CAPA Sample Blog
Hi friends, this is a sample for CAPA, a study abroad program for my trip to London WOOOO!
"Please create a blog (500 words with photos), traditional vlog (1-2 minutes edited clip), or Instagram TV Episode (Vertical, 9:16, 1-2 minutes) based on the following scenario: You have an acquaintance from high school who is in their Junior year and exploring their college options, but they don’t have the time to tour every school they’re interested in. You’ll have to show them the highlights of your university virtually, so they have a better understanding of what it’s like to attend and live there. Show them why you think they’d love it as much as you do using a blog post including your original photos or vlog entry, and share the link to the example here..."
They'll be looking at my blog and hopefully not looking at too much of the rest of it. But I have a feeling they will be... in which case, welcome strangers. This blog is what I share with only the closest of my friends. I usually only write when I'm contemplative; the best thoughts come out of most people when they're sad, and I certainly follow suit; however, in each post, I try to be compelling, and if not - there's a nice tag called [crap] or [junk] that you can skip over.
If I get chosen, I'll switch over to a new domain to separate the personal from the more professional parts of my blog if I need to; I assume you're going to use the blog for marketing and probably don't want my 3AM stories about couples on campus who have trouble having difficult conversations or my opinions about people walking around campus staring at their phones. Though if you'd like me to continue using my own, I certainly will.
Unlike 99% of all social media, I'm more open. I don't share only the good - but I share the bad. I still watch what I say, but my blog isn't this happy "look at me eating some piece of food" type of blog. I go deeper. I write, and though London will be filled with a lot of nice, happy things, I'm not afraid to share some of the inevitable experiences or use London's highlights to form opinions about US popular culture and even criticize ourselves at times.
Anyways - without further ado, I present a 500 word blog... for an acquaintance.
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The University of Dayton has an entire marketing department dedicated to persuading you to come to the University. I wonder whether it’s ethical to show be so discriminatory in what the University shares during recruitment, however, all Universities only share the best parts of themselves. The same goes for most businesses and even ourselves. When I watch other people’s Snapchat stories occasionally, I enter into this skewed world, only seeing parts of someone’s reality. Frankly, we don’t even know what to make of someone’s online presence today; we’re limited to a photo with 140 words attached... or now 280 for twitter. What can you learn about someone’s life in 280 characters and careful, often staged photos? Until you truly know them, not much. Our tendency to exaggerate... dare I say lie (though that’s too harsh of a word) isn’t necessarily bad, but it exists. For example, our school will never advertise how they had the riot police come in to diffuse the thousands of students for the first time this year which turned up some heat between the students and the administration.
I don't blame the marketing department; their job is to attract their students, not show them the full experience of what it means to be a student at UD - and sometimes, we do question how authentic the advertising is. You might watch "Our Home is a Powerhouse" on the central website, and wonder if it's too good to be true, especially when other universities offer the same experiences, especially when you hear from other colleges that the University isn't all sunshine, lollipops, and rainbows like every school's marketing department leads you to believe. What do you make of me, writing this blog at least in part tailored for someone else? Great questions, I can't read your mind, but I can show you a small part of UD that you won't see in a magazine from the mail.
But, who exactly are you? This prompt addresses a specific person... write it for “an acquaintance from high school.” I suppose that’s not a specific person, but you write to a specific person in a letter, not a blog post. Since this is a blog, let’s write this for a larger audience.
So, you… whoever you are. I‘m facing a problem: we both barely know each other, and because I don’t know who you are, I can’t focus my writing on what you’re specifically interested because here’s the thing about UD, we’re darn good at a lot of things. Our specialties are business and engineering - or at least, that’s what we’re known for. Those in the business program seem to love it. Those in the engineering program say they hate it, but still value the program because they’re still in it. At least - I didn’t hate Engineering when I was in it.
In all honesty, we’re a good, caring school. Yes, we have our fair share of problems: the food is overpriced; parking services give out tickets too easily; if you lose your ID they charge you $20 to re-print your face on an RFID card. What we do have, is people who care about you and a general sense of happiness. I'm sure you read on some college ranking website that we're one of the happiest colleges, and I can confirm that.
So I can keep showing you happy photos of happy people and me being happy in my university. I can tell you that the marketing team isn't lying when we have great people in our college community who help us to learn, lead, and serve at this University. Unfortunately, whether UD is right depends on who you are and certain factors (ie. what you want to major in) that I do now currently know.
Even if I knew, even though the prompt says you can't visit, if you want to come here, it will save you upwards of $10,000/yr in scholarships. To get the scholarship, you have to visit the school at least once. If you are completely unsure, consider the promotional material you've received in the mail. Next, dig around and find out more about the department you want to pursue through Google. Third, call preferably a friend in the field or call the department and explain that you are an aspiring student and and would like more information. Fourth, go and visit and ask students (or me) questions. Lastly, ask to shadow a student if you're still unsure. Shadowing someone studying what you want to study will give you heavy and personal insight that no promotional material or phone call will.
Good luck, my friend. Call with any questions.
