If I knew all the words

This is a response to an old post, but I found it extremely interesting so I apologize this is not timely.

In response to a commentary Regina Lynn wrote about Ohio teachers being asked to stay away from social networks, I believe they are being well advised to stay away from the mainstream social networks such as Facebook and Myspace . But as Lynn points out, the internet generation is graduation into the workforce. It is unfair to ask these new teachers to give up their communication and ties to college and maybe even their only communication to friends abroad.

I believe there is a healthy medium for which a teacher, who walks such a thin line when it comes to relationships with students. Being careful comes with the territory and these new and exsisting teachers need to understand that they are walking on thin ice when it comes to teacher-student relationships. If a teacher has either one of these accounts, which he or she knows their students also have accounts, their profiles need to be extremely private and they need to take caution in posting inappropriate pictures and content to their web pages.

When it comes to sites such as Match.com I believe a teacher has every right to be a part of the site as long as they are in good taste, while knowing many have a different definition of “good taste”. The internet is an online venue opened up for the entire world. You NEVER know who is going to read your blog, profile, or news article which is posted on such a widely available venue.

My suggestion is that teachers take precaution. If you post something inappropriate either your student will call you out on it, or your employer… and I’m guessing neither one is the more preferable. You never know when a student may call wolf and you’re stuck knee deep in legal battles just because you couldn’t resist to friend a student on facebook.

Find other forms of communication and up the privacy on all your accounts. You should anyways… there are a lot of creepers out there….

Photo is courtesy of Old Shoe woman from Flickr.com

Welcome. Guten Tag! Hallo.

My name is Staci Stringer, I’m a 21-year-old Senior at the University of Oregon (UO). I’m anticipating to graduate in June of this year with a Bachelors of Science, a major in Journalism with a concentration in public relations and a minor in communications. But my passion lies with event management and experiential marketing.

This past year I’ve had the honor of serving as the Panhellenic Vice President of Recruitment for Greek Life at UO. Panhellenic council is the governing body of all the sororities on campus. My job has opened multiple opportunities for leadership roles. I’ve overseen a staff of seven women, managed a $20,000 budget, planed fall formal recruitment, and organized programming for week of welcome and IntroDUCKtion. I have also facilitated recruitment chair meetings, and recruitment counselor training sessions. Through this experience I have had the opportunity to speak to large groups of parents and students to promote and educate them about the positive influence the Greek Community can have on ones undergraduate experience. This job requires me to be detail oriented, enthusiastic, independent, self-motivated, and personable. Through this job I’ve learned conflict management, good customer service, and verbal communication skills. All of which, I believe will be great skills when I dive into the real world in the next year. In October of 2007 I was hired at Allen Hall Public Relations (AHPR) as an assistant account executive. My team of four works with our client the Eugene Center for Community Counseling to outreach to the citizens of Eugene and Springfield as they celebrate their 30th Anniversary.

Over the past year I’ve seen the value of companies and organizations creating and participating in blogs. Not just product blogs, but blogs that reach out and communicate with the reader. By opening up a community conversation for clients, blogs allow them to fully connect with products, as well as the mission and values of organizations.

I began writing blogs my senior year of high school when my advanced algebra teacher decided to make it a weekly homework assignment. I thought this was weird considering it was a math class, not an English class, but little did I know it would become a part of my future profession. Later in the year I came to find out he is an accomplished writer and artist. During my freshman year of college I found his Web site, 39forks, and began contributing to his conversation. He has inspired me to continue to write and pursue this course which seems to be public relations.

I hope this blog can be a sliver of insight into myself, as well as my journey into finding out about the world of public relations. As I continue to develop this blog, please look for samples of work as well as my resume. Feel free to explore and get involved with the conversations!