News/Journalism
My senior project began two semesters ago, when I began attending the newly-christened Sports Professional’s Development Society on campus in Winter 2019. After a few meetings with some amazing sports professionals, I began to talk to Society founder Carter Smith, and brainstormed the concept of a website to direct students to this specialized society.
The next step was taking this idea and germinating it into a project. I researched different websites that would be able to host the Society, before deciding on Wix’s platform. I consulted my senior project advisor, Andra Hansen, about different features I could put on my website, including speakers, meeting times and dates, projects and other assorted information before the COVID-19 pandemic struck, and formulated a plan.
While in the process of creating the website, I constructed beta-testing questionnaires for students around campus to for suggestions on website optimization and easier access to different aspects of the website. After creating a series of challenges for willing testers, I went to every building on campus, and asked 3-5 individuals per building for feedback and additional suggestions for the website.
In our society, students include a talented graphic designer and a budding web designer. I spoke to both of them about how I could make the website modern and sporty. Through picking their brains, and taking their invaluable suggestions, the website now looks better, and feels sleeker for first-time users.
As one of the biggest events for our members of the semester, the Sports Networking Conference approached, I began talking with society leadership about how to make this virtual conference memorable for those who wanted to participate. Over the course of several days, I assisted Society leadership in organizing and set up a one-day LinkedIn crash course and resume-review session for members to perfect their respective profiles and resumes before the event. With help from the BYU-Idaho Career Center, we created a Google form, coordinating times for professors and student employees to review resumes for the day, as well as using equipment from the Kimball Building and reserving rooms on campus to take professional pictures for students. Of those that came to the resume session, each student that came reported that they felt more prepared and ready for what the conference had to offer.
