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Magnolia BlossomA Southern Plains Publication

Spring 2012

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Table of Contents

Auburn Students Serving Others

Edelman Internship

Internet Helps Businesses Grow

The BIG Event

TALONS Day

Auburn University Dance Marathon

New Parking Regulations

Journalism Legend, Al Benn

page 3 - 5

page 6 - 7

page 8 - 9

page 10 - 11

page 12 - 13

page 14 - 15

page 16 - 17

page 18 - 19

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Auburn Students Spend Academic Breaks Serving Others

While many students are trying to choose between the warm beach weather and skiing in the mountains for spring break, some students have already made the choice to spend their spring break serving others.

Auburn University’s organization Alternative Student Breaks, known to most students as ASB, is an organization that provides students with opportunities to participate in community-based service projects during the University’s academic breaks. The organization provides both domestic and international trip opportunities.

ASB offers opportunities to participate by becoming a part of a college-team group, a site leader, an executive officer or a donor. Students wishing to participate in ASB fill out applications based on the trips they are interested in and provide essays about what kind of service means the most to them.

After participating in a group trip, stu-dents have the opportunity to go through an interview process to obtain a position as a site leader or an executive officer. The site leaders plan the domestic trips each year and plan the budget for the trip in advance according to the service issue they will be focusing on.

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The locations for the international trips remain the same each year. The international trips have been created in order work on building positive relation-ships with the country’s orga-nizations that ASB has chosen to work with. By continuing to travel to the same destina-tion every year for the inter-national trips, ASB is able to allow participants to see progress and the positive im-pact that they can provide to those particular organizations over the years.

Once chosen to be part of a trip, the participants go through group training sessions. The ses-sions meet weekly or biweekly to become

educated on the issue related to their trip. The meetings also help each group establish fundraising opportunities and prepare for the trip as the academic break

approaches.

The cost of each trip is determined by the location and the community service the group will be provid-ing. In order to help alleviate some of the cost for the trips, ASB provides fundraising opportunities throughout the year. For example, this past weekend the organization held a pancake breakfast to raise money for students

participating in this year’s trips.

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During this year’s spring break, ASB pro-vided five different trip opportunities for applicants. Students participating in the domestic trips will be traveling to either Argyle, Texas to provide camp counseling to people with special needs, Florida City, Florida to work with an ecology preserve or to Baldwin County, Alabama to work with House United for Habitat for Hu-manity. The two international trips stu-dents could apply for were in the Domini-can Republic and Costa Rica working with community development.

For more information on Alternative Stu-dent Breaks contact asbtrip@auburn.edu or please visit https://fp.auburn.edu/studentaffairs/communityservice/AlternativeStudent-Breaks/

Photos courtesy of Hamp Price

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Gabrielle Hoyt, a senior in public rela-tions, has been named a recipient of the Daniel J. Edelman/PRSSA Award. As the runner-up, Hoyt received a $500 cash re-ward and was offered an interview for an internship with the Edelman office of her choice.

Edelman is the world’s largest public relations firm, with 63 offices and more than 4,200 employees worldwide, as well as affiliates in more than 30 cities. “Edelman has been a company I’ve admired since I got into public relations at Auburn. They are indepen-dent, consistently self-assess-ing and breaking barriers of new technologies and ways to communicate,” said Hoyt.

The application process for the award consisted of a resume, two letters of rec-ommendation from faculty or internship supervisors and ten pieces of individual public relations work.

“When you’re dealing with acompany like Edelman they receive hundreds of resumes for posi-tions, especially entry-level internship po-sitions. Getting my foot in the door there was a huge advantage,” said Hoyt.

The Daniel J. Edelman/PRSSA Award, named for the chairman and founder of Edelman, has been presented annually since 1990 to PRSSA student members who have demonstrated public relations related achievements, activities and rec-ommendations from faculty members and industry professionals. Award recipients are evaluated on creativity, attention to detail and writing skills, as well as interest in global citizenship and digital acumen.

“To be one of two awardees in the nation by the top PR firm is such a huge honor. It says a lot about Auburn’s PR program, Auburn PRSSA and the quality of work my intern-ship with the College of Lib-eral Arts gives to me. I was so shocked and humbled by the award, and excited to see how

my future plays out.”

Hoyt was a founding member of PRSSA, Public Relations Student Society of America, at Auburn University. She was the PR director in 2010 and served as the chapter’s president in 2011. Hoyt has interned with createTwo and is currently an intern with the College of Liberal Arts. While holding positions in a social soror-ity, Hoyt was also the Administrative Vice President for the Auburn University Pan-

“I was so shocked and

humbled by the award, and

excited to see how my future

plays out.”

Edelman Internship:A Public Relations Student’s Dream

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hellenic Council and a Student Recruiter for her sophomore and junior years.

“I think PRSSA has provided a vast amount of networking opportunities for students looking to break into PR. It also gives you opportunities to work on real campaigns and meet professionals from around the South. I feel pre-pared for interviews and for the ‘real world’ because of PRSSA. It has allowed me to expand my skills beyond the traditional classroom setting. Also, having it on my resume has helped

me land my first internships.”

For more information on the Daniel J. Edelman/PRSSA Award please visit http://www.prssa.org/scholarships_competi-tions/individual/edelman/index.html

For more information on PRSSA at Auburn University please visit https://fp.auburn.

edu/stuorgs/orgPage.aspx?ID=413

“I feel prepared for interviews

and for the ‘real world’ because of

PRSSA.”

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Internet Helps Auburn’s Small Businesses Grow

In a society where most people have a phone within reach at all waking hours, the Internet and social media are more important than ever before. For many small businesses, the use of social media and the Internet has become crucial to promotion and advertising.

Stores such as Wrapsody have seen a positive response with use of social media and a personal website. Employees of the store said that along with social media, using emails also helps them to keep in touch with customers outside of Auburn about promotions the store is having.

For businesses, using Facebook and its own personalized websites allows the company to post information about any upcoming events or sales the businesses may be offering.

Having a business page on Facebook al-lows customers to “like” a business and share the company with their friends.

“I really like how businesses are using Facebook and their own websites now,” said Madeline White, a sophomore at Au-burn University. “It makes it easier on the customer to find what they’re looking for and know whether a certain store is what they’re looking for or not.”

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Amour Boutique is one of the newer ad-ditions to the retail stores in Auburn. Amour Boutique is located on North Col-lege and has been open since summer 2011. Hollie Brown, manager of Amour Boutique said they’ve found Facebook to be helpful.

“We’ve found that using Facebook is re-ally helpful because we are able to post our new items as they come in and people are able to look at the items first without coming in the store,” she said. “Our cus-tomers seem to really enjoy that.”

In addition to using social media, some small businesses have chosen to sell their merchandise online. Allowing custom-ers to purchase merchandise through an online location helps businesses to keep a strong customer following and also helps their company to continue growing.

Although many small businesses have al-ready made a name for themselves in the

online world, there is always a place for new merchants to make their mark.

The Small Business Development Cen-ter, SBDC, of Auburn University has been helping small businesses develop for the past 23 years. The center offers seminars, training and other resources to help new businesses develop.

The Small Business Development Center Auburn is hosting an Internet education session on March 5 in Lowder Hall at 405 W. Magnolia Ave. The session will provide resources and information to small and local businesses about using the Internet. The session, titled “How to Use the In-ternet to Improve Your Business,” will be held between 6 and 8 p.m. in Lowder Hall 111.

Resource materials will be provided at the session. For more information contact the center director, Jackie DiPofi at 334-844-4220.

Photo courtesy of Blake Menke

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The mission is simple: One Big Fam-ily, One Big Difference, One BIG Event. However, the impact is far greater than any person can express in print. The Big Event is a one-day student-run volunteer event that serves to thank Auburn and surrounding communities by giving back.

Last year the Big Event had 2,400 stu-dents participate and were able to serve at 196 different job sites in Auburn and the surrounding communities. This year’s event will be held on March 24, 2012. The directors of the event hope to recruit more than 3,000 students and partner with

more than 250 residences, schools and other organizations that need help.

The Big Event was started in 1982 on a college campus in Texas and was brought to Auburn’s campus in 2003. The event is designed to show the community that the students are thankful for providing a posi-tive and supportive atmosphere to learn and live in. The group’s mission state-ment says, “In keeping with the spirit of the Auburn Family, the Big Event enables students to make a difference through selfless service to our ever-supportive community.”

The BIG Event Serves the Auburn Community

Photos courtesy of BIG Event facebook page

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Students wanting to volunteer for the event are encouraged to sign up in teams of 1 to 10 people. The teams help out in the community with schools, churches and at resident’s homes. The directors for Big Event work throughout the year to make this day of service as successful as possible. The directors and project coordinators work together to recruit volunteers, find jobsites and evaluate the number of volunteers each site needs to serve their par-ticular need.

This year’s director, Kyla Wilkinson commented, “We have a team of more than 80 people who have been work-ing tirelessly to ensure that this year’s event is the biggest ever, but we can only reach this goal through the combined ef-forts of our students, faculty and commu-nity members.”

Some participants get the opportunity to work with residents of the community.

Gabrielle Hoyt, a senior and student vol-unteer said, “Last year a group of pledge sisters and I worked on painting the cha-pel of the church. The pastor and church workers were so thankful, they even bought us lunch! What I thought was real-ly cool was the church also sent their own

group of Big Event volun-teers out to help out some-one besides themselves.”

The Big Event is unique in that the experience con-tinues to impact everyone involved long after the day ends. When students take the time to help out the community, the commu-nity helps back. The event is

more than just raking leaves or painting, the event is a way to continue to help the community grow.

For more information visit aubig-event.com or contact Kyla Wilkinson at krw0014@tigermail.auburn.edu

“Big Event enables

students to make a difference

through selfless service to our

ever-supportive community.”

BIG Event kick-off, 2011

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As a prospective student of Auburn Uni-versity, many opportunities are presented to visit the campus and catch a small glimpse of everything Auburn has to offer. Talons Day is just one of these many visits that students and their parents are able to attend.

An acronym for Talented Academic Lead-ers Outstanding National Scholars, Talons Day is designed for scholarship students to become more familiar with the experiences they can receive at Auburn.

The day’s events begin with a presentation by cur-rent students, alumni and professors of Auburn Uni-versity. The students and their parents are shown various videos ranging in topic from all the accomplishments alum-ni have achieved to students studying abroad. In the session that occurred on Friday, January 20, attendees were able to hear testimony as well from a current student who studied abroad in Germany.

Many of the parents and students said that the opening session was very infor-mational regarding the study abroad op-portunities. Incoming freshman, Trey Colley said, “I didn’t know that studying abroad was not just a general trip for any-one but they can be specific for each ma-

jor. I also didn’t know that you didn’t have to spend an entire semester abroad but there are shorter programs where you can still get credits.”

Following the opening session, partici-pants split into groups led by students in Auburn’s Student Recruiters organization. The attendees are taken to activities to help them better understand all that Au-burn University has to offer.

One of the activities the attendees attend is a panel discussion. During this event, students and par-ents are split in two rooms where they are able to have a question and answer ses-sion with a panel. Some of the other activities offered for the participants include

an honors forum, a campus tour and a housing tour of the Village and Quad dorms.

A favorite activity among all the partici-pants is the presentation by the South-eastern Raptor Center. During the presen-tation, families were able to see a screech owl, snow owl and of course, one of the famed war eagles.

The day’s event also offers an academic browse activity. During the academic browse, each college has a table set up

TALONS Day Provides Insight For Future Students

“I learned that there are ways to

get help with paying for college

and possible employment right after graduation.”

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with information and a representative for students and parents to visit and ask questions they might have regarding a particular college. “I liked being able to talk with someone from the school of Nursing and I learned that there are ways to get help with paying for college and possible employment right after gradua-tion,” said John Menke, another incoming freshman.

Many of the students and parents felt that attending Talons Day was a beneficial experience. The information provided to the attendees was helpful and presented opportunities for students they may not have found otherwise.

Photos found on Google Images

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The Auburn University Dance Marathon, AUDM, was held this past Saturday, Feb. 4, 2012, in the Auburn Student Center Ballroom. All of the money raised by the yearlong campaign was donated to the Children’s Miracle Network. The yearlong fundraising culminates in the main event which is a 12-hour dance marathon con-sisting of games, food and fundraising.This year’s AUDM was held from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Prior to the event the organiza-tion had approximately 400 participants registered.

In addition to sponsors and entertainment, the staff was able to organize spe-cial guests to attend as well. Seven children and their families from the Children’s Miracle Network were in attendance. Dur-ing the event the staff scheduled families to speak every hour about their personal stories and the positive impact Children’s Miracle Network has made for them. Amy Young, a senior in art, said, “Being able to see the children and their families was in-spiring to everyone. It reminded everyone what all their hard work was for.”

During the months leading up to the event, AUDM’s public relations staff held several events to raise awareness for Chil-dren’s Miracle Network. One of the most memorable among students was the “Ask

Maddie” campaign. The staff put flyers all over Auburn’s campus with the words “Ask Maddie.” The following day the staff replaced the flyers with a new set that had a picture of a young girl, the words “I’m Maddie” and information about Chil-dren’s Miracle Network and AUDM.

The second biggest campaign for the staff occurred one week before the event. The public relations staff organized a flash mob on the concourse just outside of

the Haley Center. The dance started with Aubie and a few members of the AUDM staff behind him. As the dance grew, a crowd continued to gather around the group. Eventually the crowd and flash mob was so large that

students and staff as far as three buildings away were stepping outside to see what was happening.

The AUDM staff also created a Twitter ac-count for the event. During the marathon they used the hashtag #FTK, meaning For The Kids. Using this hashtag participants were able to tweet about the event as it was going on and keep up with others who were also in attendance.

This year’s event set a record for the most money fundraised by a first year Chil-dren’s Miracle Network Hospital dance

Dance Marathon :Setting Fundraising Records

“I really began to understand

all the difference we

had all made!”

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marathon. Through registration fees, online donations and their fundraising throughout the year, AUDM was able to raise $65,995.25. The total amount raised was revealed to everyone in attendance at the end of the night with the help of Au-burn’s mascot, Aubie.

Samantha Link, a junior at Auburn Uni-versity, was the Assistant Director of AUDM for this year. Following the close of the event Link said, “It’s hard to say what my favorite part of the event was but if I had to pick one it would be right after the total was revealed. One of the Children’s Miracle Network Hospital chil-dren’s mothers grabbed a microphone

and thanked the dancers and staff for ev-erything that they had done and as tears ran down her face, I really began to un-derstand the difference we had all made!”

Although the event contained fun experi-ences such as themed hours, a dance com-petition between Auburn celebrities and a rave that took place in the last hour of the event, the real purpose was not forgotten. “That was the most rewarding experience, being able to see the smiles on the kids faces and their families faces knowing that all the small things I had done made a big difference in the life of someone else,” Link said.

Photos courtesy of Emily Frazier

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Auburn City Council Approves New Parking Regulations

At the March 6 meeting of Auburn’s city council, new parking fines and regulations were passed. The ordinance was voted on and passed to make amendments to Au-burn city code Chapter 22, Article II. The new regulations officially took effect on March 22, 2012.

Stated in a news release posted on the city of Auburn’s website, “The new parking regulations are part of recent efforts to help ensure availability of parking down-town, including both on-street parking and the parking area behind Toomer’s Corner. In total, you can find 372 metered spaces downtown, with additional parking available for lease.”

One of the changes to the ordinance in-cludes increasing the fine for parking tickets. If a vehicle is parked in a metered space and the parking meter indicates the time limit has passed, the vehicle is considered illegally parked and the owner will receive a fine. The first offense will be $10, increased from $5 with the change in the ordinance.

Amy Young, a senior at Auburn Universi-ty, said, “I don’t agree with the increase in the fine. I have all my classes in buildings close to downtown with no convenient C-Zone parking locations.”

If a vehicle is parked in the same location 2 hours after a ticket has been issued for the first violation, $20 will be fined for the second violation. For the third violation the owner will be fined $40. The city code also states that no more than 3 parking citations shall be issued in one day, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., for multiple violations by the same vehicle in the same space.

Young said, “I understand what the city is trying to accomplish with the new regula-tions. However, I usually have a fine when I leave my 3 hour studio class because I can not feed my meter. I think parking in Auburn is a problem in general and hear-ing the parking fine has increased only adds to student’s problems.”

The new regulations also allow for the towing of vehicles with excessive parking fines consisting of $140 or more. Accord-ing to the city code, if a vehicle is towed for excessive parking fines the vehicle will be released to the owner upon payment of all outstanding parking fines. The owner will be issued a receipt by the city as evi-dence of payment. The owner will also be responsible for paying any towing and storage fees to the towing company.

Along with the new regulation to allow towing of vehicles, the ordinance allows for the establishment of a parking fine

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amnesty program. The program allows for the city council to authorize ticket am-nesty periods to help individuals resolve unpaid parking fines.

The city will also work to install new park-ing meters and pay stations. The new pay stations will still be capable of receiving coin payments but also allow for the op-tion to pay with a credit card. The pay sta-tions will regulate multiple parking spaces instead of having one meter per parking space.

For construction and maintenance ve-hicles, the ordinance allows for no cost parking permits to be issued. The permits will allow the vehicles to park in metered spaces while providing service to a down-town business.

The amendments to the ordinance pro-vide consistent penalties for different parking violations. The code also officially outlines specific hours, days and periods of time when meter use is suspended, which allows free parking in metered spaces.

Jillian Lewandowski, a senior, said, “I usually don’t park downtown while the metered spots are being enforced. I think if the city has been having a problem with fines and excessive violations they are tak-ing the right steps to tackle the problem.”

For more information about the changes to the parking regulations please visit http://www.auburnalabama.org/agenda

Photo found on Google Images

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Journalism Legend, Al Benn, Visits Auburn

“I love journalism, especially newspapers. Always have, always will,” Al Benn said about his career. From a very young age Benn had a love for newspapers and jour-nalism.

Al Benn was chosen to give a lecture as a part of the Neil O. and Henrietta Davis Lecture Series. The lecture was held on Wednesday, Feb. 22, 2012.

Now in his 48th year as a journalist, Benn has become a legend in the newswriting field. During his lecture, Benn recount-ed the experiences of his career and the importance of journalism in our world.

For many in the audience, the lecture was inspiring. Joni Richards, a professor of Communication and Journalism at Au-burn University, said, “I think he has had so many experiences. He is like an old di-nosaur that is so wonderful. I think he has a lot of things to impart, we just learned so much tonight. It was just a great, great presentation.”

After serving for six years in the Marine Corps, Benn hoped to seek out a career in journalism. Benn began working for Unit-ed Press International, UPI, in Birming-

ham in 1964. Benn said, “Really I am the last man standing when you think about the civil rights era.”

Benn said he first reported in Birming-ham on Aug. 4, 1964. “That’s the day they found the bodies of Schwerner, Chaney and Goodman, three civil rights workers

who were murdered in Mis-sissippi,” Benn said. Benn shared his experiences with covering rallies and trials, meeting the influential lead-ers of the civil rights move-ment and some of his inter-actions with members of the Ku Klux Klan.

As Benn discussed the expe-riences of his career he recommended to the idea that many people start at the low-level jobs and try to work their way up the corporate ladder to what they feel are better jobs. However, Benn said, “Noth-ing could compete or compare to what I experienced with those first two and a half years with UPI in Birmingham.”

In 1966 Benn began working for the Daily Decatur. Benn later worked with the Montgomery Advertiser for 32 years and retired from the paper in 2003. Benn has continued to work in journalism through his well-known feature, “Al Benn’s Ala-bama.”

“My love affair with the printed word and the ink that creates each letter began long before I got my paper route.”

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Through his almost half-century career, Benn has gained a love for the local news-paper and shared with the audience his disappointment in the fall of print jour-nalism. Benn said, “[Ed Williams] is a firm believer in local newspapers, and I am too, because who’s going to write about weddings and engagements and Aunt Nellie’s peach cobbler? You know big papers aren’t going to do it and the way they’re folding, you wonder what’s left.”

In her remarks on the lec-ture, professor Joni Rich-ards said, “He’s like an old bear from the old school journalism. Newspapers are going away, it’s upset-ting to him cause that’s what he did.”

Although he has received many distin-guished awards during his career, Benn recalled one of his favorite moments for the audience. Benn said, “Talk about a proud moment for me, I’m down there autographing my book two years ago in Monroeville, I look up and there is Harper

Lee in line buying my book.” Benn said Lee bought two copies of his book. Benn passed around a picture through the audi-ence of the special moment.

Benn hoped that by recounting to the au-dience how his career started, they might get a better understanding of what news-papers meant to him.

Benn said, “My love affair with the printed word and the ink that creates each letter began long before I got my paper route. As a kid I grabbed our copy [of the Lancaster New Era] when it came to our house and read it from front to back admiring the way the sentences were formed.

My heroes were the men and women whose bylines graced the stories and I became a big fan of them.”

Photo courtesy http://1.usa.gov/JB0RyW

““My heros were the men and

women whose by-lines graces the

stories and I became a big fan of

them .”

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www.blakemenke.com