Senior wisdom

Weather permitting, in about 10 weeks writing and rhetoric major Anthony Baracat (’13) will walk across the university’s historic Quadrangle for the last time as an undergraduate to collect the diploma he’s worked toward for the past three and a half years. As he walks, he  — like so many seniors before him — will reflect on his Madison years and the change that commencement will mark. I asked Anthony, who interned in the Be the Change office last semester, to think about what he might tell a newly admitted student. This is what he had to say….

Some senior wisdom

by Anthony Baracat (’13)

Anthony Baracat (’13) in the red Capital’s shirt and JMU friends.

James Madison is the only university I have ever attended. So while it may be true that I cannot adequately compare JMU to other colleges, I can tell you we have some great stuff. Look at a cork board anywhere on campus to see some of it: author and poet lectures (both Donald Miller and Sean Thomas Dougherty are visiting in the next two months), free concerts, great food all over the place and, if you’ve taken a class, quality education and professors. I mean it. And as a graduating senior, there are surely some more of these things I wish I had done earlier. Here are a few:

1) TAKE ADVICE   Listen when professors and involved students make announcements, write down the date and time. You never know whom you’ll meet at a show or friends you could make joining a club. My prime example would be visiting professors during office hours. I was adamant about not doing such a thing until this year, but now I have two “mentors” I talk with regularly. We talk about jobs, writing and even share books. Of course they’re great “connections,” but they’re also great friends. In essence, if you try something and don’t like it, fine. But try it first.

2) LIVE IN HARRISONBURG   Don’t just go to JMU. Stretch your mind and consider that maybe, just maybe this is one of the most beautiful spots in Virginia. Volunteer at Skyline Literacy as an English tutor, help out at H.A.R.T.S., a local homeless shelter, or even attend a high school football game or play. The point is, meet folks who have been here a while and be in settings uncomfortable to you—it’s worth the trouble.

Rose Library

3) BE ALONE   Get some time to yourself. College is a time to meet people, hang out, go to six events a weekend, sleep for four hours, study, and then do it again. But between social events and school, it’s okay to need recovery (if that’s how you get it). Tuck in a corner of Carrier or Rose Libraries or walk off-campus, read and get coffee. Take the bus by yourself to Target. Go for a walk or a hike if you can; just head toward the mountains. Turn off your phone even!

All in all, do everything you can and do it again if it’s for you. Be around people and try new things. Don’t be the typical college student (grown-ups sure appreciate that!) and when you’re tired, take a break until you’re ready to face the world again. This college and the city it’s in provide a great range of opportunities for anything you could want to do. We’re lucky.

And study! The real world awaits when you’re done with all this fun.

The Golden Blogs: 2012 in review

“And the winner is ………”

The afterglow of Sunday night’s quirky Golden Globes feels like just the right time to review last year’s Be the Change blog. Call it the Golden Blogs. (Hey, we’re just missing the “e.”) Looking back is always interesting and like the Golden Globes, it can be a little quirky.

Take, for instance, the armadillos. Once again a blog post mentioning armadillos floated up into the top five last year, finishing as runner-up yet again. (That’s two statuettes, if you’re counting.) I can’t explain why, except to speculate that perhaps armadillos are more popular than one might imagine.

Of the top five mostly widely read blog posts we published last year, three were written by guest bloggers. Jake Williams (’13) wrote about the Lost Boys of Sudan. Jake’s post and a post about Invisible Children written by Gabrielle Piccininni (’11) took the fourth and fifth spots. Gabrielle’s post, by the way, was actually published the prior year, in 2011, yet continues to gather readers. That’s staying power. The No. 1 most read Be the Change post last year also went to a guest blogger, Jim Heffernan’s (’96) who wrote Sweden: The Malmo Summit.

That Jim’s post was No. 1 didn’t surprise us. It was well written, interesting and had a component that the blogosphere handles about as well as any Internet medium — a worldwide audience. In the blogosphere, lines between nations are blurred and sometimes erased, bringing us all together. I presume that’s why, for the first time last year, WordPress provided daily stats about where our blog readers were located. It was a fun statistic to watch as JMU and its mission of change spread out over the world. In the final 2012 tally, the Be the Change blog was read in 148 countries. The only disappointment — big white zeroes in Greenland and Iceland. (So here’s a shout out: Hey, Greenland and Iceland! Come visit us.)

All in all, in 2012 the blog garnered almost twice the number of visits of 2011. Coincidentally, the same calendar date in both 2011 and 2012 saw the most visitors to the blog: Sept. 11. On the home page that day was a post by another guest blogger: BTC intern Anthony Baracat (’13))

In October last year, the blog was Freshly Pressed. You might call FP the “Oscars” of WordPress. Sounds good, anyway. That post, chosen by the editors of WordPress from blogs all over the world, resulted in a big jump in followers. In fact, we’re now only a few followers shy of 100. We also had our first month with more than 5,000 views.

Still we have work to do, countries to crack (Hey, Greenland and Iceland! Wavin’ at you!) and conversations to engage. So here are some of our goals for next year. We want to continue to feature the people of Madison who devote their time, talents and lives to improving the world in ways as varied as academics, humanitarianism, medicine, science, politics, business, nonprofits, and volunteerism. We want to talk with and about projects, programs and people who are making a difference. We want to reach more of the world — and be read in even more countries. According to the U.S. State Department there are 195 countries in the world, so we’re only short 47. That’s doable.

But we want more than numbers; we want to engage in conversations that will further the goals and aspirations of Be the Change and those who do it. We want to share, listen and exchange thoughts and ideas. We want those conversations to be honest, open — and to matter, not merely entertain. We want to show the world our human face, our compassionate heart and our determination to Be the Change.

So, now, who among you readers will push us over 100 by following this blog? And which one of you is ready to start a great conversation?

Click here to see the complete report.

Easy, easy change

New JMU alumnus Gil Welsford has a philosophy for change that is easy and universal. Be the Change intern Anthony Baracat (’13) recently sat down with Gil to find out more.

Easier than you might think

By Anthony Baracat (’13)

Gil Welsford (’12), smiling in the lobby of JMU’s Showker Hall

When I sat down with Gilbert Welsford (’12) to talk about Be the Change, and about why he is a great example, I had a couple ideas of what type of person he was. I knew about Gil, the student—a College of Business whiz kid, academic standout, university role model. There was also the “Club Gilty” Gil—fun-loving, dancing to his friend’s DJ-ing in Warren Hall. Finally, there was the businessman, the LinkedIn professional.

But the Gilbert I met looked a lot different…

First of all, it was not “Gilbert Welsford Jr.” Just “Gil,” he said. He had an ear-to-ear grin—a grin even he admitted he was famous for. He also talked much more about people than business, it seemed.

That love of people started as a love for JMU. Gil says he has no specific memory, only “walking around campus and being inspired,” he says. “You have so many vehicles to create things here, so many resources. You can’t beat it.”

The vibe of JMU got him excited—whether it was about the College of Business or a Motivational Entrepreneurship class that he taught through JMU Teach. Gil’s enthusiasm increased, as did his love for the people around him. Creating something new through hard work and collaboration was possible, Gil discovered.

He linked up with Ty Walker (’12) to found Club Gilty, an on-campus, alcohol-free nightclub.  And he and Andrew Sparks (‘12) collaborated to build Sparks Entertainment, a one-stop entertainment event planning business based in Philadelphia.

So when I asked Gil about change, he didn’t discuss new marketing strategies or how to bring in revenue or usability testing. He said you must smile.

“People feel like they have to do something big to change someone’s life, but doing small things can be so powerful.” He continues, “I truly do feel like smiling at somebody who’s sitting on the street will save their life.”

He recounted an instance during exam week, when all the busy, weary-eyed students around him shuffled into Starbucks to get in some last-minute studying. He felt empathy for them. Gil grabbed a stack of about 15 or 20 napkins and wrote little notes on each: Good luck, Smile, You can do it! After inconspicuously planting the notes, he watched his experiment unfold. Students began to talk about what had happened, asking who did it?

He said it made them smile.

Gill is still producing smiles. After graduating last May, he is involved in two current ventures, Sparks Entertainment and ValveMan, a business he runs with his father who Gil says is his best friend, role model and now partner. Both enterprises involve fewer than 10 people on the job site. It keeps him going—not having to compete and overwork in a large corporation, but interacting with his friends and family is his own arena of change.

“That’s not why I live on this earth—for business. Not because I want a lot of money—well, so I can earn a lot of money to give it away, change peoples’ lives.”

One way he hopes to do this in the future is through venture entrepreneurship, a business tactic in which stable owners fund smaller hopefuls, sometimes providing mentorship along the way. It is, of course, more complex than a smile but derives from the same motive.

“If you ask anybody if they want to change the world, they’re going to say yes. That’s their eventual goal,” Gil says. But he would add it’s not that difficult—you can change the world every day.

Just smile.