The school year has finally begun, and now it's time to get the ball rolling for all of the big plans I have for AYCW? this semester! It was a slow start, but now that I have reached out to many administrators, students, and professors, the word about AYCW? is finally starting to spread!
I met with Bruce Roscoe, the Dean of Students as well as Michelle Howard, Director of Academic Advising, and Cindy Rubingh, Director of Student Account Services and University Billing/Loans. I prepared a casual speech and talking points, and they really liked what I had to say! It turns out that they have been looking for a program like this for the past few years, but didn't have the resources to bring it to campus. So after I was done presenting the curriculum to them, they were VERY excited and ready to work with me! They are really going to help me contact other administrators and reach as many students as I possibly can this semester. I'm very pleased that they were so excited about it.
As for events, unfortunately I have not been able to do any yet. There were too many conflicts with cost and scheduling to attend MAINSTAGE. However, I have been focusing on other things that are more beneficial for my program. The first of them being media outreach. This past week I talked with someone from my school magazine, Grand Central, and she ended up asking if she could do a story on my AYCW? campaign. I agreed, so I will be featured in the September 13th issue of Grand Central Magazine online! Will be sure to post the link on this blog.
I have also written an Op-Ed piece that will be submitted into my school newspaper, CM-Life, in response to an article on student debt rising. I hope to get this published in next Wednesday's paper!
As for upcoming plans, I am contacting the University Center at my school and having a Q & A table during lunch hours for a couple days next week. Bruce Roscoe recommended doing this, so I plan on passing out a lot of brochures and promoting AYCW! Before doing this, however, I have to secure a date of an event that I can promote to students, so I will be very busy in the next week or so!
On a side note, the video production is coming a long slower than I thought it would. This is going to be a big project, so it's OK because I know it will turn out awesome in the end!
That is how things have been going for AYCW at CMU. Hope everyone else has had a great week, I know I have!
Hi Krystal,
ReplyDeleteThis is all great progress, especially meeting with your administrators. That's great to hear! A few important things:
1) You HAVE to get an op-ed approved by us before you submit it. Please send this.
2) Please run by other media outreach you do by us first. I realize these things happen coincidentally, but please send us an email as soon as you speak with a reporter. We want to also reach out to that reporter and make sure they have everything they need.
Good luck on your events - don't worry about planning a big event on your own. The best practice we've seen is to piggy back on other events so you have a built-in attendance and don't have to pay for a room.
Let me know if you have questions. Love your enthusiasm.
Jenna