Hello readers! To continue our summer of CUPID blogging, 
Nicole Petrosino will reflect upon her experiences with client projects and how they developed her professional skills and will ease her transition from college to the professional world.
“What is undergraduate education if not a catalyst to success in the cut-throat real world? Hundreds of thousands of college graduates enter the professional realm every single year, all wielding the same coveted $120,000 piece of paper intended to provide them with a career that leads to not only financial, but personal satisfaction and an overall increase in quality-of-life. Unfortunately, because of a struggling economy, this is not the case for many graduates.
In order to be more effective at preparing students for future careers and eliminate this gap between academia and professional life, colleges like Elon University assign client projects to students, calling on actual clients from local or on-campus organizations to pose as acting bosses or work supervisors, taking coursework out of the classroom and into a realistic, workshop setting.
In my CUPID Studio course, we have been working on a client project for just about half the semester. For The Writing Center, the Professional Writing Studies minor, the Multimedia Authoring minor, and The Back Cover, small groups of students have been collaborating with one and other to create professional quality work for their clients.
In my group, we have been working on marketing the Professional Writing Studies minor to students across the disciplines, not just in the English Department. Throughout this project I have learned a lot about group work, professionalism, and time-management. Our client, our professor and PWS coordinator RPR, has been communicating guidelines/deadlines to us and specifying what she wants for the PWS minor from the point-of-view of a supervisor, not a professor. Being treated as employees instead of students has sparked a different dynamic in our group, and has almost forced us to become more invested in the project since it serves a higher purpose than just a grade.
Below is an example of an image we created for distribution to communications students who could potentially be interested in pursuing the PWS minor.
Personally, I feel a very different connection to this project than to other assignments I have gotten in the past because I feel it is work that actually matters for more than just a GPA. I also believe that this project is preparing me for the real world where project guidelines aren’t so black and white, and communication is absolutely integral to a successful outcome.
The client project requires us not only to work together to achieve a goal, but also to reach out to other contacts that we have made over our semesters at Elon and see how they can help us cast a wider reach for the PWS minor. This type of assignment taught us to communicate professionally and think strategically.
Below is an article from Business Communication Quarterly that discusses benefits of merging the professional world with the college classroom, and applying technique and theory to actual, tangible products. Overall, I think that this was an enriching experience for my group and myself, and helped to develop our skills professionally, personally, and academically. Client projects give students a window into the career world before they are actually there, and help them identify strengths and weaknesses to work on I the future.”
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