MY STORY:

• Instagram taking the advertising world by storm

MY BLOG:

I developed my enterprise story idea through my target audience, being university students. Social media is targeted toward university-aged students, and educating them and creating awareness on how businesses use social media to advertise would be interesting.

I located my first business source, Beauty Industry, through a friend. However, I had never met Paige Johnson, the woman I interviewed. My second and third source, The Hut Group and STEM, I found through googling startup companies in Salt Lake. These companies were one of the few I heard back from after emailing businesses with a wide social media platform, therefore being suitable for my topic.

The three sources I selected for my topic were the best choices because they all use social media, specifically Instagram to advertise their products. The three individuals I interviewed had positions dealing with social media, and gave me feedback I felt was important for my audience to know.

An obstacle I came by was with my third interview with STEM. While I managed to gather enough information, it was a difficult interview. It really forced me to use all the techniques we’ve read in class to push my interviewee to give me critical information that would benefit my story. In the end, she was able to help a lot and I am confident with her as my third source.

Luckily with the questions I prepared all of the information I gathered would have fit into my topic. The issue was deciding which was the most influential, and I chose the aspects I did out of what I thought were most crucial to know to my target audience.

I separated my writing process into the three interviews I did, choosing a space in my story for each of the interviews and forming the story around their responses. After the interviews, the writing came easy because I based the opening and closing off of what I received from them. I realized then just how important the interviews are in creating a good story, to a great story!

I have a few quotes I didn’t add into my story directly from my sources I feel could be interesting to add into my blog. However, they aren’t the best ones; those were in my story. Below, I’ve included something interesting I gathered from Jasmine Reynolds with The Hut Group:

“Instagram marketing is used in an assortment of aspects, whether it is to bring awareness of a cause or to advertise and sell products. It has drastically changed the game from billboards, and TV commercials to a free platform being used by billions.”

An aspect through this whole process of creating my story was how once I became comfortable with the people I interviewed, how much they wanted to engage. At first I felt as if I was an annoying student who had begged for an interview. However, two of my sources were more than happy — excited even — to give me the information I needed to create my piece.

ABOUT ME:

Riley Spear grew up in Madison, Wisconsin, until moving away to attend the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, after she graduated high school. She is currently taking classes to fulfill her degree in journalism, and will graduate in the spring.

In her free time, she is involved in Make-A-Wish philanthropy through her Chi Omega sorority. Through her sorority’s involvement and fundraising, members have been able to grant several wishes to children who suffer from cancer. It has been a rewarding experience to her, and she has made friends for life through it.

At her time at the university thus far Riley has completed a study abroad program in London, England, and performed an internship in Melbourne, Australia, through the Hinckley Institute of Politics. She has been able to fulfill her passion of traveling through both of these experiences.

In London, Riley studied digital multimedia, and through her internship in Australia she managed all social media accounts for her company and wrote blogs. This is one of the reasons she chose to focus on social media advertising, specifically Instagram, for her enterprise story.

The company she interned for revolved around global technology energy. Through her interviews she was offered new, and different viewpoints from beauty and health companies.

After graduation Riley plans to travel and see as much of the world as she can. Afterward, she plans to find a career in journalism, creative writing, or in public relations.

MY STORY:

• New menu for a new conversation being unveiled at J&G Grill, Deer Valley

MY BLOG:

When Professor Mangun told the class that we would be writing an enterprise story I immediately knew what I wanted my story to be about. I chose to write my story on Rachel Wiener, who is a personal friend and a talented chef.

The reason I chose to do a story on her was that I knew that the restaurant where she worked was doing a complete rebranding of its menu and an incremental design overhaul. I knew Wiener would be the point person who would be making the major decisions regarding the front of the house and back of the changes. So, I felt this would be an interesting topic because I enjoy food and design.

The J&G Grill at Deer Valley is a destination restaurant because of its cuisine but also because it’s attached to a hotel as well its proximity to the mountains.

I had never interviewed anyone before, so it was nice that my first one was with a friend. I didn’t let her or my other sources know what questions I was going to be asking them. I think that was good because it set a professional tenor regarding my interview. It was a fun experience but also a different one because you’re asking behind-the-scene information that in some cases their culinary team wasn’t quite ready to divulge to the public yet.

I was told things off the record that I promised wouldn’t be a part of my story.

The creativity and execution have to be perfect because a lot is riding on Wiener’s vision regarding returning guests and new guests alike. The dynamics of my story revolve around food, specifically, what is Wiener trying to convey with her new menu, and how will these changes enhance her guest’s dining experience? I wanted to understand what sets her culinary concepts apart from other restaurants.

Overall, getting a chance to see how decisions on a large scale are made and the process by which a company starts with just bullets points on a page that spring to life or are negated was fascinating to learn and observe. Food and design are two ways to communicate new concepts and ideas artistically. Surprisingly, I was left with the impression that diners don’t have the full picture of what it takes to ensure that their dining experience is memorable.

ABOUT ME:

I have lived in Los Angeles, New York and now in Utah. Traveling has given me an appreciation for different cultures and an understanding to accept people the way they are. I’m forever the optimist and enjoy helping others.

The importance of family can’t be overstated. It’s the reason I am the way I am. I can’t thank them enough for always being in my corner, cheering me on.

Currently, I am finishing my junior year at the University of Utah. I am graduating in the spring of 2019 with a degree in strategic communication. I like the different aspects of branding, marketing, and advertisement.

MY STORY:

• A nonprofit’s initiative to educate Utah about child abuse

MY BLOG:

Choosing to write about Prevent Child Abuse Utah was an easy decision for me because it is an organization that is so motivated to do good and I wanted to learn as much as I could about it. The way I discovered it was through my aunt, who does volunteer work for PCAU and Operation Underground Railroad.

Due to my aunt’s involvement in these organizations, she was able to put me in touch with the community outreach program administrator, Gwen Knight. Knight was kind enough to suggest a few other people whom I could interview. I believe they were great sources because they are heavily involved in the success of their respective programs and they also believe so strongly in PCAU. When speaking with them, I could tell that they were passionate about what they were doing.

The topic of child abuse is a sensitive topic and should not be taken lightly. At the same time, it is something that needs to be discussed due to the severity of its impact in Utah and everywhere else in the world. I tried to be empathetic and respectful of the things I learned through this process and while I can’t relate to anyone who has gone through something like child abuse, I know that there could be someone who reads my story who can. I wanted my story to be sympathetic toward them as well.

My sources were also great because they provided me with so much information. It was hard to narrow it down to just the specifics of the two programs I talked about, Parents as Teachers and teaching in schools. I felt like those were the two most important things I could write about because of their direct impact on the communities they work with.

This writing process was very interesting because it was the first time I have done something like this. Of course, I had a general idea of what I wanted to write about but I was constantly pulled in different directions after each interview.

PCAU has so many learning opportunities on the website. I would recommend to anyone interested in learning more about this organization to visit the website and take some of the online courses geared toward your age group.

It was a great opportunity learning more about Prevent Child Abuse Utah and I hope anyone who reads my story is able to understand the importance of what PCAU does here in Utah.

ABOUT ME:

I was born and raised in Sandy, Utah, five minutes away from a handful of hikes in the Wasatch mountains. Some of my passions include playing tennis, hiking and reading. I also love traveling and hope to go to Iceland and Switzerland one day.

I am currently a junior at the University of Utah studying communication. Choosing to earn my college education at the U was an easy decision for me because I love Salt Lake City, I have always wanted to be in the MUSS, and the campus is absolutely beautiful. It has been everything I dreamed to be able to study here.

While trying to decide on a major without any real idea of what career I would like to pursue after getting my bachelor’s degree, strategic communication stuck out to me and I have enjoyed it ever since. Learning how to write, speak and critically think better has been helpful and exciting.

As of right now, consistently trying new things and obtaining a wide variety of useful skills are two of my main focuses in hopes of stumbling on something that I would love to build a career out of.

MY STORY: Local Business Cross E Ranch Celebrates its 50th Anniversary

MY BLOG:

My enterprise story merely started with a conveniently timed event, but the focus soon shifted into a piece on the importance of supporting small local businesses.

I came across Cross E Ranch two years ago while looking for a nearby pumpkin patch and have attended their Fall Festival every year since. While buying this year’s tickets at the beginning of October, I discovered it was the ranch’s 50th anniversary, and immediately wrote it down as a possibility for my story.

I was lucky enough to get in touch with one of the owners, Dalon Hinckley, who was my main source. He was able to give me a full history of the Cross E Ranch, as it was originally owned by his dad.

Dalon answered all my basic questions, but he offered up even more stories and information that made it so easy to form my story. He was the reason I redirected my attention to the business aspect of the ranch. He detailed how the business has changed in the past fifty years, and how he had to creatively overcome the obstacles.

The writing process was hard, as I expected, but it was not hard for the reasons I had expected. I ended up with so much information, that I didn’t know what to cut out. That has never happened to me before. I also had a problem shifting my story focus. I was originally just going to cover the Cross E Ranch Fall Festival as a current event, but my interview with Dalon led me a different direction. I struggled with trying to focus on both, rather than letting my obvious true topic lead the story.

In the end I learned so much from writing this article. I was intimidated by this assignment at the beginning of the semester, but I really enjoyed the whole process. I feel that my writing has improved, and I gained interview experience at the same time.

The biggest lesson I learned is to not force the material into an originally conceived topic. Some stories will lead you.

ABOUT ME:

I am 22 years old, born and raised in Salt Lake City. I started my college journey at Utah Valley University, where I spent two years earning an associate degree in Dance Education before transferring to the University of Utah. This is now my third year at the University of Utah, and I am set to graduate in the Spring of 2019 with a degree in Strategic Communication.

I love writing, but my true focus is in brand creation and design. My hope is to work for a business involved in the arts, and get back to my roots as a dancer.

When I am not in school or working, I spend my free time with my family and boyfriend. I can also be found reading, at a yoga studio, or doing my own or a friend’s makeup at any given time.

MY STORY:

• Natural remedies to reduce stress and anxiety

MY BLOG:

This article was a particularly interesting one to research and develop. I chose to write about natural remedies for stress relief because it is a topic that interests me but is outside of my comfort zone. I don’t think I know a single person who doesn’t feel stress and some people struggle with it more than others. Partially for my own benefit, I wanted to know what sort of non-pharmaceutical options are available for those who experience regular stress and anxiety.

Contacting the best sources was surprisingly simply. All it took was one phone call or email and everyone seemed happy to help. People really do love sharing their passions. I think the people I chose to interview were perfect for the piece. Dr. Knorr is a naturopathic doctor who specializes in natural remedies for all sorts of ailments. Josh Williams is a clinical herbalist who regularly helps prescribe herbs for people with anxiety. I chose Mia Gallardo as my final interviewee because I felt it added to the story to showcase a person who practices some of the treatments the two professionals recommended.

Writing this article was an interesting experience. The answers I received in the interviews were fascinating and not what I was expecting. I was expecting the article to end up in a sort of Buzzfeed style and name the various recommendations from the two professionals. However, natural medicine is not black and white. There isn’t just one answer or one herb to solve a person’s problems.

Because of the nuances in natural medicines, I had to pivot my intention for the article. Instead of focusing on products a person can use, I focused more on their general advice for those with stress. It raised a few ethical issues in not wanting to give blanket advice that may not help some. While the products they recommended were interesting, I didn’t want to give the assumption that by reading this article, a person could self-medicate and solve all their problems.

I think the hardest part of putting this story together was having to cut out so much material. My shortest interview lasted 35 minutes and my longest was about an hour. There was so much material and I learned so much. When I wrote my first draft of the article, it was more than double the desired length. I ended up having to cut out more than half of the original content — some of which were my favorite bits of information. There were just so many interesting details that I didn’t want to leave out.

As a writer trying to keep an interesting, useful and concise article, I chose the information I thought would fit best together and be most easily absorbed. While this wasn’t easy, it was a good process to experience.

Writing this article was a wonderful experience. I made really neat connections with three new people. I learned some things that I was able to apply to my own life. I even purchased some Ashwagndha for myself to see if it helped. It was a great learning experience in working on my writing as well as gaining useful knowledge.

ABOUT ME:

I’m in my third year of my undergraduate education at the University of Utah. I am studying strategic communication and minoring in business. Both in school and in my personal life, I am fascinated by the impacts of nature, kindness, and positivity on the mind.

My interest in strategic communication began when I discovered a connection between psychology and marketing. I think human behavior and cognition is fascinating and wanted to find a way to incorporate this into a profession. I was a creative child and everything seemed to fit together.

As of now, my dream career is to do marketing or advertising in the outdoor industry. Because I am a huge outdoor adventurer, I know the outdoor industry well and know how to appeal to the market.

For me, home is on an inflatable sleeping pad under the stars. When I’m not studying for finals, I spend most of my time in the Utah desert. Some of the most impactful moments in my life have happened while surrounded by good company and towering red cliffs. I camp, rock climb, canyoneer, raft rivers, and do just about anything outdoors. I am a self-care enthusiast and an eternal optimist.

MY STORY:

• Bags to Beds program makes a lasting impact upon the homeless community in Salt Lake City

MY BLOG:

I have always been passionate about capturing the story.

I have been a volunteer student leader at the Bennion Center for about two years. As I have been able to serve my community and local students in their service journey, I have been able to develop a desire to increase in my own civic engagement and awareness and strive to help others learn the same.

Photography has always been my passion. I was the photography team leader on the communications team at the Bennion Center. Over time, I have developed to be the design team leader over the graphic designers as I focus on the media developed for the TV monitor screens in the Union building.

Although I have not always been actively a part of direct service, I believe my efforts have primarily been to help increase awareness of the active participants of the Bennion Center. This has helped me to develop skills dealing with graphic design development, photography, and videography.

My desire for this project was to apply the skills I have learned from my involvement at the Bennion Center into developing and capturing the story of the Bags to Beds program.

Bags to Beds has been such a great program that has done so much good for the community, and I wanted to capture the story of how it started and developed into the unique program that it is. It offers solutions to two community problems, homelessness and plastic waste.

Kaitlin McLean has been an inspiration to so many individuals, and I believe that we can all have a great impact as we strive to look for ways we can get actively engaged in our local community to make a positive change.

ABOUT ME:

I strive for civic engagement and community awareness.

I grew up loving to explore and create. My favorite things to do were playing with Legos or traveling outside. As I have grown up, I continue to love exploring what I can do to engage myself more in the community.

Throughout my whole life, I have been interested in photography, writing and design. I always try to see how I can portray the story in the best way. Whether it’s an event I’m trying to promote, a product I’m trying to capture, or a story about someone’s life, I make sure to portray to the best of my ability to create something intriguing.

I now major in strategic communication with a multidisciplinary design minor and an arts technology major. I plan to strive to enhance my skills to continue to develop as an active part in my community.

MY STORY: Goalkeeping done right, from TIP Goalkeeping

MY BLOG:

For many weeks I wondered what I was going to write my enterprise story on. I debated in my head whether I should write a story on a restaurant I really enjoy, a business I am interested in or a person who has an interesting story. But as I continued to think about what I enjoy doing, the thought came to me to contact my old friend Brian Simmons about his goalkeeping start-up company.

Brian and I had worked together when I was in high school playing as goalkeeper for the team. He was my goalkeeper coach. We became close friends and had stayed in touch off and on throughout the years following my high school career. I remembered he had said something once about starting up some goalkeeping deal with high schoolers. So I contacted him and asked about it.

When I asked Brian about what he had been doing with his small business he said to come and see. He invited me to one of the Saturday morning sessions, which started at the ripe time of 8 a.m. Upon attending I was able to gather contact information for those whom I could interview for details about TIP Goalkeeping. Watching the session was enjoyable and provided more insight into what was happening at TIP than actually interviewing. They even let me kick a few soccer balls at the kids who were training.

When I left the field I couldn’t have felt more confident about the story I was going to put together. I had details of the environment, the type of training that was happening and a better grasp on what could make the story enticing. I want to thank Brian for letting me come and let me see what good he is doing for those he works with.  

ABOUT ME:

The sport world carries my heart — especially college football and the international sport of soccer.

I have always had a ball at my feet since I can remember. I began playing at the age of 5 in the local recreation league. I was not the best on the team but I enjoyed playing. Later on I learned that I was pretty good at playing goalkeeper. I stuck with that all throughout high school and was offered to play at a few colleges. I turned the offers down.

Playing, however, sparked something I have come to love: coaching and teaching the younger generation what I wished I had known about correct technique and form. I currently coach for a club in Davis County.

I am a student at the University of Utah where I am studying communication. However, that will be changing come the next semester as I pursue my dream of studying sports psychology.

It is my hope that one day, I will be able to look back through my life and be able to say that I was able to help people.

MY STORY:

• A local business woman’s ability to lead

MY BLOG: 

When the Enterprise Story was introduced, I knew exactly what I wanted to write about. My goal was to interview a successful female business owner and capture their story. In the words of Sheryl Sandberg, CFO of Facebook, “Today in the United States and the developed world, women are better off than ever.” For my project, I hoped to find a woman who exemplifies these encouraging words. I wanted to find a woman who is passionate about what she does and uses her success to better the lives of the people around her. In my search, I found Stacy Kelly, the owner of Construction Material Recycling.

For this project, I had to step outside of my comfort zone. A wallflower is a noun I would use to describe myself. Reaching out and contacting someone I was unfamiliar with, asking if I could visit their business and take an hour out of their day for an interview, was an intimidating thought. I fortunately conquered my fears and successfully reached out to Kelly. I am thankful I did, as it was an honor to interview her. She was welcoming, honest and vulnerable. I was moved by Kelly’s story of strength and compassion. Additionally, I got to speak with two of Kelly’s close friends who are also successful entrepreneurs. Their words of admiration and respect were inspiring.  

As I began combing through the information I gathered, I decided I wanted the focus of my article to be on Kelly. I organized the story in a chronological order, filled with quotes to make the story more personal. In the process of writing this article, I realized the value of creating a timely narrative. Interviewing a successful businesswoman is an opportunity I’m thankful to have had.

ABOUT ME: 

Kowhai Anderson is studying to receive her bachelor’s degree at the University of Utah. She is a declared communication major with an emphasis in strategic communication. Her aspirations include building a career in advertising, marketing and public relations. Anderson is an avid reader with a passion for photography, live music, film and fashion.