This past summer, I had an internship with Shareaholic – a small (less than 10 person) startup that provides a free app you can add to your blog. The app allows viewers to share a webpage to many different social media services across the globe and provides the viewer with recommendations for other pages on the website they might also join. About 1 month after I started, Shareaholic released an “upgrade” of this app in their Word Press plugin.

You all know the burning wrath of change. Innocent people are suddenly swept into a raging panic. Where did their app go? How were they supposed to edit things? Why was nothing working? Why did we ruin a perfectly good plugin?!?! So when the customer service inbox shot from 20 to 200 emails in just one night, Shareaholic stuck me on customer support duty. For two months.
Imagine answering emails for 7-8 straight hours per day from people all over the world. I have never met them before, nor will I likely ever come in contact with them again. Some speak English, some barely speak English, some send you emails in their native language, requiring “Google translate” before I can continue.

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When I took The Entrepreneurial Initiative in Spring 2012, it solidified my intention to start a company. However, I was convinced that waiting until school was over was a good idea. As it turns out, starting a company while still in school was a much better idea. Here’s why:

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Larger universities throughout the country have more clubs than Olin has students – UCLA clocks in at more than eight hundred clubs, while Harvard boasts about four hundred. Finding a way to test out all of those clubs would be a daunting task to any student.

Olin is different because you can try out nearly all of the clubs if you want to! (However, you would be crazy to be in them all.)

At the beginning of each academic year, the upperclassmen show off their favorite clubs during Club Fair, so that all students (new and returning) have the chance to see what each has to offer. It might remind you of Candidates’ Weekend, only this time the weather will be better and you can actually join the clubs. There are dozens of student clubs to see there, from long-standing clubs like Olin Fire Arts Club to new clubs like Dr. Who, which is barely two years old.

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With more than 80 clubs last year, it would be impossible to list them all here. This is a list of a few of the most active in 2012-13. Check out these clubs and many others at Club Fair, this Friday, September 13th from 3:30-5pm in the O.

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Whoever said that you work best when stressed has obviously never been to a Broadway audition. The following is… what I recall of… my first and only Broadway audition:

I suppose it all began Friday, February 15th. There was an open dance call in Boston for the Broadway musical Newsies. This part of my audition story is not new, however, so I am going to just skip over it for now—ask me about it some other time if you’d like. The only thing you need to know is the outcome: from the 150 or so people auditioning, they asked me and about 10 others to come to NYC that summer for another callback.

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Welcome to the fifth volume of Frankly Speaking, Olin’s student-run, monthly newspaper.
The ongoing mission of Frankly Speaking is to foster communication between students, faculty, staff, the greater Olin community, and beyond, through publishing many types of content created by anyone with a desire to be printed.

Frankly Speaking has been publishing monthly issues of the paper since Fall 2010, but we need your help to continue publishing. First and foremost, a paper cannot be published without content, and we rely primarily on Olin students to submit content each month. We’re looking for writing of any skill level on topics you are passionate about. The Frankly Speaking editors will help you refine your writing to a point where you are proud to see your classmates and friends reading your work on publication day.
Additionally, we need you to join Frankly Speaking. Many of the Frankly Speaking staff graduated last year, leaving several open positions on the paper. We need enthusiastic, passionate students to fill the following rolls for this upcoming academic year:

Editor – reads, edits articles, helps with layout. Must be able to spell and edit.
Layout editor – uses InDesign to lay out paper. Must be willing to learn InDesign.
Website manager – keeps FS’s website up to date.
Business manager – FS sells ad space and sometimes gets emails about it! Respond to ad requests and ask local businesses to sponsor FS with food!
Staff Illustrator – sometimes we have these awkward spaces and they have to be filled with drawings. Can you draw things at the drop of a hat? Be a staff illustrator!
Contributor – the bread-and-butter of the paper.

Everyone is a contributor! Come to the meeting this weekend with your article ideas or send them to:
submit@franklyspeakingnews.