Alyssa Jennings - Higher Ed. Professional, Freelance Graphic Designer

Long before the idea of working in higher education even crossed my mind, I thought I wanted to be an interior designer.

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I would comb through countless Pottery Barn catalogs, Better Homes and Gardens magazines, and photo galleries featured on HGTV.com in the hopes of finding the perfectly designed room – a combination of captivating color palettes, carefully arranged furniture, and eye-catching accent pieces. And while I ultimately decided to pursue a career in higher education instead, that inclination to find and create impeccable aesthetics remains.

Fortunately, I’ve found ways to infuse my work in higher education with my love of (andj OCD for) all things artfully arranged. When I taught composition as part of my master’s program in English, for example, I created a website to serve as the digital syllabus for the course – a

labor of love I undertook in the hopes of enticing students to read and engage with what is otherwise a hastily skimmed and often discarded document.

The digital syllabus I created for the composition course I taught as part of my master's program in English.

I have likewise volunteered to create flyers for campus events either I or others have facilitated, and even some of my master’s courses in higher education administration have required that I communicate ideas in creative, visually compelling ways.

However, all of these efforts have resulted from my own personal motivations or the requirements of a class assignment; never was I expressly called upon to utilize this skill set in my work as a higher education professional. That was, until I began my internship at William Peace University’s Center for Student Success. Comprised of the Office of Retention and First Year Experience, the Office of Academic Advising, and the Office of Academic Support, the Center for Student Success is intended to serve as WPU’s one-stop-shop for all questions related to students’ in- and out-of-classroom experiences. It is also a relatively new addition at WPU – at least in terms of institutional organization – given that two years prior, all three offices operated largely independent of each other.

This restructuring, in turn, necessitated that WPU rebrand these offices as one cohesive unit. However, as one might expect, particularly at a small liberal arts college like WPU, maintaining the daily operations of each respective office took precedence. This assumption was then confirmed when I was asked to create a table display to be used during admissions events, the purpose for which was to advertise the services offered through the Center for Student Success. For the first time, therefore, I have been asked to apply a technical skill I had modest proficiency in – graphic design – as a higher education professional, as opposed to a higher education student.

Creating the table display was not an easy, straightforward undertaking, however. Because I was tasked with creating a table display to be used alongside other official university branding, I was not necessarily free to design whatever I saw fit. Instead, I had to investigate the typography, color palette, and layouts used by WPU’s Office of Communication and Marketing and then develop a display that corresponded with these design features. Fortunately, I was not restricted in what design platform I used and was thus able to use a graphic design tool I was already familiar with: Canva. As a result, I was able to strike a nice balance between new and familiar territory, and I was quite pleased with the final design I and my coworkers settled upon.

The table display I created for WPU's Center for Student Success.

I found it interesting, however, that individual offices were responsible for creating their own marketing materials. After all, while I have a background in design, my colleagues do not, and I doubt that WPU’s Office of Communication and Marketing assumed that student affairs staff would necessarily have the design savvy to create materials comparable to their own. Perhaps smaller institutions like WPU simply lack the resources and manpower to develop marketing materials for all offices and departments on campus. This will be something to explore as my internship progresses.

These questions aside, while I don’t feel as though my graphic design skills have necessarily improved as a result of my internship experience, I do believe that my efficiency at creating graphic design pieces - e.g., flyers, presentations, resources - and my ability to adapt my own sense of design to suit institutional branding has improved tremendously. Since creating the Center for Student Success table display, for example, my coworkers have capitalized on my graphic design skills as much as possible with requests to develop handouts for academic success workshops, presentations, and flyers.

A handout I created for one of the various workshops hosted by WPU's Office of Academic Support.

A flyer I created advertising WPU's Pathways to Peace program, which is a four-day extension of first year orientation.

Perhaps most importantly, however, these requests have affirmed that my technical expertise in graphic design is not only tremendously beneficial in higher education but also actively sought after.