I recently chatted with Bryan Silverman, co-founder of Star Toilet Paper and winner of Entrepreneur magazine’s College Entrepreneur of 2012, to learn more about his business. Star Toilet Paper is unique – they print advertisements and coupons on a wide range of environmentally friendly toilet paper. Then they supply venues with this printed toilet paper, free of charge, by using the revenue from the advertising side of the company.

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I’ve had a front row seat as the Athletic Ticket Manager at Appalachian State University for seven years. When I started, we sent out 5,000 season tickets. That’s doubled to 10,000 season tickets which are distributed to more than 2,500 fans. That’s a lot of tickets needing the right shipping logistics to get to our fans.

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The first week of class is always my favorite time of year. You can feel the energy on campus change from mid-August to mid-September as our student athletes return to Loyola Marymount University to begin training for the upcoming year. The renewed sense of optimism, and the anticipation that comes along with it is evident on the faces of our student athletes and provides me (and professionals like me) with similar joy and optimism.

The students are back and that means intercollegiate athletics are back!

During my eight years as the Director of Business Development for Loyola Marymount University Athletics I have had the pleasure of building relationships and partnerships with a variety of prominent national brands and local businesses. These partnerships range from traditional signage, advertising and marketing opportunities to more creative and innovative strategic marketing and activation plans. Over the years our partners may have changed, but generally the concept has remained the same. Company ABC pays LMU for the right to brand or sell its product through LMU Athletics.

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With all of the sunshine, crowded beaches and endless pool parties, it’s hard to believe that back-to-school is right around the corner. It seems like school just let out for summer vacation! It’s never too early to start planning for the chaos that is August and September. 

Even for the most organized of parents, the weeks leading up to the first day of school can be a whirlwind of crayons, calculators and textbooks. But can you imagine the stress that those first-time college parents feel?

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It’s hard to believe it’s already time for college football, especially when the temperature here in Atlanta is still hanging in the 90 degree range. But whatever the weather, the kick-off of the first game always transports me mentally to the cool, crisp days of autumn, where the smell of bratwursts and hotdogs on the grill and the distant tweet of a referee’s whistle give me a sense that all is right again with the world.

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With the recent heat wave creeping across the country, it’s hard to imagine that kids are getting ready to head back to school. In some ways, it seems like the lazy, hazy days of summer have just begun. Not yet a parent myself, I am reminded otherwise by my family and friends who breathe a sigh of relief each time they see a back-to-school commercial.

Dropping the kids off at the bus stop is one thing but for those parents who are sending their son or daughter off to college, whether for the first or last time, packing up for a year of classes, dorm life, football games and fraternity parties can overwhelm even the most organized. If within driving distance, you can simply pack up the family car and head out but for students who live across the country, a popular choice, and good option, is to ship their possessions.

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UPS employees join hands with community leaders, politicians and celebrities in support of higher education.

Recently, Hands Across California approached UPS with a unique logistical challenge: help them connect a human-line of nearly two million people across a 1,500-mile route using UPS package cars as gathering points for volunteers. In addition, Hands Across California organizers asked if UPS employees would volunteer on the day of the event to ensure the human-line was realized.

From Sacramento to San Diego, and everywhere in between, UPS employees and their families volunteered to either drive package cars or hold hands as part of the line. “I’m here because two of my kids are getting ready to attend community college,” said UPS HR Representative Maura Pina. “It helps us out financially and allows them to get their core classes done before transferring to a four-year college.”

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This past December I had the pleasure of hearing Elmer Jones, Clark Atlanta University student and UPS UNCF scholarship recipient, speak at the Atlanta’s 27th Mayor’s Masked Ball about his life and the opportunities provide by his scholarship.  Elmer’s inspiring story shows how the contributions of companies like UPS provide opportunities for students that often lack options for funding their education.

Since 1997, UPS has provided scholarship grants to the UNCF and committed $200,000 for 2011. These funds support scholarships and program development for more than 60,000 students at 39 member colleges and universities each year.  

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