Guest Blogger Dustin Swope, ’15
My work in ENG 282 CUPID Studio will provide me with my strongest practical education experience for the professional world to date. I have encountered countless assignments throughout my academic career that invited me to imagine myself in various professional contexts; in CUPID Studio, I have the opportunity to work with a real client on a project. Dr. Thomas Arcaro, an Elon professor, hopes to assemble and publish a compilation of writings from his previous students, which he will then be able to use in working with future students. With a responsibility to influence and contribute to the product of another’s passion, I will challenge myself to make his vision a reality.
To prepare me for a proactive engagement in the professional world, I will be developing several skills during my time in CUPID Studio that can be applied to effect the outcome of Dr. Arcaro’s project. I have gained a new awareness of the importance of strategic document construction in a given professional context. After exploring the way formatting decisions such as font, text division, and order of information in professional documents such as résumés can affect how readers interact with the text and how these variable should be adjusted for different mediums, I can help Dr. Arcaro find the most effective presentation for the desired information. By having a real scenario to apply this skill to, I can apply strategies I have learned and see how they will look in action so that I can successfully implement them in the future.
Part of what CUPID Studio is designed to teach is how to communicate and engage colleagues and clients to achieve optimal results. I will be working with a team of other students from CUPID Studio to assist Dr. Arcaro in some aspect of publishing his intended material. Understanding and embracing the hopes that a client has for their work is an essential skill in the professional world, and this will be our first priority as well. After we reach a consensus about what the whole should look like, we can be more confident that our efforts are a genuine contribution. To fulfill our promise to Dr. Arcaro to improve the outcome of his project, we must learn to successfully navigate the various facets of collaborative work. This means establishing standards for conducting business as a group, expectations for our individual responsibilities to the group’s task, and communicating effectively to unify individual goals and visions. Before the semester comes to an end, I look forward to not only to reflecting on a meaningful project that I can be proud to have contributed to, but also to growing as a competent professional and to helping others do the same.
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