (generation Z), but one thing is for sure: there has never been a generation that is as passionate about social causes and raising awareness. As a whole, millennials are more generous with their time, money and influence through social media platforms.

During Hurricane Florence, a student-lead 501c3 non-profit organization was created, known as WeWilmRebuild. This organization started gaining awareness through Instagram. In fact, all administrators met each other via Instagram. WeWilmRebuild has teamed up with Technology For The Future, who helped fund and create the WeWilmRebuild website. When the Instagram page was first created, the administrators had no idea that it would become as popular as it did so quickly. The organization did not just gain a strong Wilmington follow, but from other cities, states and even countries. I spoke with Jaz Vanscoy, the program director, who mentioned that they even had people contact them from Italy wanting to help.

After their Instagram page gained popularity, they started their Facebook group page which helped them reach an older demographic than their followers on Instagram. Their popularity reached to local artists, who have offered to donate a percentage of their proceeds to the organization. Love Your Local Co is one local business that donated 80% of their profit to WeWilmRebuild. Love Your Local Co is a small, local business that is ran by UNCW students and creates hats, stickers and more that are designed specifically for Wilmington and the Wilmington area.

WeWilmRebuild also has t-shirts and mugs for sale on their website, with an art design and their name on the front. The way this college team has branded themselves in such a short amount of time through primarily Instagram is something that future relief non-profit organizations can use as a reference. Jaz mentioned that the donations have been kept in a warehouse in High Point, North Carolina but are expected to be brought to Wilmington within the next week. After organizing the supplies, the donations will be ready within the next few weeks. She mentioned that while they are all frustrated with the donation supplies taking a while to get to Wilmington, they are overjoyed with the awareness and support they gained through their social media accounts and donation drives.

Abigail Moorman

As a senior undergraduate student, the last thing I expected to happen during my remaining time in school was a major hurricane. Being a local, born and raised here in Wilmington, hurricanes and tropical storms never really had an impact in my life. I never worried about any of the storms that had come our way in the past. When most people in Wilmington hear about the potential for these kind of weather events, they immediately start planning hurricane parties. With Florence, there was no reason to celebrate.

With a month off from classes, everyone has had an interesting time adjusting to the new reality of an even tighter knit fall semester. Schedule changes, make up assignments, and the lack of proper classrooms and housing for some has made this semester one for the books. Despite all of the negative aspects of the disaster being mentioned, there’s plenty of positivity flowing throughout our campus community. Student led organizations and benefits have helped to bring us together more than ever. Efforts like We Wilm Rebuild have raised money and gathered supplies for various members of our community who were affected by the hurricane.

As students taking steps to enter the professional world, learning how to brand ourselves is crucial to our success. Our university community (UNCW) has taken steps to brand ourselves as a consistent entity that is focused on the safety and dedication for one another. Timely hurricane updates, which were clear and concise, helped comfort not only myself, but others in a time where all we wanted to know was if our school was okay. The idea that we should be supportive and accommodating to anyone in this time of need proves that our university cares about all of our students and our faculty and staff. For students with damaged dorms, UNCW has been able to help by providing alternate locations for students to live in. By going through plenty of hoops, our university has taken steps to make sure that as students we continue to get the educational experience that we signed up for. Even through tough times, our love and dedication as Seahawks shines on.

 

~ Logan Matthews

As we start to re-build our lives after the devastating aftermath of Hurricane Florence, I cannot begin to try and explain the emotional heaviness that was felt. Every social media post, news report, and weather alert- sent my emotions in a frenzy. And from what I could see from others, they felt this wave of emotion as well. News reporters accused of falsifying coverage, Citizens outraged because there were not enough resources to sustain life.

I couldn’t help but think, however, how fortunate I was to have these various outlets- News Reports, Facebook groups posting closings and routes to get to-and-from Wilmington. Even if I didn’t want to face the reality of the information I was reading, I was fortunate any information could be relayed at all, especially since I was evacuated and had virtually no idea what the picture of our beautiful city would look like, except for the one I painted in my mind.

Once I began to appreciate the transparency of these outlets that provided continuous updates, I could only be thankful. Thankful that the people providing these updates, most being citizens of Wilmington or surrounding areas, took time out of dealing with their own personal losses, to update us.

These updates placed our needs first. It was a shining example of crisis management and leadership. You don’t have to be responsible for a problem to find a solution. But you do have to acknowledge it’s existence. This community has turned this crisis into positive change. From benefit concerts raising $1.5 Million dollars for storm victims, to small business owners establishing #OverFlo which includes small businesses running monthly specials for part of the proceeds to go to area non-profits serving the community. These are a few of the reasons I am proud to be #ilmstrong.

 

-Kelsey Holmes

It’s no question that Wilmington has been through a lot since Hurricane Florence hit. What I love to see is how well the community has come together. The efforts being taken to rebuild and restore Wilmington back to its beauty are phenomenal.

As I am returning to school and attempting to settle back into my regular schedule, I have been looking for ways that I can give back to the community and help rebuild the place I love to call home. One of the organizations I came across is WeWilmRebuild. This is a grassroots, Hurricane Florence relief and Wilmington rehabilitation project, led by (but not exclusive to) students. They did an amazing job connecting through social media and spreading the word on how people could help while Wilmington was closed off from the world. On their website wewilmrebuild.org you can help by donating or by dropping off supplies at one of the community drop offs.

Some other great ways to help are to shop local or volunteer to help clean up. Many local businesses lost up to two or more weeks worth of revenue they count on to support their lives and families. These next couple weeks consider stopping by a farmer’s market or making a trip downtown to the Cotton Exchange with your friends. There is a Riverfront Farmers Market on Saturday’s from 8am-1pm located in Riverfront Park on Water Street in Historic Downtown Wilmington. Other farmers markets include Wrightsville Beach Farmers Market and Carolina Beach Farmers Market.

Although the roads are now cleared and school has started back up there is still damage all around Wilmington. Many people have lost their homes for good and are having to completely relocate. I hope we can continue to give these people the support and help they need to get back on their feet as we recover from this tragedy. #ilmstrong

~Kirsten Pascale

“Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail” –Ralph Waldo Emerson

Five and a half years ago I made one of the biggest decisions of my life. Little did I know then it would be one of the best decisions I have ever made. My story is a little different than most, not only did I come to UNCW because of its incredible academic reputation but largely in part to the fact that I had been given a scholarship to play golf on the women’s golf team. I had visited several schools for golf but when I visited UNCW there was something special about this place and finally four years later I can put that special feeling into words.

At the time of my arrival as I freshman I had plans to major in Exercise Science but that would quickly change when I found out that the required labs for Biology and Chemistry would take place during the midafternoon and cut into my golf practice. Not only that, I sat in class watching the clock, waiting so anxiously for class to be over. My heart and soul was just not interested in that field that I once thought it was. I would find a new passion in me besides golf and thanks in large part to Dr. Weber, Dr. Persuit, and Dr. Pullum the classes I would take from these phenomenal professors and wealth of knowledge I would gain is one of the many reasons I am graduating as a Communication Studies major.

As I reflect on my past four years with graduation quickly approaching I think about all the professors and classes that I have taken, but two classes in particular stand out. Integrated Marketing Communication II and Advertising II. These classes aren’t your typical lecture and take notes with a lengthy exam periodically. These classes have clients and this is where you get to put all your skills and everything you have learned to use. I have been fortunate to work on projects such as Hurricane Zephyr (a full scale exercise in preparation for the potential of major category 4 or 5 hurricane to hit campus) and learn the steps to the renaming process. This semester in AD II we worked on transforming the IMC Curriculum, planning the first ever COM Studies Week and running the 5^thannual ETEAL Instagram Contest. These projects have helped me grow with unparalleled experience as a student.

 

UNCW is more than a place to earn a degree, more than a university located by the beach, more than just a school. UNCW has become my home and has become a major part of me. I have learned more than I could have imagined, made more memories than I could have dreamed of, and built friendships to last a lifetime. To current students and students to come I encourage you to try things outside of your comfort zone, be spontaneous, and enjoy these years. They have truly been the best four years of my life and I hope they will be for you too! Don’t let anything or anyone hold you back from achieving your wildest dreams!

Thank you to all my coaches, teammates, professors, and friends for making these past four years the best four years of my life!

“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.”  –Eleanor Roosevelt

 

-Kayla Thompson