Running head: EXPERIENTIAL PAPER 1

Experiential paper
Alexandra Paulin
Practicum Portfolio
Spring 2014
Kent State University

EXPERIENTIAL PAPER 2

Just like most graduating college students, I have no idea what I want to do with my life
now that I have acquired my degree. Half of me wants to continue on in academia and research
differ aspects of to how the media is affecting children, while the other half just wants to stay in
the office/ cubical world. Each of these have their own advantages and disadvantages but the
experience I received during my internship, at the Fairmount Center for the Arts in Novelty,
Ohio, will help me in both of these career paths. While at Fairmount I accomplished things I
knew I could do well and others that I had no idea what I was doing. But, with the help of fellow
staff members, I figured out what needed to be done and how to accomplish it and in the end
produced a great project. I completed work in the fields of visual communication design (VCD),
journalism/mass communications (JMC), and communications. It developed my skills as a
designer, writer and communicator. Throughout my paper, I will be discussing each of these
communication based fields and the work I accomplished in each of them. As well as, the
important skills that I learned and how they will help me further my career.
I have been working and learning about the graphic design/ visual communication design
world for more than eight years. I took an Excel Tec program in high school, studded it while
attending the Art Institute of Pittsburgh and am currently working for a marketing company as a
design specialist. So I had a large base of this knowledge going into the internship. I used this
knowledge to produce several promotional materials for the Fairmount Center. I created flyers
welcoming back students to the new season and promoting certain classes. These where projects
that I found to be extremely easy and didnt not take up to much time during my day so I could
help my project director, Sarah, with other projects. But there were projects that changed me to
create. The promotional bookmark project was probably the hardest project I had assigned to me
within the VCD realm.
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During this project, I stepped out of my comfort zone and ended up creating a great piece
of work. I am used to designing projects like this within Adobe Photoshop but had to use
Microsoft Word since the work computers were not equipped with that program. I found this to
the hardest part of the project. I looked at some of the templates that Work offered for creating
promotional bookmarks to see how I could accomplish the design. I then created the basic
outline, which featured Fairmounts log jumping out of the top of the bookmark and created the
outline of the information. I coped this three other times and spaced them throughout the
document. I then begin to play with different fonts and ways of displaying the upcoming
exhibition information. Once I settled on a concept I thought look good I asked Sarah for
approval, so I wouldnt spend too much time producing something that was not what she was
looking for. Once I made the adjustments to the front side of each of the bookmarks, I copied and
pasted the outline to another page that would become the backside of the bookmarks. On this
side I focused on information to hold and exhibition of their own, how to volunteer, and other
important information about the center. One I completed both side of the bookmark I did a test
print. Each side looked great but did not line up like I was expecting them too. This was a hard
thing to fix due to the fact that Word does not offer poll down guide lines. I continued to try and
realign both sides of the bookmark. I did several test prints until, ten attempts later, I had finally
got them to print properly.
There were times while creating this project that I felt discouraged and wanted to throw
in the towel but I didnt. I stuck through the troubles and in the end created a great promotional
item that will be handed out at the receptions to the art exhibitions the Fairmount Center hosts.
While this assignment was rather hard to complete properly, it taught me a lot that I will be able
to use in my career. It forced me to experience designing in a program not meant for designing,
EXPERIENTIAL PAPER 4

which made me more resilient when it comes to software differences that each company has.
And that I wont always accomplish what I want on the first try but the more I keep trying the
more likely I am to prevail in the end.
Another realm of communications that I completed work in was journalism/mass
communication. I had previously studied advertising at both the Art Institute of Pittsburgh and
here at Kent State University. While the Art Institute was more designed based the Kent State
program, which is based in the School of Journalism and Mass Communications, helped me the
most during this internship. Specifically the Media Writing class, I learned how to write in AP
style which is the required format for newspapers and other publications, write press releases and
write features on people and current events. All of which I used during my internship at
Fairmount.
While I may not have learned anything new within this realm, it felt good to see what I
created to be published. To see the press releases I wrote to be published in local newspapers and
the features of students and teachers to be published within the course catalog. Seeing this gave
me a sance of accomplishment. The one project that fell into this realm that took me the most
amount of time was updating the master media list. One of our new board members was a
reporter and feature writer for the Plain Dealer in Cleveland. He had several connections to
various newspapers and magazines that we did not have. I added his list of media resources to
the current list Fairmount had. Once I did this, the center and I used the list to send out press
releases and other promotional information. Every time I received a bounce back email, I would
update the list to only feature information that worked and was relevant to the media outlet I was
trying to reach. This will be an ongoing project even after I have left the internship due to the
constant changes in employment at newspapers and magazines.
EXPERIENTIAL PAPER 5

These skills will come in handy later in my career when I develop a good networking
base. I will be able to compile the information into a document that I will be able to clearly and
easily find the contact information that I am searching for.
The final realm I utilized while interning for the Fairmount Center for the Arts was
within communications. I collected data on how current students head of the Fairmount Center,
converted course evaluations into easy to read data, and did event planning for Brooke E. Ryans
Art Exhibition. But within this realm the hardest project I completed was the competitive pricing
analysis. This project was something I had never done before and had not learned how to do in
any of the pervious schooling I had received.
During this project, I researched other art, theatre, music, health/wellness and art centers
with in the surrounding communities. Complied their information into an Excel spreadsheet for
each centers prices and the length of time their sessions covered. Once I did this I was not sure
where to go, so I asked the board member who assigned me the project to help me figure out the
equation to use. Once I had the equation I used it to calculate the price per class and price per
hour for each centers classes. Once this was completed I worked on added the Fairmount
Centers prices and calculated its price per class and price per hour. I then sent the information I
had gathered and sent it to the board member. She then compiled the information into a
multipage document that featured charts to help the other board members see the information
rather than just reading the information.
In the end I found that the project was not as terrifying as it sounded. While I still feel
like I would have a hard time doing it all by myself, the little advise and directions I received
pointed me in the right direction. I felt going into this project that I wasnt going to be able to
completed it and found that I was experiencing a lot of anxiety about the project. Once I realized
EXPERIENTIAL PAPER 6

that it was not as hard as I initially thought that anxiety lifted slightly, but was still present being
that this project was for the board and not just for office use. All in all in the end of this project I
now know that if I was asked to complete a competitive pricing analysis I would take it with
stride and create something that people will be impressed with.
Through this internship with the Fairmount Center for the Arts I was able to show and
refine the visual communication design, journalism/mass communication and communication
skills I already and as well as foster more of these skills. I learned that even when im not
comfortable with a project, if I put my mind to it I can create a good final outcome. I learned
how to adapt my skills to the environment in which I am working and that if things get rough to
just take a breath, walk away if I had to, but when I come back and complete the assignment it
will be done with professionalism and will produce something of excellence. If you are
interested in taking a look at any of the project I have mentioned within this experiential paper,
take a look through the project page of my portfolio website.