Spring 2012 Semester Preface.

Good grief.  What a trip we've been on so far, huh?

I was just looking back for a moment and counting how many semesters we've been at this, and well, we're now beginning semester number six.  Three years, a whole lot of posts, a whole lot of great people that I've met and had the pleasure of spending time with.

We've been through Nevada School Law, Composition II, Journalism 100, World Literature, Critical Analysis of the Mass Media, Environmental Science, News Reporting and Writing, Personal Growth, Global Media, History, Introduction to Integrated Marketing Communications, Afro-American Studies, Media Planning and Buying, Electronic Media Production, and Integrated Marketing Communications Strategy.

Yeah, go ahead, be like me with your tongue lolling out and go, "OMG, that's a lot."  LOL!  But think of it this way, you've been with me for the whole thing, all 46 credit hours worth.  Finally, we're at the home stretch.  When I finish this spring semester, I'll have 32 credits to go.  For those of you keeping track, that's one more year, plus one semester.

A while back, Mom asked me why I wasn't stuffing more than 12 credit hours in every semester.  For me, the answer was easy.  I know myself.  12 hours a semester is plenty for me, any more than that and it becomes a question of, take less and do better or take more and do worse?  I prefer to go a tad bit slower but have excellent grades.  Hey, a 3.7 GPA is nothing to sneeze at, so for this semester we have 12 more credit hours that I'm sure are going to see some lip service here.

This semester I'm going to go numerically by the class number so that way we don't get anything confused.  Let's get started.

On the bill for Spring 2012 we have:
Journalism 305 - Media Ethics
Journalism 374 - Advertising Copywriting (oh you know you're cheering with me on this one).
Journalism 401 - The First Amendment and the Media
and finally...
Journalism 433 - IMC Campaigns, also known as the 2012 UNLV NSAC Competition Team. (The capstone course for my major, a.k.a. "The Show.")

That's right boys and girls, this semester we're going to competition...and we're going to kick butt!

Let's start describing this semester's fun and games...and I say that with all due sarcasm because it's going to be a hard road until May.  Lucky for me, I've got a little bit of Doc Cat in my pocket along with a big cheering section that will see the hard work I'll be contributing to the team stand center stage on Saturday, April 28th, live from the Greenspun Hall Auditorium.  (Contact me if you want to come watch!  I'll have more info soon.)

Now, let's break it down:

Journalism Ethics...doesn't that just sound fun?  Considering I've written ethics lectures in the past for my Photoshop students, well, it's not hard to imagine that I'm going to be putting my high-minded ideals to the test.  The professor, Ms. M., is a legend inside Greenspun Hall for her ethics class.  The caveat?  She either loves you or hates you and come 10 a.m. Wednesday morning, I'll find out what category I fall into.

Advertising Copywriting, what I truly believe is my bread and butter will be up next and I'm hoping with the new professor they've hired for the class that it should be tons of fun.  The focus (that I know ahead of time thanks to sitting in with Doc S. on countless mornings just to hang out) will be Multicultural Advertising.  Just in time too with the goods coming up for the NSAC.  I'm hoping it will be a blast.  Keep your fingers crossed for this one.  If all else fails, I've got Luke, his blog and a copy of Whipple on my bookshelf, so I think we'll be okay.

Then there's the First Amendment and the Media, a law class (by the way, it's my second law class, kill me, I'm no lawyer, I'm an ad girl.  Who knew you had to be one-half law student and one-half lunatic to be a journalism major?).  My trip through Media Law will be guided by my second Dr. B who is extremely different from my fave history professor, the Original Dr. B.  Ah yes, a whole semester of pounding through textbooks...not my idea of fun, but it's a mandatory class, so guess what, it's one I have to buckle down for because I know it's not going to be the world's sexiest read.  Filled with moments of "OMG, really?" of course because I'm convinced only great acts of stupidity land themselves in the court system.

But, the cherry on the cake of the semester, another fun filled five months with the king of IMC, the one and only Scorsese who along with KC will be going to battle with us for the National Student Advertising Competition that I've been dreaming the last three years and 46 credit hours of doing.  Ok kiddies, this is it, the moment we've all been waiting for.

Last Thursday, I went to my first team meet-up.  Walking up to Greenspun Hall at twilight will make any UNLV journalism major take a knee because it's just breathtakingly beautiful.  I sat in a room filled with my teammates who are hungry to really take a chunk out of Chapman, USC, UCLA and the rest of the SoCal schools in our district.  It seems to me my teammates are a pack of scrappers and that's just how I like it because I'm a scrapper too.  If I can get beat down and torn up and rise from the ashes, clawing and scratching for everything I've got, my teammates are just my speed.

So, that's what Spring is shaping up to look like.  Wish me luck, it's going to be a long, hard road.

One other thing...and I think I may just make my Mother faint with this one...last semester, I made the Dean's List.  When I finish this semester, I'll walk into Fall as a Senior.