At 3:30 Monday afternoon I presented my final convergence capstone campaign to a room full of media and advertising professionals. By 4:30, as we wrapped up our presentation, I realized I am actually prepared for graduation. For those of you who don't know, a capstone is a class every Mizzou senior has to take before graduation, and is supposed to be the culmination of your college experience, combining all the skills you have learned. My spanish capstone's final project was a 100+ slide powerpoint about the specific linguistic traits Dominican Republic. Totally reasonable and doable.
My convergence capstone, on the other hand, was a different story. My team of five convergence journalism majors prepared two complete advertising campaigns and pitches for two social media websites: www.likeme.net and www.backstagegallery.com. I can't think of a school project I worked harder on and spent more time on while here at Mizzou.
Working on the project throughout the semester, there were times I hated my life. Especially the last week before our presentation, as we scrambled to finalize our campaign and perfect the presentation. But, in the end, the project absolutely served its purpose. As my group taught ourselves how to develop and present a campaign, I realized that I really loved doing it. Presenting in front of our judges and clients was thrilling and the positive feedback we got afterwards could not have been more rewarding. I found myself relying on skills that I had developed both in and out of the classroom: persuasion, working with a group, presenting effectively, passion for a cause and public speaking.
With one week left, I can finally say that I believe in the Capstone experience and it helped me realize I actually am ready for graduation and am excited about the "real world"
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Carrie, I just wanted to comment that I was honored & humbled to have you and your team mount the Herculean effort this semester to produce your outstanding campaign plans for two of the companies I've helped found, LikeMe & BackstageGallery. The other judges, including CEOs of agencies and social media leaders in academia and Fortune 500 corps, all of whom had never seen Mizzou capstone presentations, told me they were stunned by the quality of the work. One judge told me he thinks the work stacked up very well compared to agency campaign plans he sees today. Also, all judges commented on you and your team's poise and passion for the two companies. It was clear that not only did you hone the presentation to perfection, but that everyone on the team really believed in the companies and their products and value propositions. Please keep this blog current and let us know how the job search progresses.
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