Something in Advocacy...

Non-profit organizations often host a few major fundraising events during the year. For NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) Coastal Virginia, the important event for the first half of 2019 was St. Hattrick’s Day jointly hosted by NAMI, Norfolk Admirals ECHL hockey team, and Buffalo Wild Wings. NAMI produced t-shirts, flyers, and stuffed llamas to give out and sell before, during, and after the game. As with any event, a lot of effort needs to occur before the actual date. I contributed by tying blue ribbons on the llamas and replacing old labels (see photo). It sounds tedious, but I wanted them to look professionally done so I was very meticulous when tying the bows.

Before the game started, the mascot for NAMI Coastal Virginia and unofficial mascot for NAMI in general, a llama, danced around on the ice. To show support, the Norfolk Admirals dyed the ice green, the official color for mental health awareness (see photo). The very moment doors open, I was stationed by the entrance, with another volunteer, to pass out informational flyers about NAMI. I enjoyed it because I think everyone, especially men interested in sports, can value from learning more about mental health. Unfortunately, I saw a few people either throw away the flyers or drop them on the ground immediately after taking them. The other volunteer and I maintained a good attitude though. We picked up the ones off the floor and just continued to pass the small flyers out.

At half time, videos about mental illness stigmas and NAMI played on the jumbotron. I was able to watch some of the half time festivities but not all of them. Instead, I found myself stationed at the NAMI table (see photo). Covered with informational sheets, sign up lists, volunteer forms, and stuffed llamas, the NAMI table encouraged people to learn more or get involved with the organization. While I sat there, the two ladies I worked closely with told me to try to sell llamas. I managed to sell some, which they were very happy with because they had not been able to. Ultimately, the night was a lot of fun. More importantly though, I hope it was beneficial to the community.

Nonverbal Communication Reflection

The purpose of an ePortfolio is to improve a student’s online professional presence. My online portfolio has improved my professional image because it did not exist on the internet beforehand. While I noticed many jobs asking for a potential employee’s website or online portfolio, I never bothered to create one. The task of assembling an online collection of my work seemed too tedious and daunting. However, with the guidance of my communication classes and the LeADERS organization, I was able to develop my ePortfolio in a timely manner. Furthermore, I, unexpectedly, enjoyed creating it. Now, businesses and possible future employers can learn about my passions, understand my goals, and read my academic work. Additionally, they know I am a serious student who can express herself successfully on the Internet It is worth mentioning that because of my ePortfolio, I was inspired to create a LinkedIn profile. This is another way of how my professional presence has blossomed since developing my ePortfolio.

The aspects of my ePortfolio I feel most proud of are the LeADERS section and the About Me page. I worked for hours developing the LeADERS portion as it was a feat that required multiple essays of self-reflection. In the LeADERS sections, I talk about my strengths, my research abilities, and some of hardships I faced while in college. I hope future employers learn about how I became the person that I am today. I appreciate my About Me section because it allows me to portray what type of student I am in few words. Designing was the most challenging aspect of making the ePortfolio. Wix allows for so much customization and personalization. It is extremely plausible for someone to lose hours editing the trivial details. Another difficult aspect was the amalgamation of professionalism and personality. My ePortfolio should impress future viewers with how it represents me. However, I did not want it to appear unprofessional or too amateurish. Ultimately, I spent time incorporating the design to be perfect and I hope it shows.

My biggest advice to future students undertaking an ePortfolio is to spend time on it and to not give it up upon graduation. I think the most critical aspects of an ePortfolio is not the content but the display. If an ePortfolio appears sloppy, it can send a negative message to viewers. People might not even look through an online portfolio if it is illegible or visually unappealing. It is important for students to maintain and update their ePortfolios. Online portfolios are becoming more commonplace in the job market. Old Dominion communication alum will not have to worry about building one without guidance as it was a requirement for most communication classes.

My favorite component of my nonverbal communication course was being able to combine the information I learned to my psychology major. For example, in the nonverbal course, I learned how different cultures vary in interpersonal space. Some cultures prefer interpersonal space to be very close, such as Spain, and are more touch friendly, while other cultures, such as the United States, appreciate greater distances of space. I have learned about these cultural, nonverbal discrepancies in my psychology classes. I also really appreciated the unit on attraction, which is why I felt compelled to write about that topic for my Popular Press Analysis.

Working on the Popular Press Analysis helped me in more ways than I anticipated. Being a psychology major, I am more accustomed to performing literature reviews in psychology journals. However, because of the PPA, I had to search through communication journals. Luckily, there is a lot of overlap between psychology and communication writing. Furthermore, I learned that people are fascinated about the topic of attraction. It was very easy to find popular press pieces as well as journal articles about nonverbal behavior and attraction. This is easy for me to understand because I found the topic so interesting. As human beings, we appreciate attraction so learning about those physiological signs is a useful tool.

My chosen career is not as involved in the communication field as I am sure my peers’ careers are. I aspire to work in a field of psychology known as human factors. Nevertheless, I do believe this class has been a benefit to my career because of its effect on me as an individual which will ultimately benefit my career. The ability to understand and decode nonverbal cues is valuable to any career in which one has to socially interact. Understanding these messages will enable me to consider my actions and try to control my nonverbal behavior. I decided to join nonverbal communication on one of the last days possible, but I am so glad I did. It has been one of my most interesting classes this semester and a great benefit to me professionally.

Something Social...

One of the first assignments I had for my organization was to design a newsletter to send to interested supporters and donors. I included this as something social because it was a public announcement targeted at many people. I was given all the text information that NAMI wanted to include. I was in charge of formatting and incorporating images. The most difficult challenge with creating the digital newsletter was emailing it out to people. NAMI wanted the newsletter to be embedded in the email, not attached. After hours of researching, I learned that no matter what Gmail does not support embedding PDFs in an email. This resulted in converting the newsletter into JPEGs and embedding the images. I do not think the result was as nice and I preferred simply having the newsletter as an attachment, but the organization chose otherwise. That's the way it is in the business I suppose! Here is a copy my something social newsletter: