Thanks From a Carolina Alum

Happy Thursday! We know that many of you are going to have to make some tough decisions over the next several weeks, so we thought it would be helpful to get some insights on how alums view the community, faculty and learning experience they receive at Carolina. The blog post below is from Sallie, a senior in our School of Journalism and Mass Communication who will be leaving us for her first professional opportunity following her graduation in May. Visit Sallie's blog to learn more about her adventures.

 
Dear UNC J-School,

Thank you. Thank you for enhancing the lives of all the students who walk through the doors of Carroll. Thank you for mentoring. Thank you for teaching. Thank you for critiquing, pushing and strengthening. But, most of all, thank you for caring.

It’s easy to let four years slip away as we press forward with our lives constantly looking for what’s next and forgetting who helped us get there. I was reminded of this the other day, when my friend Josh asked me to speak at the J-School’s information session for Explore Carolina. Professor Napoleon Byars led the session, which included the basic facts about the school, the opportunities available, and a quick tour. As I listened to Napoleon speak, it brought back memories of my own Explore Carolina experience back on a snowy day in January 2009.

I remember listening to all the presenters confident that what they were saying was simply by the book. However, in listening to Napoleon, I began to realize that everything this school told me four years ago was true, completely true. And now, it was my turn to speak.

I started by saying that I remember what it was like to sit in their seats. It wasn’t easy making a final college decision or even transitioning from high school in general, but that the J-School was where I found I belonged. The journalism school develops students into storytellers. It develops them into entrepreneurs, creative thinkers, and strategic communicators. It also allows them to get involved in a variety of clubs, take a wide range of classes, and meet some of the most interesting people on campus.

However, while I was talking, I realized the importance of what is behind the school: the professors. They care. When I first came to Carolina I worried that all my classes were going to be filled with hundreds of students where the professors do not even know my name. That is not the case here. They care. The professors care about your success in and out of the classroom. They also want to build lasting relationships with students, and as a result do not simply think of students as their PID, but as people with stories.

Thank you, Trevy McDonald for introducing me to the Journalism School. Thank you, Napoleon, for critiquing my resume for the first time. Thank you, Winston, for making me enjoy writing. Thank you, Dana, for pushing my creativity. Thank you, Brian, for your patience. Thank you, Heidi, for your enthusiasm. Thank you, Professor Sciarrino, for my worst grade in the J-School, but conversely one of my favorite, although hard, classes. Thank you also for your guidance and support during my job search this Fall. And, lastly, thank you, Gary, for your unconventional classes that have truly taught me to think differently about the world.

Thank you, all.

Dinner with a Carolina Alum

Song of the Day: “Monster Mash,” Bobby Pickett

Hello, admissions intern Will Rimer again. UNC has many famous alumni. There’s a lengthy Wikipeia entry about them all. I suggest you give it a read, although it might take you a while.

If you could eat dinner with just one of them, who would it be? Tough question, right? Well, I asked the admissions counselors. They thought it was a pretty difficult too, but below you’ll find what they think.

 

Who would you choose? Let me know, and if you have any questions you’d like to ask admissions counselors, tell me.

PS-My choice: Thomas Wolfe, Billy Crudop, Adam Greenberg, Rick Fox, Andy Griffith, Stuart Scott, Davis Love III, Bomani Jones, Woody Durham, Charles Kuralt, Jim Lampley, Walt Weiss, Rob Nelson, James K. Polk, Rasheed Wallace ….

PPS-Yes, I know that’s more than one, but I make the rules, so I get to choose.

PPPS-Yes, I want to be a sports broadcaster.

Alumni Entrepreneurs Dish on Carolina Experience

New Media Campaigns founders Kris Jordan, Joel Sutherland, and Clay Schossow

Joel Sutherland '07 and Clay Schossow '08 are proud UNC grads and half of the founding members of New Media Campaigns (NMC), a web design and digital marketing start-up in Carrboro, NC. Joel and Clay have helped grow NMC into an award-winning company with clients all over the world. Their work has been profiled in Inc. magazine, and the founders were named on Bloomberg Businessweek’s list of America’s top 25 young entrepreneurs in 2010. The pair recently met with me to discuss the origin of NMC, the Entrepreneurship minor, the support of the UNC community, and what brought them to Carolina in the first place.

Joel and Clay are both Midwestern natives, from Nebraska and Ohio respectively, but were quickly charmed by Chapel Hill. After a summer visit Clay decided to apply Early Action (admittedly for the weather) while Joel was lured by the Morehead Scholarship and the University’s academic profile. Joel, a computer science major, was a part of the first class of the entrepreneurship minor and marvels at how the program has grown in the past few years. “Look at the course Chancellor Thorp is teaching, they have some heavy hitting speakers, I would definitely be in that lecture hall if I was a student” (full list of speakers for Intro to Entrepreneurship here).

While Joel was the sole E-minor of NMC’s founders, his partners found the program accessible as well. Clay, an advertising and political science major, described the E-minor as a supportive community of professionals and academics alike. “Professors were willing to meet with us in the early stages so we all felt included in the business development process.” Clay suggests students “talk to professors about something other than grades. Most professors relish the idea of talking about something that has real world implications as opposed to ‘Can you move my 89% from a B+ to an A-?’”

After working together loosely during a political campaign in 2005, Joel and Clay teamed up for the Carolina Challenge, a yearly business competition that awards substantial prize money to help winners launch their ventures. “Back then it seemed all a candidate had to do was ‘check the website box’--content development and user experience were not high on the priorities list,” Clay explained. “Even so, we saw campaigns pouring tens of thousands into web development, which likely wouldn’t be possible for lesser known candidates.” So they focused their Carolina Challenge idea on creating websites for small political campaigns. Clay continues: “During the 2004 campaign, you really saw the power of the internet as a fundraising tool. People were willing to give $5 to Howard Dean’s campaign for posting a picture of him eating a turkey sandwich in front of his laptop the same night Vice President Cheney hosted a $2,000 a plate fundraiser.” Turns out those small donations helped the presidential candidate raise $500,000 over 3 days, far exceeding the total from the pricey fundraiser. While their idea won the 2006 Carolina Challenge and was the precursor to NMC, their venture was not without missteps.

One of the first decisions they made was to try and partner with another web development group, which resulted in a $15,000 loss. “That was a tough lesson to learn,” Clay joked, “for a student $15,000 is a lot of Bojangles.” However, Joel, Clay and the rest of NMC recovered. Clay’s advice: “Go for it. What’s the worst that can happen? Your idea won’t work out? Big deal, you’re 21. Even if you decide not to continue as an entrepreneur you’ll be infinitely more marketable because of your experience. Just do what you do well."

Checking in with our May 2011 Graduates

Each year, University Career Services releases a First Destination Survey, which checks in with the previous year's graduates to find out what they're doing six months after graduation. The results for our May 2011 class have recently been released, and we've posted some highlights of the survey on our website. Check it out.

Despite a tough job market, about 65% of the May 2011 class reported working either full-time or part-time six months after graduation, while about 28% were pursuing further education. Among the jobs reported, we have a zookeeper (bio major), a legislative correspondent for U.S. Congress (business), a Peace Corps member (global studies), and more. Many of our students are now serving through Teach for America. In fact, we're 4th among schools our size in the number of students joining Teach for America, with 80 of our graduates joining the program in 2011.  

Learn more.

Alum Ryan Allis Named a Top Tech Power Player

Ryan Allis, a 2006 Economics major, has been ranked #6 on PeekYou's latest list of the nation's most influential young technology executives under the age of 30. Ryan is co-founder and CEO of iContact, an email and social media marketing platform. Ryan took the company from his dorm room at UNC to nearby Research Triangle Park, where he now leads over 200 employees. Last year the company had $38 million in annual sales.

Ryan is committed to socially responsible entrepreneurship and iContact utilizes the 4-1s Corporate Social Responsibility Model in which they give 1% of payroll, 1% of employee time, 1% of equity, and 1% of product as part of its social mission. Ryan is also the Board Chairman for Nourish International, a non-profit organization which teaches entrepreneurial skills to college students and uses the net profits from student ventures to invest in social entrepreneurs and community-based organizations in the developing world.

Read the full story about the PeekYou ranking and visit Ryan's website to learn more about him.