Tag Archives: RIT

Week #3 Of Co-Op!

Another week has gone by at my co-op with Ardent Learning this summer and it has been progressing nicely. Hopefully the rest of the summer stays this way!

This week, Ardent started working with our content media provider on a strategy for content on our website and our blog. In my career of doing internet marketing, I have always been the one providing the content for the social media and the website, not the other way around. So it will be up to me to work with them and instruct them on what to write about and what sounds best for Ardent to pursue. This is a new experience for me and I hope to try and work with them closely and learn about what they do and how to manage properly.

I also had the chance to go to the midnight premiere of Man Of Steel this past week. I was a little cautious and nervous for the movie due to the fact that I did not really enjoy the last Superman movie at all. Thankfully, this version topped the last one by QUITE a bit as I left the theater thoroughly satisfied with the result. The action sequences were truly amazing spectacles and the story was intense from start to finish. However, there were a few holes in the plot that had me saying “Really?” or “Huh?” In the end, I would give it a 3 out of 4 and would see it again.

This past weekend was Father’s Day. So it was my honor to go back home and spend the weekend with the man that helped raise me to become the person I am today. My dad taught me how  to protect the ones I love, how to dress like a gentleman, how to play sports, and how to act polite and courteous. I do everything that I do for him and I try to make him proud of me in every way because I am proud of him for everything that he has done for my family. Happy Father’s Day Dad and I love you!

Thanks for stopping by and reading this week! This summer has been great and I would love to hear about everything awesome YOU are doing this summer!

Have a great day! :)

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Week #2 of Co-op!

Wow! 2 weeks have already passed on this summer and my co-op is off and running. In this week’s installment, I will be talking about how it has progressed, some tips I have learned, and my continued process of living off-campus.

Well my work with Ardent Learning is picking up a little bit, albeit fairly slowly. The week was spent filling out award applications for the company and preparing for meetings that will happen this upcoming week, especially where we are outsourcing our content creation. This is where I am hopefully going to be helping out more and partnering with this company to ensure that Ardent has the proper internet presence. We will collaborate on how we want the website designed, what special keywords to use to make finding us on the internet easier, and how our blogs and social media should be updated. I hope to be doing content management in future roles I take on so this is going to be a good start to getting to that point!

I have learned a couple of things from my time so far that young students who are interning should keep in mind.

  • First, when your internship starts, it may be slow and there might not be a lot for you to do. Create work for yourself. Your boss/manager gives you a task and you complete it? Do more on your own. Your supervisor will be impressed and it will make the work day go by a lot quicker.
  • Second, sometimes as an intern, you may be ignored or not watched closely and you may have questions. Do not be afraid to ask others in the office personally. Your email may get lost so be urgent and ask when appropriate. It will show your passion and enthusiasm for your job and you will get to know those who your are working with a lot better.
  • Third, get involved. Ask to sit in on a meeting if it is similar to what you are doing. If asked to join, JOIN. For example, I had the chance to sit in on a sales meeting and what I learned could be used as I come up with a target market and more potential clients for Ardent to reach out to. This will not only show your passion and wanting to learn, but you will grow as a professional. You will broaden your horizons and become more marketable when applying for full-time work.

This past week also marked a momentous moment for me: I made food with an oven on my own! While that may not seem like a big deal, I had never done that before. And while it was a little nerve-racking at first, I felt more and more comfortable as it went along. It’s something I am definitely going to try to do more often in an attempt to eat better.

Also, living with guys in the RIT Tech Crew has helped me expand my knowledge of the technical world. We recently set up our “new” HD TV and one of my housemates was explaining to me how everything is going to work and which wire went where. While I may not be a professional at that, I will do my best to learn and help out in whatever way I can.

Pretty cool huh?!

Pretty cool huh?!

Well that does it for this week’s installment. Thank you so much for reading and feel free to explore my website more if you like.

Have a WONDERFUL day! :)

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Week 1 of Co-Op!

This summer, I am on co-op with a training firm in Rochester called Ardent Learning. What I hope to do is to detail week-by-week how my experience is going and how I am developing as a professional and as a person!

So last week was the beginning of my adventure. At Ardent, I am going to be a marketing intern, assisting in any way possible in their revitalized marketing campaign, particularly in social media. Ardent has been around for 20 years and have been very successful, winning numerous awards and having an extensive clientele that includes Fortune 500 companies, particularly in the auto industry. So when I did my research before applying and after landing the co-op, I was extremely excited to get in there and work!

So has it gotten off to a good start? Absolutely! One week in and I love where I am and who I work with. I am right across the street from Frontier Field, the baseball stadium of the Rochester Red Wings. It gives me a perfect reason to go to a game! Also, the company environment is perfect. Everyone there introduced themselves to me and made me feel welcome. One of the VP’s jokes about having me get him a frappuccino every day but then turns around, talks to me, and helps me out if I need it. They don’t make me feel like an intern and trust me with responsibilities that I expected thanks to my RIT education (target market, content strategy, competitive analysis, etc). Hopefully I will continue developing as a professional and improve my skills with practice.

I told you I was close to Frontier Field!

I told you I was close to Frontier Field!

Also, this summer marks the first time I have lived outside of the RIT residence halls as a college student! I will be living with a few of my friends right across the street from the campus, about 15 minutes from where I work. When I moved in and after the first grocery run to Wegmans, I knew this was going to be a change. But I love my roommates and plenty of my friends are in Rochester this summer. Hopefully by the end of the summer, I will be fully accustomed to taking care of myself with roommates in a house and balancing my time, efforts, checkbook, and duties around the house (like cleaning the bathroom… eek).

Thank you so much for reading and hopefully you are doing some awesome things this summer. Tune back next week for Round Two! And remember, just like Ardent Learning says, “Be BRILLIANT.” :)

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What an Awesome School Year!

One week into the summer and I think I have finally caught up on my sleep.

This 2011-2012 school year at RIT, as I am sure a number of my friends can attest, was one with a number of ups and downs. We had our ups with our moments of success, moments where we celebrate our successes and have a good time. We also had our moments of struggle, facing our fair share of projects and being in the library till 3 in the morning or later  (right Jenna?).

Here we some of the noted moments of my school year:

For starters, this was my first year as a Resident Advisor! My dorm experience in my freshman year was a blast so I was nervous that this year would not live up to my expectations. Boy was I wrong. I LOVED my floor and we had a great time. Plus, the ResLife team at RIT is a joy to work with. I was able to grow in my leadership abilities, my teamwork, and my community building. I cannot WAIT to see what my next floor will be like!

NRH 7, I will miss you!

I also became a member of Delta Sigma Pi! Delta Sigma Pi is America’s foremost professional business fraternity and at RIT, it is open to all business, economics, and hospitality majors. For the past two years, we had been working on turning it from a colony to a chapter. And in January, we finally did enough to go from colony to chapter. The first few months have been great and I am looking forward to next year!

Our first pledge class being initiated! DSP!

Next, I got my first co-op as the marketing coordinator for Dale Carnegie Training! I got the call week 10 of winter quarter from my friend Chris and I was really excited to do it. After completing it, I realized that I rushed into taking it and maybe should have waited until the summer when I could have balanced my priorities. But through it, I was able to gain self-confidence, professional skills, and communication skills. Plus, I was able to take AND graduate from the Dale Carnegie course! If you have not taken it, do it. Now.

But the most lucrative moment of all: I got the chance to go to DUBAI!! It was through the RIT Honors Business program and I was super excited when we said we were going there. The week that we spent there was mind-blowing. The businesses we visited were advanced and we were able to learn a lot. Plus, riding camels and Tebowing in the 8th-largest mosque in the world were all incredible too. I could seriously go on and on about this trip but feel free to read my recap of the trip here and my day-to-day blog with my friend Kristin here!

Beautiful, huh?

Add in the fact that I got the opportunity to go to Syracuse to attend #140Cuse and you have one of the craziest and most intense school years of my life. Let’s hope that next year, these opportunities will continue to grow and I will be able to further broaden my horizons, all while having the time of my life with my friends :)

(A little more sleep would be nice, though)

God Bless and thank you for reading!

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My #140Cuse Experience!

I’ll get straight to the point: traveling to Syracuse for #140Cuse was worth it in every way!

The idea of the #140conf was created by Jeff Pulver, one of the creators of Vonage. At these conferences, they discuss “The State of NOW,” which covers how people are utilizing social media to help their cause. People give 10-minute talks, regardless of how famous they are or what order they are in the program. This makes for fun, exciting, and informative presentations.

Now I had heard about #140Cuse for a while but I was not entirely sure WHAT it was or how it was organized. That was until two RIT professors, Vic Perotti and Mike Johansson, approached me about speaking at a social media conference held at RIT. That’s when I found out it was called #140RIT and I would be giving a 10-minute talk. This was when my heart started to race with excitement. On April 10th, #140RIT was held. This was where I got to meet Mr. Pulver, Anthony Rotolo, a popular professor at Syracuse University, David Rosen, the coordinator of #140Cuse, as well as a number of students and faculty from Syracuse and RIT. After the butterflies had calmed down, I talked about how colleges are starting to utilize social media both in and out of the classroom, using RIT as the main example (link here). Once it was done, people seemed to enjoy it and they recommended that I go to Syracuse on the 19th. I happily said yes!

Me speaking at #140RIT. What an awesome opportunity!

When the day arrived, I met up with my friend Erin and my former boss Amanda and we sat to enjoy the conference. The list of people on the speaker list was incredible! So before I even sat down and started to network over Twitter, I had high expectations. Then the speakers came out and absolutely blew me away! Here are a lot that caught my attention and my favorites are in bold:

  • Chris Dowsett: Companies are using real-time media to reach out to its customers. Data people can now be marketers!
  • Brad Rosen: Real-time privacy. The idea of privacy has changed. Going past Facebook/Twitter blocks or sharing stuff outside of SM without permission are “NOT COOL, BRO!”
  • Michelle Tarby: When real-time media and crisis communication go wrong. People should constantly be monitoring their internet presence to see what comes up on Google.
  • George Couros: Twitter can be a compassionate place! Use technology to build relationships and to reach out to others.
  • Harrison Kratz: “Social media is not about having social. It’s BEING social.” Use social media to rally your cause. If you get a core group behind you, you can only go up.
  • ALEXIS OHANIAN: Not enough superlatives can describe this talk! The founder of Reddit talked about how influential social media and the internet is. That is why Reddit was so passionate in standing up against SOPA. He said “The world isn’t flat, but the internet is.” Give a damn about your world because it is changing. Oh, and Reddit has only spent $500 in advertising in its whole existence! ON STICKERS! WOW!
  • Beth Beck: The worker at NASA talked about how to build your own social empire: find your coolness factor, know your community, find a niche, & be relevant. Oh, and she said NASA is NOT done with space work, thank goodness!
  • Brent Axe, Jameson Fleming, Matt Glaude: These sports writers talked about the never-ending world of sports and that has been enhanced thanks to Twitter. It is the best source for breaking news, and they targeted the Fab Melo story as their example.
  • Tim Pool: How social media has enhanced the news and brought the news to the real time. He was famous with his work done with Occupy Wall Street. He was encouraging and said “anyone can download an app in order to generate content” and “you can do a lot with 140 characters.”
  • JEFF PULVER: What more needs to be said. After having everyone hug each other, he mentioned that EVERYONE has a point. “If you’re alive, your voice matters!”
  • Alicia Staley: A 3x cancer survivor from Western New York, she utilized hashtags to find out more about her cancers and to connect with people. “Put a hashtag in front of anything and you have a community.”
  • HAJJ FLEMINGS: Hajj gave an awesome talk about creating your own brand in today’s start-up, digital economy. “You have to position yourself to be the guy/gal” that businesses are looking for.
  • JOSH LUKIN: Real-time tweeting in baseball is fun! People share materials with each other before, during, and after the game. “Water-cooler talk is happening in real time.”
  • Kim Svick: This was a similar talk to what I gave at #140RIT. She talked about how social media has expanded our ways of learning. “We can all be teachers. Be passionate about what you teach.”
  • Lauren Greutman: Social media helped her save thousands of dollars a year. She then started her own businesses where she helps others save money over social media. It helped her become aware of her spending habits.
  • Erica Tickle, Aaron Thompson: The two reps from Wegmans talked about how they use social media to interact with and help their customers. “Numbers are nice, but smiles are better.”
  • SAUL COLT: Social influence sites are nice, but not effective. Be influential from your content and don’t care about what those say. For example, mine is higher than Saul’s! That’s not right.
  • Sara Wallace: How to enhance your business with social media: answer questions, share photos, share vids, have promotions, share.
  • Amanda Hite: After telling us her amazing life story, she said to use social media to be an inspiration to others and BE THE CHANGE!

And while all of this was going on, I was networking with plenty of other people over Twitter. Thanks to the hashtag and the uStream, #140Cuse was nationally trending and thousands upon thousands of other people were impacted all across not only the United States, but the world! I gained a lot of new followers and I loved to talk to every one of them as the day progressed. A brand new community was born, and all that was needed was a phone or computer.

This was an absolutely INCREDIBLE two weeks. I connected with so many people over social media that now I do more people-to-people networking than I ever have before. I learned about the different ways to take social media and that I want to utilize them! Social media is fun. It is something I am passionate about. And I want to use it to better myself, my peers, and the world.

Social media is the now and the future. How are you going to utilize it?

Thank you Syracuse University for hosting such an incredible event. Thank you to all of the speakers for being so inspirational and touching me in one way or another. Thank you to the faculty at RIT for encouraging me to try social media.

And thank YOU for reading and giving me a few minutes of your day :)

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My Amazing Time In Dubai!

Well, after hopefully recovering from being on Dubai time for the past week, I am back in the United States!

It is hard to believe that the trip that we had been planning this whole year is finally over. All of the preparation done is finally complete and I am sure I can speak for every other member of the group by saying that we had one of the most incredible experiences of our lives. All of the different experiences, sights, sounds, and interactions make for something that we will not forget for a long time.

The businesses that we visited and representatives that we talked to were extremely helpful in teaching us about the country and business practices in general.

  • At KPMG, we learned about the economy of Dubai, how it is based on tourism, how there is no income tax, and how they work as a firm.
  • The Dubai Financial Market taught us how their market is young and growing and how it makes progress by the day.
  • DUBAL showed us how one of the biggest aluminum plants in the world operates and cares for its employees.
  • The Dubai Electrical and Water Association showed us how they provide fresh water to the people of Dubai (that is quite delicious fyi).
  • Josephine Ford from GE showed us how a large international company operates in foreign markets.
  • Dr. Mohammed Alam taught us the ins-and-outs of Islamic banking.

In short, there were quite a few amazing and educational meetings.

The places we visited as well is nothing short of spectacular!

  • The Burj Khalifa is as tall as advertised.
  • The Dubai Mall is truly the biggest mall I have ever seen, and it even has an ice rink!
  • Take a dinner cruise if you can. They are fun and entertaining.
  • The souks offer a plethora of authentic goods and you can always practice your bartering skills here.
  • The Sheikh Zahid Mosque, the 8th largest mosque in the world, is nothing short of magnificent!
  • Take a trip dune bashing in the desert. It’s more fun than a roller coaster.
  • The Wild Wadi water park is a must on a warm day!
  • The night life is also fun once the sun sets

We also saw that the RIT Dubai campus is a great option for Rochester students to get an international education. RIT’s influence is definitely apparent and I would love to study there. I am now interested in seeing how RIT’s other sister schools are doing!

Seeing the culture was also a memorable sight. The fact that it is a balance between their rich culture and the Westernized ideas made it very comfortable to adjust living there. The people were all very polite and hospitable to us and were willing to help us in any way possible. One thing to watch out for, however, is the occasional reckless driving on the highways from people who want to get from point A to point B.

Eventually, once life becomes a little less hectic, I will be able to put up a Flickr album where people can see the sights we saw and check out all of the places we visited.

In the end, this was definitely the best spring break I have had in my life. Plenty of fun times were had by all. Laughs were shared. There was not a single moment of the day not spent visiting places.

Thank you Democrat and Chronicle for giving Kristen and I the chance to write and share our experiences. Thank you to everyone who had a part in coordinating the trip (Peter, Dana, Tom, Jake, Nikki, and others) because it worked out very well. And finally, thank you everyone for visiting and spending time reading what we shared. We both had a blast writing and we both thank you for sharing with friends and providing feedback for us.

Hopefully the rest of spring will be as beautiful as it was in Dubai.

I'm gonna miss this

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My Trip to Dubai!

Hello everyone!

So this upcoming week, yours truly will be traveling to DUBAI, U.A.E.! 14 Honors students in the RIT E. Philip Saunders College of Business, 2 instructors, and 2 interpreters are all going for a week to experience different business practices, exquisite sights, and a rich culture.

And there will be one way to follow EVERYTHING that I am doing:

Visit this site: http://blogs.democratandchronicle.com/navigating-dubai/

This is a blog page on the Democrat and Chronicle, the local newspaper in Rochester. My friend Kristen and I, two business students with a passion for social media and blogging, were asked to share our experience with the community. So PLEASE check that out and please share your feedback with me here. Hopefully I will be able to bring Dubai to all of your homes. And when I get back, I’ll be sure to share HERE how it all turned out.

Thank you so much for stopping by and hopefully everything goes well!! :)

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What Friends Are For

I seriously have the greatest friends in the world. Just wanted to throw that out there.

This past weekend, I took a trip to Patchogue, New York (in Long Island) to meet up with some of the guys from RIT: Jake, Sam, Alex, and Jon (whose house we stayed at). We had been planning this for weeks and it was finally coming to pass.

The way down from Rochester with Jake and Sam could not have been worse for most people. It rained. We paid a ton of money for gas in New York when it was thirty cents in cheaper in New Jersey. Traffic on the GW Bridge was awful. Worst of all, the music system did not work!! But in reality, it proved what great friends we were. Jake, Sam, and I could hold a conversation for eight hours! That’s unheard of in this day and age. It was incredible! (Of course having 3G helps…)

Once we got in, the bromances were brought to life again. These guys were the guys I chilled with on a regular basis and we had all kinds of fun back at school. We saw Dave Matthews together. We held “Acoustic Fridays” in the dorm tunnels (I sang because I’m still learning how to play guitar). So when we saw each other, the fun picked right back up.

We were supposed to go out to the port Friday night but it rained. Instead, we went bowling. We talked shop, goofed around, and had one amazing time. Shooting shots between the legs and dancing to the music like idiots also added to the fun.

Saturday, we went to Fire Island. I had not been to the ocean since I went to the Bahamas in sixth grade! When we got there, it was gorgeous. It was hot. The water was cold. The girls were beautiful. Guitars were broken out about halfway through. We body surfed along the waves crashing on the shore. We all got nice and tan from the sun (well, at least most of us…). All in all, it was one of the best trips I have ever taken to the beach and I cannot wait to be back.

image

At night, we visited Port Jefferson. This is a beautiful area that reminded me of Lewiston, NY because it has the small stores, near the water, and is truly a great place to walk through. We took a walk through the dock admiring the boats that we could only dream of buying.  We saw the ferry that takes people and cars over to Connecticut. And yes, we got delicious ice cream.

image

But then, we did something that we were actually pretty nervous about. Jon brought up the idea. We decided to set up near the ice cream stand and play/sing for people! AND WE MADE FOUR DOLLARS! I didn’t think I could make any money with my singing. That was something I had always wanted to do and actually doing it proves how hard it is. Hopefully we will be able to keep that up  the next school year and possibly play for others in the city of Rochester (for tips).

When I got home after a flawless drive back on Sunday, I took a moment to thank God for all of the blessings I have. I realized that I truly have the greatest friends on the face of this planet. They are always so kind and respectful. Regardless of what we are doing, we always have a blast and make the most out of any opportunity we get. I know RIT was the right school for me and it is mostly because of those that I love.

So thank you guys for the most amazing weekend of the summer! I love you all! Oh, and 19 days from today is when I go back!!!

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The End of a School Year

The other day, I finally returned back to the 716 and Buffalo, NY for the summer! This marks the end of an incredible first year of college at the Rochester Institute of Technology. I really do not think it could have been any better or more successful than what it was. There are many things that made this year what it was:

1. Classes and grades: All throughout high school, I had always gotten great grades without really having to put in much effort. The teachers at St. Joseph’s Collegiate Institute also said that you have to try harder in college in order to match that result. Boy were they right! I had never stayed up as late as I did this year to do homework, projects, and study. Classes were challenging and they forced me to think more than I ever had before. Some teachers were certainly far from enjoyable but I will not name any names. But in the end, I sure had something to be proud of. I kept a 4.0 for the fall and winter (I just found out I am getting one B in the spring and I missed the A by .4 points…). Most of my teachers were wonderful and provided tips and lessons for me that I will hopefully carry for the rest of my professional career.

2. Various experiences:In high school, I was always someone who liked to get involved in many different groups or organizations. I definitely did NOT want that to change come college. Thankfully, RIT could provide me the opportunities to go out and enjoy my college experience!

Honors Business crew in CALIFORNIA!

For starters, since I was in the Honors program, I had the chance to interact with other Honors business students and we were able to go to CALIFORNIA AT THE END OF FEBRUARY. Yeah, CALIFORNIA! We visited many different companies like HP, Intuit, Red Bull, Yahoo!, Nickelodeon, and the W Hotel in Hollywood. Also, I became a part of the Lowenthal group, a service group within the College of Business. We did many activities, such as teach middle-school students and provide help at open houses. I also joined a fraternity! Delta Sigma Pi. You can read the details about that experience in one of my other posts. Oh, and I was the starting goalie for the club team AND had two jobs. Thank goodness RIT had so many things to do outside of the classroom or I would have been very bored.

Oh yeah. I met Barry Melrose too!

3. (the most important) FRIENDS!:Wow! There are way too memories to count with my friends. Coming into school, I only knew a handful of people that were going to RIT. Needless to say I know quite a few more coming out. Let’s see… There’s all my friends in my primary business class that I was able to become so close to. There are the guys on the club lax team. There are all my amazing pals from Gleason 7 and Ellingson. But there are a few people that I hold near and dear to my heart.

The three Jeffs in action!

For one, there’s the other two Jeffs. We all met the first day of honors orientation and when we found out we were named Jeff and we all played lacrosse, it was a match made in heaven. We have gone to concerts together, played lax together, and had quite a bit of fun. These guys are truly my “bros” and I would do anything for them!

The floor at steak dinner. Man I love these guys!

Then there is my dorm family of Gibson 2A. We bonded closer than probably any other dorm floor on campus. All of the steak dinners when we all grew closer as we worked together. All of the acoustic Fridays when the genius guitarists Jon, Alex, and Jake would jam and Nick and I would attempt to sing. All of the ventures into Party Quad where we would  indulge in Mountain Dew and 5 lb chocolate bars. All of these times were amazing. I love them from the bottom of  my heart and I will miss them all this summer!

The crew before a RIT hockey game. I'm the 2.

One of my best friends Lauren. We had quite a good time this year as you can see.

Well, that was the end of one chapter to my life. But another one will begin in just a few months! Before then, it is time to enjoy the summer!

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A Great Opportunity in Greek Life

So at RIT, I am a member of the Sigma Beta Sigma colony of the fraternity Delta Sigma Pi. Last night, we finalized our petition to become the Epsilon Lambda chapter and we are all set and ready to submit it!!! We have done such hard work throughout the year to get to this point and I am SO excited to see our effort come to fruition.

The Delta Sigma Pi coat of arms!

Also, last night, I was named the Vice President of Alumni Relations for our colony/chapter! I am very excited to be put in this area and I hope that my talents can get our fraternity to be the best that it can be. My goal is to use LinkedIn, Twitter, and all of the other social networks I am a part of to bring in alumni to speak to us, give us tips, and possibly help us find jobs in the future. I am a part of the “Official Delta Sigma Pi” group via LinkedIn and I see that they have great discussion posts every day. Hopefully I will be able to sneak in there and provide some great news of my own and then alumni can comment and stop by to visit us!

If any alumni of Delta Sigma Pi OR RIT want to get in contact with me about scheduling something, please let me know via my contact page! We all would look forward to meeting you! :)

A portion of the group! We would LOVE to meet you! :)

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