Name: Taylor Nyman
Year: Junior
Hometown: Perry, OH
Major: Mass Communication, Spanish
Hobbies: Running, rock climbing, planning events, sitting at a picnic table at Skipps, practicing my Spanish every chance I get, hiking, playing tennis, creating and trying new recipes, reading the Sunday New York Times, wasting my life away on Pinterest.
Dream job: Something that allows me to plan events, speak Spanish, and help others. If you know of anything, hit me up – I have no clue what I want to do when I “grow up.”
Favorite Oxford memory: Standing with my co-chair in front of the entire Class of 2016 before the Timeflies concert this August. We had been planning the event for eight months and all of a sudden our faces were on the jumbotron, the event had gone off without a hitch, and all of our board’s hard work had finally paid off.
Fun Fact: I’m currently studying abroad in Spain right now, where I’m tracking down my family. My great grandfather left the country in 1920 and now I am back to retrace his footsteps.
What was your experience as a SOUL?
My work with summer orientation was one of the most defining experiences not only of my time at Miami, but in my young adult life. I served as a SOUL the summer after my first year and then a Student Coordinator the following school year and summer. A student coordinator is one of two former SOULs who recruit, hire, train, and supervise the next SOUL staff. Both experiences were equally as challenging as they were rewarding – I made some of my best friends during my SOUL summer, and learned some of the most difficult and challenging lessons of my professional life during my time as a coordinator. Aside from the inspiring experience of being on staff and interacting closely with a team of students very different from myself, becoming acquainted with an entire incoming class of Miami students is a really humbling and exciting thing. I was lucky enough to do that two years in a row. I applied for both positions with a “nothing to lose” perspective, and the benefits I reaped far outweighed any challenges with the application process. Working with orientation taught me, quite honestly and thanks to my mentors and other leaders at Miami, to push aside any assumption that an undergrad student can’t make a difference on campus. I now can really see my ideals become realities. It’s pretty cool knowing that the decisions I’ve made and work I’ve done has impacted the way life at Miami is for many students.
What is your favorite aspect of CAC?
I’ll answer this two ways:
My favorite thing about being on CAC is the community within our organization. Our executive board is unbelievably close; we would do anything for one another at the drop of a hat. Our GroupMe messaging thread is constantly going off – someone is at Skipp’s with a table, a co-chair needs help with PR for an event, a payment needs made or a contract processed, or an exec member is really in trouble. One of our members once had a terrible migraine and no one with whom he lived was home. He texted the GroupMe and within minutes there were several members of exec on his doorstep. It’s really encouraging and uplifting knowing that we always have one another’s backs.
My favorite thing about CAC as a student organization, however, is the profound impact we have on campus. Every single undergrad at Miami pays just around $13 to fund CAC – if you do the math, that adds up to a pretty big budget. Though we’re still improving from our organization’s past of fiscal irresponsibility, I’m really confident that we’ve made leaps and bounds in creating events that students want to go to. Open Mic Nights for poetry readings and acoustic performances serve a different population of students than a Spirit Board event at a baseball game, but both are important to have at our school. Indeed, Homecoming, Family Weekend, and Welcome Week happen every year – but we’re all beginning to challenge one another to improve, take programming to the next level, and make everything about our events exciting and new. I think we all share a common thread of being proud Miamians, and CAC works tirelessly to give our campus all kinds of events that make us love life as a RedHawk even more.
What are your goals for CAC?
If you haven’t yet heard, CAC and Miami Entertainment are currently undergoing an organizational merger in preparation for our move into the new student center next year. This means that AfterDark, Program Board, and CAC have all been merged into one new organization. We’re going to have a new name, logo, structure, and executive board. Imaginably so, this has been a huge undertaking. I sat on a board of 10 students last semester to set the groundwork for how our new org will function and what it will look like, and now that the structure has been finalized, I’m so excited for the future of programming on campus. Essentially, that was just a really long way of saying that my biggest goal is not for CAC, but rather for our new organization: that we will really embrace our new structure and create events that will have a more impactful effect on campus life. If you have any suggestions for how we can make campus programming better, we’d all love to hear what you have to say – we serve the entire campus and want to continue making events that you all want to attend.
Can you give HC the inside scoop on your blog?
Healthy College Life (http://healthycollegelife.tumb…) is a blog centered around my efforts to live a balanced, healthy, and active lifestyle as a young adult. I began the site in August of 2011 and it has since grown to have around 1000 followers and receive sponsorship from companies like Chobani Greek yogurt. What began as a simple hobby for me (I love writing, I love working out, and I love food – making the site just made sense!) has become a really rewarding and beneficial experience for both me and my followers.
I used to have a terrible relationship with food and really poor self-esteem issues with my appearance; starting HCL was my way of sharing how I’ve changed, in hopes of encouraging others to begin seeing food, fitness, and life in general under a different light. I believe in eating whatever I want, detaching my emotions from my eating habits and learning to fuel my body with what I need to be energized. It’s called Intuitive Eating, which I explain in depth on my site. Similarly, I believe in working out because it pumps me up and empowers me, not to see a new number on a scale. HCL is a documentation of my journey to be the best and most confident version of myself, in hopes of encouraging others to do the same. The site has a lot of resources that better explain my view of healthy lifestyle, and the ask box is always open for questions!
To be honest, I’m not sure where I see HCL going in the future. Right now, keeping up with it is a simple hobby and a way for me to connect with others looking to establish and maintain healthy lifestyles. The site is ad-free, meaning I do not make any money from it. If my followers continue to increase, I’d love to begin partnerships with other healthy lifestyle blogs, build up more resources within the blog, and completely renovate the appearance and layout of the site. For now, though, I really love its simplicity and honesty – it’s something I’ll certainly work to preserve the more the page grows. And of course, if any other MU students want to work with me to make the site bigger, reach more people, and further tell the story of a healthy and balanced lifestyle, I’d love to get in touch!