RFC supports the building of aquaponic and hydroponic farms that use clean, recycled water instead of soil to grow fruits, vegetables, herbs, and even fish. These “recirculating farms” give people access to fresh, affordable food while also creating jobs and giving communities agency to provide for themselves. RFC is a national nonprofit, but its headquarters are in New Orleans, and the organization focuses much of its attention on helping the Lower 9th Ward.

Last year RFC announced that it has plans to build an urban farming and food center in downtown New Orleans. You can read more about their exciting plans here: http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/recirculating-farms-coalition-new-orleans-food–farm-network-to-build-innovative-urban-farming-and-food-center-167153325.html

RFC is also involved in a number of other initiatives to help build and develop farming networks in the Lower 9th Ward. Recently, they partnered with The Backyard Gardener’s Network to help raise money to build a living shade structure at the Guerrilla Garden Project. You can read more about their efforts here: http://www.recirculatingfarms.org/lower-9th-ward-garden-to-build-living-shade-structure/ .

As a resident of New Orleans, I am excited to see an organization taking initiative and helping solve some of the city’s problems. Food is something that many people take for granted, especially when you grow up in a great culinary city like New Orleans. It is sometimes easy to forget that not everyone has equal access to healthy, affordable food, and it is important for organizations like RFC to raise awareness about these issues. I’m excited to be working with Recirculating Farms this semester in our PR Writing class, and I hope that we can help them achieve some of their goals.

A recent assignment in CMMN A317 Writing for Public Relations required students to write a blog entry related to our semester service learning partner. One of the outstanding posts was written by Shermicia Calice.

We were delighted when Lower 9th Ward native Jenga Mwendo founded the Backyard Gardener’s Network in 2009. This nonprofit organization has sought to rebuild and strengthen our neighborhood through gardening. This led to the construction of the Guerilla Garden. It was developed and built by Lower 9th Ward residents. Personally, I thought it was a great to see my neighbors commit themselves to revitalizing our community. It gave me a sense of hope for the Lower 9th Ward’s future in rebuilding.

It was exciting when Recirculating Farms Coalition partnered with the Backyard Gardener’s Network to raise funds to create a hydroponic living shade structure. The structure has helped to expand the garden’s growing capacity and it provides relief from the sun to the garden workers.

I am happy to see my community strengthening through these projects. It feels as if someone really cares about the well being of the Lower 9th Ward and our recovery. I plan to join organizations that will positively contribute to my community.

I grew up in Metairie, a subdivision of New Orleans filled with soccer moms and sprawling malls and thousands of houses with well-manicured lawns. I was privileged: we lived in a nice neighborhood. We had two cars. Our pantry was always stocked with groceries. My best friend, however, was not so lucky. Her father worked on an oil rig and her mother had a job in the city that didn’t pay well.

So every Friday afternoon, we would take a trip down the street to the nearest store: a 7-Eleven® three miles from her house. We would stock up on everything that we could on the money her parents had left her: bread, milk, chips, water and junk food–there were no veggies at the 7-Eleven®. And then we would walk back three miles in the steaming New Orleans heat with the plastic bags dragging at our sweaty preteen arms.

This is a struggle that I have been, thankfully, spared throughout my life. More than 2 million American households have not been so lucky.

Those households are more than a mile from the supermarket with no personal transportation to allow them to get there, according to a June 2009 report to Congress. This is what is known as a food desert: an area with little to no no food retail provision and little to no ability to reach it. This is particularly prevalent in poorer areas of city environments, particularly cities like New Orleans that are profoundly lacking in a comprehensive public transportation system.

Grocery and retail chains cite all kinds of economic reasons for not building in these less well-off urban areas: low demand leads to low returns; cost of transportation of food isn’t worthwhile; and the crime rates are too high to guarantee a safe and commonly-shopped retail center. This leaves a very specific type of food provider in these areas–gas stations, liquor stores, convenience stores and drug stores. These stores rarely sell fresh fruit and vegetables, which are even pricey in lower-market retailers like WalMart.

But while these foods are available in places that are generally thought of as “cheaper,” retailers take advantage of their location in food deserts. Prices at these locations can be marked up from 30 to 60 percent, according to a 2008 report in the Annual Report of Public Health. These markups, in addition to poor budget planning and a smaller weekly food budget, can actually lead to people in lower-income areas spending more on food per week than people with a higher income in a food-rich area.

To recap: people in low-income urban areas (such as the lower 9th Ward in New Orleans) who live on a shoestring budget pay more for less food, healthy or otherwise. And even if they can afford to take scarce public transit to a grocery store, higher prices limit them from buying healthy, organic produce. And even if they find the extra money to go out of their way to buy healthier food, it’s often so much effort that they instead put it towards paying other bills or into their savings.

New Orleans faces an additional challenge. Where many others can attempt to start a small farm for their individual households, New Orleans’ soil is actually toxic. This is in large part thanks to extreme flooding from the Mississippi during hurricanes. Water rich with toxins from various runoff streams soaks into the soil and prevents plants from growing.

This is where nonprofits like Recirculating Farms Coalition come in. Recently, they partnered with local nonprofit The Backyard Gardener’s Network, which sought to rebuild community and local pride through gardening, to create a hydroponic garden space in the lower 9th Ward. Together, they are planning to use water gardens–with plants based in nutrient-rich water sources–to create a viable environment to grow fruits, vegetables and even fish. Hydroponic farms are an easy, affordable and scalable alternative to traditional farms.

These farms have huge potential to change the scale of food deserts in the U.S. Instead of a three-mile walk in New Orleans in August, your food will be waiting for you just outside your door.

And the secret is: LISTEN!

“How well you listen has a major impact on your job effectiveness, and on the quality of your relationships with others.”

That’s from a site about active listening by a company called Mind Tools that goes on to provide some really depressing statistics, including this tidbit: “research suggests that we remember between 25 percent and 50 percent of what we hear.”

I’m in mass comm, and we don’t do math. But I think I can figure out that only a quarter or half of what I say in class is being remembered. That’s one reason I tend to repeat key pieces of information. It’s annoying to those who get it the first time I say it, but I’m making an effort to reach those that aren’t actively listening. Perhaps they’re texting under the table (a class taboo) or checking Facebook while pretending to take notes, talking with their neighbor or furiously working to finish up that assignment I picked up at the start of class. Regardless of the reason, distractions aid in that lack of retention.

When the professor says, “Make sure you read the syllabus,” it’s not because they’re trying to punish you by adding to your homework. There’s lots of juicy stuff in a syllabus. Once you get past the required verbiage that’s in everybody’s syllabus, there’s some really important stuff in there, like what topics will be covered, when the tests are, how the assignments will be graded. I’ve even heard of professors that bury hidden clues in their syllabus that lead to bonus points. So a “request” to read the syllabus is something you really want to listen to and act upon.

Now, anyone that’s had me in class knows my syllabuses are legendary. When I say “it’s in the syllabus,” it’s there. Another thing I say quite often is, “Look at your Blackboard resources.” On average, I provide 50-100 documents per course each semester on Blackboard. If you need something for a course assignment, it’s probably on Blackboard. It’s my version of my mother’s favorite phrase when we were growing up and asking her constantly how to spell something or what this or that meant: Look it up!

A good listener will also take in account more than just the words. A student once told me I have “tells” about things that are going to be important in the future, especially for tests and assignments. I say things a certain way. I’m not conscious of doing it, but the student said they were pretty accurate about figuring out what I would consider the most important…by the tone of my voice. Apparently, that student was really listening.

Listening, along with other types of solid preparation, will serve you well, both in the classroom and beyond.

And when your professor says outright, “This will be on the test,” you better listen!

* “Do you want to know a secret” by The Beatles, 1962

In turn, I get a lot of requests for book suggestions from people who have a free weekend, are headed out on a business trip, will be stuck on a plane for several hours or are just looking for something different. And the summer brings even more requests from those headed for the beach. To save time, I publish a “book a day for the beach” post on Facebook every day in June or July.

When I taught our Intro to Mass Comm (CMMN A100) class, I had students create their own book club (a la Oprah) and come up with a reading list for club members (aka the other students in the class). I got a lot of great ideas from their suggestions, and the “book club” was an interesting way to start our discussion of print media.

Invariably, any discussion about book recommendations rolls around to what I look for in a book. And I’m here to tell you, there’s no secret – nor any magic formula – to finding a book to while away the hours, whether you’re in enforced confinement or just looking for something to clear your mind’s palate of the day’s more serious mental pursuits.

Here are my “rules” for finding books:
Author:  We like the familiar, so I ask myself, “Have I read other books by that author and liked him/her?” If so, I’ll seek out everything they’ve ever written. And I usually find a satisfying read. As a huge mystery fan, I frequent the site Stop You’re Killing Me! to find who’s written what.

However, I learned that you don’t necessarily love ALL the books an author writes, even if you love one. I got hooked on Barbara Cartland, even before the world found out she was Princess Di’s step-grandmother or something. After reading about 20 of her books, I realized they were all very similar and that, really, only the damsel’s name and hair color changed from story to story. I love Elizabeth George’s Inspector Lynley series but couldn’t finish “What Came Before He Shot Her.” I skipped it and went to the next one in the series.

Cover Design:  OK, it’s shallow, I know. But I’m often attracted initially to books by their cover designs. I’ve spent time doing publication design (years, in fact), and I’ve judged cover designs for national book competitions. I know the value of a great cover design for attracting attention and identifying audiences. It’s just like album covers, back when we used to have albums. A great cover design could inspire sales, incur wrath (the Rolling Stones,) or become a plot point in a movie (“Smell the Glove,” Spinal Tap). Why should books be any different?

Title:   You have to love a good title. Like cover design, it can capture your attention and pull you in, making you want to read the back cover or a few pages inside the book. My reading list has some of the greatest book titles I’ve yet to read. Can’t you just imagine how much fun it would be to read something called “The Flaming Luau of Death?” Congrats to Jerrilyn Farmer for that one. How about “No! I Don’t Want to Join a Book Club” by Virginia Ironside? Love that title! And one of my personal favorites, “I Never Danced with an Eggplant (on a Streetcar Before)” by New Orleans’ own Errol Laborde.

Whatever your criteria for selecting a book, just do it (with apologies to Nike). Read something that’s more than 140 characters long! If you need any suggestions, let me know. If you have any suggestions, write them in the comments section.

But we’ve got fond memories of our summer experiences, right? A random check-in with SMC students and alums found a plethora of summer milestones and scrapbook-worthy events that made summer 2013 fun and festive.

Sean Innella interned at il Stratega with alum and adjunct faculty member Jeffrey Ory. James Lambert took summer classes and worked two internships, including Tales of the Cocktail with alum Michelle Dunnick. New Bateman team member Lindsey Rousselle also worked at Tales. May graduate Ally Hodapp also worked with Tales before heading back to the Windy City for her job search.

Other recent grads took off for points east, west and south for employment. Danielle Latimer is now with Sheila Donnelly & Associates in Honolulu. Emmanuel Herraro is also in Hawaii with RealGeeks. And former Bateman AE Dwayne Fontenette, Jr., is now in Philadelphia with Teach for America.

Several journalism grads joined the broadcast ranks. Natalia Verdina has decamped for North Carolina, where she works with Univision. Robin Mainieri joined many other SMC alums at WWL, and former Maroon editor-in-chief Sam Winstrom is at WVUE Fox 8.

John Paul Arguello is now in Thibodaux covering the crime beat for the Daily Comet.

Alden Woodhull returned to her hometown, Washington, D.C., to intern at the White House. Eddie Schneider interned at Peter Mayer Advertising, home of a whole handful of SMC alums. Malerie Thornton and Lauren Fincher, after completing their Ad/PR campaign, headed to Atlanta for internships. Lauren is now working with Ketchum. Nicole Galindo returned to San Antonio to take a job with Aguillon & Associates, where she interned as a student.

Speaking of agencies, Bateman and Ad Team alum Kate Gremillion took a job in Dallas with Hill + Knowlton. Another recent journalism and Maroon alum, Brianna Prevost, completed her master’s degree at Syracuse.

Lots of folks traveled this summer. Recent grads Eric Knoephler and Christian Chesnut headed to Europe, and current students Marcelle Malca and Bateman alum Leah Whitlock visited Australia. Mass comm minor and Donnelley staffer Carolina Avila went to Europe before interning with a newspaper in El Salvador, and Allison McElligott is off to Buenos Aires for study abroad. And Elise Berggreen is studying abroad in Australia.

What did YOU do this summer? Leave a comment and let us know!

The truth is, I try to love all my classes equally. Some demand more attention; some demand more time. But ultimately, I want all of my students to succeed. I want them to leave Loyola prepared to face professional challenges.

Most students who’ve had a class with me might say I like their class least. They’ll say I make a lot of demands on them, like reading and following directions or meeting deadlines, doing things over until they’re correct, telling them they have to get along…at least until the end of the semester. They’ll say I get excited and raise my voice (a lot) when I want them to pay attention to what I’m saying. They’ll say I rebuke them at times for not incorporating what they’ve learned in class into their assignments.

It’s at this time of year I get to see whether things have really clicked, if that lightbulb moment has occurred. Helen Keller’s “water” moment. Dr. Willis D. Weatherford’s “Eureka” moment.

While I’m not saying they’re my favorites, I have to brag a little about the CMMN A317 Writing for Public Relations class. A last-minute addition to the spring course offerings, this class has but 10 hardy souls. Instead of 20 people to share my red ink ravings, there’s only half that number. They were charged this semester with creating media/information kits for the New Orleans branch of the American Heart Association. And they’re risen to the challenge.

Working with this class has been an uplifting experience for me. We’ve had a great nonprofit liaison in Linzy Cotaya, who has introduced us to people working daily to help raise funds and awareness of the need for healthy lifestyles and better diets (even in NOLA). And the students have had a good time creating their own particular spins on the tried-and-true media project that each PR Writing class takes on. You’ve even seen some of their work here on MASS COMMents.They got it; they really got it.

It’s been fun. And productive. And challenging. But it was worth it. As we head into the summer, I want to say thanks to these students for being a great group this semester: Susana Aramburu, Aimee (Al) Brown, Charlene (Charlie) Bussat, Rob Hayden, Cameron Hill, Margi Kalbacher, James Lambert, Kamaria Monmouth, Lindsey Rousselle and Alden Woodhull.

And to my other classes: you’re all my favorites too!

It’s kind of hectic, a little exhilarating and maybe a bit scary. Can I really get all this done? Is that internship opportunity going to come through? Wouldn’t it be nice if I had a job waiting for me at the end of the graduation walk?

Things are no different in the SMC. We have A LOT going on. Our Ad Team just returned from District 7 AAF competition for the NSAC, presenting their campaign for Glidden Paint. District 7 is the SEC of ad districts, I like to say. There are many tough challengers, including LSU and Alabama. We salute their finishing in the top four.

Bateman team members are putting the finishing touches on their final presentation, having finished in the top three nationally. For the first time, the Bateman finalists will present their campaign ideas via Skype, so technology is adding a very interesting dimension to the already nerve-wracking experience of competing for top national honors. Hang in there, Batemans.

The Maroon staff has just returned from several awards presentations, laden as usual with honors in writing, editing, design and photography. Their last issue of the semester is out today, so they can breathe a sigh of relief and take a moment before they start planning for the fall.

And in the midst of all this, we’ve asked our seniors to dress up, get their best work together and participate in the SMC’s annual portfolio review. We invite media and communication professionals to sit down with our students to go over their portfolios, offering suggestions on how to improve this very important job search tool. It’s a bit mock interview, a bit final exam. Usually confident students can sometimes have a panicky moment heading in to Studio A.

Last night, almost 60 mass comm seniors headed into the lion’s den and sat down to talk about the achievements of their last four or five years and what their plans are for the future, which starts in two weeks! All survived, and they were able to find out what tweaks they need to make to have the best possible portfolio to help secure themselves a great job.

We are thankful for the professionals who give their time to the SMC all during the year. Without them, we could not have those moments of glory and walls full of awards. They add so much to the educational experience here at Loyola. Some do it because they are Loyola alums and want to give back. Some are bosses looking to identify – and possibly hire – the brightest and best. Some are just nice people who do it because we ask them to. We want to send up a big round of applause to these folks for sharing the evening and their expertise with us:
• Shaun Walker and Jason Taix – HEROfarm
• Jody Towers – Peter Mayer
• Dawn Harris Buckley and Drew Broach – Nola Media Group/The Times-Picayune/nola.com
• Christina Blanco – Moroch
• Brooke Neal and Lydia Mulero – FSC Interactive
• Katie Smith – Audubon Institute
• Stephen Schmitz – Zehnder
• Mary Mouton – Mouton Media
• Sarah Burnette – Gambel
• Allison Baznik Hjortsberg – Greater New Orleans Sports Foundation
• Lisa Collins – WDSU
• Christian Moises – Stewart Enterprises
• Keith Magill – Houma Courier
• Greg LaRose – New Orleans CityBusiness
• Bill Siegel and Triston Sanders – WWL

Now, seniors, get back to work! There’s still a few deadlines to meet before you get that diploma. Good luck.

Today’s post is from Lindsey Rousselle, who is part of the spring 2013 CMMN A317 Writing for Public Relations class.

When I was Facebook chatting Professor Andrews over this past Christmas break, she was explaining my public relations writing class service-learning client: American Heart Association New Orleans. I thought I knew about my heart health: watch your cholesterol amount and exercise. Simple, right? No way.

Within the first few classes, we were greeted with our contact for the semester. Ironically, her married name is Linzy Roussel Cotaya. My name is Lindsey Rousselle. How often to you find someone with the same name? Despite the different spellings, that was too crazy for me. I instantly thought this class couldn’t get more mindboggling. Boy, was I wrong.

Our final project is a media kit, and we didn’t hesitate to get started. Before Mardi Gras, a cup was passed around with names of those we were going to interview for our biography assignment. Some of the names were heart victims or a caretaker for heart patients. I took my paper with no expectations. Again, I was wrong. Gosh, I’m seeing a theme.

I emailed Toni Wild, and we set up a time to have a phone interview. I had some questions laid out: Where did you go to school? What is your profession? How long have you been said profession?

I get on the phone with her, and she answered my questions but said, “Lindsey, I need to tell you my story.”

I was a little shaken. But I said, “Yes, ma’am. I’m ready.”

She started with her breast cancer diagnosis at 27 years old. After defeating that first obstacle, she watched her first husband be struck by a car while he was changing a flat tire on the interstate. This was the point when I grabbed my tissue box.

She donated his organs, and one year after his death, her cancer returned. She knew chemo treatments had side effects; however, she did not expect to be diagnosed with cardio-toxic damage to her heart. Her heart was three times the size it should have been, and she needed maintenance medication to aid in her heart’s functions.

In the meantime, she did remarry and became a stepmom to two children in 2000. She played sports and the role of mom until 2009 when she was hit with a horrible cough and chest pains.

Despite her medication maintaining her heart’s upkeep, she was diagnosed with acute congestive heart failure in 2009. Her heart was functioning at a 10 percent capacity, which led to her being placed on the heart transplant list.

Isn’t that ironic that her first husband’s heart was donated, and she was now in need of one?

“And by the grace of God, I got a heart. This might not be the heart I was born with, but I feel like this is the heart that was made for me,” Wild said.

This woman, who I have never seen, never met, just changed my life. I cried with her, I laughed with her, and I wasn’t even sitting across with her. I would have never come across this woman had it not been for the service my PR writing class is providing for AHA NOLA.

Professor Andrews told me, “That is what service-learning is meant for. It did its job.”

Yes, it sure did. And no, I’m not wrong about that.

So when the Intern Pro posed the question “What are these important skills today’s young professionals seem to be missing?” to participants in a forum, I was curious to see the responses. Some said that even the simplest rules of etiquette, like saying “please” and “thank you,” have become rarities. So have a firm handshake and professional phone manners.

If today’s so-called helicopter parents aren’t teaching their children these basic skills, where are college students supposed to learn them? Several of the chatters said that internships might be the place.

As the former SMC internship coordinator and a veteran of dealing with students looking for and working internships – and as a former internship supervisor in several corporate PR departments – I can tell you the internship should be the LAST place these skills are taught. In fact, if a student doesn’t know how to perform these basic functions, they’ll never get accepted into internships, much less real-world, full-time jobs.

In the SMC, we spend a great deal of time in our upper-level courses talking about preparation for the professional arena: how to look for internships/jobs, what to wear in an interview, how to write the perfect résumé and build a killer portfolio. But we also talk about things my grandmother would’ve called common sense and common courtesy but that don’t seem to be very common these days.

We can’t undo 20+ years of bad habits, but we work hard to help each student present the best, most professional face to prospective employers, from the time that first query letter goes out until that new employee shows up to prove they’re the brightest and the best and that their hiring was a positive step for the company.

Writing an appropriate business letter is only one of the things Eva May Bourgeois drummed into us in 9th grade English. I channel Mrs. Bourgeois when I talk about drafting a compelling cover letter. Introducing yourself when you meet someone new? Every Southern child learned this along with their ABCs. We practice coming into that inner office for a job interview, ready with a smile, a sturdy handshake and a “Hi, I’m Valerie Andrews. Thank you for seeing me today.”

Miss Manners and I agree that cell phones will be the death of civilization as we know it, seemingly entitling people to scream personal information at any time or place, without regard to propriety or circumstance. That entitlement has led to complaints from employers about entry-level employees’ inability to answer their business phones professionally. Think about it. When was the last time you answered a call with, “Hi, this is Valerie. How can I help you?”

The mock interviews I’ve conducted with this semester’s Senior Seminar students have been a chance for me to see where we need to focus more attention when it comes to some of these basic common-sense values. And I’m pleased to say that, for the most part, Loyola students have better manners than the students these employers are talking about. As we wind up the semester, we’ll cover the all-important “thank you” note that might make the difference between getting hired and getting another one of those “thank you for your interest” letters.

Students, if your department doesn’t offer courses – like the SMC’s CMMN A495 Internship and CMMN A492 Senior Seminar – you can take advantage of the programs offered by the Career Development Center.

Helicopter parents, if you’re out there, you’re your child’s first teacher. Teaching them good manners will help them succeed, no matter what major they select or what career they pursue. (And by the way, it wouldn’t hurt to teach them how to manage their money and use a washing machine, while you’re at it.)