Really fun and interesting lunch

Tim Morton was in town this week. He works for Sonoco in Brussels helping in marketing and sales in the European Industrial Products operations.Tim, who got his masters degree in communication from North Carolina State, is a 2007 graduate of Coker with a degree in Communication. He was at lunch with Marcos Sola, a 2005 graduate of Coker who majored in graphic design. Marcos has been working with Sonoco's Corporate Communication team as one of the graphic designers.

I really appreciate their letting me share lunch with them and hear a little bit about how their careers are going, some of the interesting things on which they are working and some of their perspectives in our ever-changing world. Tim mentioned that he ran into Dr. Cathy Cuppett at Taste of Coker on Thursday night and told her how much he wished he'd taken more Spanish and language in College. He now works at one of the international cross roads of business and sees daily how much having more than one language can mean. Marcos, who is bilingual, then discussed what a difference it makes for him when he is in South America and people find out he speaks English. Nothing world changing in these snippets but concrete examples that I can use when talking with students today.

We also got into marketing talk and one particular tool that never existed when I was in that corporate marketing world -- The IPAD. Marcos has been responsible for programming IPADS his colleagues will be using to become more effective and efficient at a coming major trade show. Both Marcos and Tim love the IPAD. Me -- I did see and touch one recently.

While I might go on, the other extremely interesting thing is that we were at a great Thai restaurant in downtown Hartsville called Bow Thai, which is owned by two other Coker graduates -- one of whom, Donnie Quist, was also a communication major.

From a faculty person perspective and even more from a friend perspective, this was a fun and interesting lunch with a couple of really competent, professionals who I am so glad are Coker College graduates.