Storytelling for Changemakers - DC Central Kitchen
End of Semester Reflection:
One of the biggest lessons I learned this semester is to be very confident and to stand by my work no matter what you might think the client's reaction will be on presentation day. All semester my group was concerned about our app redesign and campaign to DCCK since they did not seem to want to change anything about the app when we first brought up our idea. After our presentation, the comments from DCCK were a lot more supportive of our ideas than I imagined. They liked our design so much that they ended up implementing a lot of our ideas such as the recipes page and the easier navigation bar. I was very proud of our group and class because DCCK was not an easy first client, but all of us managed to present solid and creative ideas to DCCK that they will be implementing into the Healthy Corners program.
While I have had at least one internship every semester since starting my PR major, Storytellers for Changemakers gave me opportunities and new skills for my toolbox that none of my internships have given me. While I have been able to experience some amazing events and campaigns through my various internships, Storytellers for Changemakers allowed me to create a concept and take it through all of the stages from the creative brief to design thinking and the development stages to finally present to our client, which I have never done. Knowing that we had to present directly to the client in person was something that intimidated me at first but knowing that I want to go into the PR field, I know presenting to clients is something I will often need to do. Storytellers for Changemakers gave us so many “real-world” practice opportunities that my other classes have never given me, and I am so grateful I had the opportunity to take the class this semester.
Final Presentation Slides
Public Relations Portfolio - Lumin-us
For my senior capstone project, my class was assigned three clients. My group worked with Lumin-us, a start-up non-profit. Lumin-us is an authentic online community encouraging positivity and empowering "mental wealth" amongst young adults and Gen Z (ages 15-35) via peer-to-peer social interaction, storytelling and sharing, support, belonging, optimism, and more.
By posing question prompts such as 'What's your bright spot?', Lumin-us stimulates reflection and sharing the positives in our lives. Below is our final slide deck showing all of the work we did throughout the semester.
Visual Literacy - Follies Final Presentation Slides
Final Project Reflection
In our final group project, I took charge with a few other members. I would make the zoom links and coordinate with everyone for what time worked best to have full group meetings. I worked with Kaitlyn on the Instagram posts and stories. Angelina worked on the other social media options including YouTube, Facebook, and TikTok. Catalina took charge in editing the videos and collected shots from Fatima and Angelina. Catalina, Kaitlyn, and I also worked on finding local DC moms that were Instagram influencers that could be potential partners with Follies. Fatima worked on creating the mascot Fred Follie and the comic strip that highlighted “The Adventures of Fred and Farrah”. Finally, Elijah worked on the online event our group wanted to create. Although these were our group members had designated parts, a few of us also helped out in other areas of the presentation.
Our client, Chloe, did a great job supplying our group with extensive notes on what she wants her brand to look like to her audience as well as what she hopes it will become. We got to meet with her a few weeks before the final project was due to ask questions and take notes on her main goals. Our professor helped us communicate with Chole when we had questions and helped us gather content from Chole. Our professor also helped every group while creating our presentations to tell us what flow and what didn’t. She was a big help when it came to making our final presentations because she wanted us to put our best foot forward for Chloe.
I think the final product focuses on all aspects of visual literacy that we studied this semester including photography, design, and video. While a lot of our presentation is design heavy, I definitely think that we did a great job including photo and video since we are on a online platform and could not have the product or the ability to meet up with group members to take pictures and videos. Our group tried to keep our presentation as close to the Follies color scheme as possible (primary colors, black, and white), but we were also very creative with the limited color pallet. I think the overall presentation flows well and although we were in separate places while working on this project, we understood each other and kept our ideas cohesive.
I have a lot of other friends studying communications at various universities around the world, and I don’t think anyone has had the opportunity to do real world work in their classes. The experience that I had researching and working on content for Follies helped me learn a lot about social media analytics and branding for social media pages. I also learned more techniques and skills on Canva, Photoshop, and Procreate. I used a mixture of programs to create the Instagram stories in the presentation because I had to Photoshop our mascot onto some of the pictures, I had to use Canva for some of the shapes and text I included on the stories, and I used Procreate to draw shapes and outlines on some of the images. In addition to learning more about editing software, I also learned a lot about what would be expected from me in an internship.
For future classes that work on this project, I definitely recommend working as far in advance as possible. There are a lot of elements to this project, and the project can get overwhelming when it starts overlapping with other end of semester projects and finals in your other classes. Another suggestion would be to communicate with your group all the time. Don’t be afraid to ask questions, ask for help, or give complements to other group members. Finally, take as many notes as possible in your client meeting so that you have as much information about the client’s goals and expectations. My notes helped a lot in our group meetings because I could refer back to them when a group member had a question, and I most likely had the answer.