On Monday, Feb. 12, the VSU website announced that “The Bonfire is now live.” The Bonfire coins itself as “the official blog of Blazer Nation.”

“We’ve had the idea for a while now, but we’ve been actively dreaming up ideas, creating content, and designing Bonfire about five months now,” Halle Zimmerman, VSU’s communications specialist, said.

Jessica Pope, the communications and media relations coordinator, aims for the blog to be an engaging experience for the students.

“The Office of Communications and Marketing is always looking for ways to engage with our students, to share their stories, and to help them build a home away from home on campus and in the Valdosta-Lowndes County area,” Pope said. “The Bonfire aligns well with all of our other platforms, including Merit Pages, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat and the VSU Newsroom. It’s another opportunity for us to celebrate and serve our wonderfully diverse and talented Blazer Nation community— and have a little fun in the process.”

The Bonfire Blog was released with little content; Zimmerman states this is because the Communications and Media Relations Department wishes for this to be an interactive opportunity for the students.

“We’d like students to be aware that the Bonfire is in its early stages of life,” Zimmerman said. “We launched the blog with only a small amount of content, so that it and its followers could grow organically together. Relationships take time, and we don’t expect all students to have an instant connect with the platform.”

Zimmerman said she hopes that students eventually have a relationship where they will naturally turn to the Bonfire as a source of information and entertainment.

There was a wide range of feedback from the student body. While some students were not aware of the existence of the Bonfire Blog and some admitted they have no interest in it; others expressed excitement toward the blog.

“I don’t care about it,” Sam Clark, a freshman undecided major, said.

Cassandra Mills, a freshman biology major, said, “It looks pretty cool. It’s good to have a place that has information on it for campus.”

Zimmerman said the Bonfire blog will have topics that could focus on anything from must-have apps for college students and stress management to the inside scoop about on-campus jobs and choosing a major.

Everything posted on the Bonfire blog will be related to one of the following categories: Admissions, Academics, Research, Study Abroad, Campus Life, Spotlight, Local or Explore.

“Without giving away too much, Blazers can look forward to posts that will allow them to see fellow Blazers from a new perspective, inspire them to try out their photography skills, teach them tips and tricks on self-care in college, and remind them of activities they can do to become engrained in the campus community,” Zimmerman said.

Story by Bailyn Rowe, Staff Writer. Photo by Darla Dunning, Content Editor.

For more news stories, look here.