Final Project-
M.S. Global Media and Cultures
As part of my studies in the M.S. Global Media and Cultures program at Georgia Institute of Technology, I partnered with two departments at Johns Hopkins University to complete my final project and internship. Considering that utilizing multimedia for higher education was one of my primary goals when entering the program, this project proved to be an excellent learning opportunity, giving me a first-hand perspective of media work in a university setting.
Over the course of my internship within the departments of Hopkins Semester DC and the Life Design Lab, I contributed to department goals while simultaneously enhancing my media and technology skills. Ultimately, the projects completed during this time provided key career resources for current students, established a stronger overall media presence, and enhanced general awareness of both programs.
Please see more details below.
Hopkins Semester DC
Hopkins Semester DC
The DC Semester Abroad program provides an opportunity for undergraduate students to spend an immersive semester living, studying, and working in Washington, DC as they engage in research on a major project regarding themes of Policy and International Relations. Students engage in co-curricular activities such as embassy visits, museum tours, and cooking demos that complement time in the classroom and experiential learning.
Since the department did not have any website or media presence, it gave the opportunity to start from the beginning. With this in mind, I collaborated with the director of the program to establish a written media strategy that could be used as a guide for creating media content with a consistent message across different platforms which future interns and employees can use as reference. For example, we decided that Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn would be the most relevant media channels to use for the audience which would consist of prospective students, current students, alumni, and administrators. After establishing the media plan based on the intended audience and program goals, I made a content calendar consisting of 1-2 months of content for Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn. These posts began in July and go through September as requested by the director.
Considering that the director has a busy schedule and this responsibility will likely go to a future intern or student worker, I used the program Later.com to schedule the posts. This way, it shows the content and captions in a visual calendar where anyone with the login can view and edit. This was helpful for the director as she was able to login and approve the posts at her convenience and allowed me to continue working on future content at the same time. I also joined the director on virtual orientation calls for the students. This allowed me to learn more about the program, share our media channels, and connect with the students about ways to collaborate for future social media posts.
Please see a sample of social media posts below:
Life Design Lab
Life Design Lab
The Life Design Lab (LDL) supports and serves all undergraduates and masters students in the Krieger and Whiting College of Arts and Sciences, regardless of post-graduate plans. Through the LDL, students have access to a variety of resources such as life design programs and courses, experiential learning opportunities, career search and development programs and guidance, as well as networking opportunities and connections with alumni and employers.
Although the Life Design Lab serves all students at Johns Hopkins, I was asked to work on materials for the graduate students specifically within the College of Arts and Sciences and the College of Engineering. The first task was to redesign the graduate student webpage based on the new goals and objectives presented by the department staff and faculty. The department gave an example of the design they wanted to implement and mentioned that it would be important that the information focuses on connecting students to relevant resources. Each week I would meet with Senior Communications Manager, Maren Gonzales, to discuss the changes I made and she would give feedback on the design and information.
After completing the initial redesign of the website, we met with the Department Director, Dr. Yasir Kurt. I led this meeting to go over the various components of the website as well as explaining the reasoning behind each section of the website. For example, some sections of the page were not able to be executed exactly as the example given by the department since the platform uConnect that we were using had certain limitations. Additionally, we made changes to make the information more relevant or user-friendly for students. Although we made many changes from the given example, we still incorporated all of the sections and information that the department wanted to include, but would edit the layout and format to better benefit the audience.
