Intro to Social Media

Hello Everyone!

Source: Tait Photography. I did a volunteer
photo-shoot for a friend who has just finished
her certificate for makeup artistry.

My name is Kelsie Gilks. I am a 2nd year Family Ecology Major with a Community Nutrition minor. It is my fourth year of university but only my first year at the University of Alberta. I am from Calgary but over the last four months Edmonton has become my new home. I recently became a member of Alpha Psi, a local sorority on campus, and am loving every minute of it.

Social media plays a huge part in my daily life. I currently use Facebook, Twitter, and Skype. All of these social media tools help to keep in touch with my sorority sisters about upcoming events as well as keeping up to date with friends and family all over the world. Facebook consumes a large majority of my time because I am constantly checking for updates from friends, about events, or posting new status' for myself.

Alpha Psi has become a big part of my life and I enjoy all the time I spend with my sisters doing a variety of different events. There are four basic founding pillars that help us grow as women, philanthropy being a big one of them. Below is a picture we took when we went down to the river valley to collect garbage in early November.

Source: Sorority sister. This is a picture of my pledge class after picking up garbage in November.

When I am done my degree at the UofA I hope to be working interactively with families in organizations like the Blue Flame Kitchen. Though it has been around since the 1930's not a lot of people know what it is or how it works and social media can play a huge role in marketing the organization so more people learn about it and the great tools it can provide to people who want to learn the hands on approach to cooking. You can check out their website here.

Social media has helped me to network myself more around campus and get to know the people who are in my class. So far the people I have met in class are fantastic and I can't wait to use social media to get to know them more. Hilary Baker is one of a few people I have had the pleasure of meeting and she is taking Animal Science; though our paths are very different we get along very well and twitter has been a tool to try and help break the ice that comes with meeting new people. Check out Hilary's blog for more information about her studies! I can't wait to see what the rest of the semester brings in terms of teaching more about social media!
Thanks for reading, take care!
Kelsie