These are some of my favorite marketing projects from my many lucky years of working with the University of California, Riverside!
The Letter of Admission (AKA the Admit Packet) and the #MyUCRHeart Campaign
Writing the UCR Letter of Admission and the #MyUCRHeart campaign was an immense honor and a wonderful collaboration.
I will always remember sitting on the steps with my colleagues as we mapped it out together. We knew UCR students were driven, altruistic and passionate. We wanted them to know that we would support them as they pursued their passions.
We also wanted to honor the emotional weight of choosing a school. We wanted to encourage students to “follow their heart.”
It was especially rewarding to see students posting on social with our marketing materials to announce that they had selected UCR.
I remember the feeling in the meeting room with our boss when we knew we had knocked it out of the park.
This campaign was always put in the hands of the most trusted and experienced writer in our department. When that became me, I did not take it for granted. I took it all in, was grateful for the true collaboration in our department, and I enjoyed every minute.
The Student Experience Brochures
The student experience brochures gave prospective students insight into all UCR has to offer. They have been at many an event table! They have also been updated by my colleagues and fellow writers over the years, but I’m proud that the headlines and basic format I helped create is still being used today. The linked brochures below are examples of the most recent, and the Middle Eastern Student Experience Brochure below is an example of my original writing and the successful format still in use today.
The Black Student Experience Brochure
The Native American Student Experience Brochure
The Chicanx/Latinx Student Experience Brochure
The Middle Eastern Student Experience Brochure (below)
The Graduate School of Education Brochure
This was a really enjoyable project with quite a few stakeholders. I worked hard to conduct interviews, research and keep everything organized. I had to get approvals for photos, quotes, blurbs and more from 20+ professors, students and researchers. It was a huge collaboration and it was great to work with this team!
The CHASS Website and Brochure
I’ve written the CHASS website and brochure twice now over the years and it’s always a great experience. I love showcasing the incredible research achievements and artistic opportunities available at CHASS. One year, our brochure won a CASE Award and that was really exciting.
The UCR ARTS Website
It was a pleasure to write the UCR ARTS website and learn about all the impressive collections this Riverside asset holds. It was fun to highlight their standout attributes, such as the largest public collection of cameras in the American West, and also invite attendees to come and explore the collections for research or for fun.
The Financial Aid Website: Solutions for Money Emergencies Page
I wrote the Financial Aid website a couple of times over the years and the page I am proud of the most is the Solutions for Money Emergencies page. It links students to financial support resources and case management help for when they are struggling and need emergency funding. Whether they are experiencing a drastic change in family income, a chapter of food insecurity, or have no financial support from their parents after coming out, we provide them with multiple safety nets via this page.
The PERSIST Women’s Political Engagment Conference
This is a recent asset that I didn’t create, but that I’m excited to share because it shows that the name I pitched for this conference is still in use! It’s based on the quote “Nevertheless, she persisted,” and I pitched the shortened version of “PERSIST.” I love seeing it, and the conference, still going strong!
The National Transfer Admission Campaign
It was surreal to see this design on my computer screen at the beginning of the week and then drive by it on the way to my house a few days later!
The University of California Office of the President funded a nationwide campaign to help UCR meet its transfer admission goals. There was a lot of pressure to meet these goals. We had to succeed. Our team came up with persuasive facts and combined them with compelling images in myriad ways. We made bus stop posters, social media ads and billboards. The copy is a little overexposed in this snapshot, but it says, “About 70 percent* of our undergrads receive financial aid that fully covers their tuition.” We absolutely met our goals that year and I know it was in large part because of this nationwide campaign.
* This was written when AP style called for “percent” vs. “%.“