Accomplishments
In my four years at West Virginia University, my biggest accomplishment is gaining confidence to go above and beyond with my creative mindset. Having confidence opened the doors to amazing opportunities on campus.
Women Beyond Bars
One of my most proud accomplishments I had at West Virginia University was the opportunity to work with the Women Beyond Bars student advocacy group. I first heard about the project through my strategic communications research class, and having personal experiences with incarceration in my family, I felt compelled to do more.
In the Fall of 2020, I joined the Event Planning class in creating a virtual event of 500 individuals to learn how to break the stigma surrounding incarceration. Piper Kerman, author of Orange is the new Black, and Dwayne Betts, author of Felon offered their expertise and guidance as our keynote speakers and then we had 20 breakout rooms in which guests had the opportunity to choose a topic they wanted to learn more about.
At the end of the semester, our class organized gift baskets to give to the breakout speakers which included a signed book by our keynote speakers and the "I am breaking the stigma" illustration you see below.
Without being asked to create this "thank you card," I pitched the idea to my teacher and she helped me strategize ideas to create the image.
I am most proud of this, because it was my confidence that helped me go above and beyond for this class.
Martin Hall Agency
My biggest career accomplishment to Advertising would have to be working alongside 20 other talented students as an account service manager at the award-winning student-run advertising and public relations agency on campus, the Martin Hall Agency.
I was able to build my portfolio and practice what it is like to work for real world clients.
I worked directly with the client in creating a new website design, two public service announcements, two videos designed for training and information, and also created another promotional sticker for them to use.
In addition to client work, we also improved our own agency by learning how to transition into a digital agency, kept up to date on our social media platforms, and I also had the opportunity to publish a blog on learning how to illustrate digitally on our agency website.
