A Spooky Blender Event in Downtown Manhattan

There is a monster with huge teeth and an open mouth, devouring airplanes and the skyline as we speak, while witches look on across the way and trees grow out of the concrete. Just a typical Monday morning, you know. The team at Swift Kick works out of a space called LMHQ in the Financial […]
Jabs and Right Hooks for Gaining and Retaining Student Engagement

Recently, I read a really awesome social marketing book called Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook* by Gary Vaynerchuck. He talks about the fact that on social media, you have to engage your brand’s fans with share-able, interesting content (jabs) before switching to the “sell” posts (right hooks). For example, a cat food company might share a […]
The Friends You Make In Your First Year are… Different

As I was running down the ramp to attempt to barely make a train at Grand Central, another woman was running beside me. The doors of the train closed before we reached them, and we both just stopped, disappointed. Suddenly the doors popped back open and we both went “OH!!” and started running again to […]
Giving People the Place to Be Themselves

On Friday, I was walking down Broadway, rushing to get back from an errand towards the end of the workday, in typical NYC fashion. Knit brow, moving at a fast clip, thinking about how many more steps it would take back to my building. As I approached my destination, I saw a man cleaning the street. […]
Small Talk, Big Impact for New Students

Over the weekend, I spent time with my boyfriend’s brothers and close friends at a BBQ. I always have a great time hanging out with this group, though I don’t know a lot of the people too closely yet. I am still, to many of them, a new addition to the group. Luckily for me, […]
How Poor Leadership Can Risk Public Safety

The largest energy company in the city plasters their safety campaign all over the subways – if you smell gas, call us. You can call in anonymously, but please please call. This is important. Never take your eyes off safety. Imagine for a second that two people do smell gas at their houses and call […]
4 Love-Centered Tips for Increasing Engagement in Your Student Organization

Pulling my hair out, twitching at work, having slight panic attacks over all the work to be done.. Making lists upon lists for a cultural club instead of homework and papers. Caring more about the outcome of our event than the job I was getting paid for….and good golly gosh I loved it. That’s what […]
Ground Floor Community – Elevators Shouldn’t be Silent

Close your eyes and go back to the last time you took an elevator. How many of the strangers around you spoke? None, right? Did you all look at your phones and avoid eye contact and touching at all? Probably. That’s usually the case, and it works just fine. This morning, I walked into my […]
To All the “Student Leaders” Who Never Asked for the Title

We spend a lot of time picturing the quintessential “student leader” – frenzied, wide eyed, hyper, loves ice breakers, does about a thousand and one activities. The poster child of the school. The “they are GOING places, unless they burn out, knock on wood” students. But what about everyone else? What about the student leaders […]
How the Swift Kick Team Made the Company Values Picture Perfect

Matt and Nicole did not know what to expect when they entered a near empty office building at 55th and Lexington for their first Quarterly Retreat with Swift Kick. I highly doubt they would have guessed they would put their directing and acting skills to the test. After lunch, Tom, Matt, Nicole, and myself (Sabina) […]