Feedback

So over the past week or so I have had a lot of free time to work on my capping project. I guess it is a good thing that all of my other classes do not occupy a lot of my time. It gives me a chance to focus on what really matters. I have completed a total of 21 articles so far. I still need 14 or so. Here is how it is broken down and what I have completed for each section:

• Academics – 5/5
• Dorm Life 2/5
• Freshmen 6/6
• Girls 5/5
• Guys 2/5
• Housing 1/5
• Still Need : Marist & Social Life 0/10

Another great thing I did this week was post the link to my blog on Facebook. I have tweeted it a few times, with the #hapcap, but never received a response like this. I did not want to post it on Facebook till I had a bulk of the site done, simply because I wanted to make sure it looked appealing and people had content to read.

Well boy, I did not expect a response like this. After I posted within two hours I had 400+ total views. I was shocked. I mean some people might have just clicked it and not read anything but at least they made a valiant effort. I closed out the day yesterday with 562 total views. Wow my friends were productive.

So this brings my site to a whopping 797 total views since the creation. Not to shabby Marist.

Change is a good thing.

So once again I have made serious adjustments to my capping project. Well, not too serious. I updated the theme of my WordPress account to Imbalance 2, and purchased the custom design package for an astounding $30. Totally worth it. With this new theme, I have been able to make serious strides in the layout of my blog. I now have each article as its own specific post. This way, you are able to see all the recent/most important posts on the front with a photo. This desgin is more fluid, and in my eyes more organized. In the first layout, all of the posts were there but they were hidden on pages. With this new theme, I still have all of the posts on the specific pages but now they appear on the front layout as well. I have been able to add a Categories section and multiple widgets.

Although I have made serious progress, I still have a lot of work to do. I want to create an image across the top headline, however this is much harder than it sounds. A lot of the custom design features in WordPress have to be done through coding. A lot of the codes are fairly simple, however when you get into large details it gets much more confusing. I have been playing with a lot of different layouts. Right now I am working on getting all of the content down, writing all the articles and uploading my own photos. Once that is complete, then I can focus on making it more appealing. I have my work cut out for me, but I can’t wait until the final result is complete!

Bright Idea.

This week I have been very busy. Busy attending NY Yankees and Giants games. Not very productive in the realm of capping. However, all the transportation back and forth to these games gave me some time to think. In addition to the articles I have already come up with, I finally thought of some ideas for the homepage. All of the specific pages have about five articles on them. But when you open up the webpage, none of the articles appear there, because they are on specific pages. Therefore, I knew I had to come up with come content to put there. I decided I should keep it current, and ahere it based on what is happening this week or month at Marist. So some ideas I came up with were:

Halloween at Marist: Do’s and Don’ts, Barstool Blackout Tour, Apple Picking in the Hudson Valley, Events on Campus, Review of the SPC Events, and more!

I will complete these articles, in addition to my original ones as well. This way, I have more content and I keep the webpage current. It is still my goal to focus on the freshmen and all of their needs. These extra articles will do just that.

No News is Good News

Basically over the next few weeks my day to day capping tasks are pretty menial. I do not have any interesting updates, I have not planned any monumentous events, I have strictly been writing. That is what will consume most of my time over the next few weeks. I have all the ideas for my articles complete, which I guess was the hardest part. Now, all I have to do is go in and write the assigned articles. Not very exciting to most, however I happen to enjoy this topic. I am on track with my proposed timeline. I have also written articles in different sections as well. Reading and writing all of this information has actually been fun. I enjoy re-living my freshmen year and recapping all the memories in my mind.

Proposal

Week 3: September 24, 2012

Last week was crazy. I decided to slightly change my entire project. Now it will be based exclusively online. In order to do this, I had to create a whole new blog for class and turn my “unofficial guide” into the actual website. I came up with about 40 article ideas and then split them up into eight sections. I figured  it would be smart to create pages for all of these articles, therefore when I have to go in and write them the core is already there. Smart organizational skills, I know. So now that I have done that, I can simply go in and generate content for all of these articles. I wrote about three last week.

New Week. New Assignments. This week I would like to finish the “Freshmen” section of my site. There are four more articles that need to be written in addition to photos and links. I completed the proposal for class and the timeline to chart my progress. This seems to be the first week I have quizzes in my other classes, so I will have to spend some time working on that. However, I always seem to find time to work on my capping project, because I actually enjoy the topic. Can’t say that about any of my other classes.

Progress.

Week 2: September 17, 2012

Progress is going well, and I got a significant amount of work done this past week. Sometimes I love that fact that my job on campus allows me to sit at a computer for five hour intervals a day. Perfect time to work on my project. During the next few weeks I need to write the bulk of my project. Each page has a pretty good amount of content on it. Most of it is personal reflections, and personal input. Therefore, I can’t really research anything. I just need to pull data from my experiences freshmen year. I decided to write all the pages and then worry about formatting them with pictures once I have all the information. That way it will be much easier to organize all the different subtopics on the page.

This week I worked on the first two pages, The Top 10 Things to Do Before You Arrive on Campus and The Top 10 Things to Do Right After You Arrive on Campus. At first, I complied a tentative list of the most important things I believed would fit each category. Once I had about 25 topics for each page, I had to narrow it down to the top 10 for each. I decided to make them Marist focused, and add details exclusive to our college. However, I figured it wouldn’t hurt doing a little research about what other colleges suggested. I bought the book, Campus Confidential by Robert Miller to use as a reference. It had a lot of good suggestions for my project. I looked at the generic answers they provided and thought about how I could apply them to students at Marist. Most of the topics in my Top 10 lists apply to students here, however some of them are universal. As I look forward to this week and beyond I hope to get 4 more pages done.

First Phase.

Week 1: September 9, 2012

First phase of my Senior Capstone Project: Research…and lots of it! In order to produce this handbook I am going to need a lot of content. This content is spread throughout multiple outlets on the Internet, and in written text. I need to write and format [18] different topics associated with my idea. Therefore, this week I started a Word Document where I will outline each page in my booklet. The document will contain all the information that will be on each page. Then when it is time to outline and produce all the pages, I will already have all the information.

In addition, I set up a meeting with the mentors from our Firtst-Year Programs office. I have already ran the idea past them, but now I want some time to get more information and imput from them. I have so many vast ideas for this booklet, right now I need to focus and complete one task at a time. I still need to decide on a program to produce this booklet. Right now, leading the pack, is Adobe InDesign. I believe this would be the best web-design outlet to make my pages but I still need to explore some other programs.

Also, as of right now this will be the general layout of my website. I updated my author bio and added a brief section that describes my project. I also plan to upload a new photo of Marist with each of my blog posts.

Original Layout.

After  many drafts, and a lot of brainstorming I finally came up with a rough idea of what I would like each page to look like. Right now I have 18 single page ideas, and some of them are linked together to adhere to the booklet format. I believe this outline covers the general ideas that I wanted to focus on. However, throughout the semester I could think of new ideas or more pages to add in.But to get started  here is an overview of the breakdown of pages:

1. Title Page
2. Prologue
3. The Top 10 Things to Do Before You Arrive on Campus
4. The Top 10 Things to Do Right After You Arrive on Campus
5. What You Need to Bring
6. What You Don’t Need to Bring
7. Housing 101 – List of all Freshmen dorms, stereotypes, explain priority point system
8. Dormlife 101 – How to keep the peace with your roommate, what not to do
9. Approach To: Academics – Scheduling secrets for freshman year, ratemyprofessor, Time management skills, study habits, core classes, audit, iLearn, foxmail, writing center
10. Approach To: Activities – There is something for everyone, how to get involved, Activities Fair, Work Study, Athletics
11. Local Places To Go – Focus on Hudson Valley, Food, Sites, Activities, Shopping
12. Late Night Bars – For all you “21″ year olds out there. List of bars and people who attend, what night is best there, tips, taxi numbers
13. Typical Stereotypes: Male – What they wear, what they have in their room, description of each group here, athletes, nerds, frat guys
14. Typical Stereotypes: Female – What they wear, who to avoid, typical personalities, description of typical groups
15. Advice by Students, For Students – Include photo and brief excerpt (FAQ)
16. Advice from Orientation Leaders – Include photo and brief excerpt
17. Looking Behind & Looking Ahead – How to plan for second semester
18. Looking Behind & Looking Ahead – How to plan for four years, what to expect in the years to come.

Spread all throughout will be some Fast Facts about Marist – Random history, list of common slang terms used around campus/for various buildings, common misconceptions.

Sound Advice.

In order to introduce my Capping Project (Idea), I feel it is necessary to provide you with a little message to my targeted audience.

Attention all High School Seniors: You did it. You finally made it all the way to the infamous, Senior Year. You have reached the top, the creme of the crop, top of your class, and you now unofficially “rule the school.” Before you know it “Senioritis” will settle in and you will do the bare minimum in order to pass your classes. But before you give up on everything, do me one favor…finish your college applications. Time goes faster than you think and before you know it all of your peers will hear back from colleges. Don’t be left behind.

When that letter finally does arrive, boy that feeling electric. Unlike anything you have ever experienced before. You rip it open and tears fill with excitement. YOU DID IT! You got accepted to your dream school. In my case, Marist College. So now you can relax…or so you think. However, this is when the uncertainty will sink in. Trust me, it happens to even the best of us. Did I make the right choice? Will I really like it there? Do I know everything I need to about Marist? Don’t you wish there was a way for you to be 100% sure about your decision?

Well, Ladies and Gentlemen, let me be your guide.

For my Senior Communication Capstone Project, I intend to produce an “Unofficial Guide to Student Life at Marist College.” Everything you wanted to know about Marist College, but they fail to mention at Orientation. Let’s just say this booklet will include all the information they can’t publicize on their website. I figure, they are going to figure it out sooner or later, why not give them a head start. I guaruntee after reading my booklet you will not only be fully prepared for the next four years here but you will come to find that indeed, Marist is the place for you.