Read the full article here.

By Mateo Corby

The campus visit is a significant and memorable occasion for students and parents involved in the college search, but organizing the adventure can sometimes be a nightmare.

When Kevin Preis, Ed.M.’07, witnessed family members struggling with the challenges of finding information about campus tours, keeping track of admissions details, and getting reliable advice on their college searches, he immediately went online to look for an itinerary planning tool for college visits. To his surprise, he came up empty. He began thinking about his own college admissions process — both the good moments and the difficult ones — and decided to use his computer programming knowledge to build a website that would make the college search a more engaging, enjoyable experience.

The result was Go See Campus, a free website that helps students and parents plan campus visits online and make the most of the college search. Among other resources, the site includes what Preis believes is a first-of-its-kind web tool that connects users to campus tours, information sessions, and other admissions activities.

“Now students and parents can go to a single website,” he says, “choose the schools they want to visit, learn about admissions activities on campus, build an itinerary for their trip, and get resources like campus maps, parking directions, nearby dining options, and events calendars.” By compiling all this information in one place, Go See Campus saves users the headache of scouring each individual college website for admissions details.

In addition to students and parents, Preis says that high school counselors have used the website as a complement to their work advising students throughout the college search process. Since Preis made it one of his goals to provide as many helpful resources as possible for counselors, Go See Campus has a growing library of advice articles on topics like deciding how many colleges to visit, what questions to ask during campus tours, and how to prepare for admissions interviews.

“Counselors have told me that they often refer their students to these articles. In addition, some counselors plan trips to visit campuses with their students or as part of their own professional development,” he says. “They’ll use Go See Campus to plot their routes, get campus maps, and find contact information for admissions officers.” New initiatives include a counselor’s newsletter that began last fall to provide updates on new site features and relevant professional development opportunities.

Preis, a graduate of the Technology, Innovation, and Education (TIE) Program, senses that digital media is quickly becoming a larger part of the college search.

“Students are still learning about schools through college websites, but they are also exploring them through third-party sites and social media,” he says. “As a result, some of the decisionmaking about whether to apply to a specific college happens away from the school’s official channels. I imagine we’ll soon see colleges investing in new technology and platforms to reach potential applicants.”

To enhance the site’s utility, Preis plans to add a number of new features. For example, the College Trip Planner’s Map Creator currently allows users to plot and save a driving route from one school to the next; a future update will give the option to find nearby colleges along the route.

Several years post-graduation, Preis still maintains relationships with his Harvard classmates and professors, many of whom have provided helpful advice and feedback on his business ventures.

“More generally,” he says, “the Ed School’s TIE Program allowed me to explore emerging technologies and to think about how they could apply to learning and communication. Go See Campus is a product of that exploration.”

— Mateo Corby is a senior at Harvard College.

— Connect to Go See Campus at www.goseecampus.com.

Feel free to read the article on Harvard’s website here: http://hvrd.me/m4HMmd

Reprinted from the Baton Rouge Business Report – Daily Report on April 8, 2011

According to LSU Stephenson Entrepreneurship Institute Director of Development Jill Roshto, the LSU 100 celebrates the success of LSU graduates and recognizes the impact of LSU on the local, regional and national economies. LSU 100 is co-hosted by LSU and LSU SEI. The full list of winners is now available for viewing at www.lsu100.com/honorees.

“Gatorworks is indicative of the Tiger-led businesses that we are looking for to show other Tigers from every college on campus what they need to do to be successful,” Roshto said. “We congratulate them on this achievement and look forward to their continued success.”

Gatorworks met the following requirements for inclusion in the LSU 100:

• Has been in business for five years or more
• Has had verifiable revenues of $100,000 or more for the last calendar year
• A former LSU student owns at least 50 percent of the company or is a CEO, president or managing partner
• Operates in a manner consistent with the mission of LSU and LSU SEI

Partnerships to the event are available, as are individual tickets and tables of eight. For more information, visit www.lsu100.com or contact Jill Roshto at either jrosht1@lsu.edu or 225-578-1313.

The Stephenson Entrepreneurship Institute, an integral part of LSU’s E. J. Ourso College of Business, utilizes the Stephenson Entrepreneurship Fellows, LSU Executive Education and Social Entrepreneurship to address the challenges of entrepreneurship and to positively impact students, the regional economy, the state of Louisiana and the nation. For more information, visit www.bus.lsu.edu/sei or call 225-578-0313.

The new website for Archbishop Rummel made its official debut on Thursday after much effort from several key persons, particularly Brian Rodriguez, ’02, and senior Adam Landreneau, ’11.  When the idea was first realized  for updating the school’s website, Advancement Director Cory Howat and Communications Director Joseph Serio solicited the assistance of web design expert and alumnus Rodriguez, who is president of Gatorworks Web Design (www.gatorworks.net)  in Baton Rouge and the son of faculty members Mr. David and Ms. Carol Rodriguez. He worked on the design and major aspects of the site with input from several school contributors.  When the site was ready for the school’s server, senior Landreneau took over the site and worked out the transfer details.  The new website is far from finished, as it’s a “work in progress” and numerous updates are already scheduled for future weeks.

Feel free to read the article on Rummel’s website here.

Imagine a magical place where everything – from textbooks to furniture, music lessons to tutoring sessions – is free.

Believe it or not, this college student playground really does exist and was created by a University alumnus.

TheGiveProject.com is a website that uses social networks to exponentiate social responsibility through the acts of giving and receiving. Virtually anything can be found or donated with the click of a button.

All users have to do is visit the website, post a need or gift and wait for The Give Project to work its magic.

Chase Brumfield, founder of the project, said its focus is to connect people.

“Basically it’s leveraging human nature through technology,” he said. “We’re connecting people through social networks to give them the opportunity to realize that people are worth giving to.”

Brumfield said the idea for The Give Project came to him in a search to incorporate his passion for people into his future.

“I would sit in class and see that instead of taking notes on their computers and listening to the professors, everyone was on Facebook,” he said. “So I thought that we’re already connecting this way, why not take that and connect not just socially but socially responsibly, as well?”

There is no downside to participating, Brumfield said.

“It’s a hell of a way to give and receive free stuff,” he said.

The Give Project is especially beneficial to students because they are among the most transitional members of society, Brumfield said.

“College students are always moving from dorm to apartment and things like that, so they have potentially more to give,” he said. “Like a couch from their apartment they don’t want – they can give it to somebody who can use it, someone who was in their position before.”

Eric Hernandez, the website’s manager, said The Give Project connects the needs and gifts of its users to Facebook.

“You go on the site, make a listing for it, click on the Facebook link, and it notifies all your friends you’re giving,” he said. “And it works the opposite way, too.”

The Give Project makes it easy for anyone who wants to make a difference, Hernandez said.

“A lot of people don’t have time to go to soup kitchen or visit hospitals,” he said. “The reality of The Give Project is simple. It’s people with real needs, big and small. We’ve got everything from free guitar lessons to the opportunity to help a family whose house burned down.”

Jessika Chaconas, McNeese State University junior, recently donated Xbox games and received a free photography session in return.

“I was just about to pay to have headshots taken for my résumé and to compete in [the Miss Louisiana Pageant], so it literally worked out perfectly,” she said.

The Give Project is infinitely accommodating to students, Chaconas said.

“It’s so helpful. People have been posting books on there,” she said. “Students need simple things that they might not have the means to attain, and The Give Project helps you to post and receive those things.”

Meredith Stevens, English sophomore, said though some people might take wrongful advantage of The Give Project’s “free everything” system, it’s a brilliant concept.

“I wish that I could say I didn’t think that our generation would take advantage of it, but I feel like we will,” she said. “But, when it comes down to it, it’s just a bunch of people trying to help other people out, and that’s pretty awesome if you ask me.”

—-

Contact Cathryn Core at ccore@lsureveille.com

Link to original article: http://www.lsureveille.com/entertainment/website-offers-alternative-trading-1.2349021

Rodriguez said, “I was very excited to see the conference quickly adopt our technology, and we hope to provide value to many future events of all sizes through both EventConnect.org and the iPhone app.”

Scheduled for April 8-11 in New Orleans, the SRLC is the most prominent GOP gathering outside of the national convention. Confirmed speakers include Sarah Palin, Bobby Jindal, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, Tax Gov. Rick Perry, Newt Gingrich and more. The SRLC will be carried on Fox and CNN, and Sean Hannity will broadcast live. More than 3,500 people are expected to participate.

EventConnect.org is an online social networking platform for conferences, conventions, tradeshows, and events of all sizes. The website is simple to use and integrates many existing social networks such as Facebook and Twitter.

With more than 60,000 entries annually, the national ADDY® Awards are the world’s largest and arguably toughest advertising competition. The ADDY® Awards represent the true spirit of creative excellence by recognizing all forms of advertising from media of all types, creative by all sizes and entrants of all levels from around the world. The American Advertising Federation conducts the ADDY® Awards through its 200 member advertising clubs and 15 districts. It is the only creative awards program administered by the advertising industry, for the industry.

This year’s local competition produced 446 entries from Baton Rouge professionals and LSU students. Judging was held January 16, 2010 at Lamar Advertising. Renee Miller, President/Creative Director of The Miller Group in Los Angles, Ca.; Jim Dudley, Broadcast, Copywriter, Creative Director of Dudley Creative in Roanoke, Va.; and Jimmy Ball, Art Director/Designer, Photographer, Interactive of Jimmy Ball Design in Dallas, Texas, served as judges for the competition.

Gatorworks brought home a Silver ADDY award for their client project, Santa’s Online Wishlist. Santa’s Online Wishlist is an interactive website where children can dress a snowman, have fun in Santa’s Toy Factory, view Santa’s Mailroom, and best of all send emails to Santa Claus. The website took approximately 6 months to hand-draw, custom illustrate, and then custom animate using Adobe Flash software. David Link, Creative Director and lead designer/developer on the project, said, “It’s really nice to be recognized for our hard work, especially in a community as talented as AAF.”

At the red carpet ceremony, 41 gold ADDY®s, 50 silver ADDY®s, three Special Judge’s Awards, a Mosaic Award, Best of Show and Best of Category awards were presented. Advertising students were also recognized with 17 gold ADDY®s, 19 silver ADDY®s, a Best of Show and Special Judges’ Awards. ADDY® 2010* also recognized professional excellence on the business side of the advertising industry with its Pinnacle Awards.

If we conducted a poll asking the average John and Jane what is their preferred way of accessing the news, I am sure CNN & Co. will top the list effortlessly. As strong as Twitter is, it needs a couple more apparitions and mentions in shows like Oprah’s in order to make the guy in the cornershop turn to it for good. Still, those who are even partially tech-savvy know the advantages that it brings about. And if they don’t, visiting a site like Newstwit exemplifies perfectly the way it is used to transmit the most recent news.

The site gathers together the latest news, arranged by category. Some of these include “Sports”, “Tech”, “The left” and “The right”, along with a section that is dedicated from start to finish to national coverage. Besides, a “Hot Channels” section spotlights the best of the best to be found here.

The content of each one of these sections is presented back to the user in real-time, and that is exactly where the charm of the site lies. As a platform, Twitter is characterized by providing twitterers with information the kind that had journalists screaming “Stop press! Stop press!” in the past. Now all that they have to do is tweet out. And as readers, all we have to do is visit a site like Newstwit in order to catch the latest copy.

Originally published by Killer Startups.com: http://www.killerstartups.com/Web20/newstwit-com-read-news-the-twitter-way