Our New Heroes

With a cape draped over his rugby uniform, Jeremy Brickey clutches the complete works of Shakespeare and smiles for a camera. No, this isn’t an embarrassing initiation to the team.  Brickey ’12, English, is posing for the latest round of admissions advertisements based on “UMBC Superheroes” – students who come to UMBC, find their passions, and soar.

What Brickey loves about UMBC is that he is able to simultaneously pursue his interests in rugby, theater and community service, and he wants to spread the word to high school students that they, too, can follow their myriad passions at UMBC. “The ads show the diversity of UMBC in a way that’s not just related to race or culture,” he said. “They break down those stereotypes that students in high school believe, like that you can’t both play sports and be involved in theater.”

That’s exactly the idea. The campaign, which debuted last year, is also designed to show students that “making a difference in the world” isn’t a cliché; there are actual students doing just that. To get that point across, the ads move beyond the typical cameos of students interacting on campus. They feature the students with a prop, such as Brickey’s cape or boxing gloves, against a comic-book background and have a brief explanation of what makes each student “super.” Within the field of university advertising, the ads stand out.

That was part of the point, explains Erin Ouslander ’03, visual arts, the print design specialist who designed the advertisements. “From a distance, you would probably never guess that these ads related to higher education in any way. I really like that element of surprise when you read the copy and realize the ad’s true purpose,” she said.

Nearly all of the work for the campaign—from the research to design to copy writing—was done within UMBC’s Marketing and Creative Services department. Erika Ferrin, director of marketing, said that the department’s research led to the inspiration to portray the students as heroes. “We looked around at what was going on with teenagers, and we found that this superhero thing was really catching on,” she said. “Our campus is so hard to represent in one picture, so we decided to focus on student stories because those stories really tell what kind of students come to UMBC.”

The ads resonated not just with high school students, but with the advertising community as well: the campaign recently earned national and regional gold Circle of Excellence awards for advertising from the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE).

“When you look at advertising, it’s the stuff that pushes the envelope that wins awards,” said Miriam Tillman, assistant vice president for marketing and creative services. “What I am most proud of is that we took a risk—an informed risk, but still a risk—and the institution was willing to back us up.”

After the first round of ads, an essay contest helped to choose this year’s heroes.  The essay asked students to describe their hero, and the marketing staff solicited input from faculty in judging the entries. Out of over a hundred entries, they eventually chose Leslie Weber ’15, psychology and media and communication studies, as the winner.  A victim of bullying who hopes to become a counselor, she wrote “It’s up to me to use the tools given to me from UMBC to be my own hero.”

Weber, Brickey and the rest of the superheroes will be flying, dashing and boxing their way into high schools this spring.

(2/1/12)

Congressman Roscoe Bartlett, Chairman of the Subcommittee on Tactical and Air Land Forces of the House Armed Services Committee (HASC), seeks a
    graduate or upper class student for a military legislative internship serving as an assistant to the Chief of Staff and Military Legislative Assistant. 

A part-time commitment of a minimum of 24 hours/week with some hours on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays is required. Hours are flexible to accommodate educational commitments and other requirements to ensure academic credit. Start date is as soon as possible. 

Primary duties will include attending HASC hearings and defense-related meetings and writing correspondence on behalf of the Member concerning the development of the
    Fiscal Year 2013 defense-related Authorization and Appropriations bills, as well as other duties as assigned. This Military Legislative Intern Position
    requires a high degree of background knowledge, maturity, discretion and self-initiative. Military experience and/or background, Maryland ties and a recommendation are a plus. The ability to continue the internship through
    the summer of 2012 is a plus. This internship is non-paid, but there is potential for a superior candidate for this internship to negotiate compensation as a part-time employee. 

Please submit resumes and address any
    follow-up questions to Deborah Burrell, Deborah.burrell@mail.house.gov, 202-225-2721.

As a reminder that fun. tickets go on sale tomorrow morning at 8am (at the CIC) here are some new fun. acoustic sessions.

Here’s a stream of their new album, Some Nights.

Image from Mediaite

A few days ago, the Internet went crazy (including USDemocrazy) with a picture of an all-male panel testifying to the House Government Oversight Committee on women’s health.  But this latest picture doesn’t seem to be getting nearly as much buzz.

Three guesses what this all-male panel is talking about!  Did you guess the lack of women’s representation in policy discussions about women’s health?  (Probably because the picture kind of gives it away.)

Really, Morning Joe, REALLY?  In response to outrage over a picture of all-men testifying on birth control, you put together a panel of all men to respond?  Something must not be connecting.

Women make up just over 50 percent of the population in the United States, and yet only 16.8 percent of Congress, a minority of Fortune 500 CEOs, 22 percent of state legislatures…I could go on.

Of course, women should be a part of conversations about birth control and their health.  They should also be a part of conversations about the conversations about their birth control and their health.  But, as a majority of the population, they should also be a part of conversations about all policy issues.  And about the conversations about the policy conversations.

Check out this great speech by Senator (and lady human) Kirsten Gillibrand (NY-D), explaining last week’s oversight as well as why incorporating more women’s voices into political discussions of all sorts is a good thing.

Isaiah 40:1-11

1 Comfort, comfort my people,
says your God.
2 Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,
and proclaim to her
that her hard service has been completed,
that her sin has been paid for,
that she has received from the LORD’s hand
double for all her sins.
3 A voice of one calling:
“In the wilderness prepare
the way for the LORD;
make straight in the desert
a highway for our God.
4 Every valley shall be raised up,
every mountain and hill made low;
the rough ground shall become level,
the rugged places a plain.
5 And the glory of the LORD will be revealed,
and all people will see it together.
For the mouth of the LORD has spoken.”
6 A voice says, “Cry out.”
And I said, “What shall I cry?”
“All people are like grass,
and all their faithfulness is like the flowers of the field.
7 The grass withers and the flowers fall,
because the breath of the LORD blows on them.
Surely the people are grass.
8 The grass withers and the flowers fall,
but the word of our God endures forever.”
9 You who bring good news to Zion,
go up on a high mountain.
You who bring good news to Jerusalem,
lift up your voice with a shout,
lift it up, do not be afraid;
say to the towns of Judah,
“Here is your God!”
10 See, the Sovereign LORD comes with power,
and he rules with a mighty arm.
See, his reward is with him,
and his recompense accompanies him.
11 He tends his flock like a shepherd:
He gathers the lambs in his arms
and carries them close to his heart;
he gently leads those that have young.

Reflection
This is the passage that spoke of John the Baptist’s calling to go and declare God’s good news to all. In the same way, after encountering God, we too are left with this same feeling of “What do I do next?” and “What should I cry out?” However, God has already given it to us. We are to go out and declare that our God is here, right now, with power, and He has come to comfort and rescue His people. He has seen what we have gone through, and knows each of the things we have done, yet He has come in forgiveness and grace to set us free from it all. This is the message that we have received through passages like this, through teachings in the church, and even in our own prayer times. Now let’s go out and share it with others!

Response
Let’s respond by asking God to fill us again with the heart to go out and share this good news with those that are wandering in the wilderness of this life. Let’s pray that our words and prayers would be effective and that many would come to know this God who has rescued us.

As frequent Internet users, we here at USDemocrazy are curious to hear your opinions on online piracy.

To get the discussion started here’s a statistic from a recent Columbia University study:

70 percent of 18- to 29-year-olds said they had bought, copied or downloaded unauthorized music TV shows, or movies, compared with 46 percent of all adults who’d done the same

A new statistic for an old debate has people unsure if they should blame the youth, the strict copyright laws, or the easy access to free content online.

So here’s the question of the day or maybe the 21st century: What should we do about online piracy?