Pi Beta Phi - University of Southern California

5 chaPTer house anD Pi Phi colleGian are shoWcaseD in ikea PromoTion Left: Maryelizabeth O'Donnell '14 and YouTube influencer Remi Ashton Cruz. right: Alina Vergara '09, center, is pictured at a USC game last year with her senior year roommates Kassie Rosales '09 (left) and Jenny Malin '09. aryelizabeth o'Donnell '14 and our chapter house had starring roles this summer in an Ikea video showcasing the makeover of a young woman's college room. The idea to use a chapter house bedroom as the set was suggested by Alina Vergara '09, who works in the entertainment industry. Alina suggested the chapter house to industry colleagues at Fullscreen Brandworks. The team was looking for a video location featuring popular YouTube influencer remi Ashton Cruz, who was partnering with Ikea to make over a college room on her YouTube channel, MissremiAshton. An offer was also made to feature a collegian in the production. Our executive board suggested Maryelizabeth for this role. "I've done a couple of shoots for big brands before, but they were all very script-based," Maryelizabeth says. "This shoot was different since it was surrounding remi and her specific niche of dIY projects. I had never worked with a YouTube influencer like remi before, but she was so incredibly sweet and down-to-earth." YouTube influencers like remi are people with channels on YouTube who have a large subscriber base. remi, at just 21 years of age, has over 1.4 million subscribers. The video filmed at the chapter house, called "Back to College room Makeover!!" has had over 217,000 views as of september 6. It can be viewed on the YouTube channel, MissremiAshton, where there is a link to Ikea's Back to College section of its website. In the video, remi suggests ideas to make over Maryelizabeth's fictional room, using products from Ikea. The production shows the process of creating design solutions, and the reveal of the finished room. This is Maryelizabeth's second year living in the chapter house. "My favorite thing has to be the deck," she says. "There is a small grass/patio area, and I've never seen such breathtaking sunsets as I have up there." "Acting is definitely a career goal for me," she says. "In fact, when I came to UsC, I was set on becoming an entertainment lawyer. However, things have definitely changed. Though I'm still an economics major and a cinematic arts minor, I spend all my free time going on auditions, filming student films and writing my own short films." Maryelizabeth was recently in a Chevrolet commercial that has almost two million views online. Alina graduated from UsC in 2013 with a degree in dramatic arts and minors in psychology and spanish. "I've had several day jobs to help kick-start my dream to be an actress," she says. she has worked at Porchlight entertainment Inc., the company she interned at as a collegian, and now works full time at Fox Broadcasting Company in business affairs. she has enjoyed traveling through south America and europe, shooting small acting gigs, and working in film as a production coordinator. she collaborates with friends on short film projects in her free time and is preparing to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro in Africa this december. The production fee, paid for by the shoot, benefitted the chapter house.

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