Everything is Broken… What a Great Time to be Alive!

A CEO: chief executive officer of a company, corporation, or something similar. Tim Cook, Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, and Donald Trump; all of who are powerful men in the CEO world. They run an empire that keeps America and the rest of the world in check. It is rare that a woman is in the same sentence as CEO. That’s when SheEO, Vicki Saunders, steps in and changes everything.

             During a visit to Rollins College, Saunders talked about her journey into taking control of her own life and chasing after her dreams. Based out of Canada, her company, SheEO, invests in women entrepreneurs who are determined to step out of their shell and not be another statistic. According to CNN, only 14.2% of women are in the top five leadership positions at companies. “SheEO is here to wake women up and encourage them to change the world,” Saunders explains to the student audience filled with women, “I feel like, during this time of the 21^st century, everything is broken.” She elaborated and said that although everything might not be physically broken, things are extremely out of place. “Take a look at Silicon Valley, for example, places like Facebook and Apple are encouraging women to freeze their eggs, so can to work harder and push their lives back,” said Saunders.

            According to Apple and Facebook, both companies have benefits including offering women to freeze their eggs. This suggests that women should put their careers first instead of their own lives and families. “It is kind of funny that Silicon Valley would have benefits like that, especially since there are apps being produced that basically replace your parents,” laughs Saunders. Apps like Uber, Grub Hub, and Alfred cater to tasks such as driving, food services and even laundry. Saunders suggested that it was because since entrepreneurs no longer have a helping hand, why not let an app do it for them!

            “I wanted to start SheEO to break away from the stereotypical CEO deal. I wanted something that could impact women and encourage them to do what they want,” said Saunders. SheEO was a company inspired by Saunders’ desire to create a space for women to be great. The company allows women investors to donate $1,000 in hopes of eventually raising one million dollars to loan out to women entrepreneurs. “The idea is to make the money recycle within the company and by giving women loans with 0% interest, it will allow these ladies to accomplish great things.” In the arena of start-ups and incubators where companies are desperate for investors, Saunders made it point only to have women invest in her company. Many men have tried to invest, but she has been adamant about saying no. “We’ve had to stick to our guns. We’ve had CEO fathers wanting to donate to us, hoping their daughters could one day benefit from our organization, but we had to say no,” said Saunders. Keeping the company in the female arena insured that it was a company for women by women.

This is something that Saunders wished she had when she first started out on her dreams when she was in Prague during the fall of the Berlin wall. “It was so incredible to see, it was like one day, there was a tank on the street limiting people from doing what they wanted, and then one day…. A flip was switched and suddenly everyone was free,” she sighed, “I realized that I was free too.” It encouraged Saunders to take the initiative to then start her own English language school in Prague. Shortly afterward, she went to India and bought her first store of clothing. She then encouraged her other girlfriends to join her in her crusade. “It was so nice to be free and do what I wanted; it started something in me… and now I can’t stop running businesses!” she laughed to the audience, “it was also cool to get people excited about the same things that I was excited about.”

The groups of students in the room seemed to get a kick of Saunders’ presentation and were searching for guidance to potentially run their very own companies in the future. “What is the most beneficial thing you learned from SheEO?” asked student Mallory Gladman, “Oh boy! Hmm… I’ve certainly learned a lot from SheEO and my time with building businesses in general… what I have to say as the most beneficial thing that I have learned is – It’s always harder than you think it is,” sighed Saunders, “I had a 5-year lens, now, it has changed to a 20-year lens. Always be able to adapt to new things, that is extremely important.” Saunders elaborated and said, “I may have failed… hell! I fail every day. But I have crazy big dreams, I stress about things, but I try not to let any of that steer me away from the main goal.”

It took some of the most successful women many tries to get where they are now, do not let fear get in the way of your dreams… as many may say, “Rome was not built in a day.”

Please Don't Tell Anyone

Privacy management: something that everyone seems to want or have in his or her life. It allows us to manage our relationships and what is going on in our lives.

It is something that can be between two people, or just a person against the world. While there is always a secret that is not being shared to someone for some reason, professor Joshua Hammonds of Rollins College takes a step further in studying someone of reasoning as to why some people keep things behind closed doors. He shared his research study called “Please Don’t Tell Anyone” during Rollins’ Communications festival.

            ‘Think about a private matter that you have not yet shared with one or both of your parents,” Hammonds said to a room full of communication and prospective communication students. Of course, the room was silent with students who did not want to share that information. To break the ice, Hammonds shared “some of you may want to throw out stuff like ‘I got a DUI!’ No! We do not need to know that,” and the crowd is filled with laughs. The goal that evening was to have the audience think about the reasons behind withholding and disclosing certain information.

            Communication privacy management takes a step into the realm of that. We all own private information, of course, that is slowly eroding. With social media, instant messaging and anything else in between, private information seems to become something that is not so private anymore. It is kind of along the lines of this: you tell your best friend Becky a secret that you do not want to know, but then she tells her boyfriend because of course, when your best friend is in a relationship, no secret is safe between just you and them. It is a never-ending cycle that seems to constantly circle around. So, when is it safe to share information?

Hammonds asks his audience to list something that they would never be caught dead telling their parents about. Information about sex, alcohol, drugs and sexual orientation are a few of the topics that are thrown out. The follow up question to that was, “why?” Why would you not feel comfortable telling someone else about it? “Well, it’s private information. Also, it’s kind of awkward to tell my mom that I have had sex. It’s kind of an unspoken thing. She knows, but we never talk about it,” said student Ryan Bingham.

“Exactly! It’s private information! And a little bit awkward too,” exclaims Hammonds. During his research study, he found that there are five boundaries that are involved in parent/child relationships. It starts with culture; some people may have a very open relationship with their parents from the time that they are born or, some families may have a strong religious culture that finds sex to be a taboo topic. Next, the gender of the sender and the gender of the recipient. In the study, it was found that children were more than likely to open up to their mother because of her character. Mothers seem to provide more of a nurturing standpoint towards topics.

Third, motivation; what kind of relationship is already established? “You’re more than likely to go to your best friend than your mom if you hooked up with a person, right?” said Hammonds. It is all about the rapport that has been built.

Next, the context of the conversation. This relates to anything in life, but timing, social setting and previous discussion assessment play a huge role.

Lastly, the risk benefit ratio; there is always a risk in everything that we do. The fear or rejection is always there, but not only that; some find that withholding information from another person is protecting them.

Throughout his research, he took a look at 768 participants and found that the parent-child boundaries ranges anywhere from 25.3% of participants withholding information about their sexual activity, to school/grades being at 2.99% to .65% of participants withholding suicide attempts. All of the information collected shows a wide scale of various topics children withhold from their parents.

Of course, parent-child boundaries are important, but what happens when that boundary is fuzzy? “It causes the child to often times be confused and not really know where to turn to,” Hammonds expressed. This is exactly why groups have been formed to help elevate the confusion and make sure that kids are not alone when they need someone to talk to. Children and teens who may be affected by this are often those who belong to step families, are apart of the LGBTQ community or have experienced sexual abuse in their past. 

It is important that relationships are established between parents, friends, and family members so people know that they are not alone in their life’s journeys. “Privacy management is something that is extremely difficult to keep up with now, especially since there are so many different outlooks and platforms in which we can share everything with the world,” explained Hammonds, “however, that does not mean that everything should be kept behind closed doors.” Relationships are a huge part of being a human; it keeps us going and keeps us sane.  

What's UpDog?

It is Vine, Instagram and Yelp combined into one solid app. University of Central Florida welcomed, creator of UpDog, Bree Goldstein, with open arms last Friday (September 14^th. 2015) to tell students about the trials and tribulations that comes along with building an app. “I don’t know why food is such a huge trend on instagram, but it’s huge and I like it,” said Goldstein when she was describing her app to students. To follow the trend with apps such as Yelp and Instagram, her goal for creating UpDog was to have people review businesses in the moment with quick 15-second reaction videos. It is an easy way for people to submit something without lacking authenticity.

            However, creating the app itself was not such an easy task. Goldstein explained that when starting such a long and tedious creative process it is crucial to “find the right people to fit into your plan” she said, “if you don’t have the right people, then how do you expect the right outcome?”

            With a group of 50 students sitting into her lecture, some there to just hang out and some, like UCF sophomore, Telly Howard, want to create their own app in the future. “You mentioned you started this with no money, what advice can you give to students who are wanting to start their own app like you did?” asked Howard. “Well, to be quite honest with you, always prepare for a pivot. Things are not going to go right from the get-go, but if you are determined, nothing should stop you… not even funding,” said Goldstein.

            The idea of UpDog came to Goldstein after many months of thinking about a good name. At first, she called her app ‘OhDamn’ but when bringing it up to her mother, she realized having a curse word in her app was not the smartest choice. “It is almost embarrassing to think about,” explained Goldstein, “like, if someone came up to you and asked how ‘OhDamn’ was working out, you’d kind of hesitate because hearing it from someone else sounded gross,” she said smiling.

            Goldstein headed over to her computer and proceeded to play a compilation of clips from the show where Steve Carell’s character, Michael, proceeds to go around to his coworkers and asks the simple question “Do you smell that updog?” and snickers as their responses trigger them to say “What’s updog?”

            The whole room thunders in launder because evidently, everyone has a little bit of immaturity in them. Goldstein explains, “It’s something that is catchy and will even make you giggle like a ten year-old sometimes, but hey! That’s okay. Why? Because it sticks.”

            A hand in raised in the back, followed by a question from UCF senior Andrew Scalone. “So when looking for a catchy name for an app, besides a funny joke, what are your tips?” Scalone asked. “The number one rule I tell people to follow is, if you can yell it out across from a friend in the middle of a restaurant and they know what you are talking about, go for it,” said Goldstein confidently.

            Next time you are with a friend, definitely ask them: “Do you smell that UpDog?”

Most Prized Possession

The saying “a photo is worth a thousand words” is something that resonates with me heavily. A photo allows you to be able to tell a story when words simply cannot. It is for the viewer to take a look and make their own judgment. Often times, a photo can be self-explanatory, but sometimes, it takes a few stares to truly get the meaning behind what is being captured.

            A photo always has to start with something capturing it: a camera. As a child, I would always steal my dad’s “high-end” camera and take photos of anything that I found interesting. My parent’s started to notice random photos of our pets, home, and of nature appearing on the camera. That’s when they realized that I was the thief. During my 8^th grade year, they purchased me my very first camera – a Nikon D40. With its black shell and extendable 18-55mm lens, I thought I was a professional photographer. It was so much equipment for such a young girl; even I was shocked that they purchased something like that for me.

            I took care of that thing like it was my child. I even named it Delilah. I would take Delilah anywhere and everywhere with me. I would take photos of everything that I found interesting. Whenever I was using it, I would be sure to clean the lens and the body, and make sure that there were absolutely no fingerprints on it.

            This camera had been through so much with me. It has captured so many different sights and so many different countries. It has captured the rice-fields in Thailand, a traditional parade in the heart of my mother’s hometown, Christmas in Germany and countless trips to Disney World. It got to the point where my own mother would force me to leave the camera at home because she would always say, “You are taking too many photos! Don’t you ever stop?” My answer would always be: no.

            Through photography, I was able to tell a story… a story that could be told much better and more efficiently than telling a story through writing. I was never good with words. I felt as though you could capture so much more emotion and truly get to the point of the story with a photograph. During my travels to Thailand, I was able to capture photos of the village people, who despite the fact that they did not have much, they still made the most out of every single situation.

            My camera was able to teach me so much about the world around me as well as the people that I care deeply for. I have been able to grow so much in terms of my work and experience just because I liked to take photographs from such a young age. It has helped me stumble upon some of my favorite photographers as well as videographers. The most inspiring person that has influenced me the most with my photography (and now videography) is a videographer named Casey Neistat who basically preaches “it’s not about the resources you have. Its not about the tools that you have. It’s not about the way it is delivered. It’s not about the way that it’s done. It’s always about the idea.”

            It is true. It is always about the idea. It does not matter if you have the best equipment out there, sure, I got luckily with a DSLR my first go, but I have learned that if you have a great idea, and can execute it properly, go for it.

            My very first camera, Delilah, is now retired, but she is still my most prized possession. Why? With 100,000 shutter clicks to her, she taught me about the world and about myself. 100,000 photographs… 100,000 memories.