All in a Day's Work - Guest Blogger

Vol 2. No. 29

All in a Day’s Work

Our Guest Blogger this week is FLCC’s Assistant Director of Marketing and Creative Services. She’s introducing the new Honors Studies online presence and giving insight into the “how and why” behind flcc.edu/honors

If you’re a current or future FLCC student, you probably don’t know me, but you’ve likely read A LOT of my words and seen A LOT of my work. I’m generally pretty anonymous around here, and yet, you and I have had something of a conversation going as you’ve read the different things I’ve written for the College. I have a long title, but it won’t really describe what I do or why it matters to you, so here’s a quick overview of my work instead:

• I created the printed publications that were mailed to your home to introduce you to FLCC when you first started making your college plans. From blank sheets of paper to what you held in your hand, I created those pieces. Same goes for a lot of the posters and handouts around campus, not to mention those fancy driveway banners you passed on your way onto campus.
• I played a major role in the FLCC commercials that you’ve seen on TV or on YouTube. (Shameless plugs: Find Your Fit , Find Your Path , and Find Your Future. Can you believe that we did all that with just a handful of FLCC employees, and we featured our actual faculty and students!? And I’m sure you noticed that Honors was highlighted, of course!).  
• I’ve played a pretty big role in the photos and written words on many of FLCC’s webpages, which you have certainly visited many times as you’ve navigated your college experience. From homepage banners to the nitty gritty about academic programs, I’ve crafted many of the words you’ve read on the FLCC website.

That last bullet is the one that matters the most to Honors fans today as we announce the launch of a completely revamped web presence for FLCC’s Honors Studies. In addition to unveiling the new webpages (and, honestly, bragging just a little bit), I’d like to give you a glimpse behind the curtain. It’s not everyday that I get to share our behind-the-scenes process with our web visitors!

Everything you see at flcc.edu/honors was the result of collaborative work between Trista Merrill (Director of Honors Studies), Chuck Woods (Web Services Coordinator), and me. As a trio, our individual workload ebbed and flowed as the project shifted from one phase to another, giving each of us the chance to really hone in on our unique contributions from our separate areas of expertise.

We kicked off the project with a fact-finding mission to collect as much information as possible about Honors. As we culled through the information, we organized data and created a roadmap for the webpages. Once we had a skeleton in place, we got to work fleshing it out with written content and photography. For me, this is really the fun part, especially with an area like Honors Studies. We know that intellectual exploration and self-reflection are at the heart of Honors Studies, so every word and every photo were intentionally selected; together, they illustrate the uniqueness of Honors Studies. Once the pages were created, our team of three reviewed and approved, made minor modifications, and launched the live pages.

Typically, that’s where web projects resolve. However, Honors Studies has always maintained a great social media presence, so we decided to incorporate the Honors Twitter, Facebook, Blogspot, and Flickr pages into our project, giving each of them the same look and feel as the new webpages for a cohesive web experience from the FLCC site to the various social media platforms. These makeovers were important in this project because we know that the Honors community is tightknit, and engagement isn’t limited to seminars; we know that Honors students and faculty continue their conversations online after the class adjourns, and social media is an important part of that connection.

The overarching goal of our project was to showcase the Honors experience, both through words and visuals. This meant not only describing the experience, but describing it in a specific way: it’s a conversation that we’ve started with the reader, tapping into their curiosity and desire to do more, learn more, and explore more. I hope that as you interact with these new webpages, you’ll agree that we’re reflecting the Honors values and paying homage to the Honors experience that we’ve heard about from so many different perspectives.

You already know that Honors Studies provides an unbelievable opportunity to engage with other learners, expand your learning, and explore both new and familiar topics in unexpected ways. Believe me, this isn’t an experience that you’ll find everywhere, so I hope that you’ll take full advantage of Honors during your time at FLCC, and I hope our new online presence will encourage other learners to delve into Honors Studies, too!