XYZ Technologies Introduces Revolutionary Oxygen System

The following is a press release I was tasked to write and edit within an hour for a fictional medical technology company:

Boston, MA – May 25, 2014 – XYZ Technologies has announced the release of the Eclipse™ Oxygen System, a cutting-edge oxygen concentrator that provides both pulse and continuous flow operation in a lightweight, portable unit. The Eclipse™ System is the first of its kind to offer both the freedom of portability and the utility of pulse and continuous flow operation. The system is manufactured at the XYZ facilities in San Diego, CA and will be released on March 11, 2014.

XYZ Technologies sought to create a product that gives patients who suffer from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) a way to travel without having to carry out-of-date, cumbersome oxygen bottles. The product will be sold to home health care providers, who serve patients with COPD and other patients in the home health care market.

“The Eclipse was conceived to meet the needs of an aging yet active generation,” said XYZ Chairman and CEO Jim James. “It allows bedridden or home-bound patients to be ambulatory and to travel, freeing them from 50-pound stationary home oxygen concentrators and outdated compressed gas cylinder technology.”

The Eclipse™ Oxygen System was tested for personal use in a beta program that saw COPD patients wanting to keep the device because it gave them freedom they hadn’t enjoyed since contracting the disease. The Eclipse™ has also been tested in battlefield conditions by the U.S. Army, which estimates that the use of portable concentrators can save millions of dollars a year that is currently being spent transporting and storing oxygen tanks.

XYZ Technologies is currently in negotiations with manufacturers in Taiwan, Vietnam, Malaysia, Mexico and China to support anticipated growth in sales.

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About XYZ Technologies

XYZ was founded in 1991 and offers a family of innovative products ranging from the 3 LPM (liter-per-minute) continuous flow portable Eclipse™ to its popular, compact, easy-to-use bedside 10 LPM unit. More than 80,000 oxygen systems in use today rely on XYZ’s proven technology. XYZ’s air separation systems are used for industrial applications such as water purification, oxygenation for aquaculture, producing feed gas for ozone generators, or for any other processes needing high-purity, dry oxygen or nitrogen on site. XYZ is a private company and is based in San Diego, CA.

How to Get a Job Using Social Media

I made this video to apply for an internship at an Advertising Agency in Boston after speaking with them on twitter (here's a full description of the exchange). Hopefully my next video will be "How to use social media to get an internship and have it turn into a job after it's over." Because this one didn't work for that.

PS: The Ryan Gosling joke was in reference to bad acting, not looks.

Feature news story about student loans

A Game of Distraction

BRISTOL, R.I. __ He’s sprinting through a field, unnerved. As chaos surrounds him, he is calm. The look on his face is unchanging and determined; he knows that there are nine people trying to stop him lined up exactly where he is headed. But he forgot about the one behind right up until the moment a sword is thrust through his back. A crimson flash and a violent jerk in all it’s animated glory lights up the screen.

“I never get through that part,” said Michael Roberts, a senior at Roger Williams University. “They always get me.”

Michael, 22, walks to the television and hits the switch and the room goes quiet. He is sitting on the couch in his apartment, somewhat annoyed to be taken away from his distraction. Michael is around six feet tall and has a slightly thin build. His face is round with a five o'clock shadow and slightly tanned. Michael, like many other students, has amassed tens of thousands of dollars of student loans after four years of college and is about to enter the workforce with this debt.

“I never really understood what student loans were until recently,” said Michael. “I would just go to the bursar’s office twice a year, sign a check, and then go back to what I was doing.”

And Michael is not alone. The issue of student debt has become a national problem. According to The Chronicle of Education 12 million students take out student loans every year. The Federal Reserve Board of New York claims that there are 37 million people with outstanding student loans today. When a student who takes out loans exits college they are already saddled with debt without even a day in the workforce. And this debt does not go away easily. It is estimated that 60 percent of student loan borrowers are still in debt in their thirties.

Michael tries not to think about this. The concept of debt is so foreign to him. It is an abstract concept, not truly real.

“I have seen instances where students treat loans like monopoly money,” said Don Troop, Financial Education Reporter for the Chronicle of Higher Education. “They don’t worry about it when they’re in school and they keep letting the loan amount creep up, and now student loan debt has surpassed $1 trillion.”

This type of thinking by students is what fuels the national debt issue. It leads to graduates with no work experience being thrusted into a world already saddled with debt.

“Michael told me that he didn’t even think about loans until I started complaining about my own a few years ago,” said Michael’s sister, Emily Roberts. “He probably has more warning than I did.”

The problem is invisible, but it is everywhere on a college campus. The blond freshman playing frisbee on the quad between classes is in debt. The fat junior walking through the rain, shrugging his shoulders is in debt. The sophomore playing guitar in his closet sized dorm room is in debt. But none of them are thinking about it while they are distracted.

“Student loans don’t really affect the way I live day-to-day,” said Michael. “ I wouldn’t make any financial decisions based on student loans. If I go to the grocery store I won’t specifically buy cheaper things to save money on student loans because it wouldn’t make that much of a difference.”

For Michael and many students alike, student loans are nothing more than a glimmer of a thought in the back of their minds. Michael knows he should be thinking about them and planning for them, but he has other things to do.

In five weeks when a new graduate class enters the postgraduate world they bring with them their debt. According to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York the graduates bring with them an average of $24,000 of debt that starts collecting interest immediately in most cases.

“I’m probably not as worried as I should be right now,” said Michael, as he turned his video game back on. “But I think it will just be like paying an electric, water, or cable bill. It’s just something you have to do.”