IMC Hawks Blog

Tag: Future

  • On a Lost, Senior Seahawk.

    Many years ago, in the midst of my five-year career as an infantryman in the United States Army, I had a grand vision. My best friend at the time, Ryan Wood (pictured below on the left, with me in 2006), and I, were going to get a house together in Oklahoma City. I was going to go to college for creative writing, and he was going to go for art and political science. Our goal was to create a graphic novel showcasing the reality of American imperialism and its brutal effects on the globe. We assumed that eventually we would be rich enough to open a punk rock venue/bar together and go from there. The plan was solid. Nothing could of went wrong, until Ryan Wood was killed in Baghdad in 2007. That event threw everything off track.

    MeNWood

    So I got lost. I developed many problems, and worst of all (for me), my future was shot, my friend and focal point of my plan was gone. I left the Army with my plan dissolved, but eventually I moved away from my family in Arizona and enrolled at Cape Fear Community College in Wilmington, NC. I had no definable goal in mind, and I was only going to school to make money off of the government’s generous compensation for my service (Service members get a GI Bill when they get out, which pays them monthly to go to college.) I chose Communication Studies because it had the easiest math requirements, and seemed somewhat related to a career in some sort of writing, which was good enough for me at that time.

    I made it to UNCW at 28 years old. I never felt like I fit into the college culture. I lived off campus my whole career and never got involved in extracurricular activities. I also found I could never connect on any lasting level with my classmates because I constantly compared them to the friendships I had forged in the inferno of 25 months of war. I noticed, a few months after completing all the prerequisite courses and earning an AA, that I was losing the knowledge I gained in those courses. There is no screening process to divide potentially dedicated, outstanding students from the ones who just attend to attend, and those listed second forget everything. So I slipped in through the cracks and ended up jaded by the ordeal. I approached college in a less-than-ideal way: I just did enough to get through it.

    But the resources were, and are, there for those who are interested. There is a career center to build a resume, volunteering, applied learning, and internship opportunities to add valuable experience to your education. There are professors who, if you come to them with concerns, will go out of their way to help you reach the place you’re aiming for. But nobody is going to drop any of that in your lap. You have to seek it out and pursue it yourself. I didn’t reach out. I skirted by with the minimum, and am left with a mostly hollow experience of what could have been another milestone in my life.

    What I have learned about myself in my four years of college is that my lack of a plan has morphed into a lack of passion, which has reinforced a lack of precise direction. I sit here on the cusp of graduation, with a hazy track of uncertainty unfolding before me. I see my classmates rattling off their big goals to their buddies, detailing the rungs they will need to climb to make those plans work, and I see their youth, which I am quickly losing. It leaves me wondering what I have been doing the past four years, and causes even more concern about the next four. I have the wisdom to know I did not do the best that I could in school, but the wisdom came too late to be of any use at UNCW.

    It could be argued that I was never a go-getter, and was doomed from the start due to a personality defect, but at least I am here sharing my wisdom instead of shivering in a gutter somewhere. I did have a plan at one point, but have failed to create one since it was lost. So don’t write me off as just a bad example of a good college student. Look at me as a wise, bad example of a good college student, since I have recognized and shared my shortcomings. You could learn something from me. I could tell you how wonderful the opportunity was and how clear it made my life, or I could give you the truth of it. I went to UNCW without really knowing why, and now I am leaving without knowing exactly why I was there. College seems like a logical “next step” for many, but you have to engage with it far more than that for your education to be a life-changing experience. You have got to know yourself and know what you want out of life, or college is going to be just another grind for you.

    To be fair, I did take an internship opportunity that may have sharpened me up a bit, and every one of my teachers were excellent, passionate, and dedicated to their craft. Not one person entrusted to my education failed me in the slightest. I remember being asked “What is your career goal?” during advising, and instead of sticking with “I don’t know,” I would come up with fuzzy answers to push the meeting along. But the tools were there. I just passed them up. UNCW was a great place that has enriched and guided many lives, and will continue to do so after I pass through. The tools will be there for you, and you ought to use them.

    I learned many things in college, but the most important thing I learned wasn’t in the brochure, at orientation, on the website, or in the course catalog: have a plan and a backup plan as quickly as possible, and get motivated and involved enough to turn the plan into reality. Seek out and grab every opportunity that moves you towards that reality and never let up. Otherwise you may find yourself at 30 years old, sitting with backed up classwork clawing at your heels and a foggy future two weeks before graduation, wondering how so many others seem to have it all figured out while you float on through to no apparent destination.

    -Chad Darrah

    I must say, the situation is not as dire as I have presented it. All I know is that a lot of people think I am a good writer, enough to make me believe it. But I do not know how that translates into a career to tell an advisor. So I’ll trudge through the muck until it all clicks, or I will die before it ever clicks. Either way I am following a path that is good enough for me. I’m just not so sure where college fits on that path.

    I also have to use my soapbox one last time to express a hearty thank you to Dr. Jeanne Persuit for giving me the most monumental, colossally meaningful display of encouragement I have ever received on this murky trek. I thank you with the highest degree that a blog post can convey, and can honestly say that that moment was the undisputed highlight of my college career.

    I have to ask that you please raise a glass for Sergeant Ryan Mitchell Wood next time you get a chance. Google his name and title to get a feel for him, as he is the driving force of my motivation. Pay your respects. I give his memory and family extraordinary credit for helping me hold onto something sacred, which is a necessity to keep me moving.

  • An “Augmented” Look Into the Future of Advertising

    Last week Google unveiled Project Glass, their latest developmental project set out to design and build augmented reality eyeglasses. Google upload a video to YouTube entitled “Project Glass: One day…”, which shows viewers what Project Glass could potentially look like. Project Glass would allow you to communicate with friends, schedule appointments, get directions, take pictures, and even hold video conferences all by using the augmented reality interface and voice commands. While this technology is in the earliest stages of development, Project Glass has the potential to be a realistic and marketable product in the future.

    While the announcement of Project Glass is only a week old, there is already concern about user privacy and advertisements. Google already uses search terms to customize advertisements, and are even beginning to push ads based on your location, so just how far would Project Glass go? Would advertisements pop-up in front of you if you are close enough to a store? Could marketers use where you go and what you look at throughout the day to better understand what type of consumer you are? The parody video below shows how pop-up ads with Project Glass might look if they were implemented:

    While this idea of “forced advertising” seems a bit extreme, it’s already happening with several other projects. Twitter now adds Promoted Tweets to your timeline, which are sponsored announcements from businesses that merge together with the other tweets from people you follow. Pop-up ads are common with free Android and iPhone apps, and some applications even send ads as a notification. Amazon sells discounted Kindle e-Readers with “special offer” advertisements that appear on your screen. It seems that with every new piece of technology, the first idea that is addressed is how to advertise on it. With Project Glass, the possibilities for customized advertising are much more personal. How will marketers adapt to changing technology? Will consumers be willing to sacrifice their privacy and accept interruptive advertisements in order to use Project Glass? Only the future will tell.

    -Hunter Wilson, Joshua Vester, Ashley Oliver, Molly Jacques

  • Closing the chapter to start a new one

    Today was my last day of college classes! The text books will get sold back to the bookstore shortly, the notebooks will get tucked away and graduation is so close I can smell the freedom of no more school work or projects. My time at UNCW has been a journey. Like any journey there are ups and downs, triumphs and tribulations, tears of joy and tears of pain but I took them in stride and persevered the toughest circumstances I had faced. There have been moments where I wanted to give up, but that is life. The hard times are exactly what it says HARD, but it is how you venture through those times where you succeed and they can only make you stronger and a better person. Absolutely nothing is going to hit us as hard as life. But is it not about how hard you get hit, it’s about how hard you can get hit, and keep moving forward. But we have to be willing to take the hits, and not point fingers saying you are not where you are because of him, cowards do that and that is now me, that is not those of us who are in this graduating class of 2011.


    I can’t think of a more tenacious, more courageous graduating class that the one. It is finally here, all of the hard work has paid off. We all have been prepared on what to expect after graduation, searching aimlessly for jobs hoping to get a bite on the line of resumes we send out. We have compiled our portfolios full of artifacts with our best work, so we should be set right? Well somewhat. We are well prepared an well-rehearsed on how to approach the challenging interview questions, but we are about to enter a new chapter. This new chapter no longer has a safety net or someone to hold our hand, it is the real world where we have a choice to sink or swim. The world is my oyster and is anxiously waiting for me to reveal my talents.
    I am very proud of myself and of my achievements I have had at UNCW. I have had several phenomenal mentors who have provided me with the building blocks of who I evolved into becoming. THANKS MOM, MY #1 FAN!!! It has not been easy being pulled in so many different directions by so many responsibilities. But I muddled through, and I held tightly onto my dream and now that dream is a beautiful reality and a sign of a wonderful tomorrow. The plans of jobs are distant. Applications have been sent and few call backs and interview are in the midst of being scheduled. I know that most of us are concerned about our future, but there’s no need to worry. The economy is booming, the job market is wide open, the planet is just fine. It’s going to be great…… well here is to wishful thinking. But I am hopeful dreamer.
    The torch can now be passed along to others. My work here is now complete. Here are a few tips for those to who are about to embark on their new chapter.
    • Think outside the box to fill the box.
    • Don’t stop learning, keep trying to excel and grow.
    • Don’t miss an opportunity because of a prior commitment or class. (Sorry professors) Take advantage of everything you are given. You may kick yourself later.
    • Don’t ever let someone tell you, you can’t do something. Protect each dream and find the path that will lead you to it. If you want something go get it. PERIOD!
    • There are many roads we can take in life, there are also paths, and some trails, and some paths that turn into roads that then turn into trails. I guess what I’m saying is life is a journey and you can go whichever direction you want.
    • It is easy to slack off, but don’t do it. Taking the extra steps now will make things better in the long run.
    • Don’t say you can’t, because you can. It may be HARD, but deal with it.
    • Don’t be a lizard brain. If you are unfamiliar with any of Seth Godin’s books or blog, a lizard brain is simply saying how you want one thing, but you do something else. That’s a bad characteristic trait to have and does not look well on anyone.
    To conclude live each day by this quote from Ellen DeGeneres it has always put things into perspective for me. “Life is like one big Mardi Gras. But instead of showing your boobs, show people your brain, and if they like what they see, you’ll have more beads than you know what to do with.”

    -Michela Noreski

  • Looking Forward

    Going green.  It seems to be at the top of every corporation’s priorities.  In this day and age we have a better understanding for how unsustainable our daily lifestyles have been since the start of industrialism.  In the past, building and developing areas was praise-worthy.  Urbanization has supplied new jobs and opportunity for the ever-increasing population.   It is only in last fifteen to twenty-five years that we have started to realize that depleting our natural resources and burning fossil fuels cannot persist at the rate at which they are.

    Alternatives must be sought out. 

    Today, we can still live freely without compromise, however, the media has brought on an underlying pressure to conserve and to use less.  People are speaking out about Global Warming’s effects and the public is listening.  The message is now resonating that the way we do business personally and professionally needs to change.  With a heightened awareness of going green amongst the general public, it has opened up a new avenue for companies to use in appealing to their target audience.

    “Green this, organic that”…  business motives have shifted and companies are doing whatever they can to show they are a green, sustainable business. Marketers have leaped into branding “green” through strategies and ideas that promote the better goodness of the environment.  Besides a company’s involvement in becoming more sustainable, the main concern lies within the image they portray. Today, for the general public green equals good.  In going with a “green” company, it allows people to grant themselves with a feeling that they are doing the right thing for themselves, their environment, and the future based on what the mass media has hyped about the environment.  The color green symbolizes many positive aspects about a company’s values, making it crucial for any business to incorporate the theme into the design of their logo, website, advertisements etc.  Having an overall look of being clean, simple, sustainable, organic or recyclable seems to be what’s driving some of the most successful companies around us today.

    by: Oliver Evans, Sally Shupe, Jared Sales