For my capstone, I designed, completed, and presented original research at the intersection of public education and internal communications. Because I wanted my research to have an authentic and meaningful impact, I investigated the internal communication practices at my workplace, with the goal of making recommendations for improvement to the leadership in our Communications Department.

My three-method research -- a survey, interviews, and data analysis -- found that campus and team-level communication could be improved, while staff felt an overall satisfaction with district-level communication practices. Further, where communication was consistent, organized, clear, and centrally-located, staff felt more satisfied with communications and ultimately their jobs.

As a part of this project, I gained experience with project management, research, data collection, and data analysis, in addition to learning how to use Qualtrics. You can read the full report or view my final presentation here. Although I have already graduated, I am continuing to work with this data -- aiming to publish and present our findings at industry conferences.

For this project, I researched and created a professional report about current best practices in Social Media Marketing. I completed this report by relying on both academic and industry-specific publications. Research and writing are two of my strengths, so I was grateful to complete this task with authentic application to industry practice as opposed to simply theory. While they are both important, I have come to rely on what I learned from this assignment in my communications and social media marketing work for both freelance clients and in my role as an Instructional Technologist.