Hello, my name is Dana Eversole and I am a professor of Media Studies at NSU. I have been teaching at NSU for 25 years, but I did start at a really early age.
I received my undergraduate degree in journalism education from NSU in the 1980s when Vanilla Ice was hot and all hair styles were bad. After graduation I landed a pure journalism gig in Joplin, Mo. where my students were almost as old as me and would say things like "I have a sister older than you." Good times. I taught for five years and kept a daily journal of all things Parkwood High School and later Joplin High School. I do not think I have re-read those entries in many, many years.
From Joplin I cruised over to Pittsburg, Kansas and taught for a year at PSU while earning a master's degree in public relations. It was great. I was jobless and wanted to return to Oklahoma. My parents had sold my childhood home in Muskogee and were redoing an old turn of the century house just a few blocks over. They were residing in a duplex until the house was completed so what was one more in a tiny space. I moved in. I was highly educated, homeless, jobless and getting ready to attend my high school 10-year reunion. More good times.
I finally (two weeks) found a job announcement for a job and the name in the ad was a friend from my NSU days. I called. She said I was over qualified for the job posted, but before I went into shock visualizing about more nights on a blow up mattress in the living room at that duplex she said she had another job For the next two years I was the news editor for the Tahlequah Daily Press. This was a great job. No money, but I got to know everyone in town. I wrote a lot of stories, covered beats and received many awards. This was the best stepping stone to a career teaching journalism and public relations to 18 year olds and older. Sometimes really older.
In the fall of 1989, before many of you readers were born, I received a call from Dr. Tom Cottrill, dean of the College of Arts and Letters (now, the College of Liberal Arts) to see how much experience I had in advertising. "I have sold an ad," I said to Dr. Cottrill. He took a chance and hired me to finish and ad class for a professor who was ill. The next semester, I taught two classes in public relations and was asked to apply for the fulltime line in the mass communication department. I did. I got the job and the next thing I knew was the staff of The Northeastern decided to put a nude man on the cover of its publication that hit stands on Media Day (500 to 1,000 high school students on campus for contests, lunch and speakers). The adviser left for Texas, so instead of just PR classes I inherited The Northeastern for the next 20 years or 60 semesters which ever sounds better.
During that time I earned a doctorate in driving the car or endurance. It is really all still a haze. Really it is in Higher Education with some mass communication thrown in for good measure. It is from OSU, go Pokes. During that time of always in my Chevy Cavalier, aka tuna can, I also adopted my two nephews who were 1 and 2 at the time and are now 17 and 18.
My greatest professional accomplishment(s) are seeing students seek and obtain the ultimate job - and there have been many, and watching them grow into the great individuals they are today. My favorite quote is my own, "Redo" because I believe we can all do things a little better if we work at achieving a higher standard than expected.
My mentors were my parents who told me I could accomplish whatever I set my mind to. Wow I forgot to tell you that I am the oldest of three children, the only girl and I was born without a left hand. I never questioned my worth or my intelligence. I did, have done what my goals were growing up - playing school and bossing people around. My life is really really good.
Now, I did not tell you how old I am or my generation, but I found a great quiz to determine your generation. It is fun.
According to a blog by Penelope Trunk "if you really want to know how old you really are, look at the media you use rather than the generation you were born into."
So here is a test Penelope Trunk put together with the help of an interview with Weigel and an evening reading her blog. Add up your points to figure out what generation you’re really a part of:
Do you have your own web page? (1 point)
Have you made a web page for someone else? (2 points)
Do you IM your friends? (1 point)
Do you text your friends? (2 points)
Do you watch videos on YouTube? (1 point)
Do you remix video files from the Internet? (2 points)
Have you paid for and downloaded music from the Internet? (1 point)
Do you know where to download free (illegal) music from the Internet? (2 points)
Do you blog for professional reasons? (1 point)
Do you blog as a way to keep an online diary? (2 points)
Have you visited MySpace at least five times? (1 point)
Do you communicate with friends on Facebook? (2 points)
Do you use email to communicate with your parents? (1 point)
Did you text to communicate with your parents? (2 points)
Do you take photos with your phone? (1 point)
Do you share your photos from your phone with your friends? (2 points)
0-1 point – Baby Boomer
2-6 points – Generation Jones
6- 12 points – Generation X
12 or over – Generation Y
