Author Archives: boilermakerag
Purdue Milk Monday
Purdue Agricultural Communicators of Tomorrow and Dairy Club held an event for Grand Alternative on Purdue’s campus. Here is a first hand account of the event through pictures. Check it out!
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ACT Spring Party & Elections
As the year is wrapping up, it is the exciting time of club elections for new officers! It is a little sad for us “oldies” who will be graduating and not hold an office any more, but it is an exciting time to see all of the younger members move up and become the new officers for next year.
This year I am the President of Agricultural Communicators of Tomorrow and I can’t believe that I have already been president for a whole year! It seems like yesterday that I was freaking out trying to schedule rooms for our meetings because I didn’t know you had to do that ahead of time! But the time has come to pass the torch on to new officers.
Every year we have our ACT Elections Meeting and End-of-the-year Party at our former department head Chris Sigurdson’s house where we reflect on the year, elect the new officer team, give awards, and just have some fun at our last meeting of the year.
This year, our meeting was yesterday, Thursday April 21st. The party was such a fun time. We had pizza and dessert, gave awards to several of the members, and also gave gifts to our advisors. Anyone in communications or marketing can appreciate these posters we created for them to hang in their office.
We also had a new addition to the officer team this year. As communicators, we decided it was time for us to revamp our web presence, so we created a Social Media Manager position. How exciting!
The new 2011-2012 ACT Officer Team:
President: Jeanne Gibson
Vice President: Brooklynne Slabaugh
Secretary: Krista Morehouse
Treasurer: Sarah Hann
Historian: Brittany Haltom
Ag Council Representative: Evan Rich
Social Media Manager: Abigail Maurer
It was really special as a senior to see the passion and enthusiasm of all the younger members as they get excited about next year. I am so proud to have been the President for ACT this year and I know they have great plans for the future so I am excited to see how the next year goes!
Good Luck next year Ag Comma’s!!
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Am I Really a Senior Already?
Yesterday I updated my Facebook status, which I commonly do, but after I wrote it, it made me come to a realization—my college career is almost over!
My status:
“It has officially started… I’m going to my first senior “going away” event… and this is only the first of many to come…Can’t believe graduation just over three weeks away AAH! Senior Salute for Purdue Athletics tonight!”
After this realization that I will be forced to grow up soon, I thought it would be a good idea to write my next blog about the unique senior events I will be getting the privilege to attend during the next couple of weeks.
- Senior Salute:
As my status says, the first event was last night. I am a student assistant in the Sports Information Office here at Purdue so last night we got to attend the “Senior Salute” banquet with all of the other seniors in Purdue Athletics. It was a really neat experience! We had a wonderful dinner up in the Shivley Club of Ross Ade Stadium and as our gift, we were granted a complimentary one-year membership to the John Purdue Club!
The Purdue Alumni Association and PASE are sponsoring a free event for seniors today where they will be giving away free Subway as well as giveaways, and useful information for life after graduation. It was supposed to be in Memorial Mall, but due to weather, it is now in the Armory from 11am-2pm. Can’t wait to get my free subway and try to win some prizes!
3. Ag Comm Junior/Senior Dinner:
Every year in the agricultural communications department, we have a end-of-the-year dinner for all juniors and seniors in the major. We use this as a good opporutunity to share some senior experiences with the juniors and give them a peek into what they can look forward to next year. Some of our faculty and staff also attend this event so it is another good way to better connect with them and build resources for the future. This year our event will be tonightat 6:00 at Toscana Italian Grill & Bar. I’m definitely excited to spend some quality time with my Ag Comm family!
These are just a few of the special events I get to attend this week, and there are many more to come as graduation quickly approaches. It’s going to be a scary, yet exciting couple of weeks!
Don’t forget to stay on the lookout for more South of State Street blogs from my partner Sarah Hann and I!
Stay dry everyone!
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Animal Science’s West Lafayette Industry Tour
By now I think it’s safe to assume that most of you know that I am an agricultural communications major here at Purdue. One thing that I might not have mentioned is that I am also getting a minor in animal science.
Being an animal science student brings a lot of unique opportunities to students like live farm experience, working with animals in a hands-on environment, and something we like to call industry tours.
The typical industry tour includes going around to different businesses and organizations within the animal science industry to see what they do and what they help provide to the people of the industry.
So naturally, we wanted to create our own “Industry Tour” right here on campus to showcase the unique establishments we have to offer.
Tonight will be the 2011 West Lafayette ANSC Industry Tour!
We will be starting at Boiler Market to preview the wonderful, fresh ingredients they serve their customers. The ingredients were grown from producers in the agricultural industry and we want to get the experience firsthand.
Next, we will be venturing across State Street to visit the popular Jakes Roadhouse. Roadhouses are popular in the western scene and are described as a local inn or restaurant, located along highways or roads that commonly serve meals, and features music and dancing for entertainment.
Jake’s has several agricultural aspects and is famous for their “free hotdogs” at 11p.m. each night. As you should know, hotdogs are typically made from beef or pork so we wanted to test out the quality of their product (which we heard was pretty good).
After we have evaluated the hotdogs, we then plan to visit Brother’s Bar & Grill. Brother’s is known for their “Wing Wednesday” 10 cent buffalo wings—which aren’t made out of buffalo, contrary to popular belief! They are made out of chicken, also one of our animal science species. We are trying to incorporate as many animal science aspects into this, so we want to see how they go about making their wings so popular.
By now, we have covered several of the major food groups. I think by this point, it is time to explore some of the popular libations that are available to patrons of West Lafayette. We wouldn’t want our palettes to get too dry from eating all of this great food! So where else do we go, but Where Else?
Where Else? offers several selections as far as drinks go. Wait; get your mind out of the gutter! We won’t be going there to consume alcoholic drinks! I was CLEARLY talking about all of the soda and juices they serve.
We are responsible, diligent students. Why would we ever want to go do something like drink in college?
Now, to wrap up our lovely meal and tour, what else are we missing? Oh yeah, dessert! We can’t forget about visiting Harry’s Chocolate Shop to pick up some amazing chocolate treats! They do serve chocolate there right? J
Whew! By the time we have visited all of these places, I will be worn out! Guess it will be pretty late by then too. But wait, someone’s STILL hungry? Even after we ate all of that food on the tour? Well, guess we’ll just have to stop by Taco Bell on the way home since they have “Late Night 4th Meal”. I’ve heard that’s a pretty popular place on Purdue’s campus at about 2-4a.m.!
So, now that you’ve heard about all of the FUN things we do on an industry tour, maybe you’d like to join us to learn more interesting things about agriculture!
Oh and if you don’t understand that “cull” means, you probably aren’t an animal science student. We’ll tell you if you come on the industry tour tonight!
See you on the tour!
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PANCAKES! Get your PANCAKES! (Did I mention they were FREE?)
So unless you’ve been living under a rock the past few days, you should know it is Grand Prix this week. As everyone knows, Grand Prix comes with a few traditions: Racing, Grand Alternative, and FREE STUFF!
(I won’t go into the other traditions… you can find out about those on your own!)
Well, this week we have already given you some free stuff at the Milk Monday event like free grilled cheese and milk, but we aren’t stopping there!
The Purdue Ag Council will be continuing the free stuff tradition by hosting the Moonlight Pancake Breakfast TOMORROW night!
The Moonlight Pancake Breakfast is the Ag Council’s most popular event and they served over 2,000 students last year! I mean who doesn’t love free pancakes?
The breakfast will take place on Wednesday, April 13th from 9pm – 1am and will be located on the lawn in front of the Agriculture Administration building. At the event, Ag Council members will have music, be selling their CollegeOfAg T-Shirts, and of course, *FREE* pancakes, made fresh for you by your fellow students!
Also, this event is made possible through the generous allocation of a Grand Alternative Grant! Please help them keep this event alcohol and drug-free as they support Grand Alternative Week!
I will definitely be attending this event! I mean, who could pass up such a good time? I hope to see everyone out there tomorrow night and promise that you won’t be disappointed!
Happy Grand Prix!
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Slate Political Gabfest
The Slate Political Gabfest is put on by Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz. In this week’s gabfest, they discuss American intervention in Libya, the Supreme Court’s look at women workers at Wal-Mart, and academic intimidation in the Midwest.
During their conversations they have a few common techniques that they use. In my opinion, as I analyzed the program, I thought it was kind of like a “discussion meet”. A discussion meet is this contest that we have in Farm Bureau where we discuss current topics in agriculture. It is along the lines of a debate, but instead of competing against each other, contestants work together to come to a conclusion and create potential solutions to these issues.
In the case of the Gabfest, they aren’t competing, but they discuss collaboratively by asking questions, bringing others into the conversation by asking questions, and facilitate the discussion to keep things on track; all of which are key components of discussion meets.
They also use techniques like bringing up past gabfests as examples, split up the talk time by giving each person their own topic, and work to clear up confusion on issues so people will be more inclined to want to listen.
This podcast is an effective means of distribution for their material for a couple of reasons. It allows people to listen to this discussion in multiple areas such as on a laptop, iPod, or even their smart phone and it helps make it mobile. Being mobile helps create more convenience for the listeners and they can access the show no matter what time it is, unlike traditional radio or TV where they are live or a set-time program. One other thing that sets this apart from mainstream radio is that, as I mentioned before, it is available on iTunes and mobile applications which is a new trend in podcasts and digital programs.
This means of communication is also effective because listeners get access to the simplified and condense version of these topics, which can sometimes be confusing. People will be more inclined to listen and want to learn about these topics if they can be broken down for them.
The pace and energy of the Gabfest crew varies depending on what topic they are talking about. Each person kind of has their own personality and “character” on the show essentially. Emily is the bubbly, yet intelligent one; David is the more serious one; and John is the more sarcastic one.
Their pace is pretty standard and slow enough to follow, yet it fluctuates if the discussion becomes more intense or if someone gets more excited over a statement. Overall, their tone is serious with hints of humor. Their humor is evident in the beginning and end of their program. They kind of use that as an attention getter, and then transition into the serious tone when they get into the “meat” of their discussion.
Overall, I personally like this method of communication. Their Gabfest was pretty interesting, but sometimes I couldn’t always follow what they were talking about. I got lost in the transition into the third topic, from my aspect it wasn’t a clear transition from the first ones. It also seems like they are talking in circles sometimes. I realized that if you aren’t intently listening throughout the whole thing, you can easily get lost. But despite these things, I really did like their program as a whole. I would definitely listen to it if they were going to be talking about something I was interested in learning more about.
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Crickets, Cows, and Community Fun!
Can you guess what this weekend is? Well if the big yellow and white tents don’t give it away, the bug flags hanging off of Smith Hall should. That’s right! It’s time for the annual Spring Fest event!
This year Spring Fest will take place Saturday and Sunday, April 9-10 from 10a.m. to 4p.m.
Spring Fest is a fun event that all of us “South of State Streeters” always look forward to each spring. The College of Ag is very proud to present our unique activities and teach the visitors something new about agriculture.
But even though many of the activities are centered on agriculture, this really is an even t for the whole campus to get involved. We have several other schools participating as well. Some of these include: College of Health and Human Sciences; College of Education; Krannert School of Management; College of Liberal Arts; College of Pharmacy; College of Science and the College of Technology.
Spring Fest Coordinator Danica Kirkpatrick mentioned in a Purdue News Service Press release that Spring Fest is an event for families to visit campus and enjoy educational activities from more than 30 colleges, departments and units at Purdue.
“We have something for every age, including toddlers, students considering where to attend college, and the parents and grandparents of them all,”said Kirkpatrick.
This year at Spring Fest we are very excited to be introducing some new events to the program. The News Service also introduced some of those in their press release, and I wanted to make sure to pass them along to you so you don’t miss all the fun this weekend!
New Events at Spring Fest:
1. “Sidewinder”
- This sculpture is a collaboration between the College of Agriculture’s Department of Horticulture & Landscape Architecture and the College of Liberal Arts’ Patti and Rusty Rueff School of Visual Arts.
- Visitors to “Sidewinder” can take guided tours of the walk-through sculpture. Children can also try willow-weaving at stations staffed by students who helped with its construction.
2. “The Insecta Class Yearbook”
- Student actors under the direction of Tom Turpin, professor of entomology, will help audiences better understand the classification of insects and their differing roles in nature.
- Performances will take place in Lilly Hall, Room 1-104, at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. on both days.
3. “Over-the-Counter Medication Jeopardy”
- The College of Pharmacy joins the Spring Fest lineup. Among its activities is the game show at 2 p.m. April 9 in the Pharmacy Building.
4. Puppet Show to Discourage Bullying
- This will be part of the School of Nursing’s Health Fair. It will be presented each day at 10:15 a.m., 12:15 p.m. and 2:15 p.m. at the school’s tent.
I am really looking forward to checking these out when I’m at Spring Fest this weekend, even though I will be a pretty busy bee myself.
One thing I also wanted to mention was that if you come out, you should make sure to stop by the ACT (Ag Communicators of Tomorrow) booth to get your Official Spring Fest T-shit!
We will be selling those along with Purdue Agriculture playing cards and giving out free temporary tattoos!
This is one of our major fundraiser events for the year so I encourage everyone to come out and help support our club and the other College of Ag student organizations!
If you’d like to know more about Spring Fest, you can visit their website and check out this YouTube video as well.
Hope to see everyone this weekend! And side note: I’d bring your umbrella just in case—it always seems to rain at least one day of Spring Fest, but we will be there rain or shine!
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YouTube Dan, Dude, and Lori Mae Style
So I’m sure a majority of you have found yourself trying to be productive and then all of a sudden, you’ve wasted 45 minutes on YouTube watching random videos—it happens to the best of us. It’s just so easy to get caught up in watching news, music videos, or the most popular, random funny videos.
As we talk about YouTube in class, I decided to take a look at one of my favorite radio stations in Ft. Wayne to see how they use their YouTube channel. For my analysis, I am going to be evaluating Ft. Wayne’s Country Station K105 and their morning show hosts- Dan, Dude, and Lori Mae.
I actually have a personal connection with them because I used to be Lori Mae’s intern back when she worked in Evansville so I have gone up to visit them a couple of times. From being up there and meeting the rest of the people at their station, I have begun to really like them and have continued to follow them on radio and their website. I wasn’t aware they actually had a YouTube channel until I did this research, so it was pretty neat to go back and watch some of the videos. I actually found one that I shot when I was visiting her for Country Fest. Check it out!
The main purpose of their channel is posting videos from the different events they do as well as random funny things that happen in the studio when they’re at work. They primarily use it for entertainment value and giving their listeners an inside look at what they do everyday.
From the Making good newspaper video article, K105 does some of the things very well; but they also need some improvement. First of all, they are very visual which is good. Since radio is typically all audio, I think it adds a lot to their station and website that they post videos to YouTube. It helps their listeners connect with them better and get a better idea of who they are as people. Not to mention, their videos are really funny!
Which brings me in to the next point they made on the “good newspaper video” article. It’s all about emotion.
They do a good job of using emotion. Most of the emotions they play on are humor and sarcasm, but that’s kind of their personalities. Although, that’s not all they do. K105 also does a lot of neat work with St. Jude’s Hospital and they toured it this year, so Lori Mae documented her time there and got some great interviews and had some touching information and stories to share.
I have included some links with the videos from their St. Jude’s visit:
Another couple things they do well are capturing your attention, and finding a “character” in their videos.
Nason’s article says that a successful video needs a ‘character’ to be the star – find someone who is articulate and engaging, someone who makes quips and jokes – and does them in short, sweet sound bites.
In K105’s case they have three characters: Dan. Dude. & Lori Mae! They are all very humorous people and all sort of have their own character on their morning show. Dan is the more serious one, dry humor one; Dude is the crazy, loud one; and Lori Mae is the “little sister they pick on”, and country girl one.
Here is one really funny example they did where Dude gets into “character”. Side note, he’s usually the one they make dress up in all the funny outfits.
While watching all of their videos for the past few months, I also unfortunately noticed some things that they don’t do as well.
First of all, they aren’t a news station and they don’t have a trained camera person. They aren’t really worried about the camera work as much so they aren’t very disciplined in their shooting of the videos, which is one thing Nason mentioned.
They do a lot of panning, which was a no-no in the video world, and they also don’t use the rule of thirds that often because they are usually walking around or shooting on the move which is hard to do because it makes the camera shake.
It’s kind of hard to evaluate them based on the article’s standards of shooting video because they aren’t a news station and are usually using a “flip cam” to record their videos. I will say that they could use a few tips when shooting, but it’s really hard to compare the two in certain areas.
Overall I liked their YouTube channel and think it adds a lot to their station. They also link to it on their social media and promote that they are posting when they are on air so that helps attract viewers. I think they are doing a pretty good job from what I can tell it is a very effective addition to their station and website.
youtube=http://www.youtube.com/user/K105MorningFun
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Tot’s Day- Wednesday!
Last week I ended my posts with telling you guys about the Tippecanoe County Ag Days which was all about showing kids about the different aspects of agriculture. Well, this week it seems like several different ag groups on campus are focusing on the children.
To continue my current theme of teaching kids about agriculture, I wanted to highlight two exciting upcoming events this week. They are Tot’s Day from Purdue Block and Bridle and the annual Spring Fest.
For today’s post, I want to focus on Tot’s Day which will be happening on Wednesday, April 6th out at the Animal Science Research Center.
As a community service project each semester, Block and Bridle puts on this event to educate local elementary students about livestock. In the fall, Block and Bridle representatives visit local schools to put on a presentation and activities to teach the students about agriculture.
Each spring, classes are invited to come to the ASREC Facility where Block and Bridle organizes stations for students to interact with and learn about beef cattle, dairy cattle, sheep, swine, aquaculture, and poultry.
Tot’s Day is a really fun event for the kids because they get to interact first hand with real live animals. They especially love getting to pet the babies.
This year, Tot’s Day will take place from 9a.m. to 3p.m. and we are looking forward to teaching the kids some important facts about animal agriculture!
In our constant effort to connect the ag industry with the general public, we feel that it is really important to start with the children. They are the future consumers in about 15 years and it is crucial that they at least have a basic knowledge of agriculture so they can be smart consumers.
As I mentioned earlier, this is the second special event this week for local children. Be sure to check back later in the week to learn about some of the unique events that will be featured at Purdue’s Annual Spring Fest this Saturday and Sunday (April 9-10).
boilermakerag 