Career Development

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What I learned this quarter

Ok, so I wasn’t planning on any great learning happening this quarter… 5 classes, several of which I have either had or even taught before.  However, it ended up providing more learning opportunities than expected!

  • Typography is a pretty cool subject! (Thanks Kevin! Great teacher!)
  • 30 hours working a job while carrying a full class load is too much (how do people do it?)
  • Syncretism in Christianity is still going on today (look at the attempt by Christian leaders to balance just how much the faithful should embrace current culture and bring it into our lives including the splits over lifestyles to the music such as Christian rock.)
  • I love history! 
  • Sculpture and architecture is much more interesting than I thought.
  • Sometimes you have to jump through hoops and spend a lot of unnecessary money to get a degree and I am working at not resenting that.
  • Web Design was the right choice after all.
  • I love writing (oh…I knew that)
  • I still do not like marketing even though I had fun with my topic.
  • Whatever made me get an Associates in Business anyway?  What was I thinking?
  • I don’t like writing scripts or much of anything to do with advertising.
  • I do love the learning experience!
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Marketing – My Passionate Project

Suprisingly, I am truly enjoying my online marketing course!  We could choose any company to work with for 6 weeks and I chose Compassion International because I was curious about it.  Amidst all the research and statistics, I have found a topic that has sparked my passion.

Over 1 million children are being sponsored

The first week of the quarter, Haiti suffered a devastating earthquake, so Compassion International has been all over the Christian radio for weeks on end. 

The Compassion website is featuring the needs in Haiti

Compassion has been serving Haiti for over 40 years and were working with 65,000 children in that country prior to the quake.  As of this writing, they are missing a large chunk of those kids and working to find them.  A heartrending situation yet filled with wonderful testimonies of God’s Grace.  What is positive for this organization is that they already have many contacts via the local churches and organizations they work with, so they have been able to bring in support more efficiently than most organizations that are trying to help.

I also read the autobiography by Wess Stafford, “Too Small to Ignore” and it has impacted my life in ways I will probably not be able to fully appreciate until I can look back over the span of years.  It is up there on my list of the most important books I have ever read.

To add to the immersion in this organization, I am using it in my Career Development class by collecting job opportunities as my homework each week.  In addition, my first project for the Script Writing course was to write 3 thirty second tv advertising spots on one product by week 4.  I did all 3 spotlighting Compassion in Haiti and making a call for donations.  The teacher was quite complementary and said he had nothing to suggest changing.  I think they came across so well because of how deeply I am getting to know and care about the “product”, thus it allowed me to write well.

Needless to say, I have fallen in love with this particular organization. 

On Feb. 2, Wess Stafford, the President of Compassion, spoke for 30 minutes at Moody’s Founders Week event.  The speech is well worth hearing!  If you have any feeling for children in poverty, this will give you hope and possibly help you understand a bit of why I have become so passionate about my marketing project.

Click on the Audio link