2020 04 27 REFERENCE "Priscilla Hawkins" LETTER

Heading

• April 27, 2020
• To Whom It May Concern:
• Please accept this as my Letter of Recommendation for Professor Bart Christner.
• Professor Christner was my primary liaison for Florida A&M University's School of Journalism and Graphic Communication's 'Student Ad Agency' earlier this year. He helped coordinate BLACK HISTORY MONTH FESTIVAL's need for assistance in gathering event dates, developing press releases, graphics, website and social media posts, and production of PSAs of our Essay Contest winners.
• Our need was great, because this was the re-launch of our program. We had a brand new Advisory Council, no permanent staff and only two individuals who had experience helping to organize our month-long series of events and activities in a two-state, nine-county regional area. We needed help quickly because February was fast approaching.
• This was a new student/nonprofit agency course model; and I truly appreciated the manner in which more than 25 journalism students were organized into six functional groups, balancing their experience, interests and strengths, and my myriad of tasks assigned into a Google Sheets Gantt Chart (which I'd never heard of before) – and then placed in a shared cloud.
• The students were not the only ones learning new things. I was technologically inept. Maintaining continuity of our print needs with online needs was new to me. His knowledge and experience in advertising, academia, graphic design, social media and online technology is amazing – and helped me and the students work together to promote my program.
• Here's what our community-based organization received from this collaboration –
• * TV TEAM - Produced three (3) :30 second PSAs for our cable TV Partner, Comcast
• * Press Release TEAM - Provided copy for our 25 Featured Events held in February 2020
• * Graphics TEAM – Provided a design for our three (3) Black Heritage Tours
• * Data TEAM – Assisted in gathering event listings from area colleges and universities
• * Website TEAM – Posted info and photos on our new website – and taught me online jargon
• * Social Media TEAM – Created social media pages and content (FaceBook, Twitter, Instagram)
• Professor Christner’s expertise and experience in graphic design, online technology and community service are valuable assets for any organization to have. He has my seal of approval.
• Sincerely,
• Priscilla Hawkins
• Founder & Creative Director
• BLACK HISTORY MONTH FESTIVAL