For the past several years, the Fordham Career Center has successfully hosted Humanities Day at the Rose Hill campus, a student-driven program that brings together students, alumni, employers, faculty, and staff to celebrate the remarkable strengths and possibilities associated with a humanities education. After the program had grown at Rose Hill and simultaneously led to the formation of the Humanities Student Ambassadors group, the Career Center team decided the best expansion plan would be to launch the event at Lincoln Center, recognizing the vibrant arts and humanities culture at the Midtown Manhattan campus and understanding that most students wouldn’t be able to commute to the alternate campus for such a lengthy event.
Initially, my team planned to mirror the event at Lincoln Center. After analyzing student enrollment and major population differences between the two campuses, I noticed that the Lincoln Center campus had a substantially higher population of arts students, as the programs primarily exist on that campus, and that the majority of students studying the more traditional humanities areas were based at Rose Hill. With this, I suggested that the event be altered to cater to this different population, and that introducing a more distinct event could also make it more compelling for students who split their time between campuses.
Cole Chaloupka, student engagement specialist, served as the event’s lead coordinator, with his Rose Hill counterpart, Allyson Blatz, and me serving as support and consultants in the planning process. I developed the marketing plan for the events and all related visual assets used to promote the event to prospective students, alumni, and employer attendees. Fordham-specific channels, including cross-campus iTV displays, Fordham Now, RamConnect individual outreach, and Handshake targeted emails, were used to reach the student and alumni audience. Humanities Student Ambassadors and office student workers assisted in the filming and editing of content for the Career Center’s social media pages. In addition to managing promotional components and producing day-of media, such as event photos and archival recordings, I provided programming and scheduling consultation. I also supported performing arts-specific segments, which included dance team communication recommendations and setting guidelines related to traditional stage management and company management responsibilities.
The event attracted over 60 attendees, approximately 15% more than the initial goal.
Leave a Reply