This past semester, I took the Spring Service course, as part of the requirements for completion of the Castle Scholars Honors Program at Manhattanville College. The course intends for the students to plan and participate in the annual Undergraduate Research & Creative Achievement Fair. In my course, just four students registered due to ongoing regulations and concerns related to the COVID-19 pandemic. While we were a strong group, we proved to be strong and successful in our pursuits.
Typically, the fair is held in person in the stunning Reid Castle and features an open table time, as well as scheduled presentations. However, we would be unable to host an in-person fair with guests. At the time, it seemed like a massive hurdle to overcome, especially since we were the first group to have to plan an online fair. However, this became an opportunity for me to share my skills, as I was the only member of the group with any form of digital media experience.
Within the first few weeks, I took the lead on selecting a web platform and designing the website. I also collaborated with my peers on developing a marketing and publicity plan to recruit students to submit their work to be featured, and independently developed the graphics and branding materials for promotional use. In addition to using traditional campus communication tools, such as the undergraduate email list, we chose to collaborate with student clubs, student-facing departments, and academic department heads to develop a more personalized approach in a call for submissions. We later built on this existing marketing campaign to promote the fair itself once the site went live.
As half the team began to filter through submission, my classmate and I began to format the approved submissions and import them into the website. As a team, we added our own academic projects to boost the total project count. I chose to include an essay from my Writing for the Media course, my research project from my Castle Scholars course on the Chemistry of Cannabis, and collaborated with my photo club to develop a digital gallery based on the concept of the Valiant Identity.
In total, we received nearly thirty submissions for presentation and the site received over three hundred visits within the first week of the launch, both of which are considerably higher than average years. Our campus community sent dozens of emails filled with praise as well. The completion of the fair was an excellent example of creative problem-solving, adaptation, and the success that follows the collaboration of Castle Scholars!
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