SNHU

     

Brief Biography

Born and raised in South Florida, I have called North Carolina my home for the last twenty-two years.  I am a husband and father of two kids, seven cats (+1 foster kitten for two more weeks), two dogs, and a turtle.  I have a varied and diverse with experience in hotel, restaurant, and retail management, and IT Support.  My side project, Coffee Bruin Studios, allows me to be a graphic artist and do voice over work.  I have appeared comic book conventions in three different states, produced podcasts, and lectured for many years.  

The project that brings me the greatest happiness has been my volunteer work with Samaritan Kitchen of Wilkes, a local food pantry here in Wilkes County, NC.  It is one of the main reasons that I have returned to college after twenty-five years. 

What are my Educational Goals?

I am seeking to finish my Political Science degree (anticipated Spring 2019).  I then hope to get my Masters in Sociology and Public Policy.

What are my Professional Goals?

As chairman of the board of a non-profit food pantry, I want to take the knowledge gained at SNHU and either by working with a larger agency (Second Harvest Food Bank, Feeding America, etc.) or working with a governmental agency working on policy to help end hunger in Appalachia.

What knowledge and skills do you hope to gain from this experience and how do you think they will help you attain those goals?

I see three major take-aways from COM 126. The first is a deeper and richer understanding of our culture and how the Mass Media has shaped it, specifically how the ever-evolving tools of mass communication, from the printing press through Snapchat, have molded and shaped each generation. The second is a challenge is to myself, to shake away preconceived ideas and to interact with other people have different concepts, beliefs, and life experiences.  The third is to reestablish myself as a student.  This is my first college class in twenty-five years.  There are a lot of cobwebs to brush away, a lot of bad habits to break, and Southern New Hampshire University is very different than Florida Atlantic University.

A better understanding of how Mass Communication uses us and how we use it is a critical skill to anyone in a leadership role in an organization.  As chair of food pantry, I can tell you that we have a presence on Facebook, we send out press releases, and we interact with the local radio station.  This class will help me to better craft, focus, and direct our message.  If this was the only thing that the class helped me with, it would be money well spent.  However, if it helps me to expand my horizons and become a better student which in turn eventually helps me to achieve better employment, then I will know that this has been a very successful term.

How does the issue of privacy affect your personal and professional identities and your educational and professional goals? Do you prefer them separate? Why or why not?

(Please see the above links for examples of my personal and professional identities online.)

It is foolish to believe that anyone that wanted to hack me wouldn’t check out these accounts, as well as my accounts on Instagram, Snapchat, Google +, Tumblr, Critcker, Periscope, DeviantArt, and Reddit.  If they wanted to go “old school” they could find my old Live Journal and MySpace accounts -  I have been around for a long time. 

I do not see how you can maintain any difference in privacy levels between personal and professional identities.  If a potential employer wants to know about you, they are going to check out your LinkedIn page but they are also going to check out your Facebook and Twitter accounts.  Any negative information on these may prevent you from being hired.

With an active presence on so many platforms, how do I maintain privacy?  If I don’t have to use my real name and main email address, I won’t.  On a lot of these accounts I am under an alias.  I am very careful with my phone number and address.  Except for 2-factor authentication (which you should always use), I never give out my phone number.  Additionally, my password is always at least 16 characters long with special characters and upper-case and lower-case letters plus numbers in it.  And I am THAT person who can remember the weird passwords.  That closes the front door.  Finally, I limit the real information that I have to list on the site to an absolute minimum.  Social hacking (eg. finding out someone’s kids names, birthdays, mother’s maiden name, etc) is very common and very easy to fall prey to.