The Most Powerful Communicator in the Class of 2012: Jack Responds

In my last post, I mentioned that I had Facebooked Jack, who started a huge class of 2012 group for the University of Pittsburgh.

Despite the fact that Jack is in High School, and, if he's on East Coast time, he should probably have been in class, he responded in 20 minutes.

I copied my questions and indented his answers under each question:

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1) Are you working for the university in any way? Or did you just do all of this work on your own?

I am not a part of the university in any way. I live in a suburb of Philadelphia. I did this on my own after being accepted as I was seeking other people who were also accepted.

2) If you did it all on your own, why? You found and posted a lot of great pictures, it must have taken some time. What motivated you?

At first, it was for me to find others in the same situation I was, then as the group became progressively bigger, I did some research about the school and added a few updates on some important events for accepted students. Most of the pictures are actually provided by the members of the group.

3) What are your plans with the group?

Just a place where people can get to know each other before actually going. I am not very certain whether I will even be attending Pitt, but I am glad a lot of people in this group are finding friends ahead of time.

4) Do you have history of student leadership in high school? Do you plan to be a student leader in college?

In high school, I am the president of a couple of clubs and participate in numerous others. When I go to college, I plan to continue being involved.

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Dear University of Pittsburgh,

Jack, despite possibly skipping 5th period to Facebook a random higher education guy, is a doer. He's responsible and proven himself extremely capable as a 21st century leader.

It would be a real shame to let him slip away.

Send him a fruit basket at the very least. Better yet, send him a friendly little "thanks for running our 2012 class on Facebook" scholarship.

He can be reached here.

My Best,

Kevin Prentiss

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UPDATE: Jack wants everyone to know that he's not skipping class, he's on spring break. My apologies for being suspicious : )

Comments

[Kyle James]

This and the previous post were excellent! Thank you for sharing this specific example and following up for some insight from Jack! It just goes to show you how aggressive students are with these social tools.

I spoke at a Middle School last week and was amazed by the level of acceptance and use of the internet that 12-13 yr old kids already have and embrace. I wrote more of the experience on on my blog.

[Kevin Prentiss]

Kyle - glad you enjoyed. I'm constantly amazed. There's so much friction in the institutional conversation and the students think nothing of it.

I read your post - I couldn't agree more. We have our hands full, integrating technology and our various institutions. At least the work is pretty collaborative!

[Mark C]

Really great stuff here. Amazing how students step up when resources that they want aren't readily available. As a new professional, I am extremely interested in community building and facebook/myspace has completely changed the dynamics of this.
I just stumbled onto the SA blog and I will definitely be coming back. Hopefully my own blog will begin adding to the discourse on higher ed. I look forward to the dialogue.

[Kevin Prentiss]

Mark - Welcome! I'm very excited you are keeping your own blog, there are still not many in the student affairs / higher ed world.

More voices are better, I'm looking forward to reading yours.