The Hullabahoos are a group of guys who like to sing at the University of Virginia. The group has become one of the most nationally acclaimed a cappella groups in the country and more importantly is made up of some awesome guys. I was the President and Webmaster for the group, as well as the Digital Media Guy for three years. Managing and growing this group led me to teach myself a lot about working with people, design and grassroots promotion – not to mention having fun.
I have continued my relationship and small advisory role with the group, as I currently sit on the Board of Directors for Hullabahoos, Inc.
Virginia Advertising
Virginia Advertising is comprised of fourth year students at the University of Virginia who apply to the program during their third year. It is a year-long program with a single project, in our case working as the agency of record for State Farm Insurance. At the end of the year, the team presents their campaign with a Plans Book and Keynote Presentation, in competition against well over 100 other colleges and universities.
I served as the Head of Digital Production, and on the Creative Committee as our 25-person team developed a comprehensive plan, from Strategy to Creative Ideas, and Print, Video and Digital Production. The program was incredible experience for me, working in small teams and committees to build an in-depth understanding of the insurance industry and our target market, 18-25 year-old financially independent Americans. Working with incredible people with a diverse set of talents was one of the most rewarding experiences I could have asked for. Learning technical skills, how to discuss creative ideas and work with creative people, and most importantly, how to work all day and night and throw away the results to work on an even better idea.
In April, 2010 our team won 1st place at the District level, in Charlotte, NC. We will be one of the 15 selected teams to compete at the National level in Orlando, FL in June.
I am fortunate to have had incredible and extensive experience working at this 15-person B2B venture for several consecutive summers. The company specializes in employee recognition, mainly in the Healthcare, Hospitality, Education and other service industries. It is a manufacturing company that does all of its marketing in-house.
I worked for the Director of Marketing and Head of IT and Design as a Marketing Assistant. I got a lot of technical experience analyzing sales data and trends for different industries and products. I also worked with the lead designer on Direct Mail layouts and designs, and worked with the web designer to completely revamp the website in early 2008.
Because it is such a small company I was able to sit in on meetings and eventually give input into the business model, organizational structure and comprehensive marketing plans that included direct mail lists and budgeting. Learning to work on level with and above college graduates, MBAs, and company suppliers proved challenging at times, but helped me develop the skills necessary to work with many types of people with a high level of professionalism. I even got the chance to work in Customer Service briefly as a tool to better understand the customers.
After I left in 2009, I was asked to sit as a member of the Board of Directors for Brown Industries, Inc. I currently sit on the Board.
The student newspaper at the University of Virginia is a well-known operation of over 50 volunteer students.
I worked as the Photography Editor for the Cavalier Daily for 3 years, where I developed a real love for journalism, and particularly photo journalism. While I wrote several articles for the sports section, my main focus was as a photographer and Photography editor. Determining graphics and photographs for every section of the paper from News to Sports and beyond was an organizational challenge, but very fun. I worked to build a database of photo requests from the other sections and develop more precise photographer schedules, as well as developing a new line of revenue through sales of photos through the newspaper’s website. It was also some of my earliest intensive experience with Photoshop, and helped lead to my love for the entire Adobe Creative Suite (but I’m still no fan of Flash – HTML5 for me).
CHRGD is a technology blog that is just getting off the ground. I began writing my Senior Thesis on opinion journalism and its prevalence in the United States, but ended up changing my topic. I still, though, have a passion for journalism and many opinions about the world of technology, what’s cool, what’s not, where things are going and where things should go. CHRGD will hopefully be a place people will love to read entertaining articles about the latest in the Tech world. This project was in large part inspired by a friend David Pierce and his technology blog at Digitizd.com. Check back soon to see how far its come.