MTSU recreates stay-at-home version of ‘I Am True Blue’ video amid COVID-19

Middle Tennessee State University has embraced technology and stay-at-home restrictions to recreate its most recent “I Am True Blue” video where members of the campus community reaffirms the institution’s values.

Since adopting its “I Am True Blue” mantra in 2011, the Blue Raider campus has started each year with a short 30-second video that shows students, faculty, staff and alumni reading elements of the True Blue Pledge, which affirms core values such as service to community, citizen engagement and a commitment to nonviolence, among others.

With COVID-19 disrupting the academic year and requiring a switch to remote learning, the university recently asked the same group of 16 community members from its August 2019 video to recreate their recitation of the pledge from social isolation and submit clips to be incorporated into the new version. The video can be viewed above.

The video features each person reciting the same portion of the pledge while an inset image of their appearance in last year’s video is visible in the bottom left of the screen. Here is the August 2019 version:

“Thank you so much to these Blue Raiders for giving their time to help us share our True Blue message of hope,” MTSU President Sidney A. McPhee said of the new video. “Keep pushing and keep striving. We are all in this together. Stay on Course.”

In both the August 2019 and April 2020 videos, in order of appearance:

Delanie McDonald – public relations major; MTSU Student Government Association president
Jewel Wallace-Mcleod – nutrition and food science major; event coordinator for the Nutrition and Dietetics Association
Aidan Galdino – aerospace-professional pilot major; MTSU Men’s Soccer Club player
Dr. Guanping Zheng – interim vice provost for international affairs
Makayla Stubblefield – speech-language pathology and audiology major; Blue Elite, student orientation assistant
Ginger Freeman – director, Alumni Relations; MTSU alumnus (’89 and ’92)
Ben Sawyer – senior instructor, history; producer and co-host of “The Road to Now” podcast
Sarah Besand – elementary education major; student orientation assistant
Sarah Oppmann – theatre and media and entertainment major; College of Liberal Arts emissary
Dr. Nicky Wu – assistant professor, leisure, sport and tourism studies
Shepherd and Emery Flowers – Homer Pittard Campus School students; future Blue Raiders
Kayla Henley – business major; MTSU Women’s volleyball player
Donovan Sims – leisure, sport and tourism studies major; MTSU men’s basketball player
Mayce Vaughan – psychology major; vice president of administration of Alpha Omicron Pi; student orientation assistant
Andrew Oppmann – vice president for marketing and communications