Fun with Finals?

David R.

March 4, 2010 - 6:05 PM

The only thing worse for college students than midterms is finals week. We are currently in week nine of the winter term and it seems as though all of the work for the term has been piled up on top of me all at once. Every student has final projects, papers, and tests that need to be completed or studied for, and right about now is the time when it feels like there aren't enough hours in the day to get it all done.

One thing that makes it a little easier to complete all of this work is that fact that a few of my final projects are quite interesting. Those who have read my blogs before know that I am a journalism major at the University of Oregon. I am currently in J440, the second class in the public relations sequence, and today in class we received the guidelines for our final project. Instead of creating a project that seems like nothing more than busy work, we have been assigned the task of using different kinds of tactics to handle a realistic public relations scenario. In this scenario, I work for a fictitious company called Pivotal Directions. This company is in charge of placing methadone clinics around different areas in the northwest region. Methadone is a medication that is used to help those who are addicted to various types of drugs. For our final project, we are responsible for creating realistic documents that would be made to create awareness about the opening of a new clinic in Tacoma, WA. I will be making a standard Q & A, as well as a news release about the new clinic and a fact sheet. Of course, to create a challenge for the students in our class, our professor decided to throw in a kink: We have to assume that the general public was outraged at the decision to place a new clinic in this community. Because of this, we are required to hold a press conference for the citizens of this community to address their concerns. Consequently, we must create a background document, as well as a statement to be read at the conference, and a media advisory to alert the media about this conference. I love this class because the assignments allow us to create realistic projects that give us exposure to the types of assignments that we might have to create when we are in the working world.

Similarly, the final project for my marketing class requires that my group and I promote and market a new product for dogs and cats to use. We decided to create the Digital Dog Door, a dog door that is triggered by the dog's collar. The door will open only when the dog is within three feet of the door. With this special dog door installed, the home owner doesn't have to worry about thieves or other animals sneaking into the house. We are required to determine the target market for such a product and come up with a marketing plan to promote it. Finals are never enjoyable, but at the University of Oregon, sometimes a final project can be kind of fun!