CWC Reflection

I would say my CWC was largely successful because I was able to create an internship packet for Equality Utah. They were already planning on creating something like this but didn’t have the time or manpower, so not only do I think I created some useable documents, but I think they were vital to the success of the program and for Equality Utah itself.

I faced several challenges in the process of this project. First, the fact that I was creating documents for a program that hadn’t been developed yet required a lot of research on my part. After the first meeting they gave me a stack of at least 100 pages of reading to do so I could determine from the beginning the documents we even needed. We needed to identify which roles were necessary around the office, what requirements are typical of such internships, how to market the internship and who to, what design would work best for which internship, and more. I spent a lot of time before even starting the required part of the assignment in preliminary planning for them, in addition to contacting our Career Resource Center to find out what their requirements were. I overcame this simply by setting my mind to the task and realizing that it would benefit them a lot; because I chose a company that I care about, it wasn’t a difficult task to overcome, I just needed to find the time for it. Another challenge I faced was that they often wanted me to come to events to learn more about the company and the people they work with when I really didn’t have the time to go to the events. I have a problem saying no to people, so I ended up going and found them to be very engaging, even though they didn’t really end up helping me in the project.

I had to do an audience analysis for them and they regarded me as an expert for their intended audience. Because we would be marketing the newsletters to college students, they wanted me to understand what would catch a college student’s eye and what a student would be looking for in a good internship, and apply that knowledge to my documents. With this in mind, I tried to create designs that were fun and eye-catching, use character styles to set apart important information for students who were skimming the documents while walking between classes, and overall keep the information in them pertinent. I also needed to recognize the values of the students, understanding that they are looking not only for expertise in their fields but for income; because the internships are unpaid, I needed to market the skills they would gain from the internship well enough to make them seem worth their time.

If I could do it all over again, I wouldn’t do much differently.  I would try to get a hold of the letterhead format and the logo sooner, because in the last week my contact seems to have dropped off the face of the earth and wasn’t able to get that information from me. Otherwise I think this project went really well.

I would give myself an A on this project. I was able to meet all the goals my contact and I set before starting the project and was able to work within their branding guide (which dictated which fonts, colors, and in some cases verbiage I could use) to create quality, usable documents. I put a lot of time and effort into this project and will continue to work with them to make sure they get the internship program in place at Westminster because it is something that we are both very passionate about.