In this marketing plan and budget for the fictional Teen Reading Club (TRC), I applied principles of strategic communication and marketing to recruit and retain TRC members. I began by choosing a theme for the TRC, “Life in Dystopia,” then identified books and designed a schedule of activities for the book club. Next, I gathered ideas from sample marketing plans and readings to develop a strategy. I identified multiple audiences for the marketing campaign and wrote customized messages. For example, messages directed at teens would emphasize the fun and social aspects of the TRC, while messages directed at teachers and parents would emphasize the educational value of regular reading. To make the plan appealing to staff members, I learned to use Canva to design it. The project reminded me of the importance of incorporating strategic communication and advocacy principles in all areas of work. 

I wrote a successful grant for the Free 'Em All Radio Archive project and secured $10,000 from the Illinois Humanities granting program Envisioning Justice. Rather than write a grant for a fictional organization as assigned in LIS 881, I recognized that the Free 'Em All project, which I had worked on the prior semester, had a need that a grant could fill. I interviewed the project lead Kaitlyn Griffith about her perspective on the archive's most pressing needs and learned that inviting the podcast host Chairman Fred Hampton, Jr. to speak on Dominican's campus was her highest priority. I demonstrated effective professional communication in the text of the grant and made a persuasive case that providing him a stipend to speak on campus was an important step in building a relationship with him and introducing the archive as a resource to the student body and the broader community. In the summer of 2024, I helped revise the grant with input from Dominican University staff.  Illinois Humanities decided to award the funds to the project and the speaking event with the Chairman is tentatively scheduled for February 2025.

At the end of LIS 882: Metadata for Digital Resources, I received this anonymous feedback from my group members for the Metadata Application Profile Project. The month-long group project asked us to invent a photography archive, choose three metadata schemas, create a metadata application profile, and catalog a photo according to each schema. I took this class concurrently with the leadership course LIS 707, and the course's focus on developing a leadership style and professional philosophy made me mindful of how I showed up for my teammates. In the beginning, I took the lead to set up a meeting, created a Microsoft Teams channel for communication, and usually facilitated our group discussions. I listened actively to everyone’s ideas and was mindful to take the lead without taking control of the project. It was validating to realize they appreciated my leadership style and efforts.