Today, we are honoring Lyric Lin, ECB’s 2016 VP of Publicity. Due to COVID-19, the graduating class of 2020 was unable to experience traditional graduation celebrations and ceremonies. ECB interviewed each member of the 2016 senior leadership team to get a sense for how Enloe Charity Ball impacted their journey through college and how they will continue to be #AlivewithPurpose.
What position did you hold?
VP of Public Relations (or Publicity)
What university are you graduating from?
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
What degree are you graduating with? Are you graduating with honors? Feel free to share GPA or honors designation.
Bachelor of Arts in Media and Journalism, specialization in Advertising/Public Relations; Graduating with Highest Distinction, Summa Cum Laude; Final GPA: 3.9
What’s your favorite ECB memory?
Standing in the crowd of students at my first Charity Ball in December 2012, watching Lauren Frey’s Prez/VP present the check of $50,300 to InterAct. This was super memorable to me because it was my first year on student council, and also the first year we set a goal to raise more than $50,000 for a local nonprofit. It was a far, far reach for us at that point. Almost $30,000 more than ECB had ever raised in the past. This was also the first year we started to include more of the local community in our fundraising efforts, involved the entire student body in events and sales (candy cane sales for Freshco), and reached way out of our comfort zone to achieve a very ambitious goal.
Also volunteering at Learning Together senior year (during lunches and after school), really becoming integrated with our nonprofit and involving a lot of the student body in volunteering there as well. It was special to have students not in student council become actively involved with the charity that year, so they could also see first-hand the impact they were making on the local community.
Freshman Council selling candy canes our first year to raise money for ECB and making Kevin dress up as Santa. The best.
How has ECB impacted your life? How has it influenced your next move after college?
It taught me the power of service and philanthropy very early on and made me want to become involved in impactful service organizations in college. Especially with Learning Together, being able to volunteer first-hand and see the impact we were making on the future leaders of our community. Every act of service counts, big or small, and this actually influenced me to be a part of an international documentary project (uprooted.unc.edu) last spring. I was given the opportunity to be a designer for this project, where a group of reporters, videographers, designers and photographers traveled to Medellin, Colombia to report on the Venezuelan migrant crisis. It was definitely a heavy topic and it was especially difficult being there, hearing the stories of Venezuelan migrants being displaced from their home country, but I felt like it was important to make their voices heard within our local community. As a team, we held several service drives before we traveled to Colombia, and were able to bring 6 full suitcases of supplies to a local nonprofit in Medellin that helps displaced Venezuelan migrants. I was able to combine my passions for service, journalism and design into this project, and hope to become involved in more international journalism projects like this later in my career.
Are you involved in any service organizations and/or student government? Elaborate.
I was involved in student government my first year at Carolina as a member of the Communications Task Force. I’ve also been a part of the philanthropy council all three years for my sorority at Carolina, Zeta Tau Alpha. Our Franklin 5k is the largest philanthropy event of the year, similar to ECB. As a part of philanthropy council, my role is pretty similar to what I did as VP of Public Relations. I help create promo videos and social media graphics to publicize our event to the student body and local community.
What are your future plans career-wise?
I’ll be moving to Washington, DC in August to pursue a career in design for Deloitte’s in-house ad agency, the Green Dot Agency! My start date got pushed back to November 2020, so I’m going to be continuing my position as a digital designer for USA Today until then.
Do you have any advice for future ECB leaders?
Enjoy your time as a leader for ECB and don’t get too stressed out about the little things! Remember that any impact you make is going to go a long way. There won’t be a lot of things as special as ECB in college, so slow down and appreciate what you’re doing for your local community. Also, don’t make ECB your whole life. Take time for your personal and mental health and lean on your leadership team, don’t be afraid to ask for help.
