Friday, July 27, 2012

The Olympics Come To London!


Alex Newby, Marketing Intern





Blaring anthems, tiered podiums, and shining medals are back as the Olympic Games come to London, England! This year’s games will run from July 27th to August 12th and will feature approximately 205 countries in over some 300 events.  As with every year, inspiring stories, personal triumphs, and intense rivalries are on every channel as hopeful athletes prepare for Friday’s opening ceremony. With an Olympic first, Saudi Arabia named two females to their London 2012 team;, North Korea’s women’s soccer team almost refused to play their first game on Wednesday after a flag mix-up; and several players from around the world have already been disqualified on doping charges. With so much happening already, the London games are sure to be the most exciting thing to watch this summer! Here are some of the our suggestions on the people and events to watch!


The US Women’s Soccer Team - Gold medal winners in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the team has already started this year’s Olympics pursuit with a 4-2 win over France in Glasgow on Wednesday. Key players include returning players Abby Wambach and Alex Morgan.

Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte- Like in Beijing, these two American swimmers are expected to win several events in London. Phelps, who has won over 16 medals (14 are gold!), will be competing for eight days in several races for the chance to take the title for most medals won by an athlete. The current record holder is former Soviet Union gymnast Larissa Latynina with 18. Lochte is a six-time Olympic medalist and currently holds the world record in the 200 and 400 meter individual relay. This year, they will face off in the 200 and 400 individual medley.

Usain Bolt and Yohan Blake- After his performance in the Beijing Olympics, Usain Bolt was made famous as the world's fastest man. This year, he has some competition. Yohan Blake, a fellow Jamaican beat Bolt in both the 100 and 200 meter sprints in the Olympics trails. Track and Field events start on August 3rd!

Clark Burckle, Dotsie Bausch, Tyson Gay, and Lee Kiefer – These four Kentucky athletes will be competing in swimming, cycling, track and field, and fencing respectively. Tyson Gay is considered one of the fastest men in the world and will be competing. Tyson Gay is considered one of the fastest men in the world and will be competing in the 100m against Usain Bolt and Yohan Blake, Lee Kiefer, currently ranked #1 in the U.S., is only a senior in high school at Lexington’s Paul Lawrence Dunbar! For more information on each one, visit our Pinterest board! 






Friday, July 20, 2012

TED Talks


They’re inspiring, funny, deep, ingenious, creative, and imaginative. Coming from educators, entrepreneurs, doctors, comedians, and people from all walks of life TED talks are interesting, recorded presentations about everything from health to technology to magic tricks. The perfect cure for boredom, TED Talks will expand your mind, while keeping you entertained.



Student Program Coordinator Joel Lubrano loves to spend his down time watching different TED talks. "Any time you give an expert in a particular field twenty minutes to discuss their passion, that talk cannot help but be intriguing and thought-provoking. Their passion for the topic resonates through their talk and never fails to captivate the audience. I have seen talks on everything from education to procrastination to astronomy. Every speaker brings their own charm and flair to the TED Talks stage, and I always come away enlightened with a new array of knowledge."

The concept of TED began in 1984 as a conference that brought people together from the worlds of Technology, Entertainment, and Design to present and talk about “ideas worth sharing.” Since then, TED has expanded to include more annual conferences, a global conference, a TED talks website and more.


Here at The Study, we’ve been watching a lot of TED Talks. Whether you’re interested in science or comedy, education or religion, there are talks for everybody. Their one common theme? Each speaker has an idea worth sharing. To find one that you’ll love visit www.ted.com. To help you start, we’ve compiled a list of some of our favorites!

Arielle Parker, Marketing Intern:

“David Kelley: How to build your creative confidence”
Ever had a creative idea or thought and been criticized for it? Ever designed something and been told it wasn’t good enough? In this TED talk, David Kelley, founder of legendary design firm IDEO expresses to the audience how to regain confidence that many people lose from being criticized. Kelley believes people opt-out of thinking they are creative when other people make judgments on them. “If only people could stick with the process of creating something and not listen to others, then they can do amazing things and can realize just how creative they truly are,” he exclaimed. Kelley has been studying this fear of judgment that most people have for quite a while and discusses his theory on how to overcome that fear.

“Alanna Shaikh: How I'm preparing to get Alzheimer's
Alanna Shaikh expresses how she will prepare herself for the number six most common killer in the United States: Alzheimer’s. Shaikh, a global health expert, tells the audience how her father has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, and he is not alone. “There are nearly 35 million people globally who are suffering from some type of dementia. And by 2030 this number will double,” stated Shaikh. Since Alzheimer’s is a hereditary disease, Shaikh explains how she is methodically and happily preparing herself for when it is her turn.

Nicole Brown, Marketing Intern:

“Jane McGonigal: The game that can give you 10 extra years of life”
In her talk, Jane McGonigal, a game designer, begins by promising to extend the life of anybody who is watching by 7.5 minutes. Between that promise and the title of this talk, I was immediately intrigued. She begins by speaking of her bout with depression following a severe concussion and how she used a game that she invented, SuperBetter, to get through it. By making every task part of a game, she was able to take small steps and conquer small tasks every day until those small successes started to really add up and banish her depression. Based on her personal experience and research that she did because of it, she developed “SuperBetter” activities to build up your resilience—physical, mental, emotional, and social. By completing one activity for each type of resilience during her talk, you will have increased your life span by 7.5 minutes. This talk motivated me to make the small changes in my life that McGonigal suggested in order to become a stronger, happier person.

“Doctor Mike Evans: 23 and ½ Hours: What is the single best thing we can do for our health?”
In this talk, Dr. Evans begins by discussing all of the health problems that can be fixed by one miracle cure before reveling what it is: exercise, specifically 30 minutes a day. Naturally, we all know that exercise is good for us, but I was surprised at the large impact that just 30 minutes a day of even low-stress exercise can have on your health. Dr. Evans definitely convinced me that exercise is worth making the time for!

Alex Newby, Marketing Intern:

“Steve Jobs: How to live before you die”
In his commencement speech for Stanford University Class of 2005, Apple creator Steve Jobs talks about his life experiences and gives students practical advice on making the most of their new beginning. For one of the world’s most successful men, Steve overcame obstacles that I never realized he had faced. As a UK senior, I found Steve’s talk inspiring. 

“Charlie Todd: The shared experience of absurdity”
This is one of the funniest videos I’ve come across on TED Talks! The founder of Improv Everywhere, Charlie Todd and his group are responsible for those hilarious videos of large crowds of improvers confusing random people on the streets. According to Charlie, “One of the points of Improv Everywhere is to cause a scene in a public place that is a positive experience for other people. It’s a prank, but it’s a prank that gives somebody a great story to tell.” By showing clips of his famous pranks, Charlie goes through the story of how he turned his comedy dreams into reality.

Organize with Buffer


How to Manage Your Social Media with Ease

Nicole Brown, Marketing Intern
Alex Newby, Marketing Intern

We’ve looked at Pinterest, LinkedIn, Klout scores, and now, comes Buffer. For social media users everywhere, Buffer makes keeping social media updated much easier.  For the casual social media user, the free version of Buffer allows you to schedule up to ten posts on three different social media profiles.  It works just like updating your Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn account.  In essence, Buffer isn’t a social media network on its own, but instead helps you manage your other accounts in one spot.

So how does it work?
After creating and logging into a Buffer account, one can just type up a post in the “Write a post here to add to your Buffer” section—it’s as simple as that!  Then you can manage which social media you wish to post to by selecting any of your connected accounts with one click.  To post a link, just copy and paste it into the “post” section and Buffer automatically shortens the link for you.  If you’re posting to Twitter, Buffer even counts the characters in your post for you like Twitter does.

Timing is everything.
Once you type up a post, Buffer adds it your queue and automatically assigns the next available post time to it.  You have the option of keeping the post time, hitting an arrow to post now, or using the rearrange feature to change the order of your posts.  To manage your post times, just visit the Settings page and change your Schedule.  Buffer automatically suggests post times based on when you should get the most interaction.  You can also increase or decrease the number of times you post per day.

So, what does Buffer mean for students?  
Well, if you’re like me and use StumbleUpon and Pinterest, I often find a bunch of stuff that I want to share at once.  With a Buffer account, instead of sharing it all at once, I can “Buffer it” and Buffer will share it in a reasonably spread out manner. Now, for those who don’t update their social media much and mostly use it to keep up with friends and family, the best use of Buffer for you may be with LinkedIn.  Many employers use LinkedIn for hiring purposes and an active profile does much more in your favor than an inactive one. A consistently active profile tells possible employers much more about what’s important to you.  With Buffer, you can keep your LinkedIn profile active with very little effort.

For teachers and teaching assistants:
For teachers or teaching assistants, Buffer can be used to announce assignments or remind students about upcoming events.  Just create a Twitter or Facebook page for your class and queue up future announcements.  Then, instead of having to remember things for each day or write them on your classroom board every day, you can spend one night creating the week’s worth of updates for your students.

For club or organization leaders:
Buffer is a great way to stay connected with your group without having to be attached to your social media all day. You can schedule reminders or daily updates for a certain time without actually having to remember to get on and do it. If you need to announce something at a specific time, but won’t be available, Buffer is a great way to make sure it gets done.

For future advertisers or marketers:
Buffer is a great way to keep up social media presence and brand image, without having to expel as much manpower to keep on top of things.  With an “Awesome,” or upgraded account, you can queue up an unlimited number of updates on up to twelve social media profiles at one time and then Buffer will spread out your updates and content throughout the day, instead of bombarding users with a million different updates while you’re online.    

In short, while it may not have as many uses for people who use social media just to “catch-up” with their friends and family, Buffer can provide all social media users with a home base of sorts for their accounts and help them maintain a more consistent presence. 

Check out Buffer or StumbleUpon:
StumbleUpon: www.stumbleupon.com

For more information on Pinterest, LinkedIn, or Klout, see our previous posts:

Thursday, July 19, 2012

Student Spotlight






Arielle Parker, Marketing Intern 

With her upbeat personality, friendly attitude, and a great sense of humor, Chloe Hansen is our Student Spotlight of the month! Chloe was a Peer Tutor for two years and is currently a Student Program Coordinator at Academic Enhancement. Chloe is a self-trained professional nail artist and is currently training for a half marathon for this upcoming fall. After Chloe graduates this May, she plans on attending Northwestern College in the fall of 2013.

Name: Chloe Hansen

Major: Secondary Social Studies Education

Hometown: Chicago, IL

Clubs/ Extra Curricular: DanceBlue and Tri Delta Sorority

Hobbies: Crafting, reading, running

Favorite Food: Sushi and Nerd Ropes

Music: Everything from Eric Church to Maroon 5 to the Backstreet Boys and Frank Ocean

Favorite Movie: The Godfather parts 1 and 2… and Mean Girls

Pet: No pets right now but I really really want a German Shepard

Favorite Restaurant: Josie’s and Drake’s

Color: Blue…duh

Holiday: 4th of July

Best Place Traveled To: Hawaii and Colonial Williamsburg

Most Daring Moment: Skydiving on my 18th birthday

Why UK: UK was the only University that I truly felt at home when I toured. The Scholarship money doesn’t hurt either

Favorite Class At UK: Ice skating!

Favorite Place to Study: Coffea, coffee shop near Qdoba and Papa Johns

Favorite Teacher: High School History Teacher

Advice to Others at UK: Take advantage of every opportunity presented here at UK and be as outgoing as possible

Life After College: Teach AP European History but ultimately to be a District Superintendent

Why Does She Like Working at the Study: I feel like I get to make a positive impact on student experience at UK every day; and the people I work with are some of the coolest people I’ve ever met