October 18 - October 24

Happy Project Flyer

Happy Project Boxes

This week we really focused on getting things ready for our "Happy Project" clothing drive. On Monday, I went to get all of the boxes for the donations to be put in. We just got simple cardboard boxes from a local U-Haul store. I also designed the flyers that we would put around campus and on the donation boxes. I took time to decide what would be eye-catching, simple and would give all of the needed information. On Tuesday, I went to a local printing shop and had many copies of the flyers made. I had some trouble because I designed the flyer on a Mac and the computers at the printing shop were Windows. With a little extra effort and some assistance from a man who worked there, we were able to figure out a way to print out the flyers. I waited at the printing shop for the flyers, to ensure they came out just the way I wanted them to. On Wednesday I assembled all of the boxes and attached flyers to the outside. Also on Wednesday, I emailed back and forth with the chapter presidents of all of the Greek houses on campus. We arranged times for Shay and I to come by and speak to the chapters about our project. Everyone was really eager to help us with our efforts! On Thursday I dropped off boxes at two different sorority houses that wanted to give donations, but didn't find it necessary for us to come and speak to their chapters. On Sunday, I went to four different chapter meetings to speak about our project and drop off the boxes for the donations. It took all evening to drive to the different locations and give our speeches, but it was necessary to speak to the chapters to spread the word about our project. It was a little bit nerve-racking to speak at the first chapter, but after the first speech I gave, I was able to warm up and the rest of the chapters I spoke at were fun and I was really able to relax. We set times and dates to go by each of the houses to pick up donations, and let everyone know that the last day to drop off clothing was November 12.

Monday 3:00 - 5:00 (2 hours)

Tuesday 4:00 - 5:00 (1 hour)

Wednesday: 2:00 - 4:00 (2 hours)

Thursday 5:15 - 6:45 (1.5 hours)

Sunday 6:00 - 10:00 (4 hours)

This week = 10.5 hours

Total = 93 hours

October 11 - October 17

This week we have been working really had on getting the finals of our Happy Project together. We were never able to work anything out with Homecoming. Our final negotiation was that the Homecoming Exec would try and advertise and support our project but they couldn't make any supportive promises. We decided it would be best to just try another route to get students involved with our project. The Happy Project lasts until November 12, and Homecoming is just one week. We were worried if it was connected too much to Homecoming that students would stop getting involved with it. We have decided to just send an email to the president of over 20 student groups on campus. Shay is in charge of composing and sending the emails. We hope to have a large response and are offering to bring by a container for the clothes, and we are also asking to come speak at the group meetings to spread the word about the project. We are keeping our fingers crossed for support from the student groups here at Oklahoma. We have been talking with those who work at Food and Friends and they are so excited for our drive to start!

This week I also had my In-store shadow experience at the nearest Victoria Secret store. The shadow experience was several hours and it was great how much I was able to learn about the brand that I am promoting on my campus. The workers at the VS store weren't exactly sure how to react around me at first, since this is the firs time the store had done a shadow experience. It didn't take long for the girls to warm up to me and it ended up being a lot of fun. A lot of times people thought I was a store clerk so I had to redirect many questions, but other than that everything went great! I spent an hour or so before my in-store experience preparing by looking at the logistics of the store I was visiting and researching what the girls at VS headquarters wanted me to get out of the visit. There were specific questions and a survey that they wanted me to answer after my experience so I spent some time familiarizing myself with the questions and the survey details. Overall, the in-store shadow experience was absolutely awesome! It was really good for me to be able to connect the whole aspect of building a brand image. I work very hard at promoting the VS PINK brand on campus, so it was great to see the other side and to see the merchandise actually sell. It reminded me of why we do what we do. It was really rewarding!

This week we had a home game so I was faced with taking more STYLE U Pics. I've been uploading the pictures to the VS PINK Intern website and it has been really interesting in seeing the different poses and styles that the other interns across the nation are using. Taking the pictures is always a lot of fun and the girls around campus are always really supportive. It's sometimes awkward to ask them if I can take their picture, but after they learn why, they are typically very flattered.

I've spent some time putting together some pictures and details of the venue we will be using for the VS Fashion Show viewing party to send to headquarters so they can further their plans for the trunk show. We are using the Kappa Hall building owned by the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority. The building is large enough and a great location on campus.

Surveys, blogs, and communication continues on the Intern website, like always.

Monday 1:00 - 3:00 (2 hours)

Thursday 4:00 - 5:00 (1 hour)

Friday: 12:00 - 4:00 (4 hours)

Saturday 4:00 - 6:00 (2 hours)

Sunday 5:30 - 7:30 (1 hour)

This week = 10 hours

Total = 82.5

October 4 - October 10

This week we continued to work on the progression of our Happy Project. We have had some trouble getting the Homecoming Staff on board with supporting our project. We've sent several different emails to those in student life, as well as those who are in charge of Homecoming, but we haven't been able to make much head-way. The traditions of homecoming are very set and it hasn't been easy to get those in charge to adapt to the idea of incorporating a new philanthropy. Shay and I have met and spoken over the phone many times, trying to figure out a back-up plan. We are trying to figure out how we can get the most support for our clothing drive. We know that if we can give students an incentive to donate clothes, we will have a much more successful drive. Shay and I have been busy brainstorming with new ideas that we can progress with later on this month.

We have also spent a significant amount of time this week communicating with the shelter where we are going to be donating all of the clothes that we collect to. The shelter is called Food and Friends, and it's a great place in Norman where people can go and get a hot meal and a change of clothes if needed. I'm really excited to work with Food and Friends and to give back to the Norman community. I'm so excited!

Planning philanthropy events, and trying to get people involved with donations and support are activities that many PR professionals will have to deal with. It's been a great learning experience to try and plan the Happy Project. I feel like i'm learning a lot of skills that I will be able to use later on in my PR career.

Also this week, I had a phone conference with Shay and 3 of the Victoria Secret merchandisers. It was my first phone conference with more than just 3 people. It was difficult to tell who was talking and it took some getting used to. There are definitely manners when it comes to phone conferences and it was a great learning experience. We talked about the details of the Victoria Secret Fashion Show Viewing Party that Shay and I will be hosting on November 30. Merchandisers from headquarters were wanting to attend our viewing party and host a trunk show to give a preview of new exclusive Victoria Secret PINK collections to Oklahoma students only. I'm so excited! It would be such a great opportunity if the trunk show was to work out. We spoke on the phone for a while discussing details and logistics of the show and the viewing party.

Like every week I spent some time on the Victoria Secret Intern website. I took time reading the blogs that the other Campus Representatives have filled out, and I took time getting accustomed to the homepage where we can adjust our budget. I filled out the surveys for the week, and took time learning what Victoria Secret Merchandisers were currently doing.

I have been spending a lot of time filing out PINK Nation membership forms for girls online. Each form takes about 5 minutes to complete, and I have over 150 forms to fill out. Typically, we carry around laptops and have the girls fill out the forms themselves. But, during some of our promotional events we faced technical difficulties so we just had the girls write down their information on a piece of paper and now Shay and I have been imputing the information into the computer. It's been a good lesson about being adaptable and knowing that technology does sometimes fail.

Monday: 5:00 - 7:00 (2 hours)

Tuesday: 4:00 - 6:00 (2 hours)

Wednesday: 1:00 - 3:00 (2 hours)

Thursday: 4:00 - 7:00 (3 hours)

Sunday: 6:45 - 8:15 (1 hour, 30 minutes)

This week = 10.5 hours

Total = 72.5 hours

September 27 - October 3

On Monday of this week I went to the Kappa Kappa Gamma house and gave a presentation about the PINK brand. I was at the house for a while and was able to really interact with the girls. I was able to get almost 100 girls to sign up for Pink Nation. I also took lots of pictures of the girls and some of the freebees I had to give them. The pictures turned out great, and I uploaded them that night to the VS Pink Intern website so the VS managers could see some of the progress I was making here at OU. I've learned what an important part of public relations documenting everything is. The pictures of all the events we have are such an important feature. They show our employee as well as our public all the progress we have been making.

The week i've also been sending emails back and forth and talking on the phone with Caroline to try and figure out how we can make the Pink Collegiate Collection more popular here at OU. Some campuses respond better to the collection to others, and we've really had to work at promoting it here. I've learned the importance of communicating in the correct way to the correct audience. We've been doing a lot of work but for some reason none of it is connecting with the audience we want to be connecting with. Caroline and I have chatted several times trying to figure out how to target the audience specifically here in Oklahoma.

I've been continuing to blog and fill out surveys on the VS PINK Intern website. One of the Style U pictures that I took a couple weeks ago is featured on the Victoria Secret website! It's really exciting to see my hard work pay off. The VS Pink merchandisers have taken our pictures and put together a section which shows how girls are dressing for football games at different campuses around the nation.

Last, this weekend was OU/TX weekend in Dallas! On Saturday while I was at the game I took several different pictures for this week's Style U section. I can't wait to see if any of these pictures are selected to be featured on the website. Sunday, I uploaded the pictures.

Monday: 3:00 - 4:00, 7:00 - 9:00 (3 hours)

Tuesday: 4:00 - 5:00 (1 hour)

Wednesday: 1:00 - 3:00 (2 hours)

Saturday: 11:00 - 1:00 ( 2 hours)

Sunday: 12:00 - 2:00 ( 2 hours)

This week = 10 hours

Total = 62 hours