A Series of Letters: Gary Kayye

Dear Gary Kayye,

First of all, thank you Gary Kayye!

I have rarely taken classes outside of broadcast courses other than the required general education classes. After completing all of my journalism coursework, I decided to explore alternative classes at the Hussman School. I showed up on day one of class on a warm summer day in August to a full waitlist and no way for me to enroll. We first spoke in a rather funny way with an exchange I still remember and laugh at the ridiculousness of it.?

Seats full and I sat on the floor, you asked if I had a seat and was in the class, and to both questions, the answer was no. “Yes, I want to take the class, but I can’t even join the waitlist,” I laughed looking around at everyone in the room as my head poked around the desks. You told me and all the others awaiting a spot it’ll work out.?

From day one it didn’t matter that I wasn’t enrolled in the course at first, your lectures kept my focus in its entirety. The perspective you share, your openness, and the honesty that you carry yourself with are the reasons why students come to your lectures with excitement. Sometimes it's the food that you serve, but with the food comes an engaging 3-hour lecture. Marketing, new media technologies, and the various topics we explore share a common thread and something that the class’ underlying themes contain: creating experiences that matter. Your classes evoke emotions of happiness, sadness, struggle, optimism, and more. Yes, we learn about the facts and the figures of new media and the ever-evolving industry, but you make it tangible and relatable.?

The two projects we were assigned were eye-opening and gave me a tremendous new perspective on brand strategy and image. I have a new perspective on ways to create an image that shares a value statement based on making people desire to be in your orbit based on positive actions. From our class project and getting hundreds to play a simple rock paper scissors game to sharing weekly a bit about myself with my community, each has given me a new way to approach my brand image.?

Thank you for giving me and countless others the platform to create these blogs. Thank you for being unapologetically yourself and letting others challenge you with open discussion. Thank you for refreshing my sense that there are professors that advocate for their students and that push them to grow. Thank you for the laughs, the touching moments, and everything in between that provides us the confidence to use our voice to tell our story.

Sincerely,

Kyle Ennis