March 4, 2013 • A POSITIVE PRESS PUBLICATION • VOL. 3, ISSUE 9
TEDxUGA
written by second-year, Taylor Tokarz
“Stories you read when you're the right age never quite leave you. You may forget who wrote them or what the story was called. Sometimes you'll forget precisely what happened, but if a story touches you it will stay with you, haunting the places in your mind that you rarely ever visit.” –Neil Gaiman
If you had to give an eighteen-minute talk to a room of three hundred, what would you discuss? What are you passionate about? What stirs your soul and lights your imagination on fire? These are the questions each TED (Technology Entertainment Design) speaker must wrestle with in order to ignite change through their words. Since January, the New Media Institute has been spearheading UGA’s first TEDx event, which will occur on March 22nd. The topics of the presentations range from homophobia within the gay community to offshore farming. Though all drastically different subject matters, a common thread of inspiration weaves through each. One thing I’ve learned from working with TEDxUGA presenters is that the most powerful presentations harness personal truths. You have to carve out your vulnerable parts and present them to people and say, Here I am. Here are my weaknesses, which have become my strengths. Now you know me. I hope to know you too. |
If you were presenting, what would you talk about? If you can’t immediately come up with something, you most certainly are not alone. We accumulate interests, travel, and meet new people who impart new ideas. The problem, I’ve learned, is not that we don’t have enough stories, but that we have too many. I’d bet that in the past week alone you had at least two moments in which your internal voice was screaming to be heard. Like books, we’re constantly building the story up, capturing and catching little snippets of life. Sure, we skim over certain parts of the story, but the monumental accomplishments, desolate times, romanticized moments—we hold onto those.
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We tuck those fragments of time into shelves in our minds, sometimes allowing them to collect dust until a wave of nostalgia bathes them in light once again. We continuously build our stories, but not without recognizing our foundational pasts. Ultimately, our past stories give context to our present lives.
So search through those tomes of time. Dig within yourself until you can’t see anything but inspiration. Because the proper story, the right words at just the right time, stay with us. The right story can ignite our imaginations, can dissolve our fears, can transform our worldviews. So what’s your story? Send us a tweet @TheChapelBell and help inspire others. |
Book Review: Never Eat Alone
written by third-year, Nick Toomey
How have the world’s elite distinguished themselves from everyone else and attained great levels of success and power? The answer, Keith Ferrazzi argues, lies in how they have carefully utilized the powers of communication and relationship-building so that everyone around them wins.
The words “power” and “success” carry a distinctly unfavorable air when spoken in terms of the world’s elite, but Never Eat Alone takes a markedly different stance. Its simple moral: genuinely invest your time and attention in those around you. Ferrazzi carefully lays out a precise map to follow for all who wish to connect with anyone and maintain those connections over time. It’s not all smoke and mirrors either. Named one of Crain’s 40 Under 40 and selected as a Global Leader of Tomorrow at the 1999 World Economic Forum in Davos, Ferrazzi has seen a massive amount of personal success at an extremely young age. A graduate of Yale and Harvard’s MBA program, Keith became the youngest partner in the history of Deloitte and Touche and went on to found one of the world’s most profitable consulting firms, FerrazziGreenlight. |
Keith’s system is beautiful in its simplicity. At the root of it all is one profound principle: be generous. Though tactics and scripts certainly come into play when sifting through bureaucracy and gatekeepers while making important connections, generosity and taking a genuine interest in the affairs of others often gets lost in the networking shuffle. Empty handshakes and preoccupied small talk leave a nasty and lasting impression.
My challenge to you then is this: take a genuine interest in others this week. Give a gift to each person you meet. It may take the form of a smile or a compliment, but I urge you to be more creative. Who among your inner circle of friends could benefit from being introduced to another friend, colleague, or mentor of yours? Who can you provide for? Recently, a good friend told me a story. In trying to connect with an executive at a large consulting firm for advice, he knew he’d need approval from the executive’s assistant to schedule a meeting. So instead of brown-nosing her or being aloof, he wrote a very simple and kind message to |
her and shared a book review he’d done recently. A book review, of all things! He included a brief summary of a popular non-fiction business book with a list of key points and actionable take-aways. What a cool gift! You can be certain that she was flattered by his kindness and creativity, and you can bet he had a meeting with the executive the next day.
Continue to cultivate an environment of sharing, honesty, and generosity by investing your kindness, time, and resources in those around you. I urge you to consider reading Never Eat Alone by Keith Ferrazzi. The concepts are profound and timeless. It will be a book I read once a year for a very long time. |
Angry Birds
by fourth-year, Steven Coulombe
Angry Birds got me elected to an executive board position. Yes, the same mobile game where green pigs steal eggs and birds explode like bombs, helped elevate my career here at UGA. Featherbrained you say? Not at all! The foul-tempered fowls allowed me to express skills relevant to the position I was running for in a way that was completely and uniquely me.
My Angry Birds Résumé: I am a perfectionist: Everyone who plays Angry Birds knows that it isn’t enough to just complete a level – you have to three star the level. Three-starring is cause for celebration (because, really, I’ve lost hours of sleep over that last star). Many times victory is obtained at inopportune moments. The classroom, for example, is not the best time for a Tiger Woods-style fist bump. My approach to three-starring is to take it level-by-level. I will not proceed to the next stage until I have three–starred the one before it. Often times I’m met with extreme adversity and the frustration mounts. Yet, I power through my disdain and contempt to complete my objective. The same can be said of my work ethic on a job. I work hard and diligently at the task set before me. |
If problems arise I approach them head on and do not flinch from a challenge.
I am strategic: Angry Birds levels are tricky. You have to work out the best trajectory of your shot and couple that with the ability each bird possesses. For example, the woodpecker bashes through wood, the black bird turns concrete into rubble and the blue bird shatters glass. Each level varies which birds you get to use to bring down the pig’s defenses. Sometimes you have to completely reconsider your strategy to get all three stars. This applies in the real world too. I’ve been given tasks that were dynamic and amorphous. Many times on a job I applied one line of reasoning and got rebuked. Being adaptable and innovative in these situations was crucial to successfully completing my objectives. I am experienced: Angry Birds has gotten entirely too much money from me. I’ve bought and played every version there is. Right now I’m playing the Star Wars version and it’s awesome. I find myself racing through the levels now – compared to when I first started playing. I understand the mechanics and strategy behind the game design. Just as practice in the Angry Birds game has translated into three-stars, so too have my experiences in the communications field. |
I know applying for jobs and internships is scary, but it can be fun. See this “résumé” as a way to reimagine the application process. You can apply the same logic to any of your interests (i.e. sports, drawing, underwater basket weaving). It can relieve a lot of stress and may even present you with skills you never knew you had or thought to include in a résumé.
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The Beauty in Music
by second-year, Sophie Frankham-Smith
Have you ever heard a song that instantly changes your mood and puts a smile on your face? For me a lot of those songs are by one of my favorite bands, Drew Holcomb and the Neighbors. The first time I ever heard Drew Holcomb and his wife Ellie sing was at a camp called Sharptop Cove in Jasper, GA about four years ago. Ever since then, this duo has never ceased to amaze me with their inspiring music and concerts that fill the crowd with so much joy.
They recently played a show at the 40-Watt in Athens, and the place was packed. The band thanked the audience for coming and for their support over the years. They were so humbled by the fact that they had sold out the 40-Watt; the joy and thankfulness was evident on their faces. The show opened with Emily Hearn, a singer/songwriter from the Athens area. Her catchy songs, upbeat energy and love of performing were the perfect start to a great night. The Neighbors’s music is filled with love, joy, disappointment, and nostalgia. They throw everything into their music and it’s hard not to keep a permanent smile when listening. |
Besides the music, one of my favorite parts about a Drew Holcomb concert is Ellie and him. The way that Ellie looks at Drew when he sings and when they are playing together on stage is beautiful-- there is so much love filled in their eyes, it’s contagious. The night ended with just the two of them onstage singing, “it’s the things we tell each other without saying a word. You are the one thing that I know.”
Drew Holcomb said in a recent interview that, “music has always been the medium through which my thoughts and emotions can be articulated in ways I could not have done myself. Music is always that conversation between me and the rest of the world.” Now who doesn’t love a passion like that? |
Out of Darkness Q&A with Lea Babcock
written by second-year, Erin Orr
I had the pleasure of sitting down with my friend Lea Babcock about a new non-profit organization that’s come to Athens called Out of Darkness. Here’s what she had to say:
Q: So, what in the world is Out of Darkness? A: It was founded in Atlanta and works with women who have been in positions of sexual trafficking or abuse, and also prostitution in general. They work with other organizations that meet with women in which the hotline number is given to them in some way or another. Out of Darkness will answer the hotline and will provide the services that the woman needs. In the Athens chapter, our team will work to give a rose with the hotline tied to a ribbon on the rose or lipstick with the hotline hidden inside it, and get the number out for them to call for help if they ever need or want to. Q: It’s so crazy that in Athens, we pass places everyday where this stuff is happening. What does a typical day look like for a girl before she is rescued and then after she is rescued? A: It depends on if she’s coming out of dancing, modeling or prostitution. A lot of times they’re doing it to support their families, and a lot of pimps are also a woman’s drug dealer so that she has to go to him for everything she needs. |
When they come to Out of Darkness, they’re placed in a home like Wellspring and immediately put into a safe and loving environment, learning how to redo their lives completely—spiritually, emotionally, physically, nutrition-wise, everything for up to a year.
Q: This organization makes a huge impact on these women’s lives. What has been the biggest thing that has happened as you have been involved in this? A: That’s a good question. Over winter break, women came in who were strung out on cocaine, leaving their kids for the first time, and away from their pimp. To be with them six months later when they’re so much healthier and using the talents that they have, seeing them legitimately go from death to life, and from being ruled by prostitution and this way of life to helping other women out of it has been so cool! Q: That’s such a cool thing to be able to witness. Now, if I were a freshman and I started getting involved in Out of Darkness now, what would it look like 4 years from now? A: Because of the sensitivity of the organization and the population we work with, Out of Darkness will never be a huge |
organization because what women need most when they are in this position is consistency. So our dream is to train a select amount to meet women, stick to them, get the hotline number out to them, and to be ready to rescue them when needed. However, that doesn’t mean that we don’t need volunteers; we want people who have contacts to get the hotline number out there. So if you’re a freshman, talk to me or my team and we can sit down and talk about skill sets that can be used in Out of Darkness. Every job is just as important as the other. We’re really hoping that Out of Darkness grows into not just a name on campus, but a name in the community so that when women do decide they want to get out, they can call.
To find more information on Out of Darkness and sexual exploitation visit Outofdarkness.org. To get involved with Out of Darkness, email [email protected]. Finally, and most importantly, the Hotline for Out of Darkness is 404-941-6024. Call to report anything that looks suspicious of sexual exploitation. |