College Portfolio
My college portfolio consists of a diverse, well-rounded collection of communications experience, specializing in new media, web publishing, video production, campaign development, research, and press writing:
Leadership Experience
Internship Experience
Campaign Development/New Media
- Elon Emagine
- Pete Campaign, Alamance Veterinary Hospital
- The Campus Secrets
- Residential Treatment Services of Alamance County
- The Face of Time: Interpreting a Glance at the World’s Newsmagazine
- Lighthouse: Scanning the Horizon
- The Pendulum Features Article
- Village of Alamance News Release
Leadership Experience
Preheat 350
Founder and Executive Director of Elon University’s premier student-run cooking show. Preheat 350 catered to college students by focusing on the “CHEF” concept — preparing meals that were Cheap, Healthy, Easy, and Fast — all of the ingredients student viewers were searching for in a culinary adventure. Seeking a leadership position and aligning one of my personal interests with my communications skills, I quickly realized most Elon students had access to a kitchen and were interested in preparing their own meals, but had no televion food programming catered to them. Designing and directing “Preheat 350″ was one of my favorite college experiences.
A “Taste” of Preheat 350 (5-minute clip):
Internship Experience
NAA Media Intern
Joining NAA, a leading financial services company as a summer intern was a thrilling experience. Working in the media department, I was involved in:
- conducting one-on-one interviews with NAA leadership executives
- the editing and production of video for DVD and online publication
- auditing media equipment inventory
- creating a video schedule for NAA TV, the organization’s online video training site
- click here to view a profile video I helped produce about Andy Albright, the organization’s CEO and President
Campaign Development/New Media Work
Elon Emagine
Elon Emagine was the capstone project in my Spring 2009 Millennial Imagination philosophy course. The concept proposed several ideas to improve the campus, including a plan to stimulate a local, green economy, move campus events outdoors, create a more student-centered curriculum, and install a new bike rental system. Students used their strongest talents to contribute to the project; I volunteered my web publishing skills:
- In only two days, 90% of the site’s framework and content was published, therefore demonstrating my ability to design and publish content quickly.
- The site contains several multimedia/Web 2.0 features, including an RSS feed of “green” news, images and video of Emagine students, and a comprehensive links page extending personalized, relevant content to interested viewers.
- Within two weeks after launch, the site had received 577 views — proof that my experience in web publishing and viral word-of-mouth-marketing can form dramatic results. View Site.
Pete Campaign, Alamance Veterinary Hospital
Eager to develop a campaign for a local veterinarian searching for fresh perspectives for lead generation, I was part of a small team that led an innovative, strategic, results-driven campaign during my Fall 2008 Corporate Campaigns course.
Part of our campaign included an online component consisting of an interactive blog, and a strategic presence on Twitter and YouTube. Conceptually, Burlington, NC pet owners would discover “Pete,” a fictitious dog patron of Alamance Veterinary Hospital via signs at local dog parks and follow his life online. The strategy was to entertain and engage local pet owners while slowly introducing the Alamance Vet Brand.
Pete’s Twitter Page
The Meet Pete Blog
Pete was a fundamental element of the campaign for Alamance Veterinary Hospital. This campaign required extensive research, knowledge, and understanding of our target publics. View a sample of our research or download the entire campaign outline. I look forward to conducting similar campaign work in the future.
The Campus Secrets
Having a strong desire to incorporate new media into my Spring 2008 Restorative Justice philosophy course, I created a simple blog to share with the world anonymous secrets from other Elon students. Secrets were submitted anonymously using SurveyMonkey.com and artistically digitally reproduced using Adobe Photoshop CS3.
Residential Treatment Services of Alamance County
Designed in Adobe Flash CS3, this site is the online presence of Residential Treatment Services of Alamance County, a Burlington, NC substance abuse and alcohol addiction recovery organization.
- Facilitated the exchange of information between the client and the web team to ensure the site was comprehensive and fulfilled all of the clients’ needs,
- Conducted video interviews, and captured other media to provide an online tour of the facilities.
Working with other Fall 2007 Web Publishing students and just-released web publishing software to build an online presence illustrated many skills: successful collaboration, interpersonal communication/professional relationship management, and the ability to learn new software very quickly. View Site.
Video Work
No Green
In recent years, the green movement has swiftly snowballed into a gigantic force in our lives. Within the entertainment industry, organizations, production studios, actors, and cinemas are all working to achieve a greener profile, but the industry as a whole remains very toxic. For my Spring 2009 Great Ideas: Senior Capstone course, this public service announcement was one component of a team project involving two other students.
The public service announcement encourages film/cinema majors and the rest of Hollywood to go green. We wanted to incorporate our media skills into the project and utilize the power of the internet to spread our message.
This video was part of a larger online project; view the No Green site here. We also utilized a Wetpaint site to spread the message and published our essay using Issuu; click here to view the user-interactive PDF.
Marilyn Monroe: The Life and Legend
Asked to produce a short video investigating a significant piece of American pop culture for my Spring 2008 Media History class, my group decided to tell the Marilyn Monroe story. Titled “Marilyn Monroe: The Life and Legend,” this video examines Norma Jeane’s cultural phenomenon and the transition of women’s sexuality from a post WWII America to the 1960′s. Although this was a group project, I took a lead role designing the overall narration and wrote all copy.
Plaid Day Promo
Co-produced with another student media relations coordinator, this video creates an online viral buzz for Plaid Day — an annual event honoring the history of a small North Carolina town. The video received more than 70 hits three weeks prior to the 2008 Plaid Day in October.
Research Work
The Face of Time: Interpreting a Glance at the World’s Newsmagazine
. . . The political news events that graced the cover of Time so frequently illustrate the importance politics still maintains in our lives. Perhaps that is so because so much rests upon the men (and women) in office. The difference between war and peace, access to health care, varying perspectives on vast social issues such as abortion and civil rights, the health of the economy, and so much else have everything to do with elections and policy decisions . . .
Fascinated by the covers of news magazines and print journalism’s role as an agenda setter, I examined more than 500 Time covers from 1998-2008 for my Fall 2008 Media Culture course. Coding the individual/topic week-to-week revealed several interesting trends and observations. Week-to-week, political issues dominated the cover, appearing more frequently than topics on sports, corruption/scandals, energy, technology, crises, environment, education, history, science, and the economy combined. To learn more about the research study, click here to view major findings or click here to download the full report.
Lighthouse: Scanning the Horizon
After decades in operation, Elon’s most popular tavern and live-music venue, the Lighthouse, closed. Eager to keep the facility a popular destination for student recreation, the university purchased the property and university administration asked Spring 2007 Communications Research students to collect student input on the future of the Lighthouse. My team coordinated a focus group and used simple-random sampling to gain more than 900 responses. We organized, analyzed, and interpreted the data in a 25-page report and presented our findings to university administration. Click here to view major findings or click here to download the full report.
Writing Samples
The Pendulum Features Article
An approximately 500-word article published in Elon University’s student newspaper, The Pendulum. Evaluates the progress of dining services’ efforts to reduce plastic water bottle consumption. Click here to view the article online or download the published page as a PDF:
Download Features Article (PDF)
Village of Alamance News Release
This news release announces the return of the annual “Plaid Day” event held in the Village of Alamance in central NC.
Other Work Experience
In addition to my professional development, I have six years of customer service, retail, and food/hospitality service experience. I have used these opportunities to finance my education and gain critical customer service and problem solving skills. I worked approximately 30 hours per week while enrolled in college full-time, therefore demonstrating my keen time management skills. I have worked for the following organizations:
