JMC Jams Season 4

There was a little bit of a delay but they got there in the end. The Spartan Ad Club's annual trip to NYC was postponed in February due to the huge storm that hit the East Coast that weekend. Like troopers, they rescheduled and have literally just got back from a week networking, visiting and enjoying adland in the heart of the advertising industry! In this episode we talk to Sima Nehchiri, current Ad Club Treasurer, and Aravind Ganesh, former exec member. Both are second-timers on the trip (it does hook you!), and we chat about the highlights of the trip, learning moments and other things NYC x Spartan Ad Club.

So in the previous episode we chatted to Philia Beroud who ran a bootcamp on sustainable branding for some of our advertising students for Earth Week. In this episode we chat to Mohammed Zaffar who participated in the exercise. Mohammed chats about the things he learnt - from finding out the details of the UN's Sustainable Dvelopemnt Goals, in particular SDG 14, to raising his own awareness of sustainability issues and how creativity can foster change.

Well, it's Earth Week, and did you know that Earth Day was founded right here at SJSU? Here are the facts right from official sources: "Gaylord Nelson, a 1939 San Jose State College (now SJSU) alumnus, founded Earth Day in 1970. His commitment to environmental awareness was heavily influenced by his time in California, and SJSU heavily contributed to the inaugural event, notably hosting a "Survival Faire" on Feb. 24, 1970, which included burying a new car to protest pollution."It's an awesome fact that I love to tell everyone about. Earth Day became Earth Week and this semester we have been focusing on sustainability as assignment theme where possible and in particular this week - saying that, we do tend to work on sustainability driven projects most of the time too. Enough with the preamble .... this episode we jam with Philia Beroud from No Bullship, an agency focused on sustainable branding based in SF. Philia is working with students in our Branded Content class with an eye to raising awareness on the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Specifically SDG 14 Life Under Water. Philia and I talk about the importance of these goals, we discuss sustainable branding, responsibilities and the workshop. We had such a great Jam that we ran over our alloted 15 minutes and could have carried on all day!

Episode 5 brings Surfrider's Santa Cruz chapter into our studio.Trace Laskey, who volunteers mainly on the Ban the Balloon project, joins us to talk about what Surfrider does as an organization, how our School of JMC will be collaborating on some important and interesting work, and how students can get involved. The main focus of the conversation is the Ban the Balloon campaign. Did you know how bad balloons are not only for the marine environment but the environment in general? We'll be developing assignments in the Fall around this critical issue. We also talk about starting up a student chapter right here on campus ... any students interested please contact me and we can get this going!

A couple of episodes ago with spoke with Professor Eugene Cordero as he passed by our Ciggy Surfboard booth on the Paseo. In this episode he joins us in the studio to talk about Climatology, Meteorology, Sustainability and the Green Ninja. The GN is an interdisciplinary phenomenon that has grown from an SJSU animation initiative to a Middle School educational product embracing a host of approaches to raising awareness about sustainability and climate change along the way.

We teased the screening of "The Cigarette Surfboard" and now the deed is done! In this episode we chat to Ben and Taylor, the guys behind the project and the documentary. In short, Taylor, an SJSU Industrial Design graduate, built a surfboard with discarded cigarette butts collected across the beaches in Santa Cruz. He won a Surfrider contest, and launched a project raising awareness about the problems of single use cigarette filters, the toxins they leach into the marine environment, Ben films the process and they tour their boards with one catching a couple of waves at Mavericks. The global tour draws commentary from scientists, advocates, surfers, and begins to build a ground swell that has resulted in legislation enacted (nearly) in Santa Cruz county. Anyway, the film will be on general release hopefully soon but catch the trailers and clips and be inspired here: https://www.thecigarettesurfboard.com/ Ben and Taylor riff environment, sustainability, the project and even Surfers Against Sewage. Thanks to all who showed up on a Friday to watch the movie and see a handful of the surfboards in real life!

We're gearing up to the screening of "The Cigarette Surfboard" this Friday March 13 and a big part of our effort has been focused on tabling on the Paseo. Talking to students as they walk past, getting them interested in the documentary, and we've had plenty of registrations. It's fascinating - so these guys made a surfboard from discarded cigarette butts? And it rides? And they tour it to raise awareness about how this toxic little timebomb is poisoning our marine environment?In this episode we take Jams outside and we chat to folks who are eager to find out more and attend the event on Friday. Here's the eventbrite link if anyone catches this on time: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-cigarette-surfboard-documentary-screening-tickets-1983377989959?aff=oddtdtcreator

Spring Semester, New Season. It's Season 4 and we're back with Juan and Ernie to hear about what's in store for the Spring. This Season we are focusing on Ocean Sustainability and we have a number of experiences that respond to this theme leading to Earth Week in April. we'll be teasing some of the fun and exciting things we have in store.