Beginning in the spring semester of 2024, a group of students in a strategic communication class taught by Christy Zempter began conducting research on strategies and initiatives SSU’s College of Arts and Sciences (CAS) could implement to improve its social media presence.
For an entire semester, students monitored current platforms and researched multiple sites to develop a strategic social media plan for the college. Their initial goal was to target prospective students — including high school students, transfer students from other institutions and nontraditional-age students — as well as parents/guardians of prospective students and current Bears. The campaign was designed to broaden recognition of what CAS can offer this audience.
This semester, several of those students are building on the work they did last semester to implement the plan they developed. Eight students and Zempter (pictured above) meet twice a week in SSU’s social media management class to discuss and create content for CAS on three social media sites (Facebook, Instagram and TikTok) and analyze the effectiveness of their messaging.
Brendan Major, a sophomore and communication major at Shawnee State, shared his experience and outlook on the project.
“This class is exciting,” he said. “It can be stressful at times, but it’s nice to know our work is going out to audiences, and I cannot wait to see the future results and opportunities.”
Major hopes to use his communication degree to pursue a career in sports broadcasting and said he believes the classes will prepare him for his career path.
“The hands-on approach to the project helps a lot,” he said. “It will be to our advantage down the line when it comes to finding career choices after college, and we have that background experience.”
Major, along with other students in the course, is grateful for the experiences gained and for Zempter’s coordination of the project and her endless work ethic and dedication both in and out of class.
“I wasn’t sure who our partners were going to be or how to start building (specific experiential learning components) immediately, but I knew I wanted to incorporate actual projects into as many classes as I could because of how well students responded to that,” Zempter said.
She emphasized the amount of planning and communication required to get the project started, as well as the support of the college administrators who agreed to partner with students in the two classes. Kimberly Inman, now SSU’s interim provost, was the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences when the project began. She and faculty members on the college recruitment committee worked closely with the strategic communication class in the development of the social media plan last spring.
“We (Zempter and Inman) started talking probably after the midpoint of the spring semester about this course,” Zempter said. “I was looking ahead, trying to see what was going to be taught the next semester (and saw an opportunity to continue the project). There were some challenges because there was a lot of reorganization over the summer at the university (including Inman’s move to the provost’s office). When Dean (Michael) Barnhart came in as the interim dean, I was a little concerned about whether he wanted to take on something like this, given that he was new to the role. But I met with him in the summer, and he was like, ‘Yeah, I want to move forward with it,’ and luckily, he was very much on board with it.”
When asked about the benefits of the class, Zempter said she believes this format offers numerous potential benefits.
“I want to try to incorporate experiential learning into as many classes as I can,” she said. “It might not be a big full-semester project every time, but I want to give you all (students) actual experiences. With the Chronicle (SSU’s student newspaper, which Zempter advises), you’re doing actual writing that gets published, and with the podcasting class next semester, you’ll make a real podcast. I find experiential learning beneficial, and it sticks better when you get to try it out and figure it out.”
Regarding the outlook for the course, Zempter hopes to create possibilities for internships or student worker positions, but nothing is set in stone.
“We don’t have some resources that other institutions have, but what we do have are small classes where I can really get to know you, and we can reflect together on what you’re experiencing,” she said.
To keep up with the class’s progress and content, follow the CAS social media accounts for updates and possible upcoming opportunities:
Facebook: @ShawneeStateUniversityCollegeofArtsandSciences
Instagram: @ssuartsandsciences
TikTok: @shawneestateuniversity
