school Archives - Hannah With A Camera

college graduation & traveling | life update vol. 6

June 4, 2019 No Comments

Hi there! The last month or so has been crazy busy. I graduated from college, moved out of my college home and I’m now preparing to go on a 24-day trip through Europe. This post will mainly be a photo update as I truly don’t have the time to write a sentimental goodbye to Lawrence yet…but I wanted to make a quick post before I go abroad.

Leaving KU

I made this video summing up my college career and my time as a Jayhawk. Below is the text I was going to have as a voiceover, but it didn’t flow with the music so I just wrote it out on its own but still wanted to share. KU is so very special to me and I’m sad to be leaving, but I know I’ll always have Lawrence to welcome me home.

——-

I’ve always known I was going to KU. My childhood was spent learning how to say Rock Chalk and go Jayhawks, and my Saturdays in fall were spent at Memorial Stadium in Lawrence – followed by Pyramid Pizza or a donut from Joe’s. I mostly read a book or played games instead of watching the football games, but I still soaked up every single tradition and very quickly became a passionate KU fan. I remember watching the 2008 national championship game in Allen Fieldhouse, then storming Mass Street after with my family at only ten years old. Waving the wheat, singing the alma mater, doing the rock chalk chant – these were all traditions I loved and knew from a young age. From my first official tour in junior year of high school, I knew immediately that the journalism school felt like home. I started school and dove in to getting involved, joining a sorority and meeting some of my best friends along the way.

I chose to major in strategic communications and loved it, but I found my real home working in athletics. My life came full circle when I started working for the football team in my second semester of sophomore year. Countless photos and graphics later, I’m so proud of the work I’ve done. When I came to the University of Kansas as a freshman, unsure of myself and a little scared, I didn’t know how much I would grow. KU has taught me how to be independent, how to fail and bounce back, and how to be confident in myself. I know I’m going to miss Lawrence so much, but I know I will always return home grateful for what I’ve learned. Thank you, KU – Rock Chalk.

College graduation

I graduated from KU with my major in strategic communications in the journalism school and a minor in sport management. Here are some of my favorite photos from that day!

Europe trip

I’m going on a trip with EF Ultimate Break this June! I never got the chance to study abroad so this is my college graduation trip and I’m so excited because Mexico is the furthest I’ve ever been out of the country. I’m visiting London, Amsterdam, Paris, the Swiss Alps, Venice, Florence, Rome, Barcelona and a few other stops along the way. I’ll be sharing photos on my Instagram throughout the trip, then I’m planning on having recaps of each city on my blog and making videos once I return. If you have any packing tips PLEASE share – I’m only bringing a carryon and a backpack and I’m struggling a little!

View this post on Instagram

Graduated with my best friends by my side and wouldn’t have had it any other way 🤩

A post shared by hannah bettis (@hannahwacamera) on May 19, 2019 at 6:14pm PDT

Thanks for reading and following along on my adventures!!

xo, Hannah

sorority, sorority recruitment

last alpha delta pi bid day

September 7, 2018 No Comments

We just finished sorority recruitment (a few weeks ago) at my school, the University of Kansas, and we’re now in the full swing of classes. I wanted to share all my favorite pictures from bid day! (For those that don’t know, bid day is when all the women going through recruitment get to see what sorority they’ll be in, and it’s a party celebrating our new members from there! I have several posts about sorority recruitment here.)

I’m a senior this year and graduating in May so it’s my last bid day. I’m sad to see this chapter of my life end but for now, I’m not trying to dwell on all the lasts…at least til next semester!

Our theme was just ADPi, which was so fun to see how people dressed up. Some girls even went all out with fun blue wigs! We all had our matching shirts of course, and I found these super cute star flash tattoos on Etsy to put in the corners of my eyes. It was a really fun theme and I’ve noticed that as I grow older, I tend to care less about what people think of me so it was fun to just go all out and have fun dancing and taking photos with my friends.

Of course I still had to go into work an hour later and the stars wouldn’t come off easily haha

xo, Hannah

school

my summer internship experiences

August 27, 2018 No Comments

I’m finally a senior in college (yikes!). I’m a journalism major with a sport management minor. Internships seem to be all you hear about in the j-school around the end of the school year – from both professors and classmates. In my major, it feels like if you don’t have an internship, you have a super low chance of getting a full-time job. While I’m not sure how much of that actually rings true, I do know that internships are extremely helpful and can often teach you more than your classes can. Being involved in school is important too, but the work that you put in outside the classroom is what really makes a difference.

My Summer Internship Experiences

Working with a small nonprofit

My first summer internship was with a nonprofit charity high school all-star football game. The game was a huge deal in the state of Kansas, but the nonprofit itself was tiny. It was certainly a new experience – it was only my boss and three interns (including me) that didn’t really know what they were doing. We ended up splitting up tasks throughout the summer to fit each intern’s skillset the best. I took on graphic design and social media advertising. This internship, while small, threw me into the deep end and I had to learn how to swim fast to succeed.

Internships with small companies can be really beneficial. They’re very hands-on (no just fetching coffee!) and you often get the chance to shape your own experience within the company. You can be very involved and get a look at what other roles in the company are as well.

Working with a large company

I also have experience interning with a large firm. You may not have heard of Populous before, but you’ve probably been in a building they’ve designed. Populous has designed more than 2,500 projects within the past 35 years, and I was lucky to be a marketing intern for them this summer.

Populous is an architecture firm with a focus on designing the venues that draw people together – stadia, arenas, convention centers, airports, etc. In the spring semester, my journalism capstone class worked with Populous’ marketing team to develop a mock campaign centered around the college football experience. I had heard of Populous before, but the capstone class interested me in Populous even more after learning about all the places they had designed. After this very rewarding class, I was then hired as a summer marketing intern.

As a marketing intern, I was able to work with a lot of projects. In my first week, I was able to use the extensive research done by my capstone class and turn them into infographics for internal company use. I also helped with projects for several different sports teams, including the Milwaukee Bucks and D.C. United. In addition, I helped put together presentation materials for the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics and press releases for the National Baseball Hall of Fame and the Tampa Bay Rays. In addition to writing and creating graphics for various project proposals, I was also able to conduct research on stadia and training facilities around the world and see how they’re used daily.

As a sports fan, it was very cool to simply walk around the office and see all the amazing projects that the Populous team is working on. I’ve never worked with a global company before, but the experience I’ve gained is invaluable.

Even though Populous has nearly 300 employees in the Kansas City headquarters alone, I never felt like I was “just an intern.” I was able to get a hands-on experience every day, and I always felt like my opinion was valued. Both my capstone class and this marketing internship have been a core part of my undergraduate journalism career. I loved being in the marketing department and I still miss all the people I worked with!

Working with such a large company was a really different experience compared to my previous internships, but this was my favorite experience I’ve had so far. I definitely was able to get the full Populous intern experience (as shown in the projects I worked on listed above). By working with a larger company, I also had a lot more opportunities for networking within the company. I made a lot of contacts with people in the company that also have contacts in the sport industry, which I know will pay off later.

Working in sports

I was also a photography intern this summer for Sporting KC, my local MLS team. I love soccer and I’ve followed Sporting KC for a long time, so I loved being able to work with them. Since I had 40-hour work weeks with Populous, I only had time to photograph home games for Sporting but it was still a unique experience that allowed me to shoot a different sport and in the professional soccer realm. I can’t speak much to this internship because I didn’t have much hands-on time in that environment.

Not only do I have all these summer intern experiences, but I also have experience with school internships (look for a post on that soon!). If you have any questions feel free to leave a comment below, email me or tweet at me – I’d love to hear from you!

xo, Hannah

school

six tips to help you crush your interview

February 16, 2018 2 Comments

This post is sponsored by Basic Invite, but all opinions are my own.

I’m a junior in college and I’ve been going through the whole internship search lately. I have a full-on spreadsheet to keep things straight. If you’re in the same position as me, you’re probably in the same scenario. I’m going to be upfront: interviews for internships are hard. But don’t stress!

Lucky for you, I have several interview tips and tricks to make your interviews stress-free.

1: Tailor your resume to the job. If you’re looking at a retail job, having your experience working at a clothing store is helpful. But if you’re applying to a communications internship and trying to decide between putting your PR position in your sorority on your resume or your retail job, go with the PR position. It shows experience and your willingness to step up in your sorority instead of just an extra job on the side to make money.

2: Be prepared! Have a physical copy of your resume and cover letter (paper-clipped together so they don’t get lost) to leave with them, even if you submitted digital copies online. If it’s a phone interview, have your resume pulled up on your computer, your portfolio, and some speaking points that you want to address.

3: Dress professionally. I would always advise against jeans, even if the company typically wears jeans at the workplace. A lot of the creative companies that I am interested have super-casual attire, but I’m still not going to show up to the interview wearing workout leggings and a t-shirt.

Some common questions the interviewer may ask:

What are your strengths?
- Here you have the opportunity to highlight what’s on your resume as experience and elaborate. Talk about your responsibility and dedication when working crunch deadlines at a previous internship. Reference a class project and your ability to work well in groups.
What are your weaknesses?
- Always word these carefully! Don’t just come out and say that you’re never on time and you get bored easily. Instead, talk about a time that you struggled with a previous job and what you learned from it. It’s okay to admit your mistakes but showing that you’ve learned from them and have improved is essential.
What do you know about (subject)?
- I was recently asked “what do you know about advertising?” Talk about a loaded question! I spoke about how advertising makes an impact on others outside of just the professional community, but I also expanded on a certain campaign that the ad agency (that I was interviewing with) had done and how several of my friends were talking about it, therefore it made a big impact on the Kansas City community. Always tie broad answers like this back to the company to prove you’ve done your research.

4: Have questions for them! I always ask what their favorite part about the company is. If they’re an ad agency, then I ask their favorite project they’ve gotten to work on. This is another way to show you came prepared to the interview and that you’re interested in the company.

5: Elaborate. You don’t need to ramble about your answers, but if they ask if you have experience with a certain program, don’t just end with ‘yes.’ Talk about a specific project you did and how you learned the program through the project.

6: Always send a thank you note within 36 hours. An email is good but a handwritten thank-you note can be even better – it shows that you took the time to consider the company and send them a personal message. Include another point about why you would be a great fit for the company and be sure to name everyone in the email. It would also help to reference something they brought up in the interview and reiterate your interest.

For this post, I paired up with Basic Invite to showcase their range of thank you cards! They have over 1500 thank you card designs, which is crazy. There are ones for everyone’s style out there. Basic Invite not only has thank you cards, but they also have a ton of different stationary and invitation cards to fit your needs.

I was able to customize each design to my liking, color scheme and all. I love the gold foil on some of the designs! Basic Invite is one of the few websites that allows customers almost unlimited color options with instant previews online. Once you select a design you can change the color of each element on the card to over 180 different color options so you can make sure the card is exactly how you want it down to the littlest detail. You can also choose from over 40 different envelope colors to match (and they’re all peel & stick instead of having to lick them – bonus!)

Basic Invite is one of the few websites that allows customers the ability to order a printed sample of their actual card so they can see exactly how it will print as well as the paper quality before they ever have to place their final order. I loved this option and I think if you’re ordering bulk cards for a graduation party or a wedding save-the-date, this is an option that helps you be sure of your decision.

Thanks to Basic Invite for pairing up with me on this post!

What are you go-to interview tips?

xo, Hannah

fitness, school, uncategorized

Junior Year Update

December 18, 2017 2 Comments

Hi everyone! I just finished my first semester of junior year and I thought I’d share a more personal look into how my life went.

School

I’m still a graphic design and journalism major. It was a pretty tough semester on me in terms of workload even though I only technically took 3 “real” classes. I took 12 credits of classes, 6 classes overall. Mondays and Wednesdays consisted of Women’s Strength Lifting from 9am to 10am, then Typography from 11:30am to 2:30pm.

Strength Lifting

I loved my strength lifting class and highly recommend taking a class like this, or an intro to weights class if they offer them at your campuses’ rec center! Having it with only girls in the class made me feel comfortable if I didn’t know a certain exercise or if one of the other girls in the class pointed out my improper form. We would have a sheet for every day and now I have a full binder of workouts from my whole semester. I definitely noticed a big improvement in my fitness overall and I’d love to share a workout routine if you’re interested.

me after a required yoga course…I also learned that I absolutely hate yoga, haha

Typography

My typography class was very hard. The whole graphic design program at my school is really hard, not going to lie, and a lot of work, but it definitely pays off in the end. There were several nights I was up til at least 1 or 2am working on my projects due for the next day. This was my favorite project of the semester when we got to rebrand an airport anywhere in the world. (Any other design majors out there? I’d love to follow you on Behance!)

Tuesdays and Thursdays consisted of Intro to 10K Training from 8am to 9am (ish), Message Development (journalism) at 9:30am to 10:45am, and Principles of Visual Communication from 11:30am to 2:30pm. On Tuesdays I’d also have my journalism lab from 2:30pm to 3;45pm and every other Thursday for the first half of the semester was a Hallmark Symposium lecture.

Running

Intro to 10K training was a true mental test! All the class essentially consisted of was showing up in proper workout attire and running. We also had a few lectures about proper nutrition, foam rolling, etc. I began to learn that I actually enjoyed running (what?) and especially enjoyed running longer distances. This class motivated me to get out and run–because getting a B in my 1-credit running class would be extremely lame. post-run view on campus

Journalism

My journalism class was fairly easy and we just created several different television, radio, and print ads. I’m a fan of this one that I made–I thought it was pretty clever. This class wasn’t particularly difficult, but because it was right after my running class, I found it difficult to stay awake sometimes! I would have thought that working out in the morning would keep me energized but it had the opposite effect sometimes. I’m still trying to figure that one out–I think it may have been an issue with not eating enough after running.

Design

My other design class was also difficult. I found that I enjoyed these sorts of projects more. We designed two posters for an event (I picked Carnival in Rio), an album cover for Nirvana, a restaurant rebranding, and a motion graphic. The motion graphic was our last project in tandem with our type project, and I loved learning Adobe After Effects for this project. We were assigned a font and then had to illustrate certain characteristics of the font.

My journalism lab was just an extension of the lecture class. The Thursday class, Hallmark Symposium, is a lecture series presented by Hallmark (did you know they’re headquartered in Kansas City?) by notable designers and artists. We had to attend 5 out of the 7 lectures offered so I just knocked out the first five in a row. The most exciting speaker was Andy Beall, a Pixar animator who’s worked on several noteworthy films like Up, WALL-E, The Incredibles (I and II), Brave, Ratatouille, Monsters University, and more! It was very cool to hear his insight on the little nuances that make great designs.

Sorority

As you might know, I’m an Alpha Delta Pi and I’m living in the house again this semester. It’s extremely convenient and I like living close to all my friends in the house. However, as I’ve gotten older I’m excited to live in my own house next year with several of my friends! I also finished up my position as PR chair and decided not to run for a position again.

Etc

I love my job more than ever and I’m enjoying every second of it. I got to work during fall camp in place of sorority recruitment and it was the best decision for me. It still makes me laugh thinking of how I got involved in this. Even though most of my childhood was spent going to every home KU football game imaginable, I’d spend practically all of them reading or playing on my Nintendo DS. I also spent more time than ever hanging out with my friends and developing closer friendships, and I’m especially thankful for that.

As of now, I’m taking an ethics class over winter break. I’m also attempting Vlogmas! My first two videos are up on my channel now. I’d love if you watched them and subscribed as well! My first two videos were interesting but I’ve decided to only make videos on days that I’m doing exciting things. I don’t like watching vlogs of other people sitting around and studying, so I chose to wait until winter break to start filming. If they go well then I think I might continue until I get back from winter break.

Thanks for reading!

xo, Hannah

school

How to Have the Perfect Game Watch Party #PlayPauseRefresh

November 16, 2017 14 Comments

This shop/post has been compensated by Collective Bias, INC. and The Coca-Cola Company, all opinions are mine alone. #PlayPauseRefresh #CollectiveBias

The best part about going to my school is being able to attend all the basketball games! I’ve always loved cheering on my team, but it’s even better cheering them on with my friends. Whenever we have away games, my friends and I always watch them together.