Guest Speaking at Rider University on Digital Media and the Italian American Girl Site

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Italian American Girl Presentation at Rider University - Writing For the Media, Blogging

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Italian American Girl Goes To Rider University - All about Media & Writing

It's been almost 4 years since I launched the Italian American Girl site and since then amazing things have come from this labor of love.  I've been asked to participate in national commercials, been invited to celebrity events, asked to guest write for other amazing influential websites and most importantly guest speak at my Alma mater, Rider University.  Of all the events, this is one of my most favorite things to do.  To share what I know about something I love so much, which is producing, writing, social media and mainstream media.  Not to mention, I love my college and any opportunity to go back and actually teach, a serious dream come true.  I connected with Professor Kathy Magrino (a fellow Italian American Girl ) on social media one day when she posted an interactive question on Twitter for her class at Rider; it caught my attention and I wrote her back saying 'whatever I learned at Rider, has been applied to my real life career in so many ways..tell your students to pay attention..it will all matter once you get  a job in the work force...."  She immediately responded back and so we began an interactive engaged conversation on Twitter where then Kathy invited me to come speak about the Italian American Girl site and my experiences with my career.   The main focus of my talking points are to discuss the real elements that go into producing this site.  Writing is extremely important and you really have to be in the mood to write from experience and make it compelling enough so your readers don't get turned off.   What I think the students were most surprised about is that SPELLING AND GRAMMAR count.  When I went to college ( oh God I sound old) we were just getting savvy with Spell Check, now if you publish something with a mistake, it's really your own fault.. of which I have made plenty of those, but reading your work out loud will always help and re-reading is also important.

At Rider University

The biggest take away to writing is actually writing about what interests you, your passion.  My site, Italian American Girl is my passion, my goals are combined in the production of the entire site - video, writing, photos, social media these are the elements that help create the success of my site. 

Sometimes when you are caught up in your career, the daily grind, and deadlines you sometimes forget the joys of what make you tick and for me it's the success of this site- the media elements.  Being a guest speaker with such bright students who have such huge dreams recharges me and inspires me to want to do more with my own site and including my career. 


An amazing experience, and I always look forward to sharing my knowledge with such wonderful students and a great professor! Thank you Rider University! Tweet

Social Media & Being Italian American

I was invited to speak about social media and the Italian American Girl site at Rider University in New Jersey, which happens to be my alma mater. Being invited to speak at a university for a communications class about two of my favorite topics (social media & the Italian American Girl site) is a huge honor.

This all began on Twitter. I was on Twitter about a month ago and noticed a wonderful Tweet by a fellow Italian American @kathymagrino who was Tweeting about social media and interacting with her communications class through Twitter. This got my attention and I immediately sent Professor Magrino a Tweet back saying I was a Rider alumni and that her students should pay attention to everything she's teaching because everything I learned at Rider University paid off in every aspect during and presently in my career in communications. This began our online "conversation" and from here Professor Magrino discovered my site where I display my love for writing and communications.

Day of, I traveled back to Rider University here in New Jersey and met with Professor Magrino's communications class. Wow! What an experience.. first of all to be back on campus was sort of surreal and comforting at the same time. Everything looked smaller though.. lol --- It's funny when you're in college how everything seems magnified and larger.

I was so impressed with the technology and level of media knowledge the students had, to compare when I was in college where and when the Internet just came out.. ugh.. sign of my age. Before I went into the communications class I visited with one of my professors, who I have to say was totally surprised to see me. It was great catching up and this time I was sitting in his office telling him of all my career advancements and accomplishments and not begging him for an extension on a project. LOL...those were the days.

After my visit with my former professor; I went back to the class and began my presentation with the communications students. I started off with my introduction, but what I wanted the students to understand was that my connection to Rider and what I was about to present to them meant a lot to me. This is my real life. I went on to talk about the process of social media, communications, video production and content, where I could see many of the students were completely focused. At one point, I had one student take pictures and another do video using a FLIP video camera.

What became an important talking point was "passion." Without passion you're really never 100% into what you're doing, whether its career or in your personal life. Being back at Rider brought me back to why I chose the communications route and how much I really love my career.

I left the students with this element as my closing -- you have to be prepared, you have to love what you do and you have to have goals. Now, these might not work for everyone, but its proved to be top three elements, which I work on everyday and help me contribute to my success. This ties into my upbringing and how my Italian parents instilled many great values, which translate to my everyday life.

I can't thank Professor Magrino enough for her invitation to speak at Rider University and I was totally honored the students were so focused and engaged on this presentation about social media and the Italian American Girl site. I look forward to returning to Rider!

Grazie Kathy!

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